January 2017

Every year for my birthday, Ben gives me a "day off" to go do whatever I want.  This year, we did it on January 1st since he had the day off of work.  My first stop was to go to Ikea... They had a sale on storage boxes. :)

Stinking weatherman predicted 3-6 inches of snow.  We got NOTHING!  (Except a few snowflakes that stayed on the grass for a couple hours and a little ice hanging from the trees.)  That didn't stop the kids from going out to play.  They came in a muddy muddy mess!

Cuties at church...

Abby's birthday!  Usually Ben takes the birthday kid out to breakfast, but Abby requested that MOMMY take her out. 😍  We sat by the fire at Panera Bread and had muffins ad hot chocolate... a good start to being 5 years old!  We played at home the rest of the day, then opened presents when Daddy got home (she got a Calico Critters living room set, a fishing game, and some clothes from us, and some little ponies from her brothers)... and then that evening, we had people over for cake and ice cream.  (The Buchers, Ziebers, Hanfords, Jettes, Arnold with Josh and Jenai, and the Birgbauers.)  I didn't get a picture of the party, but Abby did such a good job actually letting everyone sing to her this year!  (You could tell she was a little "shell shocked" when everyone was looking at her, but she made it through. :))  She had a princess cake from Harris Teeter.

Look at the little puffs on Jenai! :)

Doing self-portraits like Rembrandt at CC...

Making friends at the library...

A picture just because she let me put in TWO "woo woos", and I think she looks so cute with ponytails. :)

I let her help me mix up the meatloaf... she liked it. :)

Karl and Lindsey went to a conference in California, so we kept Maddox for a week.  It was actually really, really great!  They all played so well!

   

Our little buddy Caedmon getting into the Tupperware cupboard:

We did a science experiment to test if our rainwater had an acid in it.  It involved boiling a purple cabbage leaves.  Abby did not approve of the smell of the cabbage... or the vinegar. :)

All in all, January was a good month.  We had some great prayer times with the church leaders and feel like 2017 has a "fresh wind" in it.