January Randoms

*Several of my favorite bloggers have come up with a "theme word" for 2013... for them personally and/or their family. Sooo, it got me thinking about what our theme word should be. (This is when my husband tells me I have too much time on my hands. Haha.) It wasn't easy coming up with one word to hopefully describe 2013 for the Selph household, but one finally came to me and sort of stuck... NEW. This year we're hoping, praying, and planning for lots of things new. New experiences and paths and changes. (Except I think all changes are new because that's the definition of change...) But, as we've learned time and time again, God is in control and He will ultimately decide the theme of our year. Still, I'm excited about the new God has planned.

*Speaking of new... Call us tech-savvy, hip, and finally in cause my husband and I are the proud new owners of.... drum roll please.... iphones! Yay for moving out of the 90s. Haha! We've never been able to justify spending oodles of money on new phones or increasing our monthly budget by too much for the sake of a data plan when we already pay for internet on our trusty laptop. Sooo, we never drank the koolaid. Never really even wanted to. But, after some new developments arose my husband felt the need to at least look into it. More for him than me, but since we come as a package deal and it's typically cheaper to purchase in pairs, we both got one! My awesome, money saving husband got our phones for FREE and made sure that the ole data plan wouldn't add too much to the monthly budget. Yay!! I'm not fully devoted or sold or in love just yet, BUT, I am excited. =)

*Planning our summer vacation to the beach this year was rough. And we're all still collectively holding our breath because it isn't technically official until the deposit (which was mailed today) is received. The whole process of the search was time consuming and stress inducing like you wouldn't believe. Seriously. It felt like round the clock search mode around here. Then we'd set our sights on one only to have it snatched away. I have no idea why this year was so tough. For one thing it seems like people booked early. Real early. Some places we looked into had the whole summer booked already. I don't remember that being the case in previous years. Then I guess you could say our "requirements" played a teensy role. There are vacation days to be considered (because despite the fact that my sister and I have a long summer break, everyone else in the family works a normal job). Then there's the fact that our pets travel with us. We are dog people. They are members of our family. Where we go, they go. Then there's the issue of bedrooms and bathrooms cause we stay for a whole week and we all need a place to eat, sleep, and sit down. Then there's the fact that we prefer being directly on the beach. Call us greedy. Then there's the fact that as a general rule we aren't made of money. Soooo, combine all that with the fact that places booked up early and you've got yourself a stressful, time consuming situation. Good gracious. We think we have the one though! Praise the Lord the search and phone calls and emails and weighing of pros and cons appears to be over!

*Garrison Cade is loving his new Bible he got for Christmas. It is so precious. He loved the short and simple Bible stories from his "old" Bible, but his new one with longer, detailed stories has made him even more impressed and curious and intrigued. So far we've read several new Bible stories that weren't included in his old Bible and David and Goliath and Jonah and the Big Fish multiple times. He even brings it to the table with him for breakfast so I can read to him. Love!

*Speaking of my firstborn, he now has homework! Part of me loves it, part of me... not so much. Adding one more thing to our afternoons/evenings doesn't always sound appealing. But this homework is given on Monday and due on Friday and it's something fun we can do together. (I don't have to do it for him.) His class is working on letter sounds and each week he'll bring home 2 letters to fill up with pictures, stickers, drawings, etc of things that start with those letters. A and B were a huge hit. I found the items or stickers and he cut and pasted/peeled and stuck. Then we discussed the sounds of those letters. And after supper last night he requested to watch the Letter Factory movie AnAn gave him for Christmas. Yay for learning letter sounds!

*My baby boy has had a bit of a rough time of it lately. Poor baby just can't kick those nasty ear infections. The pediatrician's office has been our home away from home for quite some time now. Sooo, we're heading to the ENT soon. Thankfully he doesn't let it keep him down. He sleeps great, eats great, and loves keeping up with Garrison. Those 2 are playing together more and more. I love it... especially when Garrison is gentle and sharing versus too rough and not sharing. Haha. I'm just thankful they love playing together so much! 

*Garrison's 4th birthday party is almost completely planned. We have a few purchases to make, including his gift, but all the details are finalized and ready to go. While the party is 99% planned, a few other details aren't yet. I want to do something special on his actual birthday, which falls on a Tuesday this year. I'm not sure how much or little to do. A special breakfast? Letting him decide school or no school... or is that a bad habit? Planning a fun day if he decides not to go to school? Letting him decide on his dinner... cooked by me or out at a restaurant? Hmmmm. Then there's the matter of that special something he wants to do just with mama and daddy. Last year we decided we'd plan a special outing with just us and the birthday kid for each of our kids as a new tradition. We didn't do it with Austin for his 1st birthday so it may start at the 2nd or 3rd birthday. Garrison has mentioned another train ride but we can't decide if we should encourage something new and different. Guess we'll think on it and then let him make the final decision? Hmmm.

*This weekend is the first one in a loooong time I'm not really looking forward to. Terrell has a work party Friday night and I have a Premier thing all day long Saturday. I guess there's Sunday to look forward to. I'm just going to miss us all being together. I'm definitely looking forward to next weekend being a long one with everyone together in the same place. =)