January

Elliot finally finished his latest BOB Books sticker chart! He is way good at reading 3 letter words and his sight words now, but hates it when he has to try hard to sound something out, even though he can totally do it. His sticker chart reward was a movie night (Emporors New Groove) and cookies. I didn't feel like making cookies, so fortunately he was happy with my substitute of this graham cracker- nutella- marshmallow creation. I thought it was gross but kids like sugar. 

An example of the house forts that Elliot and Wyatt make 2-3 times a week at the Church. 

Can you see all 4 boys in this cousin pile?

Playing "Scary Bingo"

Mary's friend Gary let us pick a bunch of oranges on his property. They are SO SWEET AND DELICIOUS

A carrot harvest from the community garden

Annie's hair is now long enough for pigtails!

She pulls them out whenever she notices they are there, which includes every time she gets into her carseat, so I don't always make the effort. But I love it so much when she has them!

We got invited to a fondue night. Elliot is all about that chocolate fountain

We did a babysitting swap with the crows. Annie and Avery are 10 days apart and look so similar that it was almost like having twins for a day

I sneakily documented this guys game night. They spent like 5 hours getting through 2 turns of axis and allies. 

This little lady is always getting into trouble, exhibit A

This little lady is always getting into trouble, exhibit B

This little lady is always getting into trouble, exhibit C

 January marked the start of the new home centered church curriculum. It has been working out really well for us so far. 2 hours of church is definitely easier to make it through with little kids than 3 hours. We have 1:00 church, so lately we have been putting Annie down for an early nap from 10-12:30. We do "Home Church" while Annie is napping. We realized that Elliot loves any activity where he has our undivided attention, so it has been pretty easy to do. Aaron and I read the "Come, Follow Me" manual together over the week and then take turns teaching to Elliot on Sunday morning. We keep it pretty short and sweet and always end with drawing pictures of whatever we learned about.

Elliot's interpretation of the parable of the sower