January!!

I found this picture from our Christmas trip and wanted to have it here. Love my baby girl on her first Christmas celebration!!

On Austin's last day of nursery, he fell and bumped his head on a toy. The nursery leader came and got me because he was so upset about it. It was a sad way to end a nurse class that he's loved so much!

Our sweet neighbor brought over this gift for Aaron for him to take with him. 

Monday morning, we woke up to give our goodbye hugs to Aaron before he took off for training. Austin cried the hardest. He was so young when Aaron deployed that he doesn't remember him being gone. He kept saying, "Dad, can you please work closer to home?" It broke my heart. 

We all had a good cry as he drove away. He left a week before his training started, but we all agreed he should get there a few days early in case something happened with his car along the way. He arrived safely! And it was a blessing he left when he did because a big snow storm hit hours after he left. 

And here were are on New Year's Eve celebrating together at 7 p.m.

Aaron left poppers for the boys to throw on the ground to welcome in the New Year.

New Year's day, the boys woke up and wanted to listen to their audio books. Austin ran to use the bathroom when I took this picture, but Eleanor crawled over and grabbed a book to read with the boys. It was so cute. I showed them the power of their example.

And look who is sitting at the big table now! 

We bundled up and went outside for some sunshine.

Our kind neighbor invited us over to her son's house where they have a soccer field. The boys loved it! I went to the temple on Thursday evening and then we spent the night at Alex's house. We were going to go to the museum in Denver on Friday, but Aaron called and needed me to overnight a document to him. We rushed home and made it to the post office before noon and he received the mail just in time. Wow! The boys were soooo good about being flexible with our original plan so I treated them to McDonald's for lunch where we played and played the afternoon away.

Friday evening we danced the night away at a wedding reception. 

Saturday the weather was SO warm. We played at the slides!

AUSTIN is a SUNBEAM! He was excited for his first Sunday in primary! We loved early church - we go from 8:30 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. now. Although it's early, I really enjoyed it. We did our best to get everything ready on Saturday evening and it helped Sunday morning be a bit less stressful. And it was the first Sunday of two hour church. It really was a delightful day. I loved it! 

This year I'm really focusing on thriving as a family while Aaron is gone. When he's been gone before, I felt like each day I was just surviving. I'm trying to make sure we stay busy and get plenty of exercise. We love the new Come Follow Me program as well. Technology really is a blessing as Aaron is able to contribute to our scripture reading throughout the week via FaceTime and Marco Polo.