Will's Bike

And just like that it was warm! After the snow and everything being shut down all week, we woke up to pretty warm temps Saturday. Welcome to the south. Perfect day for Will to get out and ride his new bike! I'm so glad we finally got him a bike, he's needed one for a couple years but kept choosing to buy other things for his birthday present. Now that he's 10 and has a little more freedom in where he can ride, it's good timing.

I feel like a Yeti

I mean, not really. But we did get two snowfalls within a few days of each other and everything shut down. Yep, it snowed again Monday the 15th which was already a holiday-- MLK -- but temperatures stayed pretty low the next couple days so there wasn't much chance of things melting. And really only the main roads are salted and driven heavily enough to make tracks.

Again, I was not about to bundle up all my kids, especially after they proved me right a few days earlier with the short lived snow adventure. On Tuesday, though, the boys wanted to go out and I said okay, but they were getting themselves dressed. I mean, they do anyway, it's just I wasn't going to rummage around and find several items that could be layered upon layers. And if they're only out a short time, it's not necessary anyway.

Jake took a short break after a snowball to the face, but I got him back out and they played a little while longer. Then Wednesday Will came up with a fun game of sledding down the driveway on skateboards. I love when he comes up with fun, creative games for his siblings. :)

Will was very upset we still did school work all week, but there was no point taking time off. So we weren't affected too much except our tutorial was cancelled two Fridays in a row and church one Sunday, which was a bummer for Maggie especially. We still had cabin fever though, at least I did, and even found a limit to pajama days. :)

First Snow

It snowed Friday, Jan. 12th and of course schools were cancelled, including our Friday tutorial. I didn't even bother letting the kids out in the snow because it takes so long to get them bundled up for such a short time spent outside. I used the day to catch up and/or get ahead in a couple subjects.

Saturday morning I caved because who doesn't let their kids play in the snow? It's not like we get much here in the south. So, I bundled everyone up in multiple layers, including myself so I could go out with them. And whaddayaknow.... they were outside for about 10 minutes. I was walking around with Maggie, from back to front and by the time we got back, Jake & Allie had gone in. *Sigh. I love my kids and am glad to spend some time with doing special things like playing in the snow, just seems like it should last longer.

 Fresh snow before the tracks. Then the littles came out and went straight to snow angels. Allie didn't care for it much and moved on to the swingset.

 Maggie enjoyed making an angel then 'eating' the snow before we started our trek through the snow

The tracks Maggie and I made walking toward the front of the house. This was the short walk we made where we returned to no children because they ran inside. It was still fun and everyone warmed up by the fire when we came in. Sweet times with my kiddos.

Last day of the year

Happy New Year's Eve and goodbye 2017!! Another year flew by and a new one will begin. To keep with my tradition, here's the first and last photos (of the kids) in 2017:

Happy New Year 2018!

And because there wasn't a good place to put this and I didn't want a separate post, here's one last Jake funny:

12/5:
J- "If there's a bad person you can just push them into the fire.:
Me- "Oh gosh, that's awful!"
J- "I know. But that's the best thing you can do to a bad person."
-- after discussing fire safety. Seems I have more explaining to do --

Will's 10th Birthday!

It happened again. You turned another year older. Overnight. I mean, literally that is what happens, but if feels like just yesterday you turned 9 and 5 and 2 and were born! And now you're 10 YEARS OLD!!!!!!!!!! TEN, Will! You have left the single digit numbers and will only celebrate double digit birthdays from here on out. A decade. How have I been a mom for a decade and how did you grow so fast??!!?!!

Last night as a 9-year-old

I love you, my little man. So much more than I could ever express or you could ever know. Though we have certainly had our ups and downs this year, through it all you've really started to mature and I'm so proud of the boy you are. It does feel like you become more of a gamer with each passing day and now you're really into watching these You Tube videos about playing games (ugh) but that super creative, imaginative Will I've always known and loved peaks through still. And honestly, you are pretty creative in your games as well. I just love watching you express your creativity in other ways. ;) You can really stir the pot with your siblings, you enjoy being an instigator, but very often you come up with fun, creative games for everyone to play. I'm so proud to call you my son, Will, and beyond grateful God chose me to be your mom. You challenge me and push me to be a better mom and better person each day. I love you, happy birthday!!

This year you asked for cake balls so this marks like the 3rd year I haven't made you an actual cake. At least I got to bake you something, though. Last year it was an ice cream cake and I think the year before that just ice cream. You also requested to have friends over to play video games and nerf guns. So we invited your cousins and friends over for a video game tournament and Nerf gun war! You ended up playing laser tag more than Nerf guns, but it was still fun. I've never let you have this many kids sleep over before, but I thought with your 10th, we should go big or go home!

After lots of pizza (we went through 5 large pizzas!), video games and running around, it was time to get to bed. It was after 10 when we set you all up in the playroom and everyone voted to watch Tron. Several of the boys were awake even after the movie was over. Luke, Taryn & Olivia didn't spend the night and one of your friends came to the party but couldn't sleepover. Everyone else, however, stayed. So we had about a dozen kids here, including ours. This was a lot and I knew it would be, but we knew going into it, this would be a one time thing.

Your dad and I were really proud of how well you managed your company. You did your best to integrate your cousins and friends, include everybody and all around be a good host. You had a great time! Happy 10th birthday, Will!!! I love you so much.