Saturday, March 7, 2015

Fun in February

 Check out the sweet Valentine cards that Riley made for Chris and me this year! So precious!

For Valentine's Day this year the kids each celebrated with a party at preschool. I got to help in Riley's class again this time. Parents brought in food for a Sweetheart Breakfast (heart-shaped pink pancakes and bacon, heart cinnamon rolls, strawberries, sausage) and we played several games in rotating stations (like Musical Hearts where the kids had to walk on hearts on the floor and do the activity listed when the music stopped, Heart Cup Relay, Cupid's Arrow Practice which required shooting Q-tips through straws at cut-out hearts, candy heart pattern practice sheets, heart hopscotch, and a candy heart dice rolling game).  On actual Valentine's Day, the kids opened their little treats and cards from Mom and Dad. Other highlights included getting to go to Target to pick out a toy and getting to eat at McDonald's courtesy of the Valentine gifts from grandparents. Later that day, we went over to the Davis' house for a QCP gathering. The kids had a blast playing, decorating Valentine boxes and doing a few other crafts planned by our sweet friend, Alice. We ate a delicious Chicken Bog dinner together and munched on lots of sweet treats!









Winter weather in the South is always a big production at the first falling of a few flakes. This month we had our first flurries, some extremely cold temperatures, a little ice, and 2 separate days of snowfall with less than an inch accumulation. Preschool was cancelled for the entire week following President's Day holiday because of these crazy weather situations and Chris got to enjoy several delays and 2 surprise days off from school. The kids didn't really get to go sledding or make snow angels or snow icecream like I was hoping, but we did manage to at least make a miniature "Olaf" (snowman from Frozen).

And here is this month's round-up of Funny February sayings/antics:
  • While watching Chris get ready one morning, Riley inquired, "Daddy, is this your Yoda?" (pointing to the deodorant). And then later, he put on Chris' shoes and was walking around. Chris cautioned him to be careful. To which Riley replied, "I know. I'll be careful. I don't want to get splinters." We think he meant blisters because he wasn't wearing any socks. 
  • Meanwhile, Maggie is obsessed with watching me floss in the mornings. I use little floss pics and one night Maggie had some chicken stuck between her bottom two teeth, so I took her upstairs and used one on her. Now every time she sees me using one, she makes the claim: "I've got chicken in my teeth" and asks to use one on herself!
  • Maggie's new phrase for the month has been: "Otherwise." And she just randomly tacks it on to the ends of her conversations. She'll be telling you about her day at school and then just end with this word that she stretches out the ending to. She has also been saying, "Aw, buddy" every so often to Riley and Irving as well.
  • I love that Maggie is fully potty-trained (even at night). She still needs help being wiped though (which I'll take any day over having to change a messy diaper). The other day Chris was helping her with this process and she told him, "Hold your nose up" (implying that it was pretty stinky in the bathroom). 
  • Riley has taken an interest in Spanish lately and likes to say, "Adios, amigo." His Spanish hello is what cracks me up though. Instead of "hola" (with the long o sound), he says "oola" (with the oo sound as in school). 
  • Maggie has been working hard to learn the months of the year song at school and now she can't stop singing it. It is a Dr. Jean song that is put to the motions of the Macarena. We love watching her perform it for us and especially get tickled at her pronunciation of February ("Every-wherey") and September ("Atember"). 
  • This isn't the only song that Maggie goes around belting out though. We're on our 4th or 5th month straight of hearing the infamous song lyrics from the Frozen movie called "Let It Go". This sweet girl loves to sing along with the Elsa doll she got for Christmas or belt it out acapella whenever the mood strikes (and believe me, it strikes OFTEN!) :) 
  • Riley shocked me a week or so ago when I was trying to find some new numbers to put up on the Learning Board for him to focus on. We'd been working on mostly numbers in the 20's and 30's, and had talked about a few other numbers here and there. However, when I went through the most of the deck of number cards from 0-100, he only got stumped on a few: 90 (he called nine-zero), 87, and 45. I couldn't believe he was able to read so many other numbers.

Friday, February 6, 2015

January Wrap-Up

To prevent months of blogging from piling up, I'm going to make it a goal to blog at least once a month. So here's a quick recap of January and our Funny Family Moments:
  • Maggie loves rubbing Chris' chin and then almost every single time after tells him, "You need to wash off those whiskers."
  • Speaking of whiskers, looks like Riley grew a few in this picture! 


