Birthdays and Belts

The end of November and early December was extremely full!  On Thanksgiving Day our oldest, the kiddo who made me a mom, turned 18!!!!  What?!?!?!?!  Ephraem must have known it was a special day for Aidan because he really didn't want to leave his side at all.  So sweet!  These two boys are almost 17 years a part in age, but the bond they have is absolutely precious!

 Sweet Ephraem refused to take a nap around mid-day and fell asleep with turkey in his mouth during our late Thanksgiving lunch.  

 Another picture of my two boys!

 These little kids sure do love their brother!  It's hard to believe that he's an adult now and will be graduating high school in the spring.  I know it sounds cliche, but the time really does go by so quickly.  It was unanimous on the night of his birthday that Aidan would get to "do the honors" and read the bedtime book!  😊

The next birthday was Bella's 4th!  She has been asking if it was her birthday for weeks and weeks.  The poor girl got nailed with a stomach bug about 24 hours before her big day so I was a little nervous about what she would be like on her birthday.  Thankfully she made a full recovery and was so excited all day long!  We had a huge snow storm (2 feet!) that day as well so it was a wonderful day to stay cozy inside and celebrate our sweet little girl.

The second Saturday of December we found ourselves watching the two oldest girls test for their adult black belts.  They have both been youth black belts for awhile and it was definitely time for them to upgrade.  7 hours of testing later they were awarded their promotion to First Dan Black Belt!  

 This guy was such a trooper, which means he ran around like he owned the place. The youngest two weren't there for the whole 7 hours, "only" 5 hours.  

I didn't get too many pictures because I was too busy soaking it all in....and running around after small children.  These two were amazing!  It's so fun to watch your kids grow in a skill and gain the respect of those around them.  They worked so well together and encouraged each other (even when they were beating each other up)!  

Winter Clothes Organization

Winter is here yet again.  Every year it's a challenge trying to keep all of the winter clothes from taking over our entire house.  I'm trying some new things this year that will hopefully help to keep everything organized.

 Everyone's snow boots are now upstairs.  In the past all of our boots would be kept downstairs, but our wood burning stove is upstairs which means our basement is significantly cooler freezing cold. This meant no one's boots would dry before they were needed again....not fun! As long as this crew can remember to bring their boots upstairs (or just come inside upstairs) then I have high hopes for this to work!

All winter coats (plus snowpants for Marci on down) are in the closet downstairs. Each of the big kids has one nice winter coat and the little ones have two complete coat/snowpant sets.  They tend to get much more wet and it's not practical to use the dryer mid-day to dry snowclothes (it's usually being used for laundry), hence the extra set.   

Extra hats, gloves, mittens, and scarves are kept on the shelf in the closet.

 Each kid (except Ephraem) has a pocket (Isabella at the bottom and Aidan at top) with hats, waterproof gloves/mittens for being in the snow, and car gloves/mittens for...well...the car.  The younger crew has two sets of each because they lose them or leave them in the car.

Snowpants, scarves, and Stormy Kromers on the hooks.

 In the interest of car seat safety for the winter both Bella and Ephraem wear these in the car.  They are made of a thin fleece material that keeps them warm and allows for their carseats to be tight enough to keep them safe!  All other kids are either in boosters or regular seats (or driving!!!) and wear their winter coats. 

As I type this the wind is howling outside and our first major snow is said to be on it's way. I'm excited to give our new organizational plan a try!  

To see a video of this check out my YouTube Channel here!