January Journal

January- the month that seems to last forever.  January- when the cold isn't cute, fun or magical anymore (like it was in December);  when the short days with little sun get really old; when it feels like there is nothing on the calendar to look forward to.

January is usually a brutal and long month for me.  Surprisingly, it wasn't that bad this year.  We actually had a busy month (but not "December"/overwhelming busy) and there was lots of fun events going on.

After our "beginning of January" guests all left, life got back to normal around here.  Normal was good after our busy holiday.

The "big kids" get to stay up a little later these days.  I always knew this day was coming- the day all of our kids didn't go to bed at 6:00.  I admit- I am kind of mourning our past life of quiet, productive, "all me and my hubby" evenings.  But change is good too.  This stage of life, with kids who are older and are more capable, is really fun.  The one downside is now we feel like we are putting kids to bed all night.  Olivia and the twins go down between 6:00-6:30.  Mitch goes down at 7:00 and Chloe at 8:00. 

After 6:00, it is "quiet time" for the big kids.  This time is for homework, reading, or quiet games and productive activities.  Chloe still really likes to be doing whatever Ben and I are doing.  She is loving her new bedtime and the big girl freedom that comes with it, but sometimes has a hard time being productive on her own.  On some nights, we'll use the quiet time to play a game with one or both of them, which is really fun as Mitch and Chloe are old enough now to play more grown up board games, Chloe especially.

One night, Chloe spent quiet time helping Mitch read a book.  He is so very anxious to be reading on his own, especially since he can see Chloe read. 

One of the funnest things about this month was the NFL Playoffs.  Our home town team, the Seattle Seahawks, had an amazing season and made it to the playoffs.  They played almost every weekend and we looked forward to each and everyone of their games. 

An official/unofficial day was brought about in the Seattle Area during the football season: Blue Friday.  People were encouraged to wear their Seahawk gear on Fridays (the last business day before the Saturday or Sunday football game).  It has been happening all season, but when the Hawks made the playoffs, the kids' school really got into it and sent home a note encouraging all the kids to wear Seahawk gear or Seahawk colors (navy blue and electric green) so they could get a school picture.  The kids formed a "12" outside and the principal stood on the roof to take their picture to submit to the "12th Man" fan club group.  Mitch's teacher also asked for permission to submit a picture of just their class on the 12th Man Facebook group.

Mitch and Chloe got really excited about all of this.  Our Seahawks gear is a little lacking, but we scrounged up what we could.  Chloe was the quickest and claimed my jersey.  Mitch was so, so bummed to not have a cool shirt.  His 12th Man beenie was just not cutting it for him.

In their gear!  Don't let this picture fool you- Mitch was very upset and did NOT want to wear this hat, but faked a smile for the picture.  After I was done taking it, he ripped the hat off and went off to school as sad as can be.

I felt really bad for him and as soon as they left, I loaded up the little girls and went in search of something Seahawks for him.

I surprised him with a jersey at school that day.  He would wear it every day if I would let him- he absolutely loves it!

This Seahawks madness has been crazy- another post to follow about all of that!

Our sweet baby keeps growing, and amazes me with her sweetness.  Sunday mornings are busy at our house.  Ben is always gone the entire morning at meetings, and getting everyone ready is a full morning job- there never seems to be a spare minute.

One Sunday morning in January, Livy got tired of waiting for some attention and fell asleep sitting up in her chair.  I love this girl.

Little Lu Lu also decided she really, really wants to be a big kid and started sitting up for short periods.

We also found out she was ready for Ben's trick of "standing up" that he always tries with our babies when they are young.  Sitting up and standing at 3.5 months... I'm not ok with this.

After family prayers each night, we do our family chant, all hands in the middle and say "Go Team!" or sometimes "Go Team Andros!"  I put Livy's hand in one night and the other kids thought that was awesome!

January brought the purchasing of some new furniture.  We started noticing this summer that our almost 10 year old microfiber couches were starting to look a little sad.  They were beginning to look shiny and extremely worn and we knew it was time to start looking.  We weren't sure if we wanted a sectional or couches, but we did know that we wanted more seating than we had before. 

After playing around with our current couches, we decided that a sectional would fit best in our space, as opposed to two full couches.

At the very beginning of January, we finally found a sectional we really liked but found out there were none left in stock.  We were so bummed!  And then we were told that it would take 6-8 weeks for them to get here.

But a January miracle happened and they got in after just 2 weeks.  And the company delivered them for free, as they were short on their delivery quota for the month.  The only down side was one piece of the sectional was not in on the first delivery.  We only had to wait 5 days for the last piece to get in.

We weren't looking for recliners, but in our price range and in the styles we liked, it was almost impossible to find a sectional that didn't have recliners in it.

The whole set.

