Insta-life January

January means Girl Scout cookie sales!!

After we came home from Riddle, our dishwasher decided it was worn out. Given that we had just put money into fixing a part last year, we starting thinking this may be a pattern we didn't want to pay for. We were able to find a year-end clearanced dishwasher that would be delivered the next morning. In preparation of not having to wash dishes by hand another day, I let the dishes from the morning and lunch pile up. And then....the new dishwasher didn't work! AAHHH! Thankfully Neal came to the rescue and tackled this massive pile of dishes =)

Well our new dishwasher required a new control board, so that meant another week of washing dishes. I tried to be deliberately grateful for these 4 mouths to feed and enough food to keep their bellies full, with every dish I washed!

Daddy's workout crew! Pushing that load around will definitely burn a few calories!!

Sadness and taking time to reflect on each blessing in our life has reminded me to s.l.o.w. d.o.w.n, embrace each snuggle and enjoy these moments, because a moment can be so fleeting.

Ainsley has discovered how to take her own pictures and post them to Instagram! If you ever are curious what the world to a 20 month old who is trying to be sneaky with mom's phone looks like....well now you know!!

A little late...Christmastime photos

So much to say, so many reason...instead of going into each one of them, I'm going to focus on sharing the wonderful memories we captured from Christmastime. When I go back through the photos, I always realize that we only captured a small portion of the memories, but we will be grateful for each photo and each moment!

Christmas eve- treats for Santa and the reindeer; Kerner Christmas 2013

Kerner tradition- Christmas morning on the stairs

Reading the story of Christmas; Ainsley's stocking is almost as big as her! Ella loves her gifts.

So full of expressions!! Thank you G-G for the purses =)

 Christmas in Riddle was extra special this year! Everyone came over for the 1st time in a long time; Uncle Sam, Aunt Shannon, Porter, Wyatt, Auntie P, Zoey, Uncle Patrick and his girlfriend Mindy, Grandma Bernice, dad, and the 5 of us! Lots of gifts, lots of people, lots of wonderful smiles and memories!!!

Ainsley quickly loved Mindy. She sat with Mindy reading books most of the morning =)

Aubrey- 4 1/2, Wyatt- 4 1/2, Porter 5 1/2, Ainsley- 20 months, Zoey- 8, Ella- 7

I love everything about this picture! A lot of time and a lot of distance has brought us to this point and I am so happy to call each one of these people my family!