January happenings

January was COLD!  Well, cold by AZ standards.  :)

We had a few days of lots of rain.  We were happy when the sunshine finally came back out!

These two cousins had fun chumming around one day.

The boys had an exciting game of Jenga.

We pulled everything out of the toy room and played musical furniture.  Now the boys are in the previous toy room.  Camille is still in her room, but with a big girl set up.  And the baby furniture all got moved to the boys old room in anticipation of their new baby brother.

Being silly under the table.

Grant was convinced that if he planted popcorn kernels in the garden and watered them with hot water that popcorn would come up.  We talked about why that wouldn't work, but he was determined so I gave him some popcorn kernels and hot water and sent him out to try it.
And guess what?!........It really didn't work.  :)
But now he knows for himself.  And knowing is half the battle!

Breakfast.

I tried hard to make a warm breakfast on the cold January mornings.  This day was Cream of Wheat.

Of course we celebrated Camille's birthday.

Cutie pie!

The weather started to warm up again and we spent more time outside.

Keith mixed up the gardens to get them ready for our spring planting.

Oh, this girl!

Our kids love watching the laundry go around in our new washer and dryer.  They especially love watching when their blankets and favorite stuffed animals show up in the window!

We pulled the costumes down for a few days and the kids had fun changing several times each day.

The monkey and fireman were favorites.

Picking some citrus.

My tummy finally got to the point where it's obvious that I'm excepting.

My parents  took us out to dinner and then to check out the fish at Bass Pro Shop while Keith was out of town one week.  It's funny to see the kids bundled up in coats.  I've since washed those coats and put them back in their closets.  Hopefully they'll stay there till December when it gets cold around here again.

So that new washer and dryer came while Keith was gone for that week in January.  My dad came over to take out the old washer and dryer for me.  We discovered that the valves were leaking pretty bad.  I wasn't sure what to do.  Luckily my brother knows how to fix or build anything and he happened to be available right then to come over and fix the problem.  It was a HUGE blessing!

He had to cut a whole in the wall, add some length to the pipes, and then get the new valves on.

The whole time I kept hoping we'd be done before the new washer and dryer got delivered.  I admit I didn't think it would work out, but I kept praying it would and then I decided that if I wanted it to work out I just needed to have faith and trust God that it would.  So I tried to relax (which is quite a feat for this pregnant girl!) and it ended up working out great.  The delivery guys were running late and we were able to get it all finished up.

My brother even patched the wall, texturized it, and painted it.  It looked like a brand new wall when he was done!  It was amazing!  I envy those skills.  It seems to come so natural to him.  Plus he has all the tools to get the job done quick and right.

Another squeeze-eyes-closed picture.

Grant's first grade had a cute music concert.  They sang bedtime songs and got to wear their pajamas.

On one of the warmer days we went with my mom to eat lunch at the park.

And that was January!