Oh hello there. So here I am again because I often think of how much of Caleb’s younger years are documented on this blog, but poor Luke has definitely had the short end of the stick. In an attempt to reconcile that, I’ve decided to recap each month this year for a family record of our 2023. Let’s see how I do!
We kicked off the new year with some of our best friends with poppers and the ball dropping at 10 pm! Nothing says a huge group of kids like considering if the poppers are worth the vacuuming and being in bed before the new year actually begins. Hooray!
Before school started back up, we spent a million hours at Urban Air with a ton of friends. This place is my boys’ haven and throw in a group of people and we stayed way longer than ever anticipated. I’m pretty sure we got our money’s worth that day. Luke’s dinner that night was just a nap on the couch.
Our small group definitely loves to celebrate a good birthday so our January (& one December) birthdays got celebrated with axe throwing! To say that I was not good at this is an absolute understatement. I’ve been one other time and I believe that I have declined in my skills (that were already not high). But it’s always a good time with our people!
We FINALLY made it back to the stockshow since 2020! They didn’t have it in 2021 because of Covid and then our family actually had Covid in 2022 so this year we were finally back! And we even took an extra kid with us who’s pretty much a part of the family anyway. The boys were pumped! It always makes me miss the Houston rodeo something fierce.
Something about this January is that it’s been FRIGID. And SNOWY. It’s pretty much what the rest of the country envisions Colorado to be all the time so it’s like Colorado decided to actually be that way. BOO. But we did take advantage on the school snow day the boys got this month to bust out the new sleds they got for Christmas!
Caleb had Red Carpet Night for Awana and lived his best life with some of his best friends! Nick was out of town that weekend so we are real thankful for great friends that take him along for the ride. I’m pretty sure he didn’t even notice we weren’t there. And it resulted in a great picture that will be awesome blackmail once these boys are in high school.
Basketball season has started so watch out for the Lions! Caleb is on a team with some of his besties from church and one from school too so he is absolutely loving it! This kid just loves ALL the sports.
This guy is a faithful watcher and makes sure he works on his skills before practice. He can not even wait for the day that he gets his turn on a team for any sport!
My life with this guy looks a lot like this! He is my trusty sidekick for running errands, taking Caleb all the places he needs to go, helping me in my classroom, and all the in between. Does he drive me crazy and crack me up while we are doing all of the above? Absolutely.
Caleb’s school had Donuts with Dad so these boys got to enjoy some pastries together! We are enjoying all of these precious lasts since his school is unfortunately closing at the end of the year. Our hearts are still so sad but we are so thankful for our school community making the best of it.
Since Caleb often has tons of plans with friends or birthday parties or whatever else an 8 year old boy does, this little one often has FOMO. Because he thinks he should be invited to all the things because in his mind, they are all his buddies too. So one day he landed himself a day with mom and dad at the bowling alley and arcade and a lunch of his choosing. He was ECSTATIC. He chose McDonald’s so clearly we were just as excited. So we obviously got that to go and he ate it enthusiastically at home. Sometimes there can be benefits to being the little!
And obvious benefits to being the big too! Talk about an elementary boy’s dream. A video game party.
So although Nick’s days of being a student pastor are behind him, it does not look like our days of being pranked by students are quite over. Toilet paper and cheese is what was found on the Sunday morning of our student weekend retreat in our yard. I’ve got to give these kids credit because pranking in below freezing temps is like a whole other level of determination. Also, can we just appreciate that our generation didn’t have to worry about ring doorbells?!
Caleb participated in the 2nd Grade Poetry Cafe where they wrote their own poems and read them before their class and families. He was so excited for this event and couldn’t want to share his poetry. It’s so fun to watch him thrive in different creative ways!
And that’s January! We are ending on the most frigid temps ever and really hoping for a warmer February. Or else I’ll be looking up real estate in Mexico. I considered Texas but apparently that’s frozen now too…
Trying to Keep Up With My Jones' 