As a total surprise to both Ben and I, we also bought a dining room table.  We weren't planning on buying one.  Our formal dining room has been empty since we moved in last year and we have been in no rush to fill it.  But we were at Costco one night.... that phrase right there could be the starting sentence of many, many "I wasn't planning on" purchases.

January is one of Costco's furniture months.  We had looked there for couches but didn't love any of their options.  As we moseyed over by the tables, we came across one that really caught our eye.  It was big, pretty and came with 8 chairs for a great price.  We really couldn't pass the deal up, as Costco's furniture is always hit and miss and they don't always get the same or similar things back every year. 

She fits nicely in our space and we are glad that we will have more eating space for our frequent visitors (and for all of the fancy dinner parties I'm sure to throw each month now. Ha!) 

A friend lent me a Bumbo for Livy.  I've never owned one for any of my kids and have always wanted to, but I never think about it until it's too late and they'll be too big/advanced for it to be worth the money.  Liv likes it for short period of times.  It helps with her need to want to be sitting up ALL THE TIME.

Ms. O is my carseat baby.  She has spent more time in her carseat than any of my other kids.  With 4 older siblings, we are always running around doing some kind of activity for someone.    She does really well in a carseat, luckily.  If it's just a short activity (school assembely, quick doctor appointment, etc), it's just easier to keep her in there if she's happy.

My other set of twins!  If I had a dollar for every time someone told me that Livy looks like Chloe...  Chloe looks forward to playing with Livy each morning before school.

She doesn't love her swing anymore.  I'm kind of sad about that!  No more swing means she's not a tiny baby anymore.  I put her in it out of desperation one night so I could finish making dinner.  Right as we were sitting down to eat, I looked over to find that she had crashed. It was her bedtime and she was tired of waiting (again) for someone to put her to bed.

On January 17, Olivia went and turned 4 months, without permission.  She sure has put on a chunk of weight in the last month.  And I also desperately need to do a separate post on just this girl and all the growing up she is doing right under my eyes.

Ben's sister Meredith and her family came to visit us the weekend of the 17th.

Livy and cousin Victoria got to meet for the first time.  Victoria was just a few days shy of one in the picture.  They are almost exactly 8 months apart.  We had to get a picture of their matching outfits, both bought by Meredith.  Liv only looks small next to older babies these days.

Victoria was much more interested in Livy's headband than in getting her picture taken. :)

It was a sunny day and not totally freezing, so we headed to the zoo. 

The kids had a great time.

Carseat Olivia was there too. :)  And she did so great.

The last time we did this zoo with the Taylor family was in September of 2011.  Look how little everyone was!  And we have added two more sweet girls to the mix.

We had a very fun weekend with the Taylor's.  It was pretty low key and there was lots of time for the cousins to play together.

In wanting to start his own bi-yearly tradition, Ben got surgery on January 23rd.  It felt like dejavu of just 2 years ago almost exactly when he had his back surgery.  (Remember?)

This time it was his knee.  Starting in July last summer, his left knee starting acting up.  It would pop really, really loudly (almost sickening loudly) almost anytime he would move.  But he wasn't in pain.

A few months later, it became painful and his mobility in that knee/leg became less and less.  He wasn't able to fully extend his left leg, couldn't knee on it and wasn't able to be very active on it.  It hurt to run, jump or do anything active or sudden.

In November of last year, we finally went in to get an MRI and see an orthopedic surgeon.  He told us the meniscus in the left knee was torn.  Having never had a specific injury or instance that Ben could identify that caused the tear, he had just referred to it as his "trick knee."  The meniscus will not heal on its own, so we decided surgery was the best option for him.

Ben's sweet parents came up the night before to be there on surgery day to help with the kids.  This was a huge help, as Ben and I had to be at the surgery center at 6:10 a.m.  Having his parents there made it so that we didn't have to wake up all the kids at 5:00 a.m. and drag them with us.

Little Miss did have to be awoken early.  She prepped for the big surgery by sleeping 11 hours straight that night/morning of surgery.  She was a good girl and we got to hang out while we waited for Ben to get out of surgery.

The brave patient!  He was only in surgery for about 20 minutes and woke up feeling really good- not in any pain.

After waiting for the anesthesia to wear off, we were able to go home around 10:00 a.m.

Thank goodness for our new recliners!  They seriously came in so handy during Ben's recovery.  He was able to walk on his own the day of surgery, but was supposed to stay off it and rest as much as possible the first few days.  He was pretty good to rest most of the time and he iced it pretty much whenever he was on the couch.

The next day, Friday, Ben wanted to get out of the house for a few minutes.  The only way I'd let him is if he promised to use one of the motorized carts.  He obeyed!  Shopping is a totally different experience in one of those bad boys, he told me.

We got back home in time to let Ben rest before his mom and I headed off to Chloe's school to watch her and the entire 3rd grade do a performance/assembly in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.

