Lately with Feta

January.... we're still slogging through.
Doing nothing really, but maybe that's what's so hard about it?


Pencil has joined the ranks of all-day kindergarten. He's enjoying himself.  It's a happy thing.
I keep telling myself.
I'm really not sure that I'm handling it well.
My third kid is staying another 3.5 hours each day at school..... I don't know why this time is harder.
I'm not sitting at home, lonely. There's still a VERY busy monkey keeping me occupied.

She and I are buds!
We get stuff done-- like Walmart.

Parenting win?

When my kids spontaneously quote the Beastie Boys, I get simultaneously proud and embarrassed.

Either that's how parenting is done...

or I'm part of a team of 'those' parents.

I'll let you be the judge.

Christmas trip

We had the privilege to travel to Utah and visit lots of family over the Christmas break.
In all honesty- the more times we do this, the more I struggle with the visiting. We only get to see these awesome people a few times each year, so when we get together we try to cram as much as possible in, logically. I love seeing them and spending time together.
Sadly, with children, trying to spend long hours in cars for days on end, and spending time with people doing lots of crazy fun things quickly turns into a nightmare of grumpy kids, little to no sleep (thus resulting in a grumpy mom) horrible eating habits (that mom gets to take care of/clean up after) and ridiculous expectations for when we get home again.  (ie: "Why can't I eat more chocolate orange for breakfast? I don't want to to CHORES! I'm not getting up for school." to name a few direct quotes from the last few days)

I'm very glad we went. Don't get me wrong. We made some brilliant memories and loved on some dear, dear people. I just need a vacation to recover from my vacation.
(My work trip, lets be real. I was working on this trip)


Things we want to remember:

Before this trip our darling aunt Amanda came to AZ to visit us. We loved every minute of it- we just didn't take any photos. Boo. It was a delight to have her here, and we'll hopefully take better pictures next time! While she was here there was some crazy weather and my kids ended up having some school cancelled for snow days. We also had church cancelled- so there was lots of hanging out in Jams and being together.

Amanda flew from Phoenix to Utah with us- and our adventure began!

We got together with the Doctor's father's extended family for a Christmas dinner- I didn't take great photos there either. BUT-- I caught Feta hamming it up with our sweet Cousie E and Aunt Amanda and Grandma Jen.