Starting the Year with a BANG!

DJ worked hard to make it
awesome! 

It came out so nice! 

So we are a few weeks into the new year and things are going well. Kids are growing like weeds, house is relatively organized (on a good day), and each day I am more glad I made the decision to come out here and make it all work! For Christmas we received some artwork and picture frames for the wall as well as photo paper so one of the days DJ and I were both home, we got those on the wall and boy what a difference it makes in here!
Over the holiday season we were able to get some great finds at the local thrift store and made out with four (may have been five) new totes to start organizing stuff into. At least two of them went to organizing all the decorations after we took them all down, one now houses all my wonderful art supplies from my mom and DJ, two are in the closet (one with games, another with blankets) and I think one of them has Mckenzee's new toys in it as well. SO that was six that I can think of, there may have been more it is hard to keep track when things have been so busy here lately.
     Little Mckenzee had an appointment this month because the doctor was worried her body was maturing just a little too soon. All went well though and they want to double check her bone age in about six months (because it looked a little advanced but not seriously so). She was really brave too and even had her blood taken like a champ! Which is saying something since she is TERRIFIED of needles/shots/etc.

She also is making me very proud lately. Not only did she get a great report card, but she also started reading one of my favorite books of all time! The Secret Garden, which she received from her Memere in a three-book set along with Anne of Green Gables and A Little Princess (two more of my favorites!), she is already on page 21 with only a little help needed as it is a grade level up from where she is right now. She likes it and it makes my heart happy. Another wonderful achievement for her is the work she is doing in her Girl Scout Troop. My little Brownie is working hard to earn her badges and is doing a great job. She received her first 3 badges just before Christmas for Visiting the Retirement Home, Skating, and Visiting the Library. Now she is working on her Money Manager Badge and her Philanthropist Badge, and if she sells at least 25 boxes of yummy Girl Scout Cookies she will also get a badge for that! (https://digitalcookie.girlscouts.org/scout/mckenzie6143)
     Spencer is making leaps and bounds in his vocabulary, his building skills, his dancing skills, and his memory! Every day he seems to do something new that amazes (and sometimes frustrates) me. One of my favorite things he does is blowing kisses! He does this when any of us is leaving the house, sometimes when he is leaving the room, and at night when we put him to bed. It melts my heart when he follows it up with a "yuv you mommy/daddy". His genuine excitement over little things makes me happy as well. When his daddy gets home from work or I come home from work we are greeted by a chorus of "Mommy!/Daddy!" as he runs over and hugs our legs. I adore it, it proves to me that no matter how crazy they can make me and how some days I want to run away to an island in the middle of no where just to pee without an audience, that my life would be worthless without them! They fully complete my reason for existence along with their father.

We are one whole heart beating in five separate bodies!
I LOVE MY FAMILY!