Last Week of January Journal

It's time for another 2-week family journal!  This is a combination of the last week and a half of January & the first few days of February:

January 20th

While Talia was at her Beauty & the Beast play practice, Ken & I had an idea. We had been folding laundry while Katrina watched a video on a tablet in her room. Ken & I went to put our snow clothes on, then we crawled into her room and when she looked at us, we sang "Do you want to build a snowman?". Her face lit right up and she said "Yes!". It turned out not to be packing snow, so we brought out the GT and had some fun on the hill instead. This was such a fun, spontaneous thing to do together, I'm so glad we did it!

We also got a few moments on video:



January 23rd

I went to a new bookclub that just started up. I'll have to miss the February meeting, but I'm looking forward to future months! Here's a photo my friend Sara's husband took of all of us:

January 24th

We celebrated Ken's dad (Poppy)'s birthday & Talia's birthday with dinner and cake. Ken's mom (Gummy) put together gift bags for each of the grandkids and we played a game (called Doggy Doggy Who's Got Your Bone?) and at the end of the game, instead of the "bone", they found their gift bags.

January 25th & 26th

I went to an activity for the ladies at church, and we made bread and visited. It's always good to get out and chat with other women! This week Talia got sick and missed a couple of days of school. Luckily she was better in time for her actual birthday!

Last of January

It's time to sum up the last week of January and I'll be honest, as I look back on it, the first thing that comes to mind is the way that I felt and the thoughts that were running through my mind. It's been a high-stress time for me as Ken is looking into different options for the next step in his academic and professional career. I find it difficult to sort through all of the worries I have about "what ifs" and to trust that everything will work out for the best. I am trying to be better at this, but it's definitely not an easy process for me. This is an interesting observation for me because I think there was a time that I was better about trusting that things would work out for the best and it seems that I've faced a test in this... I often wonder if there is something I'm supposed to be learning, and perhaps it is to trust that things will work out for the best, even when they aren't working out the way that I would have chosen or planned for them to.

Aside from those, more difficult thoughts and feelings, this week was one of celebration! Our first baby girl has turned 12! This is a big year for her because she moves up from the "Primary" (children's) program at church, to the youth program.

January 28th

Talia gave her last talk (speech) in Primary last week and a friend of mine sent me a photo:

I found these photos of when Talia gave her first and second talk in primary- how cute!

January 29th 

My parents came into town to celebrate Talia's birthday. We went out for dinner at a burrito place and then went home for DQ cake (first time trying a blizzard cake- it was good!).  On the way home from dinner, we ran into Walmart to get a set of gel decorating frosting tubes so I could write on her cake. After singing to her and enjoying the cake, she opened presents from Grandma & Grandpa.


It was good to have someone there to get a photo of our family all together!

January 30th & 31st 

Talia & I went on a mommy-daughter date to see The Greatest Showman. I loved it the first time I saw it and I thought she'd like it too. I was right- she loved it, and it was so fun to do that together! We also wore our new matching shirts. One of them was a gift to her from my parents for her birthday. I saw the one my size earlier today & bought it- with the plan to make sure she was "into" matching before I wore it.  Thankfully she wanted to match!

The next day, we had a low-key birthday celebration as a family for her actual birthday. We planned not to do much for presents this year since we're going to Disney but we did want to surprise her with the news that she can get her ears pierced. I was in full relaxed family mode and didn't have a camera with me so sadly I didn't catch her reaction in a photo or video. It was a good one! :)  She was so happy- hugged me, then Ken, then me again. I'm glad she had a good birthday (and days leading up to her birthday- we've been celebrating for weeks)!

February 2nd 

I went walking at an indoor track with my sister-in-law a couple of times this week. It's so good to chat- seriously, like therapy. This evening Ken & I went for a little date to the mall (we walked around & did a little shopping because I had a couple of birthday coupons) and we shared a Cinnabon. It was fun just to hang out!

February 3rd

Talia had a school friend over for the afternoon. We went out and took a photo with our new piece of luggage from American Tourister that I had fun playing with in Photoshop.  I really like the way it turned out! I've been wanting to do more with photography, just for fun, and this was a good first project!

A post shared by Heather Lynne (@raisingmemories) on Feb 3, 2018 at 12:18pm PST

Thanks for reading if you made it this far! :)  I'm not sure if these diary style posts will continue, but I will say that I've enjoyed putting them together and it's helping to keep me up to date on documenting our life. I'd love to know if you enjoy them, but I may just keep posting them even if no one else reads them, just for my own records!

I hope your week & month have gotten off to a great start!  This is my birthday month and my birthday is just around the corner. We have something exciting planned, so stay tuned to Instagram if you want a sneak peek before I share it on the blog! :)

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