Niece visits, Adam turns 5, new year begins!

I just had a moment where I realized that a new year started, and I haven't even started the photo book for 2014 yet. I just did the 2013 one, right?? Wow we have been here for almost 18 months, that is insane. I am excited for 2015, it will be a good year, I can feel it:). Everything will go so smoothly with selling our Calgary house in May, the Canadian dollar will JUMP back up to par so we can exchange the house proceeds over to US dollars (wishful thinking!), and we will buy a place of our own out here! My position on whether or not we want to stay here long term keeps flip flopping back in forth in my mind, but one thing that does not change too much is my desire to buy our own place this summer. It is a bit of a risk for us to do so if we don't stay for at least 3 or 4 more years, but I feel like it's a risk I want to take. Renting comes with it's perks, but I cannot see us wanting to do that for 2-4 more years. I guess we'll see how kind 2015 is to us in the housing department:).

Our little Adam turned 5 on New Years Eve (same as every other year;)). We didn't have a big party, it was too much so soon after coming back from Alberta and we know he doesn't want a party, either. We got him a cake and gave him his peanut ball and all was well:). I feel like 5 is a bit of a milestone, but the day came and went without a lot of emotions surrounding it. I would have thought at one time that I would be panicking when he turned 5 - I would see all the things he wasn't doing yet, and that he should be in Kindergarten at this age but there is no way he would be able to function in a Kindergarten class. I didn't have those feelings. I feel at peace about the path he is on and the treatment he is receiving, and I'm not panicking. Yes, as he gets older it gets more obvious that he is not typical and we do get more looks from strangers etc., but I feel surprisingly okay about it all. Maybe the panic comes in September when we actually have to put him in Kindergarten! It's looking likely that he will stay at RSA for his Kindergarten year, but I don't know that for sure yet. We will see how he finishes out this year.

We had some family visitors the second week of Christmas break! My niece Erica came to stay with us for a week. Another niece Shelby had a one night layover in Seattle as well so we got to see her, too. It was nice to hang out with some nieces that I don't get to see too often! We didn't do a whole lot, went to the Aquarium, had a few meals out, nothing too terribly exciting. Erica did take the train to Portland one day and I went up to Bellingham to meet up with my friend Lindsay, who lives in Langley. On Monday, our life got pretty much back to normal. Both kids were off to school and I took Shelby and Erica into downtown Seattle. We took a little walk in Pike Place Market and then I dropped the girls off to do the underground Seattle tour. I took Nathan to a playplace in South Lake Union and Brian even came with us since it was just around the corner from his building! Then I brought them to the airport and THEN our life got back to normal:). It's been really nice to get back to routine. I always love the time off from school and seeing family and doing things out of the ordinary for a while, but it was so nice to get back to the gym and regular grocery shopping etc. We caught up with some friends this past weekend and started our membership at KidsQuest Childrens museum, which is a really fun place for all the kids!

I also want to take a minute to say that we have crossed over - we are football fans. Not just Seahawks fans, although we definitely are that, but we actually recorded a game on Sunday while we were at church that was NOT Seahawks because we were interested in the game! And we were interested to see who the Seahawks will be playing next weekend. I never thought I would care about NFL football but I do! I still care about the Oilers and hope they can make something happen some year soon. I will continue to wait on the edge of my seat along with all other Oilers fans;).