December Round-Up!

Another year has come and gone, and what an ending to the year it was! Even with everything going on with Chris out of a job, we can see how incredibly blessed we are every single day. Here are a few of the moments-captured-in-photos that helped make the month of December such a good one.

This school year, Mom and Dad have been picking Brooke and Brecklyn up from school almost every Thursday to spend time with them in the afternoon and eat dinner with them. One day, they were doing a baking project and Brecklyn took this photo of G-Jo and Brooke in their matching aprons. So sweet!

One day I went into the kids' bathroom and saw that someone had kicked a small hole in the wall. How?!? and why!?! This led to Chris patching the hole and repainting the entire bathroom. It needed it anyway, but we'd rather not do it because it has to be done immediately!

There's probably not a monthly round-up that goes by that I don't post a photo of a spectacular sunrise or sunset. This was a gorgeous winter sunset.

Earlier this year (in August), Brianna and Brenson started taking a few classes with a local homeschool co-op. It's been a good experience, and we hope to continue with this co-op for a few years. Bren is taking Guitar 3 and is the youngest in his class by far. The class did a Christmas performance, and Bren seemed pretty nervous about it. He did a great job, though!

Playing in a group is a totally different skill than playing solo. Being part of this class has stretched Bren in good ways.

Cute little guitar player!

Grampy teaches the "teen" Bible class on Wednesday nights at church. The class consists of Hayden (14), Avery (13), Chloe (12), Brianna (11), and Brenson (9). He gave them all an assignment to make posters with the Bible verses they are studying on them. My kiddos worked hard on their posters, and they turned out really well. 

In mid-December, Brecklyn ended up getting really sick. She had a fever of over 104, so Chris took her to Urgent Care. She tested negative for Covid, Strep, and Flu, but the doctor felt like she probably had the flu. Poor girl felt SO bad. 

She ended up missing several days of school, including many of the end-of-the-year activities. 

A few days later, Brooke came down with the same symptoms. I hate seeing my poor babies so sick!

One evening, I walked into the living room and noticed Timber standing guard over a few wrapped gifts. I took this photo,

then continued to scan the room and noticed there were other animals also standing guard over gifts. I also spotted some new, cute decorations added to our mix of usual decorations!

LIGHT Academy continued through most of the month, and one fun project we did was dissecting owl pellets for science. 

Bren wasn't too impressed at first, haha!

Bri was on board, though!

Since Daddy was newly out of a job at this time, he got to join in on the fun :-).

Okay, so maybe Bri wasn't totally on board, lol.

The end result was pretty impressive, though! We were able to lay out much of a vole skeleton!

Bren's pellets didn't have quite as many bones as Brianna's did.

I love catching these sweet moments of Bren lost in the world of a book <3.

In the midst of everything else we had going on, Bren also started basketball this month. He's playing for the OPA Lions this year. 

I always enjoy watching this boy hustle!

As we've grown older and live pretty separate lives, carving out time to spend together has become increasingly challenging. I'm SO thankful we set aside an evening to be together during the holiday season. These girls are some of my very favorite people on the planet - and while one evening is never enough - we are incredibly thankful for the time we get to spend together. 

Amy, Angie, Kendall, and Chelley

Finally, when our Tennessee family arrived in Oklahoma on Monday, December 27th, Mallory, JT, and Kaylee were dropped off at our house as they were staying the nights with us. Mallory and JT offered to watch the kids for us so Chris and I could go out for a late lunch. They even gifted us a gift card to go! We went to Cracker Barrel and really enjoyed our short time away!

December definitely brought with it some unexpected surprises and hardships, but I don't want to let that overshadow what a good month it was. We are thankful and blessed, as always!