March

 March started out with two concerts for Arya.  She's been part of select choir this school year.

She's also parted of the gifted program at her school.  Every year the class splits into teams and works on specific problem solving.  This year her team qualified to go all the way to states.  They're given a topic and problem to solve and spend the next couple of days preparing a skit on it.

And I'm super thankful for the guy who knows the rough months and stops after long nights of work with flowers and coffee :)

And if you know anything about our family, you know our journey with this dude has been a long one.

We started out with basic training hoping all the trauma he had from before we got him would be solved, but it just wasn't cutting it.  We're so so thankful for Intelligent K9 Training.  He's turned from a butthead to an outstanding citizen, with his quirks of course.

And because we started his intense training, we were super thankful Caleb's parents were willing to be sort of guinea pigs in our training tests.  Before this, guests wasn't really an option.  He loves his house and his people, everything else, not so much.

They were troopers who helped us immensely in his training and we're really mostly glad we got to have some company for Easter, too.

I got zero pictures this year of baskets, and hunts, and dinners.  But we did have a great time!

February

 And this month brought our littlest turning the not so little age of 11.

She requested a green themed party this year and a cookies and cream pie.

Her birthday landed on the superbowl this year, so her request of a snack table for dinner worked out perfectly.  We spent the evening playing an escape room game and playing switch as a family, which are her favorite.

She's grown so much this year.  She loves all things art, music, and crafting.  She's loving the extra chorus class she's taking this year and skips recess to hang out in the art room working on new projects and helping set up for the younger classes.  If she's in her room, the music is on and she most likely is singing along to every single word.  She loves all the girly things like nail polish, Olivia Rodrigo, and the latest hair accessories.  But she is also fitting right into this emo family.  Her favorite tshirts are her band merch. Her favorite nail polish color is black, and she is singing at the top of her lungs to anything from Sleep Token, Bad Omens, Ice Nine Kills, etc.   When she's home from school she asks right away what she can do to be helpful around the house and jumps at the chance to do anything in the kitchen.  She still gives the best back rubs while we catch up on cooking channels and loves to have her popcorn.

She also makes up for the lack of talking from anyone else in this house :)

Valentine's Day was a really fun one for us this year.  Caleb was off so we decided to do something special for the kids.  We went shopping and created a special menu.  We sent out paper invites a couple of days before requesting their presence at our little restaurant and asked them to dress up.

When they arrived they got to pick what they wanted from our menu and Caleb and I cooked together as their requests came in.

And then we got to replace a water heater and start a really intense training program with Bowzer, so here's to hoping March goes a little better than February.

January

 Caleb, unfortunately had to work for the New Year holiday.  We missed him so so much.  The kids and I spent our evening working on a clue escape room type game that we thoroughly enjoyed (thanks pat!).

And we of course celebrated Caleb's birthday.  We went to his favorite steak and sushi spot.

And twinner came in clutch with a late night Crumbl delivery

I'm also now married to the handsomest 36 year old I ever met.

15 years in and he still brings me home treats :)

And the end of the month we had the dreaded vet appointment.

He hated his life.

He hated it so much he proceeded to rip out his stitches and we got another dreaded vet appointment.

December

 Just a tad behind in posting.  We have had quite the doozy of the past 3 months.

We switched to a smaller tree this year because we were unsure how our small gremlin would react.  He ended up making it a non issue, but we all kind of liked the smaller one better.

Casen is in a digital designs class this year.  He got to make a Christmas mug and some wrapping paper and he did so awesome with the design.

We had our annual White Christmas night.  Now we get to enjoy it with the kids.

Christmas Eve stocking opening.

Christmas morning

We got to enjoy guests this year and I forgot to get a picture of the entire table, but we tried out short ribs for the first time this year.  I think it is going to be our new tradition.