HAPPY NEW YEAR!

     We spent our New Years Eve in. We watched some old movies like TMNT 2: The Secret of the Ooze. After the kiddos were in bed we played some of this silly shooter on the Xbox called Shoot Many Robots. Loving it. It's really easy and amusing. It's ever so slightly crude. Nothing complicated. At least, if you find swarms of psycho robots and redneck humor amusing you'll likely enjoy it. We do. So, yeah. Doesn't hurt that it was free on the Xbox live thingy. Oh, and I made more pumpkin bread and banana nut bread* because we NEEDED it. Hubster also introduced me to Sangria Señorial. YUM!

      We shared our smooch at 12 on the dot and tried to remember what happened this past year. Ha! Kids wipe your memory out like nothing else. Obviously, the best part of our year was the arrival of our sweet Pumpkin. We had a lot of ups and downs with job changes, job loss, school, and what have you. Thankfully we have each other and a wonderful, supportive family to help us push through. We're looking forward to all the prospects on the horizon of the new year. We'll be moving, working through school, and continuing to adapt to being a family of five.

My hopes for the new year:
- A bigger place with a safe yard for the kids to play in
- Getting another year closer to being debt free
- Being healthier all around
- An awesome new job
- Finishing my degree (we'll see about that)
- Making something more of my photography and this blog
- A puppy (not likely but a girl can hope!!)
- Starting some "homeschool preschool" with my girls in the Fall
- Health and happiness for my family, of course

2013 in Summary
     Enrolled in school. New couch. New TV. Debt paid. Pink dinosaur birthday. Wonderful News! Mini golf. Softball games. AT. Lost my cat :( 4th anniversary. Elmo birthday. Big girl beds. Continuing school. Grant came through! Job lost. Becoming a family of five. 3 kids 3 and under. One is potty trained!! Job found. Thanksgiving trip. Snow storm. A's and B's. 5th married Christmas.

    Also, I must admit that I was a terrible southern lady today. No black eyed peas, greens, or cornbread here. Calm down. It'll be all right. I did make bread. ;)

Here's to a new year!

*I stared for five minutes trying to decide whether to write "pumpkin and banana nut breads" or "pumpkin bread and banana nut bread" or just "breads".

Two Awesome Apps for Little Kids

I decided to go switch out some of the games for the girls on my iPad. It's really an awesome tool for quiet time or traveling. I went searching through the app store for some new stuff and found two really great games!

The first is Injini: Child Development Game Suite by NCSOFT.

We've only had it open for a couple minutes and my almost-3 year old is enthralled. We started with the free version because I don't buy any apps without trying them first if I can help it. The full version is on the higher end for kid's game apps for iOS at $29.99 so I may never drop that much $$$ for it but the "lite" version still has plenty of activities. There's tracing, matching, puzzles, and lots of other cute activities. The look of it is very warm and colorful. Most of the voices and sounds aren't terribly obnoxious but there is some beeping. Of course, that's why we have volume control and/or headphones. The only downside is that it only looks to be compatible with the iPad.

The other is Endless Alphabet by Callaway Digital Arts, Inc. This game is for the iPad, iPod, and iPhone. It just so happens that today you can get it FREE!!

Go to the app store and download it ASAP. If you hate it, delete it but I think it's adorable. It's a word game with a puzzle-like template. It's very interactive. As the letters are moved they make the relative sound (so Luh Luh Luh for the L and Ah Ah Ah for A). My favorite thing is that it's a bunch of very cute monster characters. I can't resist cute, colorful monsters.

Enjoy!!