January 2019

January started with us flying home from Utah bright and early on January 1st. We arrived home and suddenly it was back to reality. First on the list was planning our menu for the week, getting the laundry started, and grocery shopping (so we'd have food to make dinner). I went to Winco and this rather eccentric guy was there. It was like, welcome back to Portland. There is a reason they say, "Keep Portland Weird!" We live in a suburb of Portland, so we don't see it all the time, but every so often we get glimpses. You can't see it in this picture (that I sneakily took), but he also had longer blue hair and there was a stuffed animal kitten poking out of his jacket right under his chin. 

The next day we had our first baby appointment. They did an ultrasound and everything was looking good. We saw the baby moving and heard its heart beating strong.

I was only 10 weeks, but since I'd shared about our miscarriages on Instagram, I figured I'd just go ahead and make it "Instagram official." I was completely overwhelmed by the response that post got. 100 likes and 36 comments!

Rog's birthday was on a Saturday this year, so we got to celebrate him all day. We started the day off with cinnamon rolls.

He got Kingdom Hearts 3 for the Playstation 4 (want), a skillet for cooking eggs (need), a new wedding ring (wear), and a 10 year journal (read). Kingdom Hearts 3 was a preorder, so he didn't actually receive it until the end of January. His wedding ring had been lost for weeks and we had looked everywhere for it. The kids and I went to get him a new one a couple days before his birthday and then when we were taking down the tree the next day, we found it under the tree skirt. So we returned that ring and he's getting some new work clothes for his wear. My Grandma Ford had given him a 10 year journal 10 years ago and he faithfully recorded in that journal every night for 10 years, so he needed a new one. (He actually opened that one a few days before his birthday.)

After breakfast and presents, he took the kids to the church to help with a deep clean of the building they were doing while I got ready for the day. Then they picked me up and we went to see Mary Poppins Returns. We all enjoyed it and the kids have been asking Alexa to play songs from Mary Poppins Returns all month. (My brother got us an Echo for Christmas.)

After the movie we saw the cat man! I had been alone at Winco when I saw him before, so I had to point him out to Rog and the kids. The movie theater is close to Winco, so he must live in the apartments in between Winco and the movie theater.

We ran an errand at Kohl's and then I was planning on running a couple more errands, but Rog and the kids weren't happy about that. So we ended up going home and I went out on my own for a bit.

We had dinner at 5 Guys.

Then I pulled out a bundtlet from Nothing Bundt Cakes when we got home, so we could sing to him.

The next day was our first Sunday with 2 hour church. It seemed a little chaotic that week, but it's feeling more and more normal as the weeks go by. It was Logan's first week as a Sunbeam and Corbyn's first week in Senior Primary. I teach the Valiant 8 class and he's in my class.

Rog wanted spaghetti for dinner, so we had that and then we had the Yates and the Martyns over for cake (Cookies and Cream Cake with Oreo Buttercream Frosting).

That first week of the year was kind of rough. The kids were home from school, I was feeling sick and nauseous all the time, and I was struggling to find motivation to do anything. I put this on our letter board and nothing could have been more appropriate!

The next week the kids went back to school and I suddenly got motivated to do more than survive. I've always struggled to make our bed, but I started making it every single morning as soon as I get out of it and that has made all the difference. I've also been doing a quick clean up of the kitchen, dining room, and living room as soon as I get the kids on the bus and off to school for the day. I'm always out of energy and motivation to clean at night after we get the kids to bed, but I have fresh motivation in the morning and when it's just me and Logan home I can keep it clean throughout the day if it starts out clean. Plus if I do it every single morning, it never gets super messy, so it never takes forever to clean up. I also try to make it up to the kids' rooms at some point in the morning to make their beds and clean up, but if that doesn't happy every single day I don't stress about it.

These routines were going so well that I started thinking about other routines I could get in to keep my life running more smoothly. One thing I came up with was to go through all my pictures from the previous month and start a blog about the previous month on the first day of the new month. It always takes me a few days to write the captions, but if I start on the first of the month, it will at least get done in the first week. I still have a few months to finish up from 2016 and August-December of 2018, but I've been moving through those at a decent pace lately. If I can keep up with 2019 and continue to work through the past months, I'm hoping I can get caught up and stay caught up this year!