I sure do love Riley's sweet-natured spirit. He loves to make cards and notes for people now. The other day, I got this one out of the blue. I love the crafty touches added to the sides! And Chris got a googly-eyed note with a message on the back that said "Thanks for taking me to the circus. Love, Riley".



  •  We have a magician in the house! Watch out for The Great Rile-lini. He's been doing some amazing disappearing magic tricks using his blanket and a basket and some not-so-subtle hiding moves. Our favorite part is hearing him announce, "Abracadabra...Wally-Kazam!"
  • Maggie has a phrase that she has picked up somewhere as well. And I guess it's somewhat endearing in a Valley-girl kind of way. She'll be talking about something and then all of the sudden add in, "I mean...whatever!" Where does she get this stuff?? 
  • Our Learning Board has exploded this month! Riley's popcorn words are popping up all over one corner (his teacher complimented him on how well he knows these words) and his love of maps and countries has really grown as well. We are working on serving without being asked by taking initiative to see what we might be able to help with around the house. I tried to make this as kid-friendly as possible by connecting our memory verse this month (Mark 9:35 "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last and servant of all.") to us having helping hands (hence the colored handprints). Then Riley and I sat down at the computer and brainstormed some different ways we could serve others in our family, school, and community and found some clipart images to represent these. I cut these images out and taped them right below the "Helping Hands". When I catch one of the kids volunteering to help me clean or asking to make dad's coffee in the morning or offering to get someone's shoes for them than we move the image up to the handprint and celebrate the moment. We've also added 2 Christmas cards to our board each month to remind us to pray for certain families and ask God's blessing on them. 


  •  We started a new behavior modification program today. Instead of our usual Obedience/Disobedience Little Character Charts that we've been using to keep track of good and bad choices, I decided to try a more hands-on approach. I'm trying to talk to the kids about how good choices can earn us rewards (both on earth and in heaven) and at the same time, poor choices can lead to consequences. So we've got 2 different jars-the "Uh-Oh Spaghetti-O Consequence Jar" and the "Pickle A Privilege Jar". I asked for the kid's and Chris' input on what to write on the slips and then implemented the system today. The rules are simple. When I see one of the kids showing a behavior that I want to reinforce such as kindness, a servant attitude, obeying right away, etc. then I'll tell them to go pick a pickle. They can't ask for one though or they are guaranteed not to get one. Some of the privileges are to get to stay up later at bedtime, earn a prize from Dollar Tree, do a craft or science experiment, call Nan or Pap to tell them what they did so special, etc. On the flip side, when I catch them doing something they shouldn't like hitting, arguing, or not obeying then they end up with a consequence slip. I tried to differentiate these between small consequences (written on half piece of an index card like a short time-out, go to bed 10 min. early, lose 15 minutes of playtime and read instead) and large consequences (written on the full-size index card with things like a longer time-out, go to bed 20 min. early, lose 30 minutes of playtime) to help fit the severity of the crime a little better. That way it's also easy to look inside the jar and know which one to grab. I am working on trying to use more natural and logical consequence as well and requiring a positive action at the end of a consequence. For example, Riley has been having a lot of trouble keeping his hands to himself when he gets upset with Maggie. So he's had to have several time-outs by himself or not been allowed to play with Maggie for a certain time period and then he's been asked to do some kind actions for her that he helps come up (hug, kiss, draw her a picture, play a game she wants to play, etc.). So my plan is to use a mix of consequences that help teach correct behavior such as repeating a request without whining (Riley) or in a demanding angry way (Maggie). We'll see how it goes! I think it's fun to mix things up and try new things to keep shaping behavior in different ways. 

