Happy New Year!

Happy Kid, a photo by Justin and Kelly Webb on Flickr.

Happy New Year!

I'm not sure who had more fun on New Years Eve...Justin & I or the kids. Justin and I went to a fun party at a good friends house (about 20 other friends there) and the kids had a fun sleepover at my parents house. They were thrilled. I DO know who had a better morning the next day though.....the kids had lots of pancakes that were made into fun shapes (star wars/pokemon/snowmen) thanks to grampy, and I...well, didn't feel great. ;)
Fortunately I felt better for a family dinner at my mom's house that night to celebrate Amy's birthday! We all were happy to eat homemade chicken & noodles over mashed potatoes. YUM. Great night with family...perfect way to start the year (minus the slight hangover).

Today Caleb spent time at friends house while we took down all the Christmas decorations/tree. I absolutely love how cozy our house is with the decorations up, but it always feels so good to take them down. I still have alot of organizing to do, but this is a start...kids go back to school tomorrow so Izzy & I might actually get around to organizing toys this week!

So the boys each received new wallets for Christmas and I have to say that I am super excited about how they (especially Sam) has learned already from this small gift. They were both really excited about putting SOME of their money in them...and Sam was just so excited to use his wallet that the day after Christmas, he asked for me to take him to Target to buy a Star Wars figure that he didn't get. He saw other things he wanted, but didn't have enough money and talked about saving up for it. He was ADORABLE at the check out...wanted to keep his purchase completely separate from mine and he happily handed the woman his money after counting it all out. He was so proud of himself.

And today, I took Caleb to Gamestop. He had a few DS games that he doesn't play anymore so he wanted to sell those and buy a new Pokemon game. I told him I had no idea how much he'd get for the games or how much the new game would be, so he took his wallet too...and filled it with piggy bank money as well (smart kid...those games aren't cheap!). Well, he was thrilled b/c the games he sold covered his new game AND he received an $11 credit towards next purchase. I was also proud of him b/c he realized on his own that a pre-owned game was much cheaper and he said "i'll buy the used one and we can look on-line how to delete and start the game over". Good decision. Happy kid. Happy and proud mom!