January 2013

I did awful at taking pictures in January - it's pretty pathetic. But, I was sick for most of January and also popped my rib out place from coughing so hard. So, pictures were kind of the last thing on my mind. Despite the lack of pictures, we did do a lot in the month. Here's the rundown: 

No New Year's is complete unless Grandpa Walker burns the year into the street. Can't believe it's 2013! Oh, and yes, we had games, lots of food, and a helicopter obstacle course to keep us busy before we were burning the street. Tyson won the helicopter competition :) His birthday gift from last year has paid off - we got a 100 grand (candy, not dollars...too bad, though) and some "strawberry milk" a.k.a. Nesquik strawberry. 

On New Year's Day night, Shauntelle and John dropped their girls off at our house so they could be on their way to Florida to celebrate their 10-year anniversary! I thought Tyson would be off work the whole time, but it turns out that I was wrong and he went back to work Thursday and Friday, which left me with 6 kids and no car in the middle of winter (well, Las Vegas winter). It definitely was a lot of fun and loud and crazy. It was almost like have 2 sets of twins - Reed and Evyn are 6 months apart and Eve and Isla are 5 weeks apart. We spent a lot of time coloring, played some tag, rode bikes, watched movies, and just hung out. We did make a special outing on Saturday to sit in Grandma Walker's hot tub. That is always a good time. 

The girls stayed at our house until Sunday evening. John and Shauntelle made it to our 2 p.m. church (awful time, but what do you do when there are 4 wards in your building?!) and Evyn and Mary came to our CTR 6 class (also our first time teaching). Then, they came over for dinner at our house before packing up their stuff and taking the girls back home. 

After that busy season started for Tyson (boo) which usually means a lot of nights putting the kids to bed by myself and watching dumb things on television. Luckily, I had gotten back into reading since I could stay awake for more than 5 minutes. When I am pregnant or am still being woken up in the middle of the night by a nursing baby or even just nursing in general, I cannot read at night. I fall asleep almost instantly. But, that is my only time to relax and read. So, These last few years I have not been able to do a lot of reading since I have been pregnant and/or nursing for most of them. Well, since I am neither at the moment, reading has become fun again! I do love books and always have. So, this busy season was full of books for me and much less television (thank goodness since there are not many things that are worth watching on our 7 channels that we have).

I also got a little sick in the middle of January, but was still going to keep going. I had a persistent cough and did end up losing my voice, but it always seems that way in the winter for me. I never get sick enough to really warrant going to the doctor, but I get just sick enough to not want to do a whole lot. Ugh.

Near the end of January - January 23rd and 25th - I got to see my good friend, Heather, her husband, Michael, and their adorable baby Lorelai! I have known Heather since 6th grade and she is one of the few people I sort of attempt to keep in contact with (although I could do a way better). She came into town (since most of her family still lives in Las Vegas) and we got to hang out a little on Wednesday and then again on Friday night at a Gwin family dinner (I was adopted in as an honorary Gwin family member). It was a ton of fun to catch up and just see how we all are growing up! I loved chatting with the whole family and Tyson was even able to make the dinner (a bit late, but he came!). I wish that they lived closer and I could see them more often, but I will take what I can get. Heather is one of my favorite people! I am so happy to know her and be friends with her. :)

This extends beyond January and into February, but a fun thing we did during busy season so that Tyson could see the kids at least a little bit was to go see him on Wednesdays for lunch. The kids were always so excited to see "the building" (that's what Eve called the Mandalay Bay, where Tyson was working for busy season) and get to eat out and eat with daddy. 

So, that was a sum up of our January!