January Review

I decided I’m going to make a better attempt of memory keeping for our family this year. I have wanted to create “year books” for a long time, and I’m thinking blogging about our day to day lives each month will help with this endeavor. I also want to write more this year. I love Instagram and sharing my life through photographs, but I also long for more time writing. I hope this be a push in the right direction.

January was a still and quiet month, my favorite after a busy holiday season. I honestly love January, there’s more light and I relish the self reflection that a new year brings. We have much to look forward to in 2019, most importantly our upcoming wedding in October. Priscilla is growing and doing well and achieved some fun milestones this month.

Here is what January 2019 looked like for us:

We started sleep training right after Christmas and it has gone so, so well for us. I wrote about it in another post, but essentially we’ve got a routine for P and her naps and nighttime sleep have greatly improved. I find that I mother best when I’m well rested, and P is her best self, too— so I do all that I can to achieve great rest for our whole family. A big part of this was getting her room set up. She loves her cozy, feminine nursery.

I didn’t do a big birthday celebration this year, and that’s just fine. I did end up making myself a delicious, decadent, divine birthday cake at home one snowy Sunday night. Honestly, Seth and I ended up eating most of this and really that means I did. It was so, so good: classic yellow cake with thick, chocolate frosting.

Priscilla is at the age where she loves to watch me work in the kitchen. She sits up in her Bumbo chair and just stares with fascination at whatever I am doing. She likes to hold these adorable mini spatulas that I’ve had for years.

We went down to Worthington a few weeks ago to visit Seth’s mom and dad and to see if Astro wanted to have puppies with Simon’s parent’s dog, Kita. Their encounter didn’t go well, haha, so we may be back. It was nice to visit. We ended up going to a delicious restaurant in nearby, picturesque Luverne, Minnesota for a birthday dinner in honor of Grandma Cindy. On our way home, we stopped at our favorite little coffee shop in St. Peter, they have the best sandwiches.

Iola baked us a delicious roasted chicken for lunch one day. I love how P takes so well to new places and people. She loved some Iola snuggles

Before the temps got super cold I ventured over to Jess’ house for an afternoon of catching up. I love seeing P interact with other kids, she loves them! I’m thinking I need to up my game on playdates, she seems to really enjoy them. Calvin and Beckett were so sweet with her, too.

We’ve endured some cold temps, a polar vortex hit Minnesota and we stayed inside for an entire week! I honestly don’t mind too much, we baked/cooked a ton and I got a handful of organizational projects done around the house. It feels so good to get things in order.

I’ve been booking more sessions here and there and it feels great to be photographing again. Some recent sessions can be seen over on my photography blog here.

Wedding wise we’ve gotten quite a bit done: we have our date, church booked, reception hall reserved, and I bought my dress! I plan on sharing more about all of that in a different post. It is such an exciting, joy filled time. I still cannot believe it. I’m so excited to marry Seth this coming fall.

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