what life looked like in...{January 2016} (catching up)

 I have not blogged in such a long time...we've been busy bees and I'm pretty much as exhausted as ever so this is my attempt to catch this blog space up on what life has been like so far this year!  And to think I design planners for a living...I should be way more organized!  So here goes!

Right after Christmas we went hunting in west Texas.  This is our 2nd year going and Mike LOVES it..we tag along for the ride because we know how much it means to him.  It is really fun too, but cold and remote!  Most importantly, we've created some great family memories!  Jillian stayed behind with my parents since I was 32 weeks pregnant (and feeling it!) and she would have been really hard to keep up with, especially since hunting means nothing when you aren't even 2 years old!

We all went out in the stand with Mike twice.  It snowed the first time, which was really neat.  We were pretty cold but the stand was warmer than I thought it would be and we were all cuddled up in there...it was nice.  We played games with cousins and ate really great meals in the lodge.

  Mike shot an aoudad sheep and a buck.  Cleaning them was pretty interesting!

My mom sent me this picture of our cute girl getting all of her attention!  I think she needed that!

When we got back, we celebrated the new year with a traditional dinner of ham, cabbage and black-eyed peas, and of course sparkling cider ;)

Date night ;)

Mike snapped this picture one morning while I got Susanna ready for dance.

Jillian learned to buckle and unbuckle thanks to Uncle Sean's Chrsitmas gift to her!  It kept her occupied during church, which I loved!  He's a great gift giver.

On the 6th, we celebrated the Epiphany or King's Day which starts the Mardi Gras festival season here in Louisiana...I brought King Cake to our young women activity with these little cards.

but before that, I managed to get dinner ready in just enough time to drop it all inside the oven as Mike walked through the door from work right as I had to leave to go to the church!

This cute gal got married in the Baton Rouge temple...and I have their gift card sitting in an envelope ready to go but still have not gone to the post office..what is wrong with me?!

 Susanna started showing a ton of interest in helping out in the kitchen.  She loves to make lemonade/crystal light, cookies, pancakes....anything involving pouring, stirring and tasting.  We watched this season of Kids' Baking Championship on the Food Network and she fell in love.

Drew started taking the bus home in the afternoons and loves it.  

We made playdoh a few times...

The kids got some great gifts from Aunt Boo...

Drew and Susanna got crafty and Susanna drew this crab to put on her door.

Drew got Assault Android Cactus on the computer for his birthday from Uncle Sean (see...great gift giver!) and made a Cactus costume out of construction paper.  He actually looks pretty accurate.

"Cactus" doing his homework!

We put a few puzzles together...

Susanna made orange juice with my mom...

Mike was hard at work and I was trying to finish growing a baby brother.  It was a pretty slow start to 2016 but just what we needed that last month before Will was born because it only got busier from there.  More about Februart to come...