A January of Goodbyes

Last weekend was a little heartbreaking for us.  Many tears were shed.  My sister and her family left for North Carolina on Sunday and my niece, Leilani, left for her mission to Argentina on Tuesday.  One bright spot was that my older sister, Jen, and her daughter came from Arizona to visit for the weekend.

Friday was a goodbye party for Dianna's family.  It was Open House style and so many people were there to say goodbye.

Saturday, the family got together at Mark and Rosie's house to eat and play games.  We spent most of the time just sitting around the kitchen table, laughing and talking.

Sunday was Leilani's talk in church.  She and Mark both did a great job. Then on Monday we went to see her set apart for her mission.

I went by my parent's house to borrow some cake pans and as I walked into the empty house, I felt a surge of sadness.  It just felt like everyone was gone or leaving.

My kids are really having a hard time with their cousins moving away. For the past 8 years, they have lived within 1 mile of each other and have been as close as siblings.  Ellie said she went to go meet her cousin Kinleigh at their normal meeting spot at school out of habit. When she wasn't there, she burst into tears.  I know this is all just part of life, but I have never been good with change or with goodbyes (no matter how temporary).

School Pictures

Ellie - 7th grade

Jack - 3rd grade

Sam - Kindergarten

Christmas Break - Part II

We told the kids not to wake us up on Christmas morning until 7am.  To our great surprise, they actually listened.

After enjoying a relaxing morning and early afternoon, we headed over to my Mother-in-law's house for dinner and to open more gifts. 

We didn't celebrate Christmas with my father-in-law until the 28th because we were waiting for Tom's older sister and her family to arrive from New Jersey.  This was the first Christmas that all of Tom's dad's kids and grandkids were together.  It was really neat.

We celebrated my mother-in-law's birthday on the 30th.

For New Year's Eve, we broke from our usual tradition of celebrating with our friends, Alex and Amanda, and instead had Tom's older sister and her family over for games and appetizers.  They then left to go to fireworks and dinner with Tom's younger brother and sister.  Tom took our kids outside for fireworks and I thought I would sneak in a quick nap while they were out there.  Yeah, I slept until 11:45 pm.  Ugh.  Still, I was happy about our NYE.

The rest of the break was spent playing with cousins.  My niece Leilani is leaving for a mission in Argentina in 2 weeks so she invited all of the cousins over for dinner and a movie in pajamas.

We are really going to miss Leilani.  My sister and her family are also moving in 2 weeks.  I can't even tell you how sad this makes me.  I am so used to having them nearby and our kids are so very close.  Their absence will definitely be felt.

Christmas Break - Part I

Christmas break is over and I am back at school.  I am so glad we did not go anywhere over the break.  I feel like we were able to relax, play, and get things done.

Tom was able to take each kid individually to lunch at a restaurant of their choosing.  Ellie chose sushi.

Jack chose tacos.

And Sam chose pizza.

My big project for the break was to officially turn the playroom into Sam's bedroom.  Sam has been sleeping on a mattress on the floor of the playroom for a couple of months, but Jack was pressuring me to move all of Sam's stuff out of his room.  I cleaned out the toy closet, bought a bed frame for Sam, moved Jack's bookshelf from the playroom to Jack's room, moved Sam's bookshelf from Jack's room to the former playroom, moved Sam's dresser, and moved all of Sam's clothes from the closet.  I'm not going to lie, I am pretty proud of myself.  While I was being so efficient, I also cleaned out the linen closet and the coat closet.  Yay me.

This year, I hosted Christmas Eve at my house.  Only my younger brother and sister and their families were in town.  We did all of our normal traditions.  The kids acted out the nativity and I attempted to narrate in my dad's place. 

Then Ellie read "The Pack for Santa's Back" (normally read by my dad) while the kids moved the pieces. 

Then, we had Jesus's birthday cake.  We didn't sing happy birthday and Mark wasn't even here to tell us not to. We just forgot.

And, of course, we took pics of everyone in their Christmas jammies.  I even bought Tom a pair this year and was surprised when he agreed to wear them!