My first week with Project Life!! I am so excited to begin this journey, and I am even more excited to go back and capture all the previous, as-of-yet-undocumented years. And I know this covers a little more than one week, but I wanted to include our New Year’s Eve/Day festivities. The journaling reads:

This year certainly started out with a bang! We had a low-key New Year’s Eve celebration here at the house, with the five of us, and both sets of grandparents. We feasted on Matt’s Alton Brown wings, and homemade french fries using the french fry cutter Ben got for Christmas. The boys (Matt included) were enjoying a wrestling match when suddenly and cry rang out from the living room floor. It was Owen, and he soon spit out one of his loose top teeth onto the carpet!! Another tooth followed shortly thereafter. I have never heard so much laughter over knocked-out teeth. It was hilarious and certainly made for a memorable evening. We followed it up with some friendly games of Kinect, then Owen left to stay the night with Ben & Julie. Wyatt was crashed out by 10:30, but KK stayed up for the long haul. New Year’s Day and the day after we spent just hanging out, putting together the Lego table I’d been envisioning for the kids and playing more Kinect. Matt was off for five days in a row, Dec. 31 through Jan. 4. Add that to the four days he was off over Christmas weekend, and that meant he was home for seven out of the thirteen days the kids were out of school for break! That never happens!! When Tuesday rolled around, it was time to get back to the grind. The kids went back to school (not without quite a bit of moaning and groaning of course) and I went back to work. We’re getting back into our routines slowly but surely, and I have a sense of impending doom now that tax season is right around the corner. I still have a couple more weeks off before beginning my last semester at Millikin (wow, does it feel good to type that!!). Matt went back to work Thursday and has been incredibly busy every night. Here are a few more highlights:

Tuesday 1/3

Just got my first tax return drop off of the year and it’s only Jan. 3. Yikes.

Tuesday 1/3

I put an Albert Pujols shirt on Owen to wear to basketball. He threw his arms around me and said sorrowfully, “I miss Albert Pujols!”

Wednesday 1/4

Met with Ms. Snyder. She said Owen is right on track and that as long as we keep working with him, he should be fine. She recommended a few activities for us to try & said to save our Sylvan hours for the summertime. Whew!!

Wednesday 1/4

KK did a simple machine project for school last night. So hoping we can instill a love of science in her!!

Wednesday 1/4

An epiphany: I’ll keep a paper Project Life going for the whole family while at the same time starting a digital PL for each kid. I can use the photos + stories I’ve got in the paper version to fill in their individual books!! Brilliance!!

Thursday 1/5

Came up with a budget today! Now to stick to it

Kaitlin & Owen went goose hunting & beaver trapping with Papaw & Uncle Danny over the weekend. Not too many birds this year, but they’ve had fun nonetheless