I have completely, one hundred percent gotten used to sleeping through the night again. There was a VERY definite time in my life when I wondered if I ever would sleep through the night (even just ONE night) and then I was and now I’m not. Ha!

On the plus side, Maila is quite the little trooper. She just pretty much goes along with whatever the kids want her to do. I have this hope that she’s going to end up being a good dog.

As they are running outside to play that afternoon, Parker yells, “Nathan! I have an idea! Let’s pretend that we are two kids who just got a puppy!” Ha! Also, we have pants and shoes that are specifically ONLY to be worn when they are in the backyard and never in public. Behold those pants and shoes. 😉

Eisley is very loud about her love for Maila.

I came in the playroom and saw this and immediately was like, “WHAT are you guys doing?” And Nathan says, “It’s like bumper cars, Mom.” But why. 😉

Lazy post-nap Sunday afternoons in front of the fireplace are the best things ever.

It’s been SO mild out during the days and so freezing cold at night. I’m ready for warmer weather!! Though, with the warmer weather will come work outside, so maybe we’ll just hold on to the cold for a little bit longer. 😉

Right after we took Nonnie, Papa O and Uncle Allen to the airport, we kept on driving south because it was the Big Day. Right around Christmas, we decided that we were ready for another puppy. We kept hearing that if you get a puppy before your older dog is too old, it can bring some new life into the old dog and then he can help “train” the new addition.

We found a breeder since the people we got Kody from were retired, picked out our pup and she was ready to go the day that everyone left.

So, here is Maila! Three kids were absolutely ECSTATIC.

Particularly this one. Parker is SO sweet with Maila. He adores her. We all kind of know that she’s basically going to be his dog.

After a HORRENDOUS first night and day (which was also my birthday – ugh), we are slowly adjusting to each other. Oy. Friends, I have completely forgotten what kind of crazy a puppy brings into a house!! Last time we did this, we had zero children and I was just working from home, so I was able to focus as much time as I needed to on Kody. Plus, his breeder was amazing and he basically came to us crate-trained. This time around is VERY different. I do not deal well with insanity and it has been total chaos in here. My poor family. After the first night, I immediately put Maila on a VERY strict schedule and she’s already doing a lot better. Someone asked me where I got the schedule and I was like, “Um, Babywise?” Ha! I think she had basically spent zero time in a crate by herself, so we started doing “crate time” every couple of hours and by the third night, it’s already WAY better. I couldn’t handle doing Babywise with my actual babies but I have no problem putting a dog on a rigid schedule. 😉

Time for another cup of coffee.

Since they weren’t able to come on Thanksgiving, Nonnie, Papa O and Uncle Allen rescheduled for President’s Day weekend! We were all SO excited to see them!

Papa O is a HUGE Vikings fan, so they came with all kinds of jerseys for the kids, decorations for the house and Lucky Charms to eat for good luck before the big playoff game. All the cereal must have worked because they pulled off a last second win and the volume was through the roof in my house. 😉

They took the big kids bowling after a fun lunch and I stayed home with a little miss who desperately needed a nap. So much fun! The boys had a blast.

Love this. Nathan was reading to Uncle Allen and they all crammed on the tiny bed with him.

Their visits always go too fast. Can’t wait for the next one!!

All in all, it’s been fairly mild this winter so the kids have still been able to be outside a lot. SO happy about that! But, I feel like at least one of us has been sick since October. We just keep passing stuff around. Blegh.

This little sugar could sit here on the barstool next to me and color all day long. I asked him what his favorite part of being three was and he said, “Definitely coloring. And fake crying.” Um, okay. Ha!!

At this point, I don’t think the backyard will ever be done. Ugh. The boys asked what they could do to help and Jon told them to dig up one of the dead trees in the yard, so they came to the door like this and told me they had on their “hard worker faces”.

We’re back to our normal school days! In a lot of ways, I was really excited to get back to school. Not for Jon to leave, but ready for a routine again. Nathan has been doing amazing – he’s set to finish two years of school this year, which is crazy! He has worked so hard!

On this particular day, all of the kids were just in a super weird, funny mood. I turned to give Nathan his reading book and he was laying on his back on the couch with his feet and hands up in the air pretending to be a dead possum so he didn’t have to read. I couldn’t stop laughing the rest of the day.

We made homemade ice cream that night and Parker just kept giving us a play by play of the entire thing. “It’s turning! It’s turning more! It’s freezing! It’s freezing more!”

And finally, I was rocking Eisley to sleep and she wanted to sing a song so she started with, “Mary, did you know? Your baby boy go to the potty.”

Kids. They do keep you on your toes. 😉

Not sure how, but JANUARY is here.

My birthday is in January but honestly, other than that, I really don’t like January. It’s usually freezing cold here and we rarely have snow. Which means we are all just grouchy because we’re stuck inside and often sick.

I had to get a picture of Eisley and her “Cornbread Man” before we packed him away. I got this guy on an after Christmas sale last year for like $3 and he was her favorite thing ever in the world. She would always open the blinds every morning so she could see him on the porch and say, “Hi Cornbread Man!” and then she always had to tell him goodnight every night. It was so cute and we’ll never call a Gingerbread Man by the same name again. 😉

Eisley’s original birthday party got rescheduled because of the birthday girl being sick, so we had a low-key New Years breakfast for her instead! Honestly, it was so much fun and I took basically zero pictures because we were having so much fun. With her birthday three days before Christmas, it’s just hard to find a good time to have a party.

Two AGAIN! Ha!

She looks so old to me. She’s just my favorite little miss. Her personality is shining through and I’m just so excited to see what God has planned for her because she is FUNNY.

Christmas, family in town, birthday parties, New Years…it was just too much for a certain three year old. 😉 Poor kid just fell right asleep when he was upstairs one afternoon. Ha!

2018 – how is this possible?

We ended the year with this little miss who felt the need for a “ba-yer-ina” day. 😉 I can’t believe how much she grew this year! Two is my most and least favorite age, I think. With her, I feel like I’m a lot more chill about the random tantrums and I can laugh a little more at the “NO I DO IT” stage. Now that we’ve done this twice already, I’m more just soaking in this age of baby and big girl and all the ways they mix together. I hope she starts growing slower.

Nathan’s top front tooth had been loose FOREVER and he finally decided he was going to pull it out on New Years Eve. I love Parker here. Ha! Nathan worked on it and worked on it and the tooth was just not coming out, so he paused to have a snack with the other two and said something to me and I was like, “Um, Nathan? Where’s your tooth?”

Gone by Graham Cracker. 😉 Sounds like the title of a kid’s book. He looks so different!!

Eisley could NOT stop staring and saying, “Naynen, where your toof go?” Ha! We were cracking up the rest of the day.

At bedtime, he came to us with this to put under his pillow. DYING. He had a little help on the spelling – still working on our “ed” and “ea” phonograms. 😉

Last family picture of 2017!! We watched an Inspector Gadget kids countdown on Netflix right at their bedtime, kissed everyone like 87 times by the time everything was done and sent the kids to bed. Love these kinds of New Years Eves.

Happy 2018 everyone!