that month flew by

holy cow...I cannot even believe that today is February 1st...january literally flew by for us.  Getting back into the groove of school, being the project manager on a huge conversion at work, oh and having amazing weather could be part of it.  I honestly only took my camera out a handful of times, but got some cute pictures to sort of recap our month. 

I met up with my friend Ricki for lunch right after the holidays and we got some yummy food and then hit up Wood Connection to get some cute Valentines decorations.  I love my new Love Is All You Need decoration, and it fits in perfectly in my kitchen.

The first snowstorm of the year was probably Alexis' best day ever.  This little girl loves the snow and was in heaven, practically begging me all day to go out and play.  We were super busy all day, so it was almost dark by the time we got home, but her and our cute neighbor Oliva made the most of it. They decided it would be a ton of fun to climb up our huge snow bank.

Alexis thought it was the coolest thing ever to be almost half as tall as our tree.

Oh and they decided to make a sledding hill out of Olivia's front steps.  I actually couldn't believe how much speed they got on this little hill. Yes, I said a little prayer that they wouldn't tip over and hit the cement stairs face first.  Luckily all was good and they were giggling the entire time.

The next day we got to go meet my new cute nephew Lincoln.  He's only 4 days old in this picture, and I love the cute little smile he has. I was holding Lincoln while Steph ate lunch and I just couldn't believe how big my baby Makenna is compared to him.  It just makes me sad at how fast my kids have grown up. (oh and that little outfit he's wearing was one of Kyle's preemie outfits that fit him until he was four months old-how crazy is that?)

Makenna has decided to become Miss Independent and will only eat if she can feed herself. I completely forgot how messy a little 17 month old can be. But she sure loved those spaghettios. I love her new cheesy shoulder shrug she does everytime she smiles.

I came downstairs and found a huge mess, which Justin was just laughing at...but I was dreading getting the spaghettios out of her shirt, so I let her finish her dinner in her diaper and she was in heaven. She looks like she's screaming/crying, but really she was yelling Yeahhhh. 

(don't even get me started on the bottle that she still has...Makenna might be the most stubborn little girl ever and will take a sippy cup all day at daycare, but with us she will literally cry for hours to get her bottle. Even cry herself to sleep in the car rather than take a drink out of the sippy. It's so annoying, but I guess she'll get out of that bottle stage soon enough so I've decided to not push the subject and let her be for a couple more weeks)

We also had a fun dinner with a couple of my stepdad's kids and their families. Let me tell you cooking Lasagna for 13 people is not an easy task, but it was super yummy and fun catching up with everyone. Makenna and Alysha are only 2 months apart and have so much fun playing with each other, even though they are both a going through a "mine" stage and don't really want to share with each other.

I love that Makenna's hair is long enough to put in little piggy tails now, and I love the little curly q she always gets.  She is just such a cute little stinker and seems to be growing up faster than any of my kids. I guess since I know she's my last and I'm ok with her staying a baby for a lot longer, she's decided to do the exact opposite. 

I'm not sure why I don't have any pictures of Kyle from January, but his birthday is in 2 weeks and 1 day (yes, he's counting down until he's 5) so I know we'll have plenty of him in the next little bit.