February

 February was a bit of an odd month here in Virginia.  The RVA area has never had an ice storm and this month we had two.  

The kids got quite a bit of time off of school for it.  Since it was ice and sludge more than snow they made one of the saddest snowmen I've ever seen, but they loved it.

Casen had his dreams come true for the superbowl.  He's proudly been sporting his Bucs gear all year, (when Gronk made the switch to the Bucs, Jo did too.)  I forgot to grab any pictures, but we had all the normal fun goodies for celebrating and I did grab this clip of the kids fully enjoying the halftime show...much better than last year when we couldn't even let them watch it.

Valentine's Day fell right in the middle of everything being shut down and most people without power.  We had such a fun day with the kids with lots of Mario Party and the flower delivery guy somehow braved the roads.

I think the best part of our entire month was the whole families favorite band released a new/old song and announced that we'd be able to enjoy their concert next month.  We grabbed tickets and both the kids requested some band tees (I think that's one of the proudest moments emo parents can have really.)  It's really nice to have something to look forward to in these crazy months and also that we somehow ended up with two kiddos who love the same music as us.

https://youtu.be/2nWmBJxW9q0

Thankfully we are back to our 65 and sunny winter and we're onto March!

Arya turns 8

 Our sweet little lady turned 8 yesterday.

I think this year she has grown more than any other year.

She still loves all the same things, although I think drawing has topped Barbies this year.  

Cooking has become her newest obsession.  She helps me make dinner almost every night and bakes any chance she gets.  She got a cookbook for Christmas and has been really enjoying making recipes all on her own.  She can even whip you up some tacos if you ask.

She asks me almost every hour of being home if there's anything she can help with.  We hear I love you 50 times a day and she really just is the sweetest.

Her birthday theme request was puppy. She requested meatloaf, coleslaw, and blue box mac n cheese for her birthday dinner.  We offered her choice of literally anything she could want and that was her choice.  And neither of my kids love cake so her choice was brownie sundaes for dessert.  She had school until 430 so I failed at getting many pictures.

January

 I think this might accurately describe our month.

The day before Caleb's birthday he, unfortunately, broke his hand at work.  It's hard for me to even try to imagine what it's like to be a police officer, especially lately and i'm so thankful that he wasn't injured even worse. 

And we also got our first significant snow in over 2 years.  Our significant is about 4 inches.  The kids got a four day weekend because of it and literally got out of bed and into their snow stuff.

December

We started out December setting up for Christmas.

We enjoyed some Christmas goodies, like spritz

And we of course had a lovely Christmas

Arya got a cookbook for Christmas and has been making us some yummy treats all on her own.

November

 We enjoyed a few fall activities like caramel apples

Caleb was pretty excited for this headline in November

And the main event was of course Thanksgiving 

October

 September was a bust pictures wise.  I realized the last picture I had taken on my phone was the kids first day of school, which was in August.  

The kids are now going to both be in school full time, so if it is possible to have even less, that'll probably happen.  But I will note for memories sake, we've had a lot of fun nights of games and yummy food and staying up late that just didn't make it to the highlight reel.

We headed a little west this month to tackle the largest corn maze on the east cost.  It's 34 acres of corn and a lot of fun  We went several years ago with family when the kids were very little not realizing how giant it actually was.  This year we had a little bit better of an idea and decided to go with the trivia maze for some help that we were headed in the right direction....it still took us over 2 hours.

It's only about an hour away, but we decided after all that walking it'd be nice to stay there for the night, so we got a room at a really cute hotel overlooking the mountains and grabbed some yummy food and drinks at a local brewery.

We weren't sure what the neighborhood would have as far as Halloween this year so I bought a bunch of goodies and set up a scavenger hunt.  Our area ended up having a completely normal trick or treating experience, so Arya chose to go out with her best friend for the evening.  Casen is at the too cool for dressing up stage, so he stayed home and enjoyed the hunt and we got to spend some one on one time with him playing games.

Now onto November :)

August

August 14 Caleb and I celebrated 11 years 

Caleb's been enjoying Three Crosses whiskey since we moved here, but we finally got to go check out the distillery in person.  It's really neat that one of the only distilleries in VA happens to be a short drive down the road.

And August 24 Casen and Arya embarked on their first day of school.  I'm so thankful Powhatan let us have a vote, heard everyone's opinions, and I really do think picked the best option when I know none of the options are ideal.  The kids go two days a week for now, half the kids going early in the week and half going the latter.  Arya will switch to full time in a couple of weeks, but for now they're enjoying half in school half virtual, with any child having the option for full virtual that doesn't feel comfortable going to school.