  •  Maggie's self-care skills have taken off recently. She's been very motivated to dress herself. We first noticed it with pajamas and then were surprised to see that she wanted to try and attempt to button her flannel pjs. After persevering for quite awhile, she managed to do all three buttons by herself! She now refuses help getting dressed in the morning and just today decided that she needed a mid-day costume change, so at naptime she changed back into her pjs. Here she is tonight laid back and ready for "Pizza and Movie Night."
  • We've been keeping a humidifier on in Maggie's room at night. She recently had a nosebleed that we think was caused by the dry air and warm temperature in her room. Maggie has gotten particularly attached to it and if we forget to turn it on for some reason, we'll hear her calling from her room, "Mom, I need my 'human-fire' on!" 
  • Riley is pretty particular about his foods. He doesn't like them to touch (with the exception of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches). He eats one thing at a time and he really doesn't like his foods mixed up (casseroles are his worst enemy, so I often put the ingredients separately on his plate). He has now decided that he doesn't like cooked vegetables...he likes them raw! 
  • The other day, Riley was taking down a toy tent and said, "Hey Mags, Mind giving me a little hand over here?" To which, Maggie promptly went over to him and extended her right hand and said, "Here you go!"
  • Maggie loves to ask who things belong to. But instead of saying "Are those yours?", she says, "Are those -urs?" Guess she can't quite make the "y" sound yet. 
  • Riley sure has been enjoying his toy bow and arrow that he received for Christmas from Uncle Tim, Aunt Jeni, and Anderson. And now he likes to tell hunting stories. A few weeks ago, he got very detailed into one story and described how he was going to skin the fur off an animal. The funniest part was that he said he was going to do it with an apple peeler! 
  • I got to spend the past 2 weekends with some pretty fabulous friends and family! January 24th I attended a surprise party for Sara's 35th birthday. My college CSTALCK girls were all able to make it as well and we had a great time celebrating Sara, having an old-fashioned spend the night party at Carrie's, and meeting for a delicious brunch at Fish Market the next day. 

  •  Then just this past weekend, I got the opportunity to celebrate with my dear sister-in-law, Amanda, as she turned 30! I met her down in Charleston for a fun-filled weekend of food and fun. We ate at a great restaurant called Starz. I stayed up much too late (but sometimes that just has to happen when you're kid-free and you haven't seen each other in 6 months). I sure do love this gal and miss her and Edward and the boys tremendously, but am so glad that they are doing well in Seatlle and I'm already looking forward to our next visit!

Friday, January 9, 2015

Funny Sayings and Happenings from the Last Few Months

So, I've been busy (aka slack) and haven't compiled any blog posts since October about some of our memorable family moments so this one is going to be a little lengthy. Here we go:

  • Riley got into a crazy habit for about a month of calling his bottom, his "kiester". I'm not exactly sure where this new vocabulary word came from but he cracked up laughing every time he used it and believe me, he was inventing all kinds of ways to use it for quite some time. 
  • Speaking of cracking up, Riley gets this phrase a little confused sometimes and the other day I heard him make the comment, "This puzzle piece is cracking me out!"
  • Chris came downstairs after changing clothes from running and Maggie looks at him and says, "You're wearing that AGAIN!" She remembered the blue CATS shirt that Chris had worn yesterday. Better watch out, we have the fashion police in our house!
  • Maggie is the Queen of Excuses! We ask her to sit down in her chair and not stand on it and she replies without skipping a beat, "I can't my feet are hurting."
  • She is also "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong". The other day as we were changing into pajamas, I said something about taking off her pants and she said, "Actually, I can leave my panties on."
  • As I was cleaning the dining room table a few weeks ago, I discovered a few lumps in the tablecloth runner that decorates the middle of our table. Upon further investigation, I find 3 "Maggie forks" hidden under the cloth.  
  • I love listening to my kids' prayers that they say that are ones they make up completely on their own. Back in November, Maggie said a prayer that went something like this: "Dear God, Thank you for the food you made, the popcorn you made, the chocolate chips you made, the marshmallows you made, the chairs, Nanny and Pappy...it's dark outside. Amen" Gotta love her train of thought!
  • So I made a point in one of my music lessons about how we need to be careful about the words we say because they can break other people's hearts if we aren't careful. I demonstrated this using a paper cut out of heart and tore pieces of the heart each time I said something that was unkind. Well the object lesson certainly was powerful because now whenever Chris or I correct one of the kids or tell them they have a consequence due to their misbehavior, both kids cry out, "You broke my heart!!" Not quite the application I was hoping for, but at least I know they were listening! :)
  • Maggie has invented her own adjective now that just may catch on. Instead of saying something is cute and large, she says, "That is CUGE!" (as in a combination of cute and huge). 
  • A precious moment Chris relayed to me is that when leaving to go to work or when tucking Maggie into bed some nights, in response to him telling her that he loves her she'll say, "You're in my heart forever!".
  • Riley's math skills are growing in ways I don't even realize. One night at dinner, he made the observation that the boys were sitting on one side of the table and the girls were sitting on the other side of the table and "our family is split in half." 
  • A few more Maggie-isms we've heard lately are: "I got an idea." "I got a mission." (She probably got this one from Riley and watching too many episodes of Little Einsteins). "I can't believe that!" "I'm not talking about that one." "I can't think about it" (instead of I can't remember something).
  • Riley has been using words like complicated and distracted in the right context lately. That's pretty amazing how fast he can apply new words that he's learning.
  • Of course, it's the verb tenses that trip him up. I love it though. New Year's Day when Chris and I were catching a few extra ZZZ's, Riley decided to take care of breakfast by himself. He was so excited to tell us a few minutes later when we came down his accomplishment. "Mom-we creep-ted downstairs, made our bananas and bars." 
  • Maggie's mistakes are more in pronunciation and luckily for her, Riley has decided to be her personal speech coach. He corrects just about every other word out of her mouth (or at least it feels that way). He hasn't had a chance to fix this one error yet though: We've been using a consequence system where if Riley hurts his sister, he has to go to time out and it counts as strike. After 3 strikes, he doesn't get to watch any TV shows that day. So Maggie decided to get in on the action of disciplining him and wanted us to know this-"Riley told me 'no'. That's 2 STRIPES." 
Love these "cuge" moments in life!