I took this picture on a Monday morning after talking to my dad the night before and having him mention that we had rain in the forecast for the next solid week. Even if we have a rain cloud for our forecast, it doesn't mean it's going to rain all day!

I've been doing a preschool swap one morning a week with 3 of my friends and our 3 year olds. We do it on Monday morning which is kind of unfortunate because we don't do it when the big kids are out of school and they seem to have a lot of random Mondays off, but it's so nice when it happens. This week they were learning about the letter L. L is for lion!

We usually go straight to the grocery store after I pick him up. This week he must have been extra tired because he fell asleep in the cart while I was shopping!

When I was buying Rog a new wedding ring, I left my ring there to be cleaned and have more rhodium plating put on it. It looks so good all sparkly and clean!

Playgroup had been struggling with attendance, so I brought my laptop along and that turned out to be a good call because no one else showed up!

Logan didn't mind too much.

Logan is a good sport and goes for walks with me 2-3 mornings a week.

I finished my last door hanging!

My craft room was a disaster after Christmas and it took me a few days to get around to cleaning it up after the kids went back to school. I had to send Rog a picture because he didn't think I'd ever get it done.

Corbyn's class has a bunny as a class pet. It was our turn to pet sit and the kids were delighted. I started sneezing the minute we got it home, but I survived the weekend.

Peyton was the bunny whisperer.

The garage had also gotten pretty messy after the holidays (see the picture of Logan in the stroller above), so we spent Saturday morning cleaning it up. Then the kids and Rog played basketball while I went on a walk and got ready for the day.

Then we drove up to Mt. Hood and went sledding.

Logan was fully outfitted in Corbyn's hand-me-downs.

Peyton didn't have snow boots (she could have wore her rain boots), but she did have some of Corbyn's snow pants. Poor Corbyn didn't have any snow pants or snow boots that would fit and his coat was getting pretty small too. I bought him a new coat after this, but it's hard to justify buying snow pants and snow boots when it so rarely snows here.

While we were up on Mt. Hood we took a few pictures of my Holiday Forest Patchwork Quilt. I wanted snow and pine trees and Rog delivered. Pattern is Modern Christmas Tree Quilt Block by Amy Smart. You can't tell here, but I had Just In Time Quilts quilt it in interlocking orange peel.

We cleared everything out of the closet under the stairs and had the bunny stay in there. He is potty trained, so we were able to let him roam during the day when we were home. We tried to keep the door to my craft room closed at all times, but a few times he got in there. The last night he was staying with us I discovered he chewed through the cord that connects my foot pedal to my sewing machine. I took it into a quilting store that has a repairman and had him replace the cord. It was less than buying a new foot pedal ($125) , but still more than we wanted to spend on having a bunny visitor!

I took my turn at having the 3 year olds. We made paper plate monkeys for the letter M.

Logan ends up in our bed most nights at some point. One night he gave me a black eye when he slammed his head down on my pillow and my face was in the way. A few days later he was punching the punching bag, but it looked like he had been punching my face.

My mother-in-law gave us a new toaster oven for Christmas thinking we'd be able to fit it in our suitcase and take it home that way. It technically would have fit, but then we wouldn't have been able to fit everything else. So we had her return it and give us a gift card for it. I had been waiting for a coupon at Kohl's to buy it and one finally came. We got our old one years ago, so this one is nice and shiny. We're still adjusting to cook times on the new one - it seems to toast quicker, so you have to watch it more carefully.

I took time to make this Christmas wood craft.

They had a family movie night at the kids' school. Corbyn had basketball practice, so Rog took him to practice and I took the other two to the movie and they joined us when practice was over. It was Incredibles 2 and they had free popcorn. So much popcorn was consumed that night!

Corbyn had his first game of the season. His team is not very good and they haven't won a game yet, but he doesn't seem to mind.

Rog and I went on a date to Dave & Buster's. We shared the Chicken and Waffle Sliders with tator tots and then we played some games.

I had purchased a gift card to Cheesecake Factory back in December when they were giving away two free pieces of Cheesecake with a gift card purchase. After Dave & Buster's we picked up our free slices to enjoy at home. I tried the Lemon Meringue Cheesecake and it was so so good - even if my meringue melted a little by the time I ate it.

