Happy New Year!! I hope everyone had a great time celebrating last night! Every year we ring in the new year with our church friends. It’s always a bit of work with kids getting sleepy/crabby long before midnight…especially since Don has always been working or sleeping while I’m on my own with all the kids. But I have always loved it!
This year, however, looked a little different for us. And a little spoiler alert–it didn’t look anything like these pictures 😉 Desmond was diagnosed with pneumonia in both lungs on Saturday and everyone else has been coughing all week and taking turns running fevers, so I thought it was best for us to stay home. I was a bit disappointed to miss out but I was also slightly relieved.
Don worked until 11 last night so the thought of hauling 6 kids all by my pregnant self to a party (when the temperatures were in the negatives) just didn’t sound very appealing. I told the kids we’d have our own party for anyone who could manage to stay awake.
We loaded up on homemade pizza and snacks and I told the kids that we’d play games after Desmond and Clementine went to bed. But then they went to bed and I was out of energy. Remember–pregnancy + sickness. I suggested a movie, which they gladly agreed to, and then I crafted with the 3 boys until Don got home. So we never got around to playing any games but I think they actually had more fun crafting with me instead. And the best part is that I got to do it all in my pajamas haha.
When the clock struck midnightish (Don’s countdown app conveniently stopped working at 11:59) we toasted with sparkling grape juice, watched the fireworks from our living room windows, and went to bed. And it was in that moment that I was so very thankful that I was not loading up 6 kids to drive home and shuffle to bed.
And now we’re spending New Year’s Day the same way I think we do every year. Sitting at home while my kids have limitless energy and I’m over here, extremely exhausted. Don is working all day again so we’ll be surviving on Netflix and leftover snacks. Not the most exciting start to 2018 but I know it’s only going to get better.
And that’s because this is the year we’re having baby #7! I’m officially only 6 weeks away from my due date–which seems so crazy to me! I slightly panicked the other night when I realized how close that is. We don’t have a name for our baby girl yet and it’s still hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that we’re about to add another family member. But even though I don’t feel completely ready yet, we are so excited to meet this baby girl! She has a whole houseful of people ready to love on her.
And while “have a baby” may be my only official resolution, I do also have a few other things I’d like to work on over the year. Of course there’s the stereotypical “lose weight” resolution–but that’ll wait until after I have the baby, obviously. I also hope to improve my photography/editing. And there’s always room to work on being more patient with my children and being more hands on/intentional with them. Especially with giving them more one on one attention and encouraging their individual interests.
2017 was a great year for us! I really look forward to seeing what 2018 holds!
Thank you so much to everyone who has followed along on our family’s journey this past year! I’m looking forward to sharing this next year with you all! Happy 2018!
(the above picture is my top 9 instagram posts from 2017. You can find yours by going to this website HERE.)