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Holiday Highlights from Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years and More


Happy Halloween from the "Professional" Fisher Family--Meet Chris, the professional baseball player, Riley, the professional football player (even though I know Clemson is really a college team...this is his stepping stone to the pros), Maggie, the professional DocMcStuffins animal doctor, and Tracy, the professional heart surgeon. I guess this was our year to dress up as different careers and "unlikely, but still fun to pretend" jobs. Not to say that either or both of our kids aren't cut out to be doctors or professional athletes if they want...I'm just saying the chances that they choose these exact careers in 15-20 years are rather slim. :)

 We missed getting a picture with the entire QCP gang on Halloween, but we managed to get a picture with the Cason crew before Mickey and Minnie went off to Dreamland.
 Riley really had a blast this year filling his bucket with candy! Maggie was more concerned about her Doc McStuffins nametag falling off somewhere to really focus on the candy. It was special to have my mom and dad join us for pizza and the actual trick-or-treating this year as well. I was pretty worn out by the end of the day though because I helped organize Riley's Halloween party for his class earlier that day. We had a great time eating spooky snacks and playing games like "Wrap the Mummy", but a class full of 4 year olds hyped up on candy can make for a crazy day!
 We sure are thankful to have such a wonderful neighborhood to live in and friends that surround us. We delivered these to a few families before Halloween just to let them know that they are appreciated.
 For Thanksgiving this year, we created a Thankfulness tree and we wrote phrases on leaves that we were thankful for. Perhaps next year I'll get a prettier "tree", but the point of taking time as a family to name some of the many blessings we have received couldn't be a more beautiful sight to me.


 One other new tradition we started this year was where each family member is asked to draw a picture that describes at least one way God has been faithful and good to them that year. It could be an answered prayer, a surprise blessing, a special healing, a miracle, or a simple thanks. I have a quote that says: "The thankful heart opens our eyes to a multitude of blessings that continually surround us." And another one that says, "God knows that the FEELING of joy begins in the ACTION of thanksgiving." Just like in Joshua 4, we are going to use these images as a way to remind each other how God is all-powerful, provides for all our needs, is sovereign in His care, and deserves all of our praise! Feel free to "borrow" or adapt this tradition for your own family as you see fit. I did! This idea came from a book I read by Clay Clarkson called Heartfelt Discipline.  
 






Here is a picture of the fruity Tom Turkey that we made to take over to Grandmama and Papa's house for Thanksgiving.
I can't believe this is the only picture of the food that I took on Thanksgiving day though. We had a feast of prime rib, ham, mac and cheese, green bean casserole, strawberry pretzel salad, rolls, sweet potato casserole, pumpkin cheesecake, apple pie, and a delicious hummingbird cake. Sure did miss Edward and Amanda, Tripp and Liam. It was great to see Kelly and Joel and Rodger and his family were able to join us as well. I planned a few games that day where we had to sing a familiar song aloud but the only lyrics we could use were "gobble, gobble". And the kids really liked the "freeze" game while we were eating where one person was it and would freeze in mid bite, then the last one to freeze themselves at the table was the next "it." We FaceTimed with Edward and his clan and played a Turkey Trivia game that had fill-in-the-blank with a number questions and Auntie M (Melissa) was the reigning Turkey Trivia Queen (see pic below where she got to wear the special turkey headband Riley had made at preschool).

