January

This is how Morgan talks on the phone....she thinks it goes on top of her head! Not sure where she saw this!

I watched my two nieces this past week while my sister worked, and the girls played so well together...in this picture, they are all sitting on a mat that Addyson put out and just played for about 20 minutes.

We have a Ham in the family....Ashlyn made this face as soon as she saw the camera! Too Funny!

January has been one COLD month. Last week, we were dealing with temperatures below zero as the high. Brrrr! We got stuck staying home during all of it because who wants to try wrapping up your kids to take them out in it? Not worth it to me. I was ready to get out by Saturday and thankfully, Tim let me get out of here....granted, it was to the YMCA but it felt good to work out after not being able to do it much that week. We have only gotten 9 inches of snow this month, which is such a relief after the 35 inches we got in December. The average around here is 50 inches so we are really close to that and with 3 months more of snow possibly hitting us, we will probably go over the average again....which may lead to another flood this Spring, but I keep telling myself to take this one month at a time. I am trying to get myself to live in the moment and not worry about the future too much since there is no way of knowing what will happen. It has gotten so hard with all the economy, housing market, and job loss reports on the news every day. It is hard to block it all out, that is for sure.

Morgan is walking more than crawling now! Finally! Although she won't be 14 months until next week so I really should give her a break. I am just glad that she will be able to walk around the Mexican resort instead of crawling or being carried the entire time. We leave soon and it isn't coming soon enough! Let's just hope that it doesn't snow or rain (since weather around here is so unpredictable anymore) when we are trying to get out of Chicago. We need this vacation more than anything. A break with no cooking and cleaning......sounds like heaven to me! Oh, and I get to drink cervezas and fruity drinks all day...NICE! Addyson talks about it all the time and told me yesterday that she can't wait to go to Mexico. She tries to help me pack everyday but I keep getting distracted so we haven't gotten very far with that! We can't wait and will definitely post pictures after it!

Addyson registered for 4K today. I can't believe that my little girl will be going to elementary school next year and riding a bus too! Wow! She cannot wait. She sees the bus in the afternoon and says, "when do I get to ride it?" She was thinking after Christmas, she was going to be in Kindergarten, but I had to explain that she has to go to preschool for one whole year and after summer is when she will start at the new school. When we got there, two older girls were leaving and I think it intimidated Addyson a little because she looked at me and said, "Mommy, I think I still need to grow some before I can go to school here." We go to an open house in February so that will be exciting for her.