It was such a cute little performance.  The kids sang the songs with all their might.  You could tell they had worked really hard.

Chloe had been so excited all month because she and 2 other friends in her class had volunteered to sing as a trio during the performance.  Chloe loves music and loves singing, but does not like a lot of attention on her in public settings.  Doing this was stepping a little bit out of her comfort zone and I was so happy to see her doing hard things!  The part was only a few words, but the three girls came down off their risers and sang their line all by themselves into a microphone.  I was so proud of Chloe!  I hope she continues to push herself to do things that aren't always easy.

Yep, Sister Carseat was there.  And she was such a good girl.

Mitch came home after school that same day to inform me that he was the new VIP for the next week.  Part of being the VIP means getting to bring home Jesse Bear, the class bear.  Mitchell was so, so excited.  Jesse came complete with its own bag full of different clothes, 2 books about him and a binder to add a scrapbook page to after the week was over to tell about Mith's with with Jesse.

Mitch immediately changed Jesse's clothes like 4 times within the first hour.  He finally settled on a cute Seahawks outfit for Jesse and we snapped a picture for his scrapbook page.  It was Blue Friday after all, so of course Mitch had on his Seahawk shirt.

Mitch also informed me that we can donate a new outfit to Jesse's bag.  So, he asked me, "will you make Jesse an outfit mom?  Today??"  Oh, sweet boy.  You don't know your mother at all.  I don't "make" outfits.  He was quite persistent the rest of the day about getting Jesse another outfit.  Luckily he forgot about it soon enough and was able to enjoy a fun week with his new buddy.

Jesse became our 6th child for the week.  He loved playing games with Mitch and his sisters.

Jesse even joined us for meal time!

It was so fun to see Mitchell so in to this little project and so cute that his class does something like this. So long, Jesse bear!  You were a gender neutral bear that we loved having spend time in our home.  I hope the next home you visit will "make" you lots of new clothes!

At the end of day on Friday, we unwrapped Ben's leg and saw his knee for the first time.

The Saturday after surgery, just 2 days later, Ben woke up to find a really bad rash all over his body.  His trick knee was now covered in puffy, red dots.

The rash was very, very itchy and extremely uncomfortable.  His knee, from a surgical standpoint, was healing and feeling really well, which was great.  But this rash was super annoying for him.  He called the on-call nurse at his doctor's office and she thought it might be an allergic reaction to his pain medicine.  We didn't think that was it.  Ben was pretty certain he'd had an allergic reaction to the antiseptic scrub they'd made him use right before surgery on Thursday.  He had to rub it all over his body.  Ben has extremely sensitive skin to begin with, and then to rub down with a very harsh substance was not a good combo.  He started taking benadryl a few times a day and covering his rash in hydrocortisone cream multiple times a day. 

2 weeks post surgery, his rash is nearly gone and he is getting more mobility and less stiffness in his knee everyday.  After 2 crazy post-op conditions, we have decided Ben will never be getting surgery again.  Just kidding.  Here's to hoping his appendix don't go bad! :)

Chloe had her first basketball game on Saturday the 25th.  I love to watch her play!  Nana and Aunt Bethany (who came up for the weekend) went to her game as well. 

Later that afternoon, as a special treat, Bethany took the 4 big kids to the movies.  Our kids are probably the only kids in the country who hadn't seen Frozen yet, so that's what they saw.  They loved it.

And boy did Bethany spoil them.  Popcorn and drinks and treats too.  She really does love them more than we do. :)

I get to spend my days with my beautiful little girls.  They are so much fun to watch play together.  You better believe there is a lot of fighting and that every minute together isn't perfect, but there are so many sweet moments that they share.

They are hilarious when they play Headbands together.  They each choose a card to put on their headbands, but they can't choose it unless their eyes are tightly squeezed shut.  With their cards in their holsters, they open their eyes and decide who goes first.  If Leah goes first, Lexi will say "Ok.  Your card is something that is white that you drink."  Leah will then guess "Milk??"  Their rules are a little backwards from the rule ones, but so funny. 

I got to go on a field trip with their preschool class to the local public library.  They got to participate in a story time there and then play with some toys afterwards.  They loved it!  They were even more anxious to pick out some books to take home.  They had a little story time as soon as we got home.

This picture depicts the girls quite well.  Lexi is my girly girl.  She loves skirts and dresses and prefers those over any other type of pants.  She loves to wear jewelry too and has 2 bracelets on her right arm in this picture.  Leah would wear jeans every day if she could.  She doesn't hate skirts or dresses, but very rarely chooses them.  This day they had gotten themselves dressed.  I was surprised to see that they had chosen the same shirt, as they now choose different outfits about 90% of the time.  But they do both love this fairy shirt a lot. 

Different or alike, these two ladies are the best of friends.  I have had a fun month of spending some sweet time with these sweeties. 

One of our better January's!  On to February!