March/April

 What a two months it's been!

I just have to start the whole thing saying how truly incredible my husband is.

After working way more than 12 hour days I see this walking through the door after 10 pm

Unfortunately, he's had to attend too many funerals this year.  This month was particularly hard because Henrico lost one of their own.  I'm just so proud of Caleb and I'm not sure how he does what he does, but I'm so so thankful for him.

Thankfully, the sad parts didn't take up our entire time.

We finally had some visitors, which we always love.  I should have way more pictures, but for some reason I can't get them to attach.  The kids loved all the game playing and hikes they got to squeeze in and it was really nice to have a happy note in all the sadness.

Caleb, unfortunately had to work this easter, but we made the best of it.  

Since the kids are older, this year instead of eggs we decided to hide these especially hard items Skittles came out with.  It was so much fun and the kids both said they loved it even more than an egg hunt.  We've actually stumbled on a few from lawn mowing that they never did find.

 We welcomed another sweet little niece to the mix.  I can't wait to snuggle Raegan this summer!

And we got to end our month having one of the most fun moments I think we've ever had as a family.  If you've ever visited us you know that it's pretty rare to not hear music playing somewhere in our house.  Friday nights are spent checking out any new music, doing music trivia, watching old music videos.  Thankfully, everyone in our house just loves music.  When we found out we'd be able to get tickets for all of us to head to some of our favorite artists we couldn't pass it up....also not sure how we hit the jackpot and have kids who have the best taste in music!

I planned on getting a lot more photos and definitely a video or two, but it was just way too fun watching the kids have the time of their life.  I think Casen lost his voice a bit from singing so loud and Arya's little rock hands never left the sky.

I think we're able to be peeped in this one :)

We've been really loving all of our family time.  It's been so awesome watching the kids grow and get to hang out with them in a different way than we were able to when they were little.  They have such cool interesting personalities.  Our family walks each evening after dinner and connect four tournaments have just all seemed a little sweeter.

February

 We started the month with Arya's birthday.  I think this year might go down as her worst birthday ever.  The morning started out well.  She got to have a really fun art themed birthday and open a few presents and then she headed to school.  Around lunch time I got a call from the school nurse saying Arya wasn't feeling well and had a fever so I went and picked her up.  She came home and went straight to sleep.  She didn't want her birthday dinner or even her birthday cake and then her fever and throwing up stuck around for three days.  We put everything on hold and told her we'd have her cake whenever she was feeling up to it again.

Fast forward almost a week and she finally was feeling herself again.  We got out her cake, she requested and icecream one this year.  Unfortunately, we kind of overlooked the fact that this one happened to be gluten free....and it was terrible.  Sooo....we felt bad and had a birthday round three with a new normal cake that was edible.

I had a nice day with all my valentines this year too

And we discovered a super fun German spot near us that we've been enjoying

January

Basically the only photo I have from the month of January. We actually had snow a couple of times this month and the kids loved it.  Thankfully, we are now back to 60's and sun and my kind of winter. 

After 2 years we finally all caught covid and that's been our month.  

Onto February :)

 

December

 December was a super fun month for us.

On the first we got our tree up

We picked out our yearly new ornament

Caleb was able to go with our family friends from California to go see the Army/Navy game at Metlife stadium.  

We got to eat lots of delicious Virginia chestnuts 

We made yummy Christmas cookies

And then we celebrated Christmas.  Caleb unfortunately had to work so we had to push our Christmas up a few days...no one in our house really minded

I got a fancy waffle maker this year so we got to have a yummy breakfast for dinner on the actual day

And then we just got to celebrate what we've realized is the holiday we thrive in.  With Caleb's midnight schedule we are all night owls and sleep in late when there's no school.  We made a bunch of fun appetizers and the kids made it until just about 4 am.

November

 November started out with us getting to attend Casen's very first orchestra concert.  It was kind of crazy to see how much they had learned in such a short amount of time. 

Then we of course celebrated the Marine's birthday and veterans day.  Caleb enjoys those days so much more than even his own birthday so we try to go all out.  I forgot to take more pictures, but we were able to get the house all decorated while he was at work and gift him with I think all of his favorite things.

And we finished out the month celebrating Thanksgiving.  Caleb unfortunately had to work so it got pushed back, but it was well worth the wait.

We cooked our turkey in the air fryer this year for the first time and we will never cook it another way.  It was hands down the best Thanksgiving dinner we've had.

And Caleb has become an expert at making the perfect pecan pie.

Now I suppose we should decorate for Christmas.

October

October was a really fun month for us.  

My parents came down for a visit.  We love having company!

I always stink at having pictures, but we got to spend mom's birthday with her this year.

We enjoyed some late night brewery food truck goodies

And the kids got wayy too much candy trick or treating.  We were a little late to the game as far as costume buying, so homemade was where it was at this year.