January Wrap Up

[I forgot to publish this post earlier - oops!  Better late than never!  Looking back over last month...]

We welcomed in the New Year in Big Sky, Montana with wonderful family time and fantastic skiing.  Then I drove our toddler back home to Idaho across 2 mountain passes while D was taking his MBA exams in Florida.  This Florida girl is pretty proud of that drive!

When D flew back to Idaho, M & I turned around and flew down to attend a family party in Tampa, FL.  We got to spend some extra time with my parents in northeast FL, enjoyed the sunshine and some January humidity!

Then we got sick.  Blecch!  But we bounced back and are now back to our routine - fingers crossed!

All pieces of our home study paperwork are now turned in so the next step will be the home visit.  The agency and our attorney haven't had birth moms ready to view our portfolio, so we continue to wait, prayerfully!

M now calls me "Mommy" in addition to "Mama."  Before he was just calling me "Mama," so his sweetness continues to grow!

I finished reading the lengthy biography "Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman." about Catherine the Second, a Russian Empress in the late 1700s.  I did not expect to enjoy it as much as I did - it was fascinating.

We finished the month out with a big snowfall!  So M has been trying out his skis and we built him a sledding hill in the backyard.

A Week at Big Sky in Pictures

Sunday: Sledding, toddler-skiing, snowball fights at the house

Monday: Skiing with my husband and brother.

Tuesday: Skiing with my sisters, and randomly running into our cousins on the mountain as they went whizzing by us!

My sister on the left and my cousin in the green jacket on the right!

Wednesday: Happy New Year!  Scary cliff-side skiing and our annual family talent show.

Thursday: Skiing and chairlift riding with my little nephews - what wonderful memories!

I must have yelled "SHOW ME PIZZA!!!" at him a million times as he went screaming down the slopes!

Friday: Craziness!!

My lift ticket fell off my jacket; once I got a new one, I nearly got blown off of the lift while trying to catch up to my sibs; then they closed the lift shortly after I got off due to the insanely gusty winds; then I panicked worrying about all of us getting back down to the base!  The winds were so bad that the snow pack was blown off almost down to the ice and dirt!  Thankfully we all made it back down and together safely, thank God!  First time skiing in gusty wind like that - don't think I'll do it again and I was very glad that my nephews did not try to ski with us that day!