February

Besides Arya's birthday, we had a pretty quiet, but pretty darn awesome February.

I can't really make a February blog without putting in writing that we got to watch our team win the superbowl! :)

The kids helped me make some football shaped rice krispie treats the night before.  And after the picture at the table was taken we somehow added even more food.  Football season is the best season!

Then came Valentine's day.  Caleb's really good about...actually amazing about bringing me home flowers and little treats all the time, as you can probably tell by my pictures.  He gave me the sweetest surprise on Valentines day this year :) 

Since Caleb's worked midnight shift for the past 5 years, we sleep in different shifts for over half of the year.  I hate it.  I never sleep well when he's not home. I don't think I ever have, and if you know our family, you know we've spent a lot of years with work separating us.  But midnight shift really does work the best for our family, so we make do.  Now, I have a little squishy sleeping buddy for my nights alone all the way from Vermont.  It's even more special because we're pretty sure Vermont is where we're going to take our big 10 year anniversary trip!

Thanks for making my years so sweet, Caleb.  This has definitely been my favorite year of all for us.

I think that's about it for our short and sweet month.  We got some snow days, a birthday, some date days, and some movie days.
I'm so thankful!

Arya turns 6

Our little lady is 6.

She is in a league of her own!

She has the most feelings of any human I've ever met.  She cries at every Disney movie, sad or not, because she just has all the feels all the time.  She still loves her beauty sleep.  The days we give her the option of staying up late she usually let's us know she just needs to go to bed and heads there her normal time.  Her favorite things are still Barbies and coloring.  Casen and Arya are basically complete opposites.  She loves coloring and singing and imagination play while Casen loves math and science and logical playing.  She is the sweetest!  Caleb and I get multiple hugs and I love yous every single day.  She comes running off of the bus open arms, excited for anyone waiting for her.  We're so thankful for our little California girl.

She originally chose a Barbie themed party, but then we found unicorn decor and she changed her mind to that route.

She was pretty bummed she had to go to school on her birthday.  We did our best to make it special anyway.  She got donuts and chocolate milk for breakfast.  Then we let her open a couple presents early.  She got a new outfit and necklace to wear to school.  A new outfit will literally get her out of bed in the morning, so she was pretty excited.

Their elementary school let's parents go and eat lunch with their kids any day they choose.  Arya asked if we could come in for her birthday to eat with her.  She starts lunch at 10:30! So it was too early to bring her in any fast food goodies, but she got her request of homemade bacon mac n cheese.

We waited at the bus stop with some balloons

And we finished out the evening with a trip out to dinner, presents, and cake!

 

 

 We love you Miss Arya Morgan

January

January means my favorite person in the world celebrates a birthday :)
This year Caleb got...new eyes!  Not really, but he did get Lasik surgery.  No more glasses and contacts!  I don't know the slightest about dealing with not being able to see, but I do know it was a struggle on midnight shift to be constantly dealing with his eyes.  He took the plunge and now has 20/15.  The operating room is made of glass walls so you can observe the whole thing.  It was pretty crazy to be able to watch them cut his eyes open.  He's a trooper and was back to work the next day.

 

On his actual birthday we got a bit of an ice storm.  Everything was closed.  It wouldn't be a birthday without cheesy decor.  So we got that all set up and he made the most delicious wings I've ever had in my life!  And possibly the best part of his day was enjoying another Patriots win. 

We didn't have much else happen the rest of the month.  The kids have been off of school quite a few days for weather and holidays so it's just been hanging out at home.

Caleb came home from work with super pretty flowers for me

And we got to close out the month with another amazing Pats win! (we may or may not have watched the game more than once.)  We're gearing up for a super fun superbowl day.  I'm so thankful it gets to be the best family time as well.

December

We had a really fun, and really busy December.


Arya's class rotates bringing home Pete the Cat.  They get a little journal and write down a fun activity they did the weekend of bringing him home.  Arya chose watching the Patriot's game with him.

We got to it a little later then normal, but we decorated for Christmas

Then, we got a bit snowed in.  We got about 11 inches.  School was closed for 3 days, so the kids thoroughly enjoyed being out in it.

We enjoyed probably way too many late night trips to Wegmans

We had a gingerbread train making evening and we also had a cookie decorating party with friends, but I forgot to grab pictures of that.

Since we traveled for Thanksgiving, this year we opted to stay home for Christmas.  We thought it would be a little sad being alone, but we actually had one of our best Christmases yet...and we have an even better idea for next year!

If we're home, our Christmas eve tradition is going out for Chinese.  We enjoyed that and then came home for hot chocolate, chestnuts, a Christmas movie, new Christmas eve pajamas, and the kids exchanging the gift they got each other. 

my favorite part!

Christmas, the kids didn't wake up until 8:30...it was pretty refreshing.  We opened all our gifts...Caleb spoiled me with diamonds, koalas, clothes, and so many more things that I love.  He's the best!  We had some delicious snacks, and Caleb and I attempted our very first prime rib dinner.  It was a big success!  Casen finished his fourth Harry Potter book, so we finished out the evening watching that movie and hanging out as a family.

We rang in the new year at a friend's house, but I didn't even have my phone to take pictures.  We have some pretty awesome things happening in January and are excited for 2019!

November

Our November was quite busy and exciting, but we don't have many pictures to go along with it.

Arya still comes home from school like this most days.  

They both got report cards and we had their parent teacher conferences.  Casen's teacher said she's never seen a kid love reading as much as he does.  He's currently on book 3 of the Harry Potter series.  After he finishes a book, we have a family movie night.  Arya's teacher said she's the best helper and is really excelling in reading as well.

We celebrated Veteran's Day and the Marine birthday, but I didn't grab any pictures.  We're so thankful for Caleb!  He also just got his letter of congratulations for 5 years of employment with Henrico Police.

The end of the month we made the trek up to my brother's neck of the woods to celebrate Thanksgiving.  We saw almost everyone briefly and at different times and most of the time my phone was not with me, so the pictures barely scratch the surface of all the fun we had.

The drive to his house is so so pretty. 

This group of cousins are finally all old enough to play together on their own.  They had a blast.

Casen helped Uncle Ty make some cutting boards

And we had a massive Thanksgiving dinner.  We had a fried and a roasted turkey.  Everything was delicious!

We loved having family time!  Thanks for being gracious hosts in the chaos of being new parents Tyler and Katie!