Everything in Between

I looked back and realized that I might be a bit behind in this blog.  If I wanted to try to catch up by holiday, I am missing Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas/Flumas parts 1, 2 and 3, New Years and everything in between.

Everything in between.  In no particular order, an update on life as we know it.  And then there will be a whole lot of pictures at the end.  I hope.  Let's see.

• Mia has now had two positive allergic reactions to two of the most annoying foods to avoid, milk and garlic.  One incident at home that was our fault, one at school where there was a sub who didn't realize the snack she gave her wasn't hers.  My thoughts of her outgrowing allergies kind of got crapped on. 
• We all were sick for Christmas this year.  We have been calling it Flumas 2014.  It started with me, ran through the kids, most of Andy's family, took a breather, then hit my parents and Andy around New Years.  It was crappy.  I lost all energy to do last minute Christmas stuff, all family stuff was rearranged, and it just never really felt like Christmas.  
• First Kindergarten report cards came out.  They don't get real grades of course, but they got a mix each of Proficient and Mastery in all subjects, and the only one I might object to is Maggie's P in Art.  That girl has skills!  
• I had an awesome 2014 in real estate.  I actually didn't know how much I had made until end of the year reports came out.  We are hoping we don't owe taxes for lots of reasons.  One of those reasons being - 
• Andy put his two weeks notice in at work and is currently job hunting.  The timing is stressful, but he needed to get out of that toxic and negative environment.  We will figure something out.  
• I have started a decluttering and organization challenge.  So far, I have done wonders with my laundry room, spice cupboard, pantry, and filing/mail systems.  There is still so much crap that needs to be done, and our master bedroom project came to a halt, and we are still sleeping in our living room.  
• My Grandma gave me the "this is where my instructions are and this is where I keep the checkbooks speech" the other day.  No.  Just no.  
• I got two new pairs of slippers for Christmas and I am now that mom that wears slippers.  Sometimes to the bus stop.  My feet were always getting cold, and now I truly feel like a mom.  Actually there was a day that I threw a coat on over my robe to stand in the garage with them.  Crazy neighbor lady.    
• We had crazy low temperatures in November, a mild December and now this January is looking like it might be similar to last.  We need to get a polar bear.  
• Another weird organization thing was that I went back to a paper planner.  I love it.  I am meal planning, have my grocery list in there, and am feeling more on top of things.  So far.  January isn't over yet.  
• I have more mom friends again.  I feel like I lost touch last year with some of the friends I was closer to, and this year I am getting closer to new friends.  It's both nice and weird to see how my dance moms know preschool moms who know school moms - welcome to living in a community and having kids in school.  
• I sorta suck at being a Kindergarten parent.  We do not always have time to read books, we weren't practicing our sight words and we didn't do the optional homework packets for November or December.  I forget to send notes, we are always running late for the bus, and I have packed some questionable lunches.  But they are doing exactly what I want.  They behave, they are kind and their teacher loves them.  Ben is one of the best behaved boys in the class, and Maggie is a natural leader.  I am pretty darn proud of them even if they didn't know all their sight words.  Note to self - practice the sight words with them.  

So there it is.  Big moments, small moments and everything in between.  And now, for the photo dump I owe everyone and myself!

Halloween:  Mia was the spunkiest ear of corn in her preschool Harvest Festival,  Performance bug anyone?

We carved pumpkins.  This eldest daughter of mine, seriously, look at that gorgeous face!  No one was afraid of the gook this year and we went with simple faces that they helped Daddy design.

I can't even tell you how funny this was to see.  She really only got to wear the whole costume for her dance class, but man did she love having long beautiful hair!

Ben really wanted everyone to go as the Scooby gang, but couldn't talk the girls into cooperating.  Since his costume was mainly a green shirt and brown pants, I ended up finding him the lunch box and Scooby lovey.  Note:  He grew his hair out all fall to get that Shaggy look.

Maggie was entirely too natural as Elsa.  I got to go to their Halloween party at school, and again, I am so glad that we live in a district that so far continues these traditions!

