Let Go, Let God

The week after Christmas began with a playdate!  Riley's friend Alex came over and it was a day of video games.  Alex showed the boys how to play Wheel of Fortune on his Nintendo DS and then they played Skylanders, followed by Wii bowling.

  

After that I managed to get them all to go to the Lily B playground to play for an hour, but then I got cold and it was back home for some Mario Bros. on the Wii.  When Chad walked in all 3 boys were sprawled on the couches, the two older ones playing video games and Carter observing.  It made Chad so happy so he ended up plopping down a playing some with them.

  

On Monday night we went to dinner to celebrate Nana's birthday.  Carter ate like a champ.  After 3 PB&J sandwiches at lunch he also ate 3 chicken tenders followed by chocolate cake for dessert!  He then passed out on the drive home, but string of drool and all!  Happy Birthday Nana!  We love you!

  

But he did wake up enough to take a bath.  I swear this kid would never skip baths if we didn't make him.  Even on nights we are too tired to do a bath and say let's just go to bed, it takes some convincing with Carter. I took this photo because Riley kept telling Carter he looked like Pastor G, the pastor of the church where Carter's daycare is, and you know what?  He did kind of look like Pastor G!  Hilarious!

 On New Year's Eve Chad & I went to a party at Blake & Rebecca's.  Before the party we went to a movie too!  This was our first new year's sans kids since we had the boys.  I was very proud I stayed up until midnight.  However at the stroke of 12 I started to get a sore throat.  At first I thought it was from the fire pit at the party, or possibly the people smoking, but when I woke up achy the next day I worried it was the flu.  (I was the designated driver, so don't try and blame it on drinking!!)  I really have no idea if it was the flu or not.  I've been up and down since the 1st.  Better one day, worn out the next, better day after.  I did get a flu shot so if it was the flu hopefully it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

Thankfully, I only had to work last Thursday and Friday so I muddled through and then got to spend a couple more days at home.  

Random sweet photo of Princess.  This girl is really digging our new house and all the extra love and cuddles she gets on a daily basis.  She is pretty cute sleeping on a pillow like that!

On New Year's Day we walked to the zoo with the Lovelady's.  I don't remember a whole lot of it as I felt pretty awful, but thankfully Kate took a lot of cute kid photos!

Carter was our resident map reader at the zoo and we only made it through half of the zoo before everyone started getting tired.  I was worried about them not being able to walk up the hills to get home so we bribed them all with juice in cute animal sippers and they managed to make it up the two hills with their magical juice all by themselves!  No carrying from these adults!

The tooth fairy also made his 4th stop at our house last week as the last little straggler bottom tooth fell out!  I'm sure Riley's mouth feels a whole lot better now.  Now, how long until the next ones start getting loose?  I need a break!

 

  

Riley was also quite the artist over the winter break.  The first photo is Bowser's castle from Mario and the second is a painting of Dean Hardscrabble from Monster's University.  Impressive!

  

  

Saturday was Chad's 34th Birthday and we surprised him with a new pair of sunglasses that morning.  The day was amazingly low-key, spent at home doing laundry and yard work, etc.  We then walked over to Grandmommy & Haha's for dinner (the boys rode their bikes) and we enjoyed hamburgers for dinner and cake for dessert.

  

Chad & I walked home and the boys spent the night.  They went to church the next morning with Grandmommy & Haha and then went back to relax with some movies in bed before coming home.  Looks comfy!

Before I sign off for this first post of 2014 I'd just like to say what a ride 2013 was.  Possibly one of the most amazing rides I've been on in awhile.  I think my mantra was "Let go, let God."  Every time something happened from the months and months of house hunting, to finding our house, to selling our other one, I just kept trusting in a higher power.  If we were meant to move it would all happen as it was supposed to.  If we weren't supposed to move, then eventually another plan would have presented itself.  If we were blessed to buy our house before selling the old one then we would find buyers before we had to pay two mortgages.  This trust in "what is to be" has led me to such a sense of calm in the world.  I trust that things happen as they are supposed to and I'm just along for the glorious, sometimes horrible, sometimes amazing ride.  While some of the years in the past 5 years have been awful and horrible years that I would never ever want to relive, years like 2013 in which every dream I dreamed came true, I have to believe that I am never given more than I can handle, that I have a wonderful support system surrounding me, believing in me, sharing the ride with me (and most importantly dreaming the dreams with me), and that the bumps and curves my life has led me down, brought me to this place of peace and wonder.  Here's to 2014.