High Jinks in January

For New Year's Eve we went to the Sweetwood's house for some food, games, and a sleepover! We had a blast with these crazy kids! Erin, Ryan, Holly, Ryan, Drew, and Michelle

Londyn, Genevieve and Sadie reading scriptures before bed. :)

Since Boston's diagnosis of Sensory Processing Dysfunction, we've made some changes to get him emotionally ready for kindergarten. Boston needs more sleep in order to cope better, but napping isn't conducive to an all day kindergarten schedule. We decided that Boston would get more nighttime sleep with Brooklyn as a roommate instead of Sadie. They are in bunk beds and we only had a toddler bed for Brooklyn. Ryan flew into action and whipped up this bed frame for $40.

I was impressed he came up with the plans himself and it even had a headboard.

Sadie loves her new bed and Boston gets an average of 45 min to an hour more sleep per night. Win win.

The kids skyping with Grandpa and Grandma Alkema

This girl gets away with so much! She has me wrapped around her little finger!

Visiting the Cardon family is always a blast! Hannah, Sadie, Eliza, Brooklyn, Christopher, Boston, and Jane

Raeanna, Paul, and Ryan

Haha! Paul!

Raeanna and Erin

Ryan turned 34 in January. Can I tell you that this man is AMAZING??

He ended up having 2 birthday cakes. One from the Cardons and then another one from the Kelleys. He sure is loved! Ray and Ryan

We had a random mid-week/mid-day date to finally go see the Star Wars Movie for some birthday fun.

Brooklyn insisted on dressing as a super hero fairy who loves her monkey.

Boston has a difficult time managing his emotions when there is a lot of noise. His auditory processing is very sensitive. (for example: Sadie figured out years ago that it "hurts" Boston more to scream at him than to yell at him) The occupational therapist put him on a desensitization program to decrease his sensitivity. Twice a day for 10 weeks he would wear these headphones with music programmed to desensitize him. This will help him with the normal noise/chaos of a kindergarten classroom.

We were soooooooooo excited that Aunt Ashley moved here to be closer to us!

Sadie wants to be an artist when she grows up.

I just love this freehand drawing!

She requested a picture before church one day.

This girl loves to feel fancy.

That wraps up January besides Brooklyn's 3rd birthday, but that will be another post. So long folks!