This year I was really proud of spreading the word about the Teal Pumpkin Project.  There were several people in our neighborhood (friends on FB of mine, lol) who had allergy friendly treats, or non food items.  Since I wasn't at my house, I couldn't explain it to anyone who came by our house, but we will always have allergy friendly options at my house!

I can't remember if I posted anything about the saga of my front doors, but let me tell you what I.LOVE THEM!!!

Cold rainy weather meant we got to put on some alternate costumes for Trick or Treat.

Thanksgiving means pies!  This year, my parents remodeled their kitchen and passed down their double oven to us.  It rocked for pies this year!

Grandma still has Thanksgiving every year.  A lot of my family was in from out of town, and this was the first year ever we did a group shot.  Timer for the win!  

These two beautiful ladies are awesome.

Christmas went into full swing after Thanksgiving since it was so late this year.  I never truly felt on top of it this year but we muddled through!    

He keeps growing and is seriously all skinny arms and legs!

Why boys don't usually come to baby showers.

Maggie took this!

Speaking of Maggie. . . I kept panicking because we didn't have time to do a Christmas photo shoot and this year we didn't have photos done in the Fall.  I jokingly said one day on FB that if I didn't get my act together, this was going to be our Christmas card.

Well, one of my talented friends who designs Christmas cards thought this was such a fabulous idea that she designed it for us.

I love that Mia is doing the same things her siblings did before.  Here they all are with an ornament they made in Preschool 3s!

Goofballs.

Something really struck me this week at dance observations.  Maggie is such a serious dancer.  She listens, follows directions, and is doing a great job.  Look at those knobby knees!

Mia on the other hand. . .

Mia will not talk about her friends at school other than her cousin Parker.  But, she loves her dance friends and will talk about them all the time!  Some of these girls have been dancing together since her first class there.  I love thinking about them growing up dancing together!

 
Randomly this year I found out what the secret was to melting dairy free chocolate to make Mia special chocolates (it's canola oil) and we got my silly little girl hooked on chocolate for the first time!  My Mom and I were making the regular kind and did this on a whim.  She wasn't sure at first what to think, but got into it completely!

Kindergarten Christmas program.  Oh my word.  

This year we talked about the Polar Express but didn't get tickets in time.  This was a small version put on in Kent on a stationary train, and it was so fun and so cheap compared to the other!

I might have caught the best Christmas photo ever with these crazy cousins.

Christmas this year was laid back and strange.  Since we all had the flu, and felt various versions of ick, this year we had our Christmas mostly alone.

We had been trying to get together with my mom to frost cookies, but it never worked out.  The day we frosted these (Christmas Eve) it was so fun, they looked so nice, but they coughed and sneezed all over them, and we didn't share them with anyone!

Christmas Eve.  

We still fed the reindeer.

Wrote our letter to Santa and an elf picture.

Maggie was the first one up, and I actually heard Ben yell to her, you can open the presents by yourself, I am too tired.

Mia also needed some persuasion.  Again, flu sucks!

Sweet old lady.

Once again, my absolute favorite thing was just how darn excited they were to give each other gifts.  After Santa gifts, that was the first thing they wanted to do.

Since we were all contagious, Grandma and Grandpa watched us open presents by Skype.

We did get a brief visit from the grandparents.  Yes, they wore those the whole time.

Eventually we got back on track and had family celebrations.

We made more allergy friendly cookies that we didn't cough on.

New Years Eve we went to a friend's house in our neighborhood, but came home to party until midnight.

Mia fell asleep about 12:05 on my shoulder.

2015 started and came back with plenty of snow and colder weather.  Maggie built this mostly alone.

Mia's had a huge hair surge, and I actually got her into one tiny little ponytail.  Maybe with lots of hairspray and continued growth, we'll get her hair up for recital yet!

So there you go, three months in a pretty big nutshell.  I can't guarantee this will be a big year of blogging, but so often I want to go back and look at old entries just to remember and I think - I don't want these things to pass without documenting them.  They will only be this little once, and I am trying to enjoy them as much as I can.  Don't blink.  Really.

The memories in between, those are the good ones.