Wow. It's 2018! I feel like the year 2017 flew by. So much happened. Back when Rick started medical school, 2017 seemed like soooo far in the future since that would be the year he'd graduate. Now it's over and we are on to different things. Sometimes it felt as if med school would never end. But 2017 brought graduation and it felt so good!
We started out the year living in Utah. Traveled to Arizona for graduation. Went back to Utah to pack for our move. Then Rick and I headed on a trip, just the two of us, to Florida. When we came back we had about 2 days to finish packing and loading everything up in a truck. It took 3 days to drive across the country to North Carolina. Rick started residency and we found out we were expecting a baby! Right at the end of 2017 we found out we are having a boy and we are thrilled!
Wow. What a year. It was a year of A LOT of changes. I'm thankful for all that we learned and how we grew, but I am ready for 2018!
Rick got New Years day off, which was nice because then we could stay up late on New Years Eve together as a family and not have to worry about him needing to get up early for work. We made popcorn and ate ice cream. We played some of the Wii U games (Garrett totally loves Mario). We watched the new Cars 3 movie which was really a cute show! I had bought little party blowers at the dollar store and a pack of balloons that were a hit. The kids made it till about 10pm when things started becoming crazy. They were getting overly tired, loopy, and just needed sleep. Some people had started doing some fireworks so we all ran outside in the backyard and blew our party blowers and yelled Happy New Year and told the kids it was bed time. Haha! It was a really fun night. I totally felt like going to bed myself by that point but Rick and I decided to just go ahead and stay up till midnight. We had to have that New Years kids ;)
Also, in most the pictures Brenna is sporting only a diaper. It's because she's going through this crazy phase of taking her diaper off ALL THE TIME! I know she is totally ready for potty training, and probably has been for some time, but I wanted to hold off until after our Disney World trip so we didn't have to deal with accidents and racing to the bathroom all the time while we were at the parks. So as soon as we are home from our trip we are going to potty train her!!! She already has gone several times by herself but I just can't jump all the way in until after our trip.
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| The kids made a list together of what they wanted to do on New Years Eve. The "scrambld egs" thing is so funny. |
The next morning I got up and made Mickey Mouse pancakes for the kids. We took on the tradition of doing ice cream with strawberries on top. The girls love it that way but Garrett prefers cinnamon sugar on his.
Kimbri got a hold of my phone and took some funny photos of Rick on New Years Eve and I thought it would be funny to document them :)
On Tuesday the temperatures dropped and all the schools were on a delayed start schedule. The next day they made it an early out day because it was supposed to start snowing later that day. It ended up snowing around 1 inch or so and school was canceled for Thursday and Friday! I couldn't believe it. I could understand the cancelation on Thursday but I didn't understand Friday. The roads were totally fine (at least in our part of town) and it seemed silly to have the day off but the kids enjoyed it. It felt like Christmas break all over again!
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| Garrett was excited that it snowed on his birthday! |
On Saturday Rick and I got to go on a date! We went to the movies and saw The Greatest Showman and then picked up some groceries for the rest of the weekend. Our babysitter, Ellie, is soooo awesome. She texted us asking if we'd mind if she made a cake with the kids. We were going to celebrate Garrett's birthday later that evening since Rick worked late on Garrett's actual birthday (Thursday). She made a chocolate cake and the kids thought it was totally awesome! Goodness, I thought it was totally awesome! We've had her babysit for us 2 times and both times she has gone above and beyond with the kiddos! The next morning the kids woke up and asked when Ellie could babysit again, haha. We'll definitely have to keep having her babysit for us!
After we got back from the movies we took Ellie home and then went to the birthday celebrations at Toys R Us. Garrett got to get a birthday crown and a balloon along with a free lego set. They also gave our a $3 gift card so each of the kids got to pick out something. Garrett and Kimbri got little bow and arrows and Brenna picked out a pink bouncy ball. It was a fun, free activity that they seemed to enjoy.
Garrett requested french fries and ice cream (HAHA) for his birthday dinner. Why not? So we let the kids pick out a couple things from the dollar menu and Rick and I picked up some Panda Express to take home and eat. We let Garrett open his presents and then did dessert with the cute cake Ellie helped them make. I think the Batman toy we got him was a huge hit! He loves it so much!
Since Garrett turned 5 I figure I should write down some things about him so we can remember this age:
- Garrett LOVES preschool. In fact, when school got canceled because of the snow he nearly cried because he didn't want to miss preschool. He loves his teachers, Ms Morgan and Ms Christin, and told me he had a crush on Emmaline and Addie. He said his best friends at school are Nicholas and Adrian.
- Garrett is still a somewhat picky eater. But some of his favorites lately include corn salsa, blackberries, macaroni and cheese, banana crumb muffins (he loves to help mash the bananas when we make them), turkey sandwiches as long as they have pickles, and rolls. He also is a huge fan of oatmeal cream pies.
- Garrett always gives me compliments and is so sincere. For example, I was cleaning the bathrooms a couple days ago and he came in and said, "Thank you for cleaning the bathroom mom." And then ran to his room and kept playing. He just notices things like that. Other common things he says is, "Thank you for folding my clothes" or "Thank you for helping make my bed". He really does have a tender heart. He also has been telling me that I'm beautiful lately. The other morning he came in my room. I woke up when he came in, rolled over and said good morning to him. He noticed my ponytail elastic on my nightstand, picked it up and said, "Mom, you should put your hair in a ponytail because it looks beautiful that way." Hahaha :) It was so funny!
- Garrett is VERY excited about getting a baby brother. He always refers to the baby as "my baby brother" and comes up with funny names that he wants that baby to have, such as Dragon or Nutcracker.
- Garrett really loves learning. He started out this preschool year already reading, and has since gotten even better. When we are out running errands he'll randomly sound out words and point out what things say. He is definitely an early reader! He also loves learning Spanish words and can count to 50 in Spanish, and he can count well over 100 in English. His preschool teacher told me that she thinks he already knows the entire years curriculum and that he has an amazing memory. They work on scripture memory verses at school during chapel and she says he picks them up sooo fast. He definitely loves to learn new things!
- Some other things Garrett likes are: riding his bike, going on walks around the neighborhood (although it's been too cold for that lately), playing Mario, climbing the doorways, playing with any of his superhero toys (especially Batman), and he loves reading books and being read to. Garrett is a hard worker and I love him to death!!
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And here are a few other random photos from the week:
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| I found this note in Kimbri's room, haha! Her plan to try and scare me when I come in to "chec" on her |
This dress that Brenna is wearing used to be mine when I was a little girl so of course that called for a little photo shoot :)
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| Picnic with play food :) |
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| Brenna loves eating a string cheese when we are on the go (usually going to get G from pre-k) |
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| Kimbri reading to Brenna |
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| Garrett went right to playing with his new Batman toy after church. He found the instruction manual and was reading it when he said, "Hey mom! Check this out!" You can hang the car on his wings. I learned it in the constructions." I had to hold in laughter when he said "constructions" instead of instructions. It's funny that he was reading the instruction manual for his new toy ;) |
