January

Jan 8:  Abigail took a photography class during the first trimester.  She had a lot of fun taking pictures.  She had me a few pictures of her and Drew for a project she had to put together at the end of the semester.  I thought these two were particularly cute.

Jan 13:  On Thursday, January 11, I got a text from a friend in Auburn informing me that Sam’s Club was closing all their Washington stores by the end of the month.  I was bummed.  Even though our nearest Sam’s Club has been 30+ minutes away since we moved to Snoqualmie nearly 7 years ago we’ve still had a Sam’s membership during most of that time (especially since we’ve been able to find good joining deals on Groupon or LivingSocial).  Anyhow, the next day Sam’s Club discounted everything 25% and it drew in crowds crazy enough to make the news.  Oh, I was tempted – 25% off wholesale prices is a big deal.  Justin was pretty wishy-washy about it so I snagged Carly on Saturday morning and we headed down.  We got there about 15 minutes before it opened and had to wait in line nearly two hours to get in the doors.  Thankfully it wasn’t raining and the time passed quickly. 

Almost there!

Inside the store was actually quite nice – apparently they’d learned from the previous day to limit the number of people allowed inside and we were easily able to navigate our carts around the store and load em’ up.  And load em’ up we did!

It was an all day ordeal, but well worth it.  The following Saturday everything was 50% off – Justin went to the Renton store.  It was nearly empty, but he still managed to pickup a few things.  Including a massive box of Snickers, which I’ve been doing my duty to get through before they expire.  Last night (Feb 1) I made a delicious Snickers Cheesecake for book group that I was hosting just so I could use up some of the 48 Snickers bars.

Jan 14:  Rare snuggles with my baby

Our newest favorite family game – the kids seem to play Cover Your Assets any chance they get. 

Jan 22:  Mid-January we booked a last-minute cruise over mid-winter break with Justin’s sister’s family.  The kids are super thrilled. Drew doesn’t have the best concept of time so we made him a calendar that he could check off the days until we leave.

I recently got the girls phones set up on the “find my friends” app – boy, is that nice!  It sure comes in handy when I want to know where the girls are at any given time, especially now that Abigail is driving.  Tonight Carly was off celebrating a friend’s birthday at the Melting Pot in Bellevue with the birthday girl’s family and Abigail was eager to go pickup Jason from basketball practice in North Bend.   Later that evening I got the app figured out and now the girls name and picture replaces their email address (I edited out their email addresses for this post).

Jan 23:  Letter K at preschool today where these kiddos made King crowns.  I also get a kick out of Drew wearing a Halloween pajama shirt in January – we sure are pretty lax about our image and apparel around here.

Jan 26:  Apparently Abigail released her name and address when she took the P-ACT recently because all of sudden we are getting inundated with letters from colleges all over the country.  This was the pile we got in just one day!  Crazy that she’s old enough to start thinking about college.

Jan 28:  My Mom’s 75th Birthday was today.  My siblings threw her a big birthday party, complete with chocolate cake and Café Rio.  Instead of gifts she requested that the grandchildren share a talent.  I was bummed that we couldn’t be there, but the kids (for the most part) we’re happy to send something to Grandma to wish her a Happy Birthday.  Katie and Drew sent some cards in the mail.

Jason decided to play a few songs on his clarinet.

Abigail decided she’d steer clear of the traditional talents of playing the piano or the flute and wanted to make a little video clip of her driving.

Carly didn’t want to be shown playing the piano, but I snuck in an awkward little clip of her at the end.

Happy Birthday Mom!  We sure LOVE and MISS you!!