January!

Happy New Year!  Well, now we are into the second month of the year, but it's still a new year.  January was a pretty good month, aside from various illnesses that we had.  We rang in the new year at home because Erin was under the weather with a stomach bug.  We just kind of hung out at home that weekend as Erin continued to get better, which took awhile.  Daddy went back to work and Anna went back to preschool on the 5th, so we were mostly back in our normal routine, with the exception of Erin's track-out tacked on to the Christmas break for a total of almost 6 weeks off!  It was so nice to have her at home and to enjoy lots of fun time together.



Daddy now has the distinguished title of "councilman", as he was "elected" (by having his named picked from a hat) for parish council.  He had his first meeting on the 7th, and he thinks he will enjoy getting some of the inside scoop at church and hopefully be of some help for the next 3 years (his term).  We went out to eat the night of the 9th for Mommy's friend's birthday, then Anna's classmate Drew had a bowling party on the 10th.  Some of Anna's buddies from school were there, and she had a great time.  On the 11th, one of Erin's classmates also had a birthday party (which worked out well for us, since each kid had a party to go to that weekend) at Bounce U in Apex, which was a lot of fun too.  That evening, Daddy and Mommy had a hot date to the annual parish council beginning-of-year dinner.  It was really nice, at a clubhouse in the neighborhood by the church, with a catered meal and a nice time to get to know everyone.  We enjoyed that!

We played at Jimmy and Danny's house on the 14th,



and with Caroline and brothers on the 16th.  We also had the pleasure of getting a new garage door operator and springs on the 16th, so we are now enjoying a fully operational garage door.  Saturday the 17th started our 3 months of dual-activity Saturday mornings of ballet/tap for Anna and gymnastics for Erin, which has already proven to be a challenge when Bob had a parish council workshop this past Saturday.  But, for the most part, it's an easy way to knock everything out, no traffic like on weeknights, and everybody gets to do what she wants.  Erin also had a second gymnastics class at noon that day to make up for being out of town the following weekend.  We had a fun neighbor gathering that afternoon to watch the NFL playoff game outside at Ms. Karen's fireplace and (temporarily) outdoor tv.

We had lots of fun at the Great Wolf Lodge on the 22nd-23rd,





and then in Concord the 24th-25th for Cooper's baptism and Ansley's birthday party!  We are so honored and excited to be Cooper's godparents.  It was a busy but really fun weekend!



Daddy left from Charlotte on Sunday for 4 days in California.  Jimmy and Danny came to play at our house on the 26th, and then we had another week O' sickness with fevers, coughs, and of course Erin managed to sneak in some throwing up, her specialty.  We got through it, and Daddy survived being sick away from home, and we were all mostly better by the weekend to round out the month.  Erin went back to school on the 28th, only to miss the 29th and 30th from being sick.  

My mantra has become "if we aren't going to get any snow this winter anyway, might as well move on to spring!".  Here's to no more sickness for awhile!