2017 Begins

Our great winter break is over.  It was fun while it lasted.  We accomplished a few things.  We painted the front and back doors and all the trim outside.  We didn't get our tile backsplashes completed in the bathrooms, but we did finally pick out (and purchase) the tile without getting divorced.  In the best interest of our marriage, we are most likely going to leave the hard labor to someone with more skill (here's looking at you, Grandpa!).  The kids were getting really tired of trips to Lowe's and Home Depot.  I made a mustache valance to go over the totally-not-my-style valance that the previous owner screwed into the wall in a way that it is never coming off without significant damage.  The valances she did are really nice solid wood structures, but they are also very, very permanent.

We like the fun fabric.  The only downside is that Todd thinks I like mustaches now.  Mustaches on fabric, cute.  Mustaches on people other than Tom Selleck, not so cute.  He gets questioned daily, "You going to shave that today?"

Nope, not gonna shave it.

After Caroline got her hair stuck in the Magic Tracks cars last week, as well as getting it stuck in all her jacket zippers, we decided a haircut was in order.  She was excited to get a haircut.  She did great for the stylist.  She left the store dancing and saying she was a beautiful princess.  And when we got home she said she wanted to grow it again.

We took the kids to Target to spend some of their Christmas money.  We did not anticipate the very empty shelves on the Lego aisle, so the kids got a lesson in patience while we ordered their items from Amazon.  Caroline's toy came in first.  This is Best Friend Max.  It is the dog from the Secret Life of Pets movie.  She's been saving for it for many months now and was very excited to get it.  She really thinks she's brought a dog into the family.

In the in-between time of waiting for Best Friend Max to arrive the kids spent an entire dinner talking about what they wanted to name their (real) dog (that we are not in the market for).  They traveled back to 1950 in their thoughts because they came up with: Spot, Rover, Lassie, Ribsy (little Beverly Cleary there), and Max.  We need to get some cool names in their heads before the time comes that we actually do get a dog, if that time ever comes.

The boys were making a Lego city for much of the week.  They had a shop, forest, beach, construction area with a digger, and a fire with firemen.  Henry was in charge of the firemen.  I don't know exactly where he got the idea, but his firemen could not only fight a fire in their right hands, but they could sip their lattes with their left.

Henry also likes to ask, "If I'm 10 how old will Josiah be?" questions.  We always make him do the math, of course, since all he's adding is two.  Well, this week he asked how old Josiah would be if he was 14.  He figured it out to be 16 and Todd told Henry that, at 16, Josiah could drive a car.  He said they could drive to Whataburger together.  Henry was both fascinated by this and thought it was hilarious at the same time.  You could tell he was thinking about it through the day because a couple of hours later he came up to me and asked if Josiah would drive our van.  I said, yes, and Henry said, "You need to get Josiah a little car, so if he bangs it around it won't matter."  And that's when we introduced Henry to insurance premiums.

We survived another New Year's Eve in Texas.  These Texans do love their fireworks.  I love firework shows, but the sporadic fireworks in the neighborhood kind of gets old.  Our neighbors shot off theirs in the street between our two houses.  Oh my goodness, they are super loud that close.  The local sheriff posted on facebook that fireworks are legal, so don't call them if people are shooting them off, because they can't do anything about it.  The comments section is always fun to read in these instances, "Well, if they light my house on fire, are you going to do anything then?"  We did find a big firework in our driveway this morning, but not much else.  Two out of three kids slept through the 5 hours of fireworks, so that wasn't too bad.

Tomorrow school begins again.  Two out of three kids are looking forward to it.

Happy New Year!