Come for the Update, Stay for the Pictures

I was planning to get to the blog sooner tonight, but evidently cutting four sets of fingernails and four sets of toenails (yes, that's eighty nails total) all in a row and then reading half of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory out loud to the big boys took more time than I anticipated.

Still, it is the third to last day of January, and this month has been all about settling in and reestablishing routine, and writing is a big part of that for me (no matter how often I consider just chucking it all). So I'd like to welcome you in to 2016 almost a month late and let you know that:

• we have moved (and three weeks after being here, Owen still refers to it as our new home)
• school has started again, and we've added a student--Tiny, who decided to stop praying that he would learn to read and start actually learning
• there are pictures on the walls and library books on every flat surface in our home (also, the library is only two blocks away--yes!)
• our guest room is still in boxes, so don't buy plane tickets yet
• I went for my first run of 2016 on Tuesday and my second today (incidentally also my first runs since the surgery). I have now totaled five miles and I am sore. 
• we had birthdays while I was on hiatus, and suddenly there is a six year old, a four year old, and two two year olds running the house (if that looks like a typo: it's not).
• if you put a dog leash in your mouth and your brother gives it an encouraging yank, you can easily lose a front tooth that was formerly not loose at all.

I think that's most of the important stuff. But before we leave, here's A LOT OF PICTURES!

While the Man hung out with the movers, the kids and I went on a few more Monterey adventures. Here we are at the Monarch butterfly sanctuary.

Then we went to the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History where Littles tried to learn anything he might possibly have missed about marine life.

They had sand there from all over the world. It made me happy.

Tiny liked the turtle. He got his genes from his aunt.

Bruiser was pretty sure all the birds were geese.

I tried to get a picture of her with her favorite display (the butterflies), but every time she was beside them she was too excited to sit still.

The twins turned two! We took this super typical family photo!

Road trip! Four kids, three pets, and two very out-numbered adults.

Sucked into Mrs Piggle Wiggle.

He only let them do this while he was sleeping.

Bruiser: the awake version

Bee developed some new talents between Monterey and San Antonio. {No pictures of Road Trip Tiny included because he was on the wrong side of the vehicle}

Our first meal in the new house. Minus the Man because he was in processing And Bee because she didn't make it in the picture and then my phone died.

FREDDIES!

Well, this side of the table was excited.

Tiny turned 4!

And wanted to show you our house.

And Littles turned six!

So now he thinks he's big enough to walk the dog.

And to look like this. Stop the madness.

:Last picture to prove that we're already discovering as many playgrounds as possible on base.

Now that you're all caught up and your eyes are bleeding from too many pictures, I'll stop writing for another month and see you sometime in late February. Good plan!