January

 I love January.  It always feels like such a calm month after the hustle and bustle of December.  It was still an exciting month for us!

We celebrated Rebecah's 14th birthday.  It's hard to believe that she is 14; although, most people think she is older than she is.  It's not uncommon for people to ask if she is driving.  Rebecah loves the color orange so she had a white cake with an orange buttercream frosting.

Rebecah continues physical and occupational therapy, but the end might be in sight.  She had a follow up with the vision specialist and all of Rebecah's tests were in the normal range, except for one.  We were SO surprised and grateful.  She is still working on focusing up close, but every indication points towards improvement in that area, too.  The specialist even said she didn't see a need for another appointment.

Another "fun" fact about Rebecah....she is suddenly lactose intolerant.  In December she started complaining of stomach and digestion issues after drinking milk.  This has been an adjustment for her because she was finally enjoying milk.  She also likes all other dairy products like yogurt, cheese, ice cream, and cheesecake!  She now drinks almond milk and doesn't eat what the rest of us eat.  It's amazing how many meals I make that have either milk or cheese in them.  

This fun girl is Melanie!  Rebecah's BFF since Kindergarten.  Melanie was a "wife" in the school musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat.  Rebecah and I went to support Melanie during one of her performances and she sent us this picture.  It was a fun night for Rebecah and me.  We stopped for French fries on the way home because ice cream and milk shakes are now off the table.

Grandma Bev had a birthday!  She's 84!  The kids and I took her a card and a piece of red velvet cake.  We love Grandma Bev and she's such an important part of our lives.

Indoor track ended for Kimball this month.  He did very well in his meets.  He scored personal records in every meet he competed.  He's now eager for outdoor track to begin.

It was a big month for Kimball.  As many of you know, he applied to be a foreign exchange student in October.  He was officially accepted into the Rotary International Foreign Exchange program in January.  He will be going to the Netherlands.  He will be there from the end of August 2024 to the end of June 2025.  We are very excited for him, although, we will miss him a lot, too.  The day he received his placement he and I started learning Dutch on Duolingo.  He is already better at it than I am.  I have made two traditional Dutch foods and Kimball has enjoyed trying those.

The other big news for Kimball was that he finally got a job.  A new Mexican restaurant opened three minutes from our house and Kimball applied for a job there back in December.  The boss kept putting Kimball off, but finally called him after a really busy night when the restaurant was swamped with customers.  Kimball LOVES his job.  He is the only non-native Spanish speaker that works there so he speaks Spanish.  He said his Spanish speaking abilities have improved a lot.  His boss finally admitted that he didn't want to hire Kimball because he thought Kimball wouldn't be a hard worker.  He told Kimball that he "works like a Mexican" which was high praise for Kimball.  

Annika attended a roller skating birthday party for Emily.  Annika LOVES to roller skate, so she was thrilled with this party venue.

In other news, the three little ones switched rooms at the end of December and the new room assignments are working out great!  Annika and Eden now share the big room.  I was worried that Eden might be too messy for Annika, but she isn't.  Annika encourages Eden to clean up when needed, and they are getting along so well.  They play a lot more together than they did before becoming roommates.  Lincoln now has his own room and he loves that.  We moved a lot of his toys to the basement so he would have less stuff to keep up with.  His room isn't as tidy as the girls' room is, but he has managed to keep it much cleaner than ever before.  

Sadly, we have had very little snow this month.  The ground is bare outside.  Joseph especially is feeling the loss of the snow.  He can't ski, snowshoe, or build a snow fort, but he also can't go biking or golfing.  He has practiced his violin a lot this month and done a fair amount of reading.