I was talking to a fellow wedding vendor earlier this week and he was apologizing for not getting back to me sooner, to which I responded: “No worries! I feel like the month of January was a black hole that ate all of time in it’s path – I can’t believe it’s February already!”
January can always be summed up with one word: BIRTHDAYS. We have so many family birthdays in the month of January, it seems we are gathering to celebrate and eat cake every weekend (and, we did!) Of course, the biggest birthday of all comes at the end of the month, when we celebrate Braelynn (she turned ELEVEN this year!)
As usual, we celebrated her as big as we could (even though her party did get completely overshadowed by Winter Storm Fern arriving and dumping a whopping 14″ of snow on us ON her birthday!) Some quick re-shuffling had to happen so we could still make her birthday party happen, but it all worked out quite alright in the end (she ended up with three birthday parties instead of just one PLUS 14″ of snow). Her birthday video will be coming out shortly!
Speaking of snow, we all have been completely beside ourselves to have so much and to have it still hanging around for so long after the storm! The kids have been in snow-heaven, going out to play and make adventures every single day – it’s been a blast!
Moments of note this month:
(0:01) YES, a truck ran up onto the sidewalk where Braelynn had been standing just MOMENTS before (my jaw is still on the ground – thank God for keeping her safe!)
(0:16) New Years Day spent at my sister’s house
(1:02) Instead of an advent calendar surprise, Papa and Nana sent a “12 days of Christmas” surprise and the last day delivered $20! (I love that Leander knew PRECISELY how he wanted to spend his!)
(1:43) His lightsaber is delivered!
(2:23) As part of her birthday gift this year, Braelynn wanted to get her ears pierced!
(3:05) Taking her art to the next level
(3:27) Happy 60th Birthday to my Dad!
(5:09) Happy 30th Birthday to my sister, Amy!
(5:57) My Mom and I went to see Mark Schultz play at St. Vincent College – it was an incredible evening and we loved having the chance to meet him in person! My Mom loves his music, but she said several times she really hoped he would play one song in particular – when he opened with that song, she was beside herself!
(7:38) Taking Braelynn’s 11th birthday portraits
(8:00) Yeahhhhhhh we locked ourselves out of the house – oops
(8:06) Happy 2nd Birthday to Zoe (Braelynn’s birthday twin!)
(8:50) Happy 11th Birthday, Braelynn!
(9:27) Winter Storm Fern arrives ON Braelynn’s birthday!
(14:07) A guy wrecked his car in our front yard one night after the big snowstorm
(14:23) We dog-sat for a few days and the kids were in heaven!
Just in case you’ve missed what I’m doing – I decided that I wanted to create a curated “home video” for our family every month (remember those old “home movies” our families used to create? with the giant video recorders that an entire VHS tape fit in?) Those videos were fantastic, but if you’ve ever sat down to watch one (does anyone even own a VHS player anymore?) you very quickly realize that you do a lot of “fast-forwarding”.
So, my goal, is to take all the little videos I take of our family over the course of a month & create a short (my goal is to be around 10 minutes) video of my favorite snippets. I am SO excited to finally have a dedicated place to chronicle my family videos & keep them safe & accessible.
Enjoy a little peek into what our January looked like!
