Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Things I learned (or re-learned) in 2019: by Marc

1.  My wife Stephanie is so smart.
 
2.  If you kick over a 5-gallon bucket of black paint while wearing tan boots, it might just be best to finish painting the boots and then pretend that the boots were always black.
 
 3.  A DIY swingset isn’t the most appropriate surprise to put together on Christmas Eve in the dark.

 4.  Time with my wife, kids, and parents is the most precious resource I have. I need to become a better steward of that time.

5.      A basement door that is left open has a way of inviting in reptiles and rodents.

6.      I’m now into year four of constant organizational change at work. There’s no need to change jobs if I get a fresh start every six months!

7.      Macy really, truly doesn’t care where I take her to dinner. She just wants me to decide for her so that she can use all of her energy to tell me about her day at school.

8.      Having a driveway is a helpful feature if you want friends and family to visit you.

9.      There’s such a thing as competitive clogging, and Kayla is awesome at it!

10.  Having a smart/connected home is all nice and good until your internet goes out and Alexa can’t turn on your Christmas tree lights.

11.  Sometimes saying no to an opportunity that you’ve yearned for provides great perspective despite the pain.

12.  Frogs, turtles, and snakes don’t like saltwater pool water.

13.  My wife does a phenomenal job of being exactly the mother that each of our kids needs.

14.  Whooping up on your family in the Cheaters Edition of Monopoly isn’t actually a good thing, but the time spent whooping them is a good thing.

15.  Rey’s last name.

16.  When a close friend who works an hour away randomly asks you to meet him for lunch at ChickFila on a weekday, it’s not for the chicken.

17.  Driving around Alaska with the family after tourist season is isolating, amazing, and refreshing.

18.  How I adapt to changing circumstances defines who I am.

19.  When Brooke grows up, she’s going to have some incredible childhood photos of her wearing her black headband with ears.

20.  I can’t google it, youtube it, and then build it as fast as she can pin it.

21.  Renting a rideshare scooter in Washington DC sounds like a great idea until you run a mile to the scooter’s location only to find that someone else just rented it.

22.  My family is full of blessings from God.

Monday, December 30, 2019

Family Fun

Christmas with Marc's family.


Instead of the cousins exchanging gifts we decided to have a fun morning together at Top Golf. 




Again, babies.


We came back to our house for pizza and game time while the brothers and Drew worked on the swing set.


 



It has been a busy Christmas season, but one filled with so much fun!

Wednesday, December 25, 2019

Christmas Day



Sweet goody bag from the Johnsons. The girls LOVED opening this. We've been sending the Johnsons little care packages since they moved away, and they brought us one for Christmas.

Love







This girl hand made me a stand with storage drawer for the keurig.



Bigger gifts this year:
swingset

hover board/go cart

cell phone

She got the hang of it pretty quickly.


Silly, fun game time

We continued our Christmas Day at my mom's house.


Such a wonderful day celebrating Christmas with my favorite people.

Tuesday, December 24, 2019

Christmas Eve 2019

Christmas Eve brunch.  It was extra special this year since we weren't able to have Thanksgiving with our extended family.

Babies are always a hit with my girls, and little Ruby was no exception.

Christmas Eve service


Goodness I love these girls!


Christmas Eve dinner at Nini's house

Brooke loves to swing, and she hated leaving our swingset behind when we moved.  Marc and I decided to build her one.  Simple, right? Five pieces of wood and a couple of brackets. Wrong. This was way too heavy for us to assemble. We had it put together to this point and hiding in the woods. Our plan was to stick the two pieces together Christmas Eve. If we kept going one, or both of us, would have spent the evening in the hospital.  Brooke was super understanding though.  When Marc's brothers were in town a couple days later they got it put together.

Saturday, December 21, 2019

Christmas Season Fun

This has been the story of our holiday season.  First the flu, then whatever virus I had that ended up lasting a month.  It took a Z-pack to finally knock it out.  The cough was so hard and painful.  The best place for me was in bed, not moving around much.  That was the only place I could find comfort.


Silly, drama girl.

Gingerbread house time! This is pretty typical for her.


They ran into Santa, and somehow Marc convinced Brooke to sit and have her picture taken with him.

Kayla had a birthday party at the mall, so we had some time to kill.  After a big Italian dinner we surprised these two with dessert from the Cheesecake Factory.  Macy has this thing for cheesecake. Brooke has this thing for chocolate cake, so it was a win for everyone!

Dance class party in pajamas.

This totally caught me off guard leaving a restaurant one night.  My car door was right next to this driver.  It didn't budge and was totally focused ahead.  The one in the passenger seat was sitting the same way until I walked by.



Friday, December 20, 2019

Chinese Lantern Festival

We headed down to Atlanta for a fun little adventure.  We took the girls to the Chinese Lantern Festival, and it did not disappoint. 

The Olympic water rings were a slight tempation for this one. 

It was a cold night, but the lights were spectacular.  Because it was a Thursday night the crowds were super light.









The girls loved these light up O swings. 


The performers were pretty amazing too.  



We were all quite chilly by the end of the night and ready to get back into the car, but we really enjoyed our little adventure down in Atlanta.