Peyton got How to Draw Cute Stuff for Christmas and we've all had fun drawing with it. I drew these penguins one Sunday night and the kids insisted we put them on the fridge after!

After last year's “18 Projects in 2018," I decided to keep it a little more manageable this year with “A Project a Month in 2019.” I printed this off to hang in my craft room window to keep me motivated and on track throughout the year. With the exception of the baby quilt in July, most are projects I've already started or quick easy projects that I can finish in an afternoon or an evening.

My January project was this Snow Globe Mini I started last November. I debated if I should do all red bottoms or half green/half red bottoms and ultimately decided to do all red bottoms, so it could be a winter decoration instead of a Christmas decoration. It's made with Tasha Noel's Pixie Noel fabric and I just love the use of fussy cuts!

Mel posted a new recipe for The Best Cinnamon Rolls. I didn't have anything going on the morning after she posted it, so I made them and had Rog come home for lunch to try one. We decided the dough is definitely better, but we prefer the icing and cinnamon filling from the recipe I usually use. 

Corbyn was student of the month for January. His teacher has the class vote and she tells them the day before rather than contacting the parents. I just happened to mention something about the assembly as he was leaving for school that morning and he said, "Oh, my teacher said I won." I totally would have missed it if I didn't say something! He looks thrilled, right?!

He didn't ever get student of the month last year, so I was glad he could be recognized this year and it makes it a little more meaningful knowing his peers picked him. Patience is definitely one of his strengths, so it was fitting.

The next day he scored his first basket in a game. I was home with Peyton who had been throwing up that day, but Rog got it on video.

After the game they picked up Panda Express because we had told him he could pick dinner for being student of the month.

Peyton was doing much better the next day. Fortunately it was a quick stomach bug and none of the rest of us got it! I stayed home from church with her and Logan because Logan had a pretty gross runny nose.

I had another baby appointment and since I was seeing my actual doctor for the first time (I saw a PA for my first appointment), he did another ultrasound. Logan was there with us and he thought hearing the heartbeat was pretty cool.

I had done the genetic testing a week earlier and was waiting for the results. Dr. Traynor was able to see them in the system and was able to tell us that all the chromosomes are normal (YAY!!!) and also the gender. Someone had sent us a gender reveal kit with a bunch of fun stuff for a gender reveal party. (We don't know who sent it - if it was you THANK YOU!) So we invited the Yates and the Martyns over for a little reveal.

I had purchased a cake mix and pink and blue candies, so I was ready to bake the cake whenever we got the results. I did the Cookies and Cream cake I made for Rog's birthday except I left out the Oreos and frosted it with this frosting.

It's another BOY! Peyton was not excited, but Corbyn was thrilled!

I am just counting myself lucky to have my Peyton girl since I know so many who have 4 boys and without Peyton that would have been me. Not that there's anything wrong with boys or even having 4 boys, but Heavenly Father knew I needed at least one girl and I'm so grateful he sent me Peyton when he did.

I had people vote in my InstaStories and all day long girl was ahead. It just made me laugh because I already knew it was a boy.

N is for ninja!

And Nerf guns!

Sydney was missing this day, but Riley was there too. (Just not wanting to be in the pictures apparently.) It was a beautiful day, so they got to go to the park and play.

The kids had a couple days off for teacher work days. 

A couple years ago I bought some beads on Amazon for Mardi Gras. The trouble with Amazon is sometimes you don't know just how many you are buying! HAH! So even after giving away a bunch a couple years ago, we still have a TON! (We didn't give any away last year because we were at Disneyland on Mardi Gras.) We'll just continue to give them away every year until they are gone, but when I saw this valentine idea, I thought that'd also be a good way to use the beads. We got them out and were sorting out some for Peyton's valentines and while we were at it, the kids had fun putting all of them on at once!

Logan still had preschool, so while he was gone I took the big kids on a few errands and then we picked him up and went to play at a new park (new to us) because the weather was just too good to pass up!

I finished my February project on January 31st! I had already finished the top last year, so all I had to do was sew in the zipper and bind it. Now I can enjoy it all month and now that we know this baby is a boy, I can get going on his baby quilt!

Hooray for routines that are keeping me sane and hooray for a plan to catch up on this blog!