January

I can't believe it's the last day of January. I spent the beginning of the month excited and anxious to get to NC and see all of my siblings and my folks and everybody else! I was also excited to share big news!

We drove down (in 16 hours) on the 14th. Left at 5 a.m. I had grand visions of putting sleeping babies into the truck and having a few hours of peace before their revolt began. Wah-wah. Galina woke right up and started talking, never stopped. Johnny woke up, but was more curious than talkative. It was an okay drive. Completely safely accomplished AND we were only in traffic for about 30 minutes, once.

We spent a fantastic 2 weeks with everyone. Well, that's partially a lie. I loved being home. I loved seeing family and friends. But by the first weekend, most of the kids were down with a virus. Vomit and...well...the other end. It was nice. Kerriann's washing machine is probably completely worn out by now! By the middle of the second week the adults were dropping like flies. We still managed to eat delicious food (made by my Dad, of course! Even with all of my pre-planning!!) and spend time together. We did NOT manage to get an entire family picture done. One of these days when I'm closer. Which I do hope will be one of these days.

Here are the pictures I took. And I didn't take a ton - but loved seeing everyone and getting to know all of the kids again. I'd never actually met Julius and Lydia. Luckily everyone else had come to MA in 2012 and I had been able to see the babies (and big kids - there are so many now!).

So far we have spent the end of January missing everyone in NC, getting better from our bad news (I was expecting, had announced it in NC, only to get back and find out that I was not expecting anymore) and trying to keep ourselves busy in this cold weather. Today was windy, but sunny, so we ventured outside to play. Johnny found a mud puddle and thought it was hilarious to step into it long enough for it to suction his boot off of his foot. Then he would pull the boot out and walk across the yard to me with it. Yes, his sock is ruined. After the second time of him doing it on purpose, we went inside for lunch. 

Galina is progressing with reading. She is getting more and more confident and less and less whiny about it. We've picked back up in 'Charlotte's Web' and she seems to be enjoying it again. She lost interest for awhile so we put it aside. It doesn't have a ton of pictures, so I'm happy that she's willing to listen (and giggle) whenever she's willing...

Johnny is starting to talk gibberish again. He scared me for a little bit and would only say 'Eh!' He still says that a lot, but since our trip to NC, and listening to all of the kids there, he has added a lot of other sounds. Still not saying any words - not even Mama or Dada. But, we're not going anywhere - so whenever he's ready. He refuses to eat dinner in his chair though, he would much rather climb onto the table and squat over his plate like a little cave man. It's a constant battle.

Brian has been told that he WILL be going to the MCMAP Black-belt course in April for 7 weeks! It's exciting for him, well, it's exciting to me. I think he's nervous. He's going back onto a chicken, rice and egg whites diet. Joy. I've started the Insanity program again (probably won't make it too far, it's hard!) but have to do it when the kids aren't awake. They're so busy. 

Okay, enough from me. I think I'll keep the blog going. I enjoy it too much to stop and they DO offer a $2.49 a month plan for 20GB of storage. I think that'll definitely be enough! Yay for blogging!!