As always I feel like January crawls on and on and on. Today is finally the last day, but I am not completely convinced that tomorrow will be February. I think this weird world may add a January 32.
Although it was very long and challenging in a lot of ways, we did have fun! It has been cold which makes getting up and walking Oreo early a challenge. He loves his walks though and I never regret having gone outside with him. I especially appreciate Sean who has no choice but to walk Oreo at 6:30 when he takes a turn. It has been a super high anxiety month for Brett and Alana.
Brett has continued with therapy weekly although we are switching to every other week going forward. School is such a challenge for him. He feels like he doesn't fit in and that he doesn't have any friends. It is very lonely for him and he is really stuggling with negative thoughts and has has a few panic attacks this month. It is heart-breaking to watch and I just wish I could take all the pain he feels away. Brett has loved playing with his friend Eli and has played a few times with a new friend from our Stake who homeschools, Levi. He has mastered all his rubiks cubes except his new 4x4 which he has solved once so far. He also finally passed his martial arts test (it was such a long test and it took them a month to get all the way through) and is now a red belt!! He is only two belts away from black!
Alana has been struggling with her clothes a lot and wore the same pair of pants for pretty much the whole month. She would wear them for two days then I would wash them at night and have them ready for her for the next day. This past weekend she finally found a few other pairs she was willing to wear in her drawer. She has been anxious about routines and has felt down and sad some with the weather. She thrives to be outside and the cold weather is especially hard on her. Alana loves playing with friends! She has played a few times with Nellie, a girl from kindergarten that homeschools now. She also had a super long playdate with her friend Brinley this past weekend and is asking for more. She is getting super independent and we felt comfortable letting her watch Lizzie with the gabb watch while we took Brett shopping the other day. Alana is almost ready to test out of the begining class in karate.
Lizzie has been thriving at school. She has recently started to blossom with her reading and finds herself addicted to passing off levels in her Lexia computer program that the school has them do. She is stubborn and gets super grumpy with her siblings, but she also loves playing and is working so hard to be kind with her words. She doesn't like being outside in the cold. She loves lion king and number blocks and reading books and having books read to her. She loves to play with scribble scrubs and is highly motivated to do things like brushing her teeth and getting dressed independently when she can earn a star sticker for her chart. She picks something she wants to earn and then gets 100 stars to earn it. Lizzie loves chocolate and fruit leather and I think she lives on those two things. Lizzie earned her yellow stripe belt in karate!
We made some perler beads together one grumpy Saturday =)
Lizzie snuggling up on the floor after karate one night.
Mimi got us a fun Christmas present called Labrynth. It s a super fun game!
The same grumpy Saturday after doing perler beads, Sean did chemistry with the kids. They made ooblek
Sean documenting proof that he gave Alana a hug and kiss. We hug and kiss her at night and then she forgets and its actually really stressful for her. She now has a little check list that we do each night so she can check and make sure we didn't forget her.
Lizzie getting her yellow stripe belt.
We watched the first season of 9 years to Neptune on BYU tv. It was so funny and we all enjoyed snuggling up to watch.
Brett doing his bow staff forms during his test. The instructor is getting very picky about all the little movements. As they get higher in belts, they are held more to a black belt standard.
We've pulled out the cotton candy machine a few times and we've figured out how to do it =)
Oreo =)
Santa brought Lizzie a bouncy dinosaur but it got a hole in it right after Christmas so we ordered her this fun ball. Alana liked and decided to buy one in her size.
We hired a guy to come clean out all our air vents and trunk lines. He cleaned the entire HVAC system and the furnace and air conditioner as well as the dryer vent.
My parents dog Winston had a traumatic experience at puppy training back in August. He recently had another training session and acted horrified. My parents think it may have been because he remember the traumatic experience when a husky got his whole jaw around another little tiny dogs head. When I was telling my family about it at dinner one night, Sean laughed so hard I though he might fall off his chair. It is a pretty funny visual so of course Alana drew us a picture:
We had a guy come quote us roller shades for the back of our house. This is the color we picked and I'm excited to get them installed in a few months.
The new covid variant Omicron is out of control! Numbers are so so high and there was a mask mandate in Salt Lake County for a few weeks, but it got overthrown. With the high numbers and an already planned 4 day weekend, the district has us do online school for 3 days. It went well for the most part, but Brett was easily frustrated with technology.
We've had this movie and soundtrack on repeat for weeks!
Brett getting his red belt!
Part of Lizzie's school was building with blocks and drawing a picture of a penguin.
My parents gave us some white rocking chairs for our front porch for Christmas. Sean and Alana built them while I took a nap one afternoon.
Lizzie watching number blocks on the ipad while I got ready one morning:
The pedal for my sewing machine stopped working last week. I took it into the shop and found out that it would be about $100 to get it repaired and it would take about 2 weeks. I had blankets that I needed to finish that day. A new pedal would be $250 and they didn't have one in stock. As I thought through my options, I have considered the need to get a new machine for a year or two. The cheapest bernina they had in stock was $2500 and while I am sure it is super smooth and quiet, I just don't need all the fancy things it can do. I need a work horse that sews a straight stitch. I started looking at some of the used machines they have a realized that might be the best option. I found a great machine that was #320 with tax. It came with a pedal that will work on either machine. Now I have two machines so if one needs to be repaired or serviced I am not in a panic.
Here are the letters that Santa wrote to each of us this year:
Sean earned his orange belt and Brett got to help award him. His orange belt actually isn't here yet, but he is working on the new belt things. I decided halfway through January that I was done with martial arts for now. I love going and being a cheerleader for everyone else.
Brett ate a 100 grand at school one day and his tooth fell mostly out. He came home and pulled it the rest of the way out. We think he only has one left to lose now.
Fun games in the basement:
Selfies with Oreo:
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