2019 Kick Off

After the busy holidays, we decided to stay home for New Years Eve.  My Uncle got Andy Omaha steaks for Christmas so we ate those, and had a fancy dinner in the dining room. I had questions printed out about the moments of 2018.  The kids liked going through them, and thinking about their favorites and least favorites of 2018.  Afterwards we lounged around.  Baylor was asleep early, and then Atticus.  Finley and Briley stayed up to ring in the new year with us though.
The kids did not go back to school until the following Monday.  They had several days to enjoy the nice weather outside, we put a puzzle together, Andy and I did a little axe throwing with some friends, and Andy did a face lift to the fireplace.
Atticus got his green tractor, and he has been so excited to show our neighbor Mike who has a green riding lawn mower.  He rang the door bell and asked if he wanted to come out and ride their tractors together.  Mike of course couldn't turn that down so he got his mower out and they did a a few laps around the yard.  I love our neighbors, and how they treat our kids like they are their grandkids.
We went out with the old neighbors last weekend to do axe throwing.  We got some Grimaldi's and drinks to take with us.  We had a great instructor who was with us.  Some of us caught on better than others.  It is really hard to do!  The winner was Drew, and he got a wooden plaque that we all signed.  It was fun to do something different, and I think everyone had a good time.
There were some parts of our fireplace that Andy has not liked so he took some of it apart, and redid it.  I thought it looked good before, but now it really looks great.  We also had someone come out to actually fix the fireplace, and that has been so nice now that we have had some colder weather.  They also insulated it, which is strange that the previous owners did not have insulation in it.  We were pretty certain that it is how our mice were getting in last winter, and there was always a strong draft coming from it.
Last weekend our sports kicked off for winter.  Briley and Baylor both had indoor soccer games and basketball games.  We always had a rule that we did not do two sports in a season.  We broke that rule, and are regretting it.  Briley's soccer was at 8:00 Saturday night, and then Baylor had a 7:00 a.m. soccer game on Sunday.  They are fun to watch, but I don't like these times.
This week there has been a lot of talk of a snow storm.  Andy kept saying it was going to miss us, but he was wrong.  It started with a nasty rain all day yesterday, and then turned to snow.  We had a going away party for some friends of ours down the street, and was amazed at the snow when we left.
It snowed pretty steady all night, and into the next day.  Andy went out to plow our driveway and sidewalks twice during the day.  It was dangerous really to be outside because you would hear a crack and then big limbs would fall.  The neighborhood was a mess with downed trees.  That night we watched a movie and then I looked outside to see that our white pine completely fell over.  Root ball and all.  So sad to lose that tree because it framed our house so nicely.
Sunday morning Andy left for Miami, and I took the kids to Briley's indoor soccer game.  I have no idea why they didn't cancel the game.  She had three goals and they won 10-0 so she was pretty excited. The rest of the day was spent playing outside.