As the evening came to a close, mom and I did some "Black Friday" (although technically it was still Thursday) shopping at Wal-mart and Target and got some great deals and Kelly and Joel and I had too much fun re-creating some old pictures of when we were much younger. We gave these 2 below (along with several more) to mom and dad for part of their Christmas present this year.


Here is a picture of Riley's turkey that he disguised as Batman so that the farmer wouldn't find him and eat him. I am so thankful to be able to do these creative little projects with my sweet guy and love his fascination with superheroes!

 On November 22nd (the weekend before Thanksgiving, sorry these pics are out of order), we were given USC tickets by some friends of ours and we were able to meet up with Alice and Kevin and their kids at their condo in Columbia for the game. Only Riley and Chris actually went into the game. It was Riley's first time ever to attend an athletic event on a larger scale and while he initially wanted to leave after the first 7 minutes, he was able to hang on until halftime. The girls had a great time cheering on the Gamecocks from the comfort of the couch and enjoyed some beautiful weather outdoors too. Chris had a bit of a hassle trying to get the car and pick us back up at the condo though. It ended up taking him over an hour and a half in traffic because he kept being redirected away from the stadium once the game ended. But he persevered and we all managed to reunite and make it back home in one piece. 


I don't post often enough about how grateful I am to have so many amazing friends! I was able to celebrate one special friend's (Jessica) 40th birthday this year in the mountains with a great group of girls from Bunco. We laughed and cried our entire way through the weekend and really enjoyed eating some amazing food (pizza Friday night like none other I've ever had in my life, the Bistro Saturday night, and not to mention all the yummy snacks, chips, and sweets we all brought), checking out new sights (by hiking up a mountain, scoping out the towns of Montreat and Black Mountain, taking pics by Lake Susan), telling how to survive a bear attack stories, and getting a chance just to relax and girl talk without any interruptions from our darling little ones. It was an awesome!



Okay now on to Christmas and New Years Eve. (I gotta admit, it has taken me over an hour to upload all these pics below, and I'm running out of steam with this post. So I'm just going to make a few quick comments on some of the fun events, special traditions, delightful family visits, and memorable moments that we had during December.)



 No Christmas would be complete without a trip to Penland Tree Farm! We got another Cypress this year and the kids are getting taller and taller on the "Snowman Scale". We added S'mores to our trip this year and it was a real winner (as you can tell by the full cheeks and sticky fingers!).






 Zippy came back this year and brought the kids matching pjs along with some sweet treats and Christmas DVDs. In addition to hiding in unique places, he started bringing the kids special kindness activity cards for them to do. For example, we made this hand and footprint craft one day and gave it to Grandmama.

Riley and Maggie got to sit on Santa's lap and hear him read a story about Rudolph. We then were treated to free hot chocolate, cookies, and crafts at this particular Christmasville event we went to in Glencarin Gardens. Too bad it rained most of this day, but the kids still managed to have a great time at the indoor Santa's workshop playing Legos, making Reindeer Food, getting Riley's face painted, signing Maggie's name on the Nice List for Santa, playing in the elf bed, and making a candy cane reindeer. We finished off our special trip by having lunch downtown and taking pictures while we were waiting for our food to arrive!








 The Zipster also added in some joke cards this year that were a big hit in our household!


Every year it is an adventure trying to get a family picture. This year was no different. When the first one at church didn't quite have everyone looking at the camera, we decided to try again at home ourselves and I'm pretty pleased with the result! At least we are all facing the same direction and are in various stages of the "Cheese" refrain! 

 Our Advent Calendar had special activities to do each day with the kids and as a family such as making our own gingerbread houses. Maggie's 2 are in the forefront and Riley's are in the background. Maggie's houses are quiet as decorated because she kept eating the candy the entire time and couldn't quite figure out why we would put it on a house and leave it there. :)
 This is a super sweet picture and note the Riley made for Chris. In case you can't quite make it out, it says, "Thank you for being my dad!" He also made one for Callie down the street that we delivered to her as well. He told her thank you for letting him play with her toys and that she was beautiful! I love this boy's sweet heart! It certainly melts mine!

 Here is Zippy getting a little frisky and having a "snowball" fight with Baby.
 Here is the much anticipated trip to Krispy Kreme to get a yummy holiday snowman donut!


