January 2018

New year, new puppy to love.  Someone else's puppy to love. Meet Jack, the Parsons' newest baby.

Celebrating Christmas together on New Years Eve.

These two ready to start 2018 together. This is their "18"

January is our annual trip to Oklahoma. Nothing bad ever happened when it's 2 degrees with your gas light on in the middle of no where Kansas. We made it, but not without me coming up with a few emergency plans, all of which involved Clifton running to get gas and me staying in the car.

This guy gets lots of birthday love. Here he is with a wonderful cake made by Claudean.

With his girls, who are never far from cakes...

Naomi had fun putting on a fashion show with all the dresses found in Grandma Clyde's dress up closet.

The girls loved feeding the ducks as long as the geese kept their distance.

We also got to spend time with our good friends the Farmers. Nancy proves why grandmas are way cooler than moms when she took on edible slime with seven children without batting an eye.

There were some flesh piles.

Long gone are our evenings with uninterrupted conversation, jigsaw puzzles and games of Rook. Instead we have this noise and joy and chaos to keep us busy. I'll take it. I was never any good at Rook anyway.

Another birthday celebration!

 I don't know why I thought we might just get lucky and bypass the bunny ears stage.

And then there's these two...

They've come a long way in five years. (Those cheeks. Oh I love those cheeks.)

Another example of grandmas being cooler than moms: playing Operation inside a tent...

Sarah helping Grandma Clyde. Always "helping."

Always hate saying goodbye.

We came home to snow. This is Sarah actually helping.  She's not half bad at shoveling.

One last birthday celebration with the Parsons on Clifton's real birthday. (We eat lots of cake to make up for the fact that it's in the otherwise dreary month of January which has almost nothing else going for it. :))

Science fair: Does what a plant drinks affect how it grows? (Soda works best. Go figure.)

Will plants grow through a maze to get to light? (Not if your maze is complex enough that light doesn't actually reach the plant...)

Sarah's first snowboarding lessons.

Oh man, I love watching this kid learn new stuff.

She thinks she's pretty much got it down after one lesson.

Meanwhile Clifton and the girls hit the slopes.

Dave and Jeremy went up for the day too.

Quick lunch break to fill up and warm up.

After lunch Naomi was a *little* less than enthusiastic (there may have been tears...and coercion), so Dave skied on with these two and Clifton took it a little easier with N

Riding home again. Happy, tired, kids. There's T-money. He had ski lessons that day too.