January Re-Cap

My cousin did a monthly re-cap post, and I thought it was a great idea! I have been wanting to get back into blogging and it seemed like the perfect way. It may end up only being this one month, but one is better than none! So here is a look at January of 2016:

We were originally supposed to be back in Rexburg for New Years, but Alexis talked us into staying in Colorado so that she could go to the New Years Eve dance with her friends. It was her first stake dance, since they rarely have them in Rexburg, and she had so much fun. The theme was Star Wars.

I somehow didn't get a picture of the rest of us celebrating New Years, but we had a blast celebrating with the Beyerleins and Shaws. Oh how we miss our Colorado friends!

We were welcomed back to Rexburg with freezing cold temperatures.

But I guess it was much colder the two weeks we were gone, so we are glad we missed that! It has been very cold, and we have had a lot of snow. I really miss Colorado winters, where it can snow in the morning and melt by the afternoon. That's definitely not the case here. It snows, and stays there all winter long, turning a lovely muddy brown color.

We have a metal roof that slants downward. So this sight is a common occurrence when we walk out our front door:

The snow slides right off onto our walkway which is quite a pain and we are constantly dodging falling snow =)

The first Sunday in January Scarlett went to Sunbeams! She was so excited and loved it so much. Her excitement has faded as the weeks have gone on, but she still enjoys it for the most part. 

Brandon and I and the kids started back to school shortly after we arrived back in Rexburg. We have a pretty busy schedule during the week. Brandon and I worked our school schedules out so that one of us is always home with Scarlett. So there is a lot of shuffling around. Scarlett started back to preschool at the College and absolutely loves it. They have a two way mirror that the parents can watch through and there are two days a week where Brandon and I can watch her for about 20 minutes. We love it. Last semester she was a little more timid, but she is really opening up a lot this semester. Her teachers tell us that all of the little girls want to play with her. I didn't get a picture of the first day this semester but here is the first day of last semester. She is so cute and little. I love it! 

It took a few weeks after we got back to take down our Christmas tree, but it was nice to finally get it down.

Scarlett finally had her first hair cut. I was at school when I got a call from Brandon that he was taking her to get a hair cut. I was really sad because it was her first one! He assured me that he would take pictures, and get a lock of her hair. You can't even tell that it was cut, but at least we got the split ends off. We love her long hair!

 We had a really busy month with the kids' activities. Alexis's cheer season was in full swing. She had practice 4-5 mornings a week bright and early. She never complained. That's how you know they love what they are doing =)  

One Saturday we had so many things going on I didn't know how we would keep it all straight. I posted something on Facebook about all the things that we had going on and one of my friends made a comment that really affected the way I looked at it. She said that she used to have days like that with her kids, and now that they are grown she really misses it. She said to enjoy it before it is gone. Brandon and I really took her words to heart. When we are busy running here and there we are trying to be grateful for our busy days. 

On this particular day, Alexis and Tori both had cheer competitions, Levi had a basketball game, and then Tori had a Ballroom performance. 

Scarlett was such a trooper watching all of the performances that day. She only had a few meltdowns. But it was nothing that a candy bribe couldn't fix =)  As you can see, Scarlett is still in love with lip gloss (or in this case, lip stick)

Tori had two completely different hair styles and makeup to do that day. It was quite the challenge to get it switched over in between, but I think we managed okay =)

Alexis had  basketball games to cheer at at least 3 times a week. I loved going to watch her cheer when I could. I was able to snap a few pictures when when she wasn't looking =)

Most of our Sunday afternoons were spent at the Sardakowski's house watching the Broncos play. They were always so sweet to have us over since we don't have cable. Sadly these are the only two pictures I got, haha. We got more on Super Bowl Sunday, but I'll save that for next month's post =)

 

Like I mentioned, we had a lot of snow in January. It made for some fun days playing in the snow. Scarlett only lasted for a few minutes each time. Tori, a little longer, Lexi not at all,  and Levi the longest. He made some snow forts with his friends and spent many hours out there having snow ball fights. 

 

Elder Bednar came to BYU-Idaho in January and we had the pleasure of hearing him speak. It was so wonderful to hear his words, and we especially loved going to "Date night with the Bednars"  

I am finding that post-it notes help me to stay more organized with my school work. Alexis thought it would be funny to draw faces on the corners of a whole stack of them. It did make me smile when I pulled them  out of my backpack =)

It's still hard trying to find a good balance between school, and being a mom. Tori has been so great to step in with Scarlett and play with her when I am not able to. On this particular day they made monsters.

I recently got called into Cub Scouts at church. I would be lying if I said that I was excited about this calling. I was a little sad at first, especially since Levi was no longer in the age group that I was going to be over. But I quickly grew to love it. Levi has been able to come to some activities since his Weblos leader was sick for a while. On this particular activity we learned all about recycling, and the boys made creatures out of recyclable items. 

 

And that wraps up January. We are well into February and have had a busy month already. Hopefully I will be back next month to record about it =)