New Year's With the Cousins

We are back!!  It's been a fabulous and fun week in Indiana with Kristin and her crew, and I actually have some pictures this time around to prove it!  Hahaha.  We're usually so busy chillaxing while with the cousins that I'm too lazy to play photographer when all the fun is going on.

We headed out last Thursday morning (after dropping Maxwell off to board at his doggie day care -- or puppy preschool, as Isaac kept calling it), and made the trek up to Indiana in really good time.  Once we were there, the kids and their cousins were basically inseparable.  Adding to the fun this year was that Sam (their oldest cousin) and his new wife were in town as well.  Maddie was a delight and humored my children with kindness and bemusement and even gave Sophie a haircut after Hannah decided to have Maddie chop her hair off.

As usual, Isaac was a stinker with regards to the whole sleeping situation, which in turn made MY sleep situation less than optimal, but I think we're slowly but surely inching our way towards a stage of life where we no longer have to worry about keeping an eye on a toddler at all times.  ;)  Highlights of our New Year's trip include playing LOTS of card games (mostly Euchre -- Ethan is a bit obsessed) and going all out with party decorations and celebrations for New Year's Eve.  A trip to an indoor playground, some Orange Leaf, and a couple of outings to the movies rounded out our delightfully chill family vacation time.

We left early this morning and made AMAZING time driving back (we shaved almost an hour off our journey thanks to not making any long stops) and now that we're home, it's so nice knowing that we still have a few more days of break before it's back to the grindstone.  :)  We still haven't gotten around to our Year in Review surveys with the kids, but we should have plenty of time to do that tomorrow.  I, for one, am super interested to see what will make it on their highlights for this past year.  As for me, I've got ALL kinds of ideas for New Year's resolutions when it comes time to share that.

 Alex and Scott worked on 4 or 5 different puzzles together this holiday season.

 (Just a little sneak peak of what I have in store for this coming year+)

 "3-2-1 Happy New Year!!!!"

I almost forgot!  One of my favorite moments of the whole week was on the morning of December 31st, when Jane wanted to finish reading the Book of Mormon with me.  She read the very last chapter out loud and when we were done, we had a sweet little discussion about gifts of the spirit.  My precious little moonbeam feels certain that she has been blessed with the gift of tongues, since she's learned so many languages already.  {When I looked at her rather quizzically, she clarified -- "Well, I've been learning French on Duolingo."  Hahahaha.  I just love her.}

Don't let his face fool you -- Isaac was super stoked about going on a walk with me and Scott on New Year's morning.  :)

In the meantime, I'll close with what I'm sure everyone is dying to know -- the puppy may have been potty trained and crate trained while he was at the shelter, but now that he's in our humble abode, it's been a slightly different story.  Womp womp.  Hahaha.  He IS still just a puppy, and it hasn't been terrible, but he certainly needs some more practice under our watch.  I'd say his success rate with making it outside versus letting loose in the house is about 50-50.  Or maybe 60-40.  But I'm feeling confident that everything is going to work out great!  I was surprised at how much I missed him while we were out of town and I've already signed him up for some puppy training classes starting in a couple of weeks.  Here's to a fantastic 2019!

Cute little pup pup.