Jan. 8th-14th 2017

Justin and I read Dave Ramsey's Total Money Make-over and are making over our finances for the new year. It's kind of a big deal. Hopefully it all goes well and we are successful..!

 I LOVE this picture of Calvin. My sweet baby. He has gotten so lovey these last weeks. He is all about hugging and kissing all the time. It's the best. He loves to give kisses and is really good at the sucking/popping sound at the end, haha! He also will just give me kisses over and over and over. Or he will just kiss my leg or arm or coat or anything. It's super wonderful. He is my snuggly little boy and I love it so much. I love when any of my boys snuggle me, I just get it from Calvin waaay more often, it's the best.

Grandmother Gause gave our family some money for Christmas, so we thought we would use it to do something fun, as a family. We decided to go to the Rec Center swimming pool. The kids (Rodrik and Jaxton mostly) had a lot of fun. Calvin and I were freezing and liked sitting with each other on the chairs with towels. Justin was so fun to have there playing with the boys. They love him.

 

Here is a picture of Calvin with Justin right at the beginning, Calvin was really excited in the beginning, but then things just got cold, and there was water shooting out of spouts and crazy stuff like that. Calvin reminds me of my adult self sometimes. He is usually very cautious and loves to spectate on the sidelines, generally on my lap. It makes it really easy and enjoyable for me at these times.

 

 I'm so proud of Jaxton. He can totally swim! And he has never had a swim lesson in his life! He swam across the 12ft deep pool to be able to do the activities in the deep end. Specifically the cliff jump and the rock climbing wall. I was so impressed with his swimming, and love seeing him try new things. I thought he was so brave and he just acted like it was nothing for him to swim across that big ol' pool. It was so fun to watch. I have video.

  

Rod's favorite thing at the swimming pool is the lazy river. He likes to have his floaties on so that he can float in the strong current. He likes them off at times too, to try and practice swimming with the current to help. He would spend all day in that lazy river...! :) Rod loves to insert the words "specifically" and "actually" (there are more I cant think of right now...!) into whatever he is saying. I LOVE it. Example: "Well, 'pesiffically, I don't think that is a good idea." It's the best.

  The kids were both spotlight students within the last 2 weeks, so we had certificates for them to go to Pizza Pie Cafe. They love that place because we went there last with Natasha and Steve's family and it was a happy time. So we made there dreams come true and went there again! We sat at a booth in front of a TV, this is what happened for much of the time. My kids have such a hard time doing anything when they are watching TV. It was a football game--not even a children's show. It's so funny. 

 

 For the record, Jax gets like 6 pieces of cheese bread, and then I get him a bowl of sliced, canned peaches. That is his "happy" meal. Rodrik on the other hand, does really like pizza, but when he heard there was lettuce and noodles he opted for that. So he had a bowl of plain lettuce with balsamic vinegar and then penne noodles (his favorite kind) with balsamic vinegar. I added a little Italian dressing for extra flavor.  That was his "happy" meal. No dessert pizza's for these two, thats a little too edgy for them. ;) Calvin actually had pizza, his other favorite is those club crackers that come in a 2 pack by the salad bar. Kids are so funny.

 Justin really hurt his groin playing soccer. Upper thigh picture below. It was bad news. He had a hard time walking for a couple days and has been slowly getting mobility back. It looked so gnarly...!