January 13th

One of my (many) goals for the year is to take more photos. I used to take hundreds of photos a month, and sadly some months I don't even touch my camera. The thought of not having pictures to look back on of my babies (minus Ethan of course, he has hundreds) makes me really sad. To help me along, I am going to do what a couple of my friends did last year. Every month on the 13th I will take at least 13 photos and post them on my blog. And hopefully by the end of the year, my photography skills will improve significantly.

**Side note: My patriarchal blessing talks an awful lot about talents that I've been blessed with and how I should use them. Sometimes when I read it, I skim over that part and it doesn't sink it at all. Other times, it hits me pretty hard that yeah, I do have quite a few talents and they are going to waste. I used to be really quite good at photography and even wanted to do a double major at USU in photography along with Ceramics. I really hope that I can work on developing and trying a little harder to share my talents as well.

January 13th:

Ethan takes after his Dad and is very much a morning person.  There are days (sadly more than I want to talk about) that he will wake up as early as he can, and sneak around causing lots ... LOTS ... of mischief. He can be shockingly quiet when he wants to be. Every.Single.Night when we put him to bed, we remind them both to come and get me the minute they wake up. That doesn't often happen. I wake up and the first thing I do is open my door and smell, listen and look to see if I can tell which room they are in downstairs. The last couple of days have been awesome, and they have both been in their room playing with toys! (AMAZING!)

This morning Ethan was such an angel and was so beyond good! It was such an amazing change to have a pleasant morning and not a stressful start to the day. He was so good, I let him climb in my bed and play my kindle for a while. It's not something that happens very often. He kept smiling at me and telling me he loved me. I love that boy!

We waited for Miss Jade to wake up, and then of course the never ending game of  'lets try and get Jade to smile!'

Once baby girl was fed, it was our turn! This morning the boys wanted waffles. My version, not theirs ... :)

Lincoln patiently waiting for his waffle!

A little boy in Ethan's class lost his Dad on Christmas Eve to an unexpected seizure. It was incredibly sad and I can't even imagine going through that. A couple of the other mom's and I got together and got her a plant and I made her a plate of over the top brownies. It wasn't much, but hopefully it helped her know that someone was thinking of her.  

Grandma had a class that night so weren't able to make it to her house for FHE. She stopped by for a minute to visit with the kids since she wouldn't get to see them.

After dinner, the boys and I played dominoes

Lincoln completed a section of his chore chart/incentive chart ... whatever we want to call it, and earned himself a new toy. Dad took him to the store and he came home with Iron Man!

The never ending task of dishes. It's always beyond awful at my house ... because I am not good at keeping up with them. Definitely something I should work on this year too. Maybe I'll add that to my list ...

While I was doing the dishes, the boys watched Tangled songs on my phone and we all sang along.

And while I didn't document the hard parts of the day, after breakfast the day went downhill rather quickly and I was frustrated for most of the day. I tried to chill out, but sometimes, bedtime is honestly the best part of the day. I walked in to check on Jade and found her sleeping like this. Sweet little lady. I love her!