Ceili Rain celebrated #9 with a cookie cake and our normal busy-ness. We are so blessed that God gave us CeiRai for our family. We also celebrated a week before by going to see The Greatest Showman at the theater.
On a sick day, we watched a baking competition that featured cookie cakes. So, we decided that would be a fun challenge for me. It turned out great.
Ceili Rain’s Gift List:
Want: Skeleton lab kit
Need: Outfit
Do: Nerf Gun
Read: A Wrinkle in Time Quintet
Malachi celebrated #6 on the day we left Wilderness at the Smokies. It was a wild crazy day but he had a good time. 
This was the first time for decorating a cake outside of my home. I think I did a pretty okay job considering I wasn’t at home with all my normal stuff.
Malachi’s Gift List:
Want: Dig it toys
Need: Flashlight/headlalmp
Do: Nerf gun (there’s a theme going here)
Read: Sugar Creek Gang books
For Christmas/New Year’s this year, we gave the kids a trip to Wilderness at the Smokies. Four days of a water park at the end of the winter? Yes! We rented a villa and it was wonderful!
Right on the golf course and a short drive to the water park.
We decided to go out to eat for one night to Mama’s Farmhouse. Yummy eats and fun activities for the kids.
Three littles as snug as a bug.
It wasn’t all water play, we spent a good bit of time hanging out in the arcade too.
One night, the guys took a trip to the knife store. It turned out to be a pretty cool store.
Ace won the Most Amazing Pool Hair Award.
Mark and I snuck away for a lunch (and trip to the cast iron store). We chose Paula Deen’s Family Restaurant. It was absolutely outstanding. We were stuffed and enjoyed every single bite. We also got to watch snow fall (not stick, thankfully).
On the way home, we discovered Lay’s face bags. Freaky, weird, and good for a quick laugh.
This was a fun trip before all the last stretch for our school year.
This is how it all started: We need a larger table to fit us all around. We don’t have room in our dining room to fit a bigger table, UNLESS we move the school desk and school shelves out. Where are we going to put those? Oh, we can put them in our playroom where the sewing stuff and toys are. Where are we going to put the toys in the playroom? And the sewing stuff? Ah, in the hall closet upstairs where the clothes are and in an armoire in our bedroom. Where are we going to put the clothes? In the kids’ rooms. So, we built clothes boxes (thanks to Ana White) and reorganized the walk-in closets. And this is what started it all.
We are slowly updating different rooms in the house because of the above info. Fresh paint, cleaning/organizing closets etc. Tobin, Malachi, and Bryant share a bedroom and before Tobin moved into the room, we 
Art in progress. Malachi and Bryant agreed to a vintage train motif. We opted to paint both boy bedrooms the same colors to simplify. Just different decor.
I used one of our cube storage shelves and turned into a quick diaper changing area.
We moved our rocker to their room temporarily (it’s usually in the living rooms). Beside the rocker is Tobin’s clothes box. He was going through clothes so fast the first six months that there were usually clothes hanging off of it. Each kid has three baskets with their clothes and these boxes stack fairly well.
This is one of my favorite places to hang out. It’s comfy and happy. The boys seem to love it too.
Let’s start off these fun random pics with our chunky monkey at four months! Ya’ll, those chubby arms are the sweetest.
Liam took a coding class and loved it. I’ll be looking for more for him to learn from.
Malachi wanted to learn to read and pretty much just taught himself with pretty much a smidge of help from me. 
Headbanz by “Emmie Rules” included her telling daddy what was on his head band and then telling him to tell her what was on hers.
But then it was naptime.
And naptime for Tobin too.
Date night included Cinnabon Delights.
Lulu the Guard Dog.
Tobin has no problem with snuggles and kisses from Lulu.
A Your Pie opened up in our area. We got in on the soft opening and fell in love. Definitely a treat.
Check out these eyelashes.
Emmie had an ophthalmology appointment in February. I’ll post a more detailed update after her MRI but basically, she has strabismus and needs to wear glasses to try and strengthen the eye turning in. We think she is adorable in these glasses!
Ceili Rain got a cake decorating kit from Ge and Granddaddy for her birthday. This was her first creation.
Beautiful weather means playing games with neighbors.
Emmie drew this face alone. We have several little artists in our family and Emmie is showing she fits right in.
We traveled to Papa & Grandmere’s for a weekend visit in February.
Cornhole was a fun activity.
Tobin got lots of cuddles.
Mark’s Aunt G and Uncle D came over for a visit. Emmie taught Aunt G cards.
Emmie enjoys playing games according to her rules. With games like Uno, we’ve started teaching her the real rules…but some games are still a little much for her. So, she gets to play by Emmie rules. She basically tells us where to move and who wins and when it ends. Ace got roped into playing with her. He was so patient and played along very well.
Ace also enjoys toting Tobin around and we’ve had to fight him off a time or two.
Emmie’s Fusionversary fell on a visiting day. Mark picked out the perfect princess cake and she was over the moon excited. This was fusionversary #2! Two years of Emmie with a straight neck. What a beautiful blessing from God!
A neighbor was working towards a makeup certification and opened up a makeup class for free. But first, we had to cleanse our face.
Boy was that interesting. And then we got all makeupified. We both learned a lot about make up application and had fun to boot.
Ge and Granddaddy popped over for a quick visit in February. We squeezed in birthday celebrations for January and March.
Ge got some loving from Sweet T.
And Granddaddy got some loving from Lulu. He has decided she is a spitting image of one of their first doggies.
Zoe had a meeting for AHG (American Heritage Girls) at the roller rink during a homeschool skate day. So, naturally, we all went. It was an absolute blast. It was a bigger success than ice skating and the kids are begging to go back.
Zoe and Ceili Rain showed off all they have learned in piano before their teacher G had their baby!
Zoe got a bike for Christmas. It warmed up enough one day in January for us to take a ride.
Yay Alabama! We start them early!
Silly posing Emmie.
Sometimes everyone needs to wake up to a bundled, cozy, smiley baby.
Tobin, after a good nap, is all smiles.
This was one of the last times I could get him to take a paci. Early teething and just being a stubborn little man weaned him from them.
Tobin is one of only a few kids who will allow just about anyone to give him snuggles.
Our chunky monkey! The roles on those arms ya’ll! Be still my heart.
Emmie dressed herself one day. She was so proud which meant we had to get a picture.
Cool dude!
