Massive catch up

Life is changing so much that I can barely keep up. Lainey seems older every single day. She is saying new words and understanding so much more. Will hit a growth spurt and none of his clothes fit anymore. As I type this, Bennett is sitting at the kitchen table working on her piano theory homework. What?

I am just going to throw a lot of pictures out there so I can feel somewhat caught up.  They are mainly of the kids. Rob and I don't change that much.

Going back a few weeks.... when we got back from Austin we welcomed two of my nieces for a few days. We are always thrilled when they get to to come spend time with us.

 Uncle Rob patiently playing board games.

 Apparently we play games a lot around here.

 Headed to church with 5 of the most special kids out there.

Rob and I don't do presents for each other. Not for anniversaries, Christmas, Valentine's Day, etc.... We usually do one gift for birthdays, but that's it. Instead I took a little bit of Christmas money and bought my own gift. Storage shelves for our playroom! My 16 year old self is dying. But, priorities change. Here is one side of my Christmas present. Isn't it fabulous?

 Another angle

 Corner view

 New art corner. Merry Christmas to me!

 Someone was having fun while Mommy organized

 This January, a miracle happened in the deep South. It snowed! Just barely, but you would have thought they were calling for 5 feet of snow. My kids were so so excited. I didn't have the heart to remind them that this was winter looked like for us just a few short years ago.

 They didn't care. They waited patiently excitedly all day long. They were running to the window every 5 minutes to see if it had started snowing yet.

And finally, when they woke up the next morning, they discovered a thin layer of ice! Whoo-Hoo! I guess it's the little things in life when you are 5 and 4 years old.

Hmmmm...... what else? Oh, yeah. We went to Montgomery one weekend to see a wonderful production of "Goodnight Moon" at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. The kids loved it and they loved spending time with their grandparents even more.

My sweet friend Allison watched Lainey for us and she took this absolutely gorgeous picture of her while we were at the play. Love you, Ali!

Speaking of Lainey, I tried to put a bow in her hair one night. She hates me.

And while we were in Montgomery, my nieces came down from Birmingham to see us again. I sure do love living close to these sweet girls. And then all the kids got to spend time with their 2nd cousins who live in Montgomery. Are they 2nd cousins? They are the children of my first cousin, so what does that make the kids? I don't know. But I know that they all love each other.

We also went to the zoo where I rode the train with this guy. There's a story there. We kind of met while filming a funny video for our church at the zoo and we rode this train in those videos. It's where we had our first conversations. It will always be sentimental to us.

We also rode the new sky lift...

....and enjoyed our time with our cousins.

And even though we do a lot during the days, this is usually how we spend Saturday mornings. Pardon the unflattering angle and the crying baby. Just keeping it real.

And this is my favorite way to wind up the evenings.

Okay, whew! I think I'm caught up now. Hope everyone is ready for a fun Valentine's Day. My oldest daughter is slightly excited. If you could see all of the paper hearts covering every inch of our house, you would agree with me.