Partly inspired by Cindi, partly inspired from a party favor Camryn received last week.

Favorite Friend: Adelaide

Favorite Place: Disneyland

Favorite Color: Red

Favorite Movie: Eloise

Favorite Music: Francine

Favorite Food: Apples

Yuckiest Food: eggs

Favorite Animal: Dallas (our cat)

Favorite Song: Jingle Bells

Favorite toy: Dollhouse and princesses

Favorite thing to do with daddy: Get animals at the store

Favorite thing to do with mommy: play on the bounce house

Favorite thing to do with Connor and Logan: play Dinseyland with them.

What’s your favorite sport: skating

Favorite Book: Olivia

What are you really good at: sports

What do you want to be when you grow up: a teacher

What makes you happy: take pictures

What makes you sad: when I’m sick

Favorite thing to play outside: swing

I look back on years past on this blog and I wonder how I did it?  How did I make the time for it?  I think that for the past month, I’ve been in a constant state of mental tiredness.  By the time I get everyone taken care of and it’s the end of the day, I’m just spent and don’t want to do anything except snuggle up on the couch and watch my shows.  Blogging, which used to come so easily and naturally for me, now seems like it takes too much brain power.  But I’m sad about that!  I love looking back at the older entries, and 5 years from now, I’m going to wish I had done a better job of writing about this season of life.  I already can’t remember what all happened in January, and I’m sure there are a million little things that someone has done that I have forgotten but would have been blog-worthy once upon a time.

So January…let’s see.

One highlight was a boys overnight trip to the USS Lexington.  They got to spend the night on the battleship, which of course the boys thought was the coolest thing ever.  Camryn and I had a girls weekend at home, and it was delightful!  It was so relaxing and wonderful to have just one other person to take care of.  I love that girl of mine, and I am so thankful that we had our weekend together.  I’m also so thankful that the boys have Derek to take them on fun scout trips like that.  He’s such a good dad.

I had a birthday.  The big three-two, which seems crazy.  Wasn’t I just a kid?  I had a good birthday with good food (that I didn’t cook) and a good cake (that I didn’t bake), and a great present (an iPad!!)  After the birthday dinner, Logan and Cami walked all around the house, each filling a bag with gifts for me.  Some years, Derek takes the kids out shopping, but his work has been crazy and it didn’t happen this year.  Totally understandable, and the iPad was certainly a much bigger gift that I ever expected!  But that just didn’t satisfy Logan and Camryn.  Logan picked out a few books that he said made him think of me: I’ll Love You Forever, You Are Special, and 1st Graders From Mars.  The thought the 1st grader book was because he is in first grade, but there is a picture of an alien running on the cover.  He picked that one because of the races I’ve done.  So cute.  Cami gave me some pictures, some pencils, and some crayons.  Connor was at the “party” but he was involved in some project (can’t even remember what it was now, but I do remember that he just ate and ran off.  That’s fairly typical for him.)  All in all, it was a great birthday.

Like I mentioned, Derek’s work was especially crazy in January.  He was pretty much gone 12-13 hours every day.  That definitely wears on all of us.  I eventually had what we like to call a Megan Meltdown, and things have gotten much better since then.  I try so hard not to complain–we have it so good.  He has a great job, provides amazingly for our family, and is a wonderful husband and dad.  But our whole family just operates better when he’s home.  I’m hopeful that the next few months won’t be quite so crazy.  It is nice that he is able to work from home occasionally now.  I know he appreciates not having a 90 mile commute, and I love that he can finish up by 5:00 or so.

In other news, I have signed up for my first triathlon!  I am doing it with a group of friends from church, and I’m so excited about it.  I’ve done the running thing, and I honestly don’t have the desire to do any more half marathons or marathons.  But triathlons?  I could totally see this being my new thing.  I love all the sports, I love the variety of training, and most of all, I love that I have friends who are doing it, too.  I am hoping that this will just be the first triathlon of many.

That’s officially all I can remember from January.  On to February, where maybe I will once again blog things as they happen.

One can dream, right?

Sometimes my kids surprise and delight me with how they interact with each other.  Today we had one of those moments, which was much appreciated considering how they fought and bickered and whined and cried most of Saturday.

I woke up this morning and I could hear Connor and Camryn happily playing together.  It was lovely, and a far cry from the frantic shrieking “nooooooo!!!” that woke us up on Saturday morning because someone had touched something belonging to someone else.  But today’s awakening moments were about as good as it gets with kids.  I meandered slowly out of bed and started to fix my coffee.  After a few minutes, Connor came marching in chanting “All hail princess Camryn!  All hail princess Camryn!”  Camryn shyly walked into the kitchen decked out in full princess gear complete with a crown that Connor made for her.  Connor even found clips and pinned it to her hair so it would stay on, and then he proceeded to make a matching crown for one of her babies.  As the icing on the cake, they even let me snap a few pictures of them.

It was a pretty fabulous start to this day.

One of our favorite things about going to visit our families in Arlington is the guaranteed fun cousin time.

We are all just so crazy about this little guy.  I am so thankful that God put it on Matt and Cindi’s heart to travel halfway around the world and bring him home!

Camryn and Abby.  Oh, she loves Abby.  I think the feeling is pretty much mutual.

This little guy

who is now this no-so-little guy (he’s pushing 5 feet tall-crazy!)

turned 9 years old on Christmas eve.

How did that even happen?

He is still our same Connor in so many ways, but in other ways he is so different.  I can see glimpses and signs that he is growing up, like the way he is willing to try any new food and has a new found love of sushi.  We’ve had some tough years with this guys–I’m not going to sugar coat it.  Saying he is strong-willed and intense is an understatement.  But I can see how he is growing up in the way he handles things.  He transitions more easily, is willing to help out, and doesn’t all-out lose it very often any more.

He’s becoming more selfless, and that does this mama heart a world of good.

He is smart.  Just like his daddy.  He loves to read, loves soccer, loves origami, loves math, and loves to solve his rubix cube.

I’m excited to see how God uses his intensity and fire.  He’ll do great things, of this I am sure.

We celebrated his “fake birthday” with some bowling and laser tag with good friends.  It was the perfect party for him.

It’s not ideal to have a birthday on Christmas eve, but we always try our hardest to make it a special day for him.  He woke up that morning to homemade cinnamon rolls and his presents.

I love how Connor opens presents.  He tears back the paper on one side and peers inside, trying to figure out what’s in there before opening it all the way.

While I think he was grateful for a new helmet, it’s not exactly a fun present.  I made him open that one first in preparation for the next one…

It’s a new bike!  So technically it was a note telling him about our plans to let him pick out his new bike, but by the look on his face, I’d say even in note-form, his gift was well received.

We headed out to Academy after breakfast where he picked out a shiny red bike with lots of gears.  He couldn’t wait to get home and try it out.

His first ride wasn’t without frustration.  The gears just wouldn’t change as easily, and it’s always a little hard to get the feel and the balance of a bigger bike.  With a little help from Derek, Connor was happily zipping around the cul-de-sac in no time at all.

I still can’t believe that he’s 9 already.  Halfway to 18.  It’s going by so fast.  I’m so lucky to be his mom.