January

Josh and I often talk about life while we take the dog for a walk. I really love our walks because we dream, or process, or problem solve. Lately our walks have involved me wearing winter boots, gloves, a hat, and snow coat... AND sometimes carrying an umbrella, Ha! I'm not a big fan of the cold, so every January and February I work hard to distract myself from the fact that it's cold here. And dream about warmer climates. ;) I wish I could make myself a snowy mountain person, because we have a lot of that readily available here, but really, I'm a warm weather beach person through and through. Thankfully we have pretty mild winters here, usually only getting a day or two of snow, but I often wish that Oregon were a warmer state.

The upside is that we have had lots of opportunities to play games after dinner in the winter months, lay by the fire and read, go for bundled walks, bike rides, play in the occasional snow, and make trips to the beach, where the winter days can often be especially beautiful!

Our neighborhood got a lovely day of snow in January! Everyone emerged from their homes and took advantage of our great sledding hills.

We've been playing a game called Swipe non-stop it seems, and it's not Selah's favorite, so we taught the kids Canasta again and Selah loves it!

But then Canasta made me miss the game Dominoes, so we were onto that next. :)

The kids and I did some watercolor painting for a couple days. We took inspiration from paintings we saw online and tried to duplicate them...

One day we drove to the beach just to enjoy a couple hours of sunshine...

The kids have taken a couple of virtual field trips through a science museum and they've been a lot of fun, actually!

We celebrated Christmas with Josh's side of the family in January. Grandpa Mike read the Christmas story, a favorite tradition. We had a lovely time and love being together!

It was a big day for me when our baby grand piano arrived!! I was overjoyed! It has felt sooo good to be playing piano again each day. And I love hearing the kids play, and Josh is even teaching himself and doing great!

My mom came to visit and see the long awaited piano. ;)

And get some grandkid snuggles...

We sure enjoy having a musical family!

My brother Matt got a beautiful new guitar so it's been fun hearing these two instruments together.

I think the Westle-Buns misses the sunshine and warm weather too, but he warms his feet by the fire. ;)

He also never misses an opportunity for belly rubs!

My dad came to sit on the front porch with me, by my heater. :) Westley and I both loved his company.

I'm grateful that getting out for walks is easy to do, and that the days are getting longer!

One day we walked to visit Great Grandma Fegles, who lives near us. We can only visit through the window, but it was wonderful to see her sweet, smiley face.

Beautiful sky on one walk...

School in the backyard hammocks...

School in the kitchen..

Time in the backyard tree...

Swipe on the front porch...

And with Matt and Gina...

Well kids, would you say January was a good month?

I agree, it was a great month!