Here Comes A New Shelmet

A bunch of stuff was going on in January that I haven't written about yet, so this is a quick catch up post. Zoe had her first ever roller derby practice on January 12th! About 5 minutes after we got there the power went out, so it was a very non-standard practice, but I was able to take one picture of Zoe sitting under the emergency lighting. She seemed to enjoy it, so hopefully she'll stick with it. After the practice was over we had plans to hang out with the Millers. When we got to G4's house, we decided to take all the little kids out to an indoor play area that had things to climb on, video games, a bounce house, and a giant stuffed bear! Everyone had a great time, even though no one seemed to be significantly exhausted when the playing was done. It seems like a long time ago now that Zoe lost her two front teeth, but Cheryl was able to take a couple good shots of her this past week to highlight her gap tooth smile. It will be gone eventually, so be...

We invited a number of friends over that we hadn't seen in a long time to hang out and eat tamales, among other things. Of course it didn't take long for the kids to start riding Kellie around the house. She was actually very well behaved, all things considered. This was also our first opportunity to meet Idris. Now I don't want to sound jaded, but I believe that there is something wrong with the child and he needs to be returned to wherever they got him from because he took one look at me and started crying. That's ridiculous! All kids love me! And, of course, Zoe wanted to hold him for some pictures and he was super thrilled about that. I mean, the kid is just generally unhappy. At one point when he was sitting on my lap I had to hold my hand in front of my own face to keep him from crying. He never even looked content when anyone was holding him. Pay no attention to the adorable baby Cheryl is holding! All of the kids got along really well. Babies pla...

It is becoming a trend that the Strouts are the last people we see as the year comes to a close and the first people we interact with as the new year begins. This year brought all of us to Mad Mex, our favorite, local Mexican restaurant. The children really seemed to enjoy it, even if they were being a little bit silly. I honestly have no idea where they get this from. Once we got home they were happy to play games and got a little more serious when it was time to take pictures. I'm not sure what is up with Zoe's face in these shots, but I think she's angling for her modeling career to kick off in 2019. We still had the little, glittery crowns from last year, which is always a festive addition. Orly also decided to channel the energy from the stones to help ensure that the new year would be full of positivity, or something like that. It was also decided that Zoe would officially belong to both families from this day forward. I'm not sure who made tha...