On December 19th, we hopped in the car and drove to Indiana. Unfortunately, Maggie didn't feel well and had a fever most of the drive. She perked up on Saturday though and we all had a great time catching up and hanging out with family. Maggie found lots of new people to hold her (eventually she even let Uncle Tim have a chance). Jeni entertained the kids with a few rounds of Hide N Seek. I brought my Left Right Center game to play and Brandy was the big winner this year.  We played this after our ever famous White Elephant Exchange in which Chris put together a Redneck Christmas Party Bag complete with a bottle of Mad Dog 20/20 and some pork rinds. We had an amazing meal on Sunday the 21st with spiral ham, loaded potatoes made in the Crockpot by Penny and her delish butternut squash casserole, green bean casserole, veggies, fruit, rolls, and TONS of sweets (courtesy of Penny's talented hands) and strawberry birthday cake (made by Nan and Riley for Tim).   The kids had a blast opening gifts and trying out their new princess dresses and toys. Riley got to have private bow and arrow lessons with his dad and Uncle Tim and couldn't have been happier about his new tool to use while going hunting for woodpeckers!  Maggie loves her Melissa and Doug cupcakes that have "icing" markers and will be attending a gymnastics class of some sort in the spring (thanks to Nan and Pap). Chris showcased his water bottle that he received along with lots of other running gear and an Indiana Hoosiers poster. And I got some nice clothes picked out by Paul, books from my Amazon wish list, gift card, earrings, and many more thoughtful gifts. 













 It was great to have Chelsea and her boyfriend Evan and Emily and her boyfriend Chris join us for our big family festivities as well!

 When we arrived back home, we finished up a few errands and last minute details and then went to our Christmas Eve service at church that was targeted towards kids. Mom, Dad, Mommaw, Poppaw, Kelly and Joel were nice enough to join us though. And afterwards, we went out to eat with Kelly and Joel to Wan Fu for our Chinese food tradition.



 On Christmas Day, Riley and Maggie got to check out what Santa brought them.




 And we paused and reflected on the true reason for our celebration! Riley was able to tell us the Christmas story from memory this year. We caught his rendition on video.



 Around lunchtime, we went over to my parents' house for some more Christmas shenanigans.
 Maggie LOVES this Frozen doll and goes around the house constantly singing "Let It Go".
 Chris got his big ticket item of the year and I got new pots and pans, a Dirt Devil, glass storage containers, and some new boots (thanks to Mom and Dad and my Secret Santa-Amanda)!
 I love Riley's expression in this pic!

 We were blessed to have Mommaw and Poppaw as well as Kelly's future roommate join us too!

 Mom and Dad's big gift from us was that we transferred several of their old video cassette family videos to DVD and were able to watch them as a family. What fun to revisit some of our "early" years!

  One of the funniest gifts of the year were to Chris from his Secret Santa (Edward) who got him some super short shorts to wear!
 We took some time after our lunch of roast, collards, cornbread, ham, and corn to sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus with the red velvet cupcakes that we made this year. The dessert wasn't nearly as delicious as mom's 10 layer white and chocolate coconut cakes, but the sentiment was still really sweet!
 After so much activity, Maggie fell asleep in Mommaw's arms while watching a holiday movie. Such a precious moment! As are these:
 Maggie-In-A-Box
 Dance Parties with Aunt Kelly
And Crazy Christmas Selfies




 For New Year's Eve, I thought I'd try to do a few things to make the night exciting for Riley, Maggie, and Callie so after collecting some ideas from Pinterest we did the following activities:
  • popped a balloon every 15 minutes starting at 5:45 until 7:00                                                             
  • wrote out our 2014 Year-in-Review and our Goals for 2015
  • created Memory Jars which we filled with photos, ticket stubs, and other memorabilia that we sealed in a jar and decided not to open until the year 2019
  • ate Ring Pops to "ring in the New Year"
  • got dressed up and made some noise
  • played Ring Toss with glow-in-the-dark bracelets
  • enjoyed a few Minute to Win It games like "Jingle in the Trunk" and marshmallow on a stick relay
  • had a special toast with chocolate milk drinks that sparkled with sugar sprinkles




I don't know what 2015 holds, but I can tell you that if it is anything like these past few years I think my heart might burst. I am so in love with my life! I feel so incredibly blessed to have such amazing adults and little people in my life and I give God all the glory!