Happy New Year?

On 12/30 we took the kids down to the elementary school and we went sledding.  I didn't take my camera, but I wish I would have.  We had so much fun!

Elsa shocked Nick and me.  That girl was a sledding maniac!  We were there for two hours.  Cohen went down the hill a handful of times, but was more content to wander around at the top of the hill.  Toward the end of our time there, Reagan had a meltdown.  She wanted to go really fast over some of the "jumps", but she wasn't being successful at it.

It was obvious that it was time to leave.  I told Elsa that she could go down the hill one more time, and then we were going to head home.  She was OK with this.  You can reason with Elsa, and to some extent: Cohen too.

But most of the time, there's no reasoning with Reagan.

Nick ended up carrying a crying/screaming Reagan home.  I brought up the rear with Cohen, Elsa and all our gear.

For as tough as things sometimes are, we still have fun as a family.  And if it snows again soon, I'd happily take the kids sledding again.

So, New Year's Eve.  I'm mostly doing this post so that my posts for 2013 number: 58.  I did 58 blog posts in both 2012, and 2013.  I'm anal like that.

New Year's Eve Day, my Mom came over in the morning, and Nick and I went out and ran some errands.  When we got home, we took the kids to Chick-Fil-A for lunch.

Nick left for work around 2PM.

I had a mountain of laundry to conquer.  No better time to start, than the present.

At one point, Kelli texted me to see if we wanted to meet up, and do something to ring in the New Year with her and Josh?  It bummed me out to have to tell her that Nick was working, so I was hanging out at home.  Raincheck.

Shortly in to folding my second batch of laundry, Reagan ran in to the room and told me that Elsa and Cohen were at it again!  Coloring on walls: 

I hustled those two kids out of the room, that was now COVERED in pen.  Elsa tried to tell me that she hadn't colored on the walls.  But last time I checked Cohen couldn't write letter E's, X's, and O's.  And nearly half of the scribbles on the wall(s) were made up of those letters.  Sorry, Elsa.  I KNOW you were a culprit.
I gave them my iPhone to play with, in hopes that it'd buy me some time to do some more folding.
I went back to laundry.
And the two devils went back to being naughty.
Next, I caught them in the guest-room.  They had emptied the linen chest, and were playing under the covers in the bed.

While I put that room back together (for the second time that day), those two insisted on trying my patience, and testing whether I'd let them live to see 2014.

I heard them turn on the water in the downstairs guest bathroom.  I assumed they were playing in the sink.
Well, we all know what happens when you ass-u-me...
They were playing in the shower.  Fully clothed.
Apparently, Cohen has taught Elsa some of his tricks:

I figured that would count as their evening bath.  I put them in PJ's and sent them to bed.

After this, I realized that my iPhone was missing.  I tried to use the iPad to locate it, but the battery on my phone was dead, so I was going to have to hunt for it without help.

I spent the next 2 hours searching high and low, in my house, for that darn phone.

It turned up underneath the bed in the guest room.  Under box that was stored beneath the bed.  My guess? That Elsa dropped the phone on the floor when the battery died, and then Cohen kicked it under the bed.

I fell asleep around 10:30PM, and that's probably the closest to midnight, that I've made it in quite a while.

2013 has been like any other year.  Lots of ups and downs.

My family may frustrate me sometimes.  But there's no one else I'd rather spend the next year with.

Nick, Reagan, Elsa, &; Cohen: you are the best things that ever happened to me.  I am so lucky to have you.

On to 2014!