January 18

I get really into organization and purging at the beginning of every year. I'm scouring the house for spaces that are cluttered and in need of some organization. Today I gathered every hair bow, hat, clip and headband and started to weed out what isn't worn any more. I think I paired down by about 50% and it feels great and much more manageable. There is no end to the accessory fun with 3 girls!

January 17

Addie is the cutest! She is obsessed with drawing rainbows and with writing words. The little girls love playing with the bathtub crayons and writing us messages. This is what we found at the end of Addison's bath. Love this girl!

January 16

Oh the glamorous life we lead! Most nights you can find us on the couch together with Allen working and me reading or online shopping or surfing the internet. I like to stay up when Allen works late to keep him company and offer moral support. I'm grateful he works so hard for our family!

January 15

I can't believe Carter turned 10 today! I have been a mother for a decade! I'm so grateful that I get to be a mom to this kid. He is so interesting and funny, ambitious and creative, athletic and spiritual and so much more. I'm so proud that he is growing into such a great young man. He had a great day today and loved his birthday meals, gifts and phone calls from family members. His favorite gift is the iTouch he got after MUCH begging.

January 14

We made our weekly trek to the library today and these girls had a grand time picking books and reading them. We stayed for about 45 minutes and I had to drag them out kicking and screaming. I hope they always love books as much as they do right now.

January 13

Today as I was getting ready to change Emery's diaper I noticed how worn out these pajamas are. We just moved her up to 2T jammies and this was the first time she wore this particular pair. You can tell they have been well loved and worn by lots of our kids!

January 12

This morning we went out to breakfast to celebrate Carter's birthday a few days early. Carter LOVES breakfast foods so he chose to go to Maltby Cafe, which specializes in breakfast food. The food was super yummy and it was fun to go someplace that is locally famous. Carter had the big breakfast which was 4 pancakes, 4 scrambled eggs and 6 pieces of bacon. Amazingly, he ate it all!

January 11

It's not often that Allen is home when the kids wake up in the morning. Emery was so excited to see him still in bed this morning and would not go to anyone else but him. She loves her Daddy. The other funny thing evident in this picture is that Ems won't let me take her bow out at night anymore. She wants to have a bow in her hair at ALL times and cries when we take it out of her hair.

January 10

We took the kids to Menchies after dinner tonight to use their gift cards they got for Christmas. Menchies is one of our favorite treat places and everyone has their favorite toppings. Carter always gets something fruity and tropical and the girls get chocolate. Even Emery has her favorite toppings. Yum!

January 9

We woke up to snow today! My older kids were so sad that school wasn't cancelled but I took the opportunity to play in it with the little girls. We're totally ill equipped for winter weather and barely have anything suitable to wear to play in it but we had a blast. We built a mini snowman, threw snowballs at the fence and scraped ice off of everything. Snow is definitely fun a few times a year! For the rest of the day Emery stood at the window and yelled SNOW over and over!

January 8

Shh.... this afternoon while the little girls were napping I climbed back into my own bed and spent almost 2 hours reading. I don't usually read during the day so this was a definite luxury and I loved every cozy second of it! I totally wish I could do it every day!

January 7

The house was looking a little too bare for my taste and I'm not quite ready to put up my Valentines decorations so I went looking for something new years theme to spruce things up. I found the free printable and then bought and painted the 2013 numbers. I added a few other things that I already had on hand and voila! cheap, easy, NY decorations!

January 6

Today Addie asked me to paint her fingernails. She wanted them to match the rainbow colored shirt she was wearing so we did rainbow nails on her. It looked so cute that we ended up doing her toes too and Makenna had hers done when she got home from school. I find we do a lot of nails in the afternoon while we wait for the big kids to come home. I truly love having girly girls!

January 5

Today we had a Primary breakfast at the church. Allen was busy with a YM/Scouting fundraiser so I had all the kids with me. Carter had all the girls in this hug and asked me to take a picture of them together. So stinking cute. Some day I will use this as proof that they really do like each other!

January 4

One of my goals for this year is to be even better about meal planning. We have a VERY busy winter sports season and have activities every day of the week. I knew that I needed to have a serious meal plan to keep us eating healthy and not eating out. Today I tried my hand at once-a-month cooking. I was able to shop for and prepare 22 meals that I put in the freezer. I can't wait to see how it works out this month. It took me about 4 hours to prepare the meals but I think it will be well worth it to have dinner at my fingertips.

January 3

I grew up singing and playing the songs out of the Walt Disney song book and I have wanted to get my own copy for years. I've looked on several websites and was never able to find one but finally tracked one down on Amazon. The book was published in 1974 and has been out of print for over 20 years. I'm so happy to have my own copy and my kids are loving hearing familiar songs at our own piano.

January 2

Today was take the tree down and get the house back to normal day around here. I'm always so sad to put Christmas away but I'm happy to be getting back to normal. It always looks so bare with the decorations down but I can always tell I'm not as vigilant with my cleaning during the holidays. We had it down in record time, got rid of lots of stuff and got everything more organized and labeled.

January 1

Happy 2013! We kicked off the new year with lots of fun today! We spent the afternoon at an indoor trampoline/play place where the kids had an absolute blast. Tonight we had our traditional fondue dinner. We usually have it on NYE but we were partying with some friends so we decided to postpone it until tonight. We had pizza fondue for dinner and chocolate fondue for dessert. I love the fresh start a new year brings and look forward to new experiences this year!