January happenings

While the weather has been frightful, we have tried and made the best of it from time to time with some travel (when possible) and get-together with friends.

 One Wednesday after library story time, I had an appointment downtown Bloomington at the Health Dept. so I treated Havers and I to lunch at Lucca's.  We walked in & she instantly wanted to sit at the bar...she thought the high bar stools were real cool. She, of course, instantly hit it off with the bartender :)

In mid-January, Arlan had his first mentoring training in Alto, MI.  So off we went with him, staying with Holly's parents, Howard & Kristin Plattner & spending Friday night with friends...Titus (Aaron & Bekah Plattner), Judah (Matt & Shelli Oesch), & Haven had a swell time playing.

And by that Sunday afternoon, the stomach flu hit our house starting with Haven...Arlan enjoyed the 24-hour bug by Tuesday and on Wednesday, it finally got me.

The bad roads didn't stop us from traveling to Gridley one Tuesday to get our Jeep worked on at Schlipf Automotive & gave Havers the excellent opportunity to play with cousins in Aunt Twyla's basement.

Her new Wedgit set has been a hit this long cold winter & she's loving making new creations.

 After a trip to the library...books get broken in very quickly!

Technically the next several pictures are from early February...we headed over to our friend's house last week to see if she needed help shoveling her driveway while her husband was traveling...she, being the wonder woman she is, had already dug herself out but her kids & Haven took advantage of the decent temps to shovel for a few more minutes.

[note-by "decent temps" I mean like 20 degrees]

Mr. Carter Jackson was welcomed into the world on 2/4/14...Congrats Jeremy & Rachel!

He's a doll!

Haven had the fun privilege of a friend over the other day...her & Charis hit it off beautifully & had quite a fun time coloring...

 ...reading books...

 ...heading to Ironkids Preschool together...

 ...a lunch date...

 ...and ehem, "quiet time" :)

 This past Friday, I had my 30 week sono (although I'm actually 32 weeks, almost 33 weeks pregnant) and so Havers and I turned our Peoria trip into a play date with the Hodel boys at the CAT museum.  It was a great way to spend an hour on a cold afternoon as the boys & even Haven LOVED the big construction pieces to climb up on & pretend to drive.

And last not but not least, we traveled to Urbana to get together with some friends, Jeff & Gretchen and their four boys...it was WAY past due!  Haven started out pretty shy but by the end of the night was jumping/running/wrestling with the best of the Moser boys!