January

The month of January has sped by. If I had to describe it in a few words, I'd choose these:

Cold
Football
Meal Delivery Service
Sickness (Duncan, Ron, Elaine)
Death

Since I've fallen behind again (wanted to catch up last weekend but went out of town), I'll post mainly pictures. Maybe you will see those elements above in the photos. And hopefully next weekend we will be back on track.

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Okay, this was actually 12/31 but I'm sneaking it in. Christmas 2.0 at Grandma and Grandpa's. We were thrilled to have Uncle Russ and Aunt Saray there as well.

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Present to Duncan now that he's a vegetarian (since this past summer)

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Tree came down on New Year's. It's still worth it to have a real tree despite all these needles!

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We experienced the coldest temps since 2010. Several nights were below freezing. I am so grateful to now have a fireplace in my bedroom. And I don't know if it's because our house is brick or what but it always feels extra cold in our bedroom.

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Brady lost his top tooth one Friday night as he sat and chatted with Duncan. It just fell right out of his mouth mid-sentence.

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Offering duty.

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Ran into our Bible boy from our wedding 15 years ago. This is Adam Shim who is a senior at FLA.

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Thought this was funny at Costco. Aubree actually spotted it. Nothing makes a person get well more than eating a ton of sugar! Maybe you'd just give it to someone who has a broken leg or something.

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Aunt Lori and Uncle Charlie were in town and joined us for the Patriots playoff game versus the Titans. They enjoyed some pre-game hot chocolate.

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Russ and Saray raved about using a meal delivery service (it's just the two of them so it works well). We decided to give it a try since you get a really great deal on the first two weeks. We first tried Hello Fresh and were very impressed with it. Several of the meals were some of the best food we've ever eaten. If you aren't familiar with it, basically the company sends you a box with the recipe and ingredients and you make it yourself.

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Next we tried Purple Carrot. This is a vegan company. Russ and Saray (who went vegan this past summer) use it a lot so they were able to get us free meals for two weeks (three meals per week). We haven't liked it quite as much as the Hello Fresh but there have been some good ones. Next we will be trying Blue Apron so stay tuned.

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Field trip to Wonderworks

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We laughed when we discovered we had done a field trip there last year on the exact same day...1/19. This is last year's photo. Definitely warmer out last year.

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They have a really fun laser tag game. We played with about five or six other moms and about 15 kids. I was Player 23 and Brady was Player 15. We came in first and second. Nope, I'm not competitive at all. Ha!

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The kids were obsessed for a few weeks with Perlor beads. You use beads to make designs and then fuse them together with an iron. They made a ton of them and then had a "sale" to make money.

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Their next obsession has been rocks. They hang out by the little side door from the gym off our master bedroom and they use a hammer to break open dozens and dozens of rocks. It definitely keeps them busy.

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Studying their rocks.

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This kid doesn't take official naps anymore but every time you turn around, you find him napping on the couch.

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I think out of the four kids, Colby loves the dogs the most.

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After a good nap, time for some stickers and a cup of tea.

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Colby keeps asking, "How come we never go in the pool anymore?" He was truly stumped. I'm like, "Do you not notice that it's been freezing out for weeks and weeks??" Finally last Friday, even though it wasn't particularly warm like we will occasionally get, they decided they couldn't put it off any longer and they jumped in. It was a very short swim.

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Celebrated my 42nd birthday on 1/26.

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The next morning, Sabbath, I got up at 4:00 am to catch a flight with Allen and Richard and Catherine Ottati to Atlanta to attend the funeral of Cory Reeves' dad, Curtis, who passed away suddenly of a heart attack. We are so heart broken for Cory and family. He and his dad were so close. Duncan was supposed to go too but he had been struck with the flu that has been going around and we thought it best that he not come.

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It was a really lovely service and nobody had any doubts as to how wonderful a man he was. One of the neatest things that I learned was that Curtis was a knitter. How many men do you know that knit? Such a cool thing. Also, one of my very favorite female singers, Veruschka, whom I haven't heard sing in years and years, sang one of my very favorite songs, "It is Well With My Soul." Such a blessing.

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Calleigh and Aubree at the Grapple social at church for fifth and sixth graders (and their younger siblings if they want to invite them).

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I got back late Saturday night from Atlanta and then the next morning I was out early for my "Corey" day which Jennifer joined me for quite a bit of. Duncan took the kids out for the day which included a stop at Wekiva Springs pictured here.

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The kids purchased themselves Fitbits. We've discovered that Brady does at least double what the girls do. If you watch him, you know why. He's always on the move, often throwing the football up in the air and catching it. Over and over and over and over again.

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I'm trying to do better with the kids and snacks so this past week I've been making these trays of fruits and veggies for the kids to have in the mornings (who am I kidding? We get up so late and start school so late these days that the morning snack has become the early afternoon snack).

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It went over really well! Of course, Brady didn't eat any of the veggies but I keep hoping that one day some how, some way, he'll try one.

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Definitely takes more prep work but I'm happy to be serving them something fresh and healthy.

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Duncan was at least able to get Brady to eat an everything bagel with peanut butter and honey.

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Yesterday we spent the day at Animal Kingdom. We were supposed to go last Friday with Jennifer's school group but we had to postpone because we thought Colby might have gotten the flu from Duncan (fortunately he hadn't). It was nice we could use the tickets at a later time. We last went almost three years ago in May. It was WAY nicer to go at the beginning of February weather wise.

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We were glad to have Grandma with us so she could watch Colby when the rest of us went on rides he couldn't go on. That included the roller coaster, Everest, which Brady was big enough to do (by one inch!). He enjoyed it but now today he told me that he didn't think he'd go on it again for awhile. Shouldn't be a problem since it will probably be years until we are back at the park again.

I think that's it! We are now caught up.

In closing, I'd like to share this wonderful verse. We have just finished reading Revelation for school so it was fresh in my mind when I read this on the front of the funeral program.

"And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away."

-Revelation 21:4

All of us have experienced these things in one form or another. Can you imagine never having to face any of those things ever again?! It can't come soon enough!

Have a wonderful Sabbath.