week 1 - 52 collages 2014 - thekarpiuksWow, it’s the first week of 2014 and what an exciting week it has been! 2014 started off with a bang when we made a major purchase on New Year’s Eve… a minivan! With two 12-year old cars, it was time to upgrade one of them to something with a bit more room, especially with Lila coming next month. Yup, now that it’s January we can officially say that she’ll be here next month. Speaking of Lila on the way, Liam began practicing with the “Lila doll” that he received for Christmas. Showing us how he can hold a baby gently and carefully makes him BEAM with pride. He can’t wait to be a big brother.

We’ve had a rocking good time over the holiday break. It was Winston’s 6th birthday and Liam baked him pretend cupcakes and they’ve pretty much been in matching superhero capes together all week. Liam is quite the little chef these days (hence the chef hat & apron, and play kitchen) and helps make all kinds of things, like mini pizzas.

Over break we did a lot of cleaning, organizing, and purging. All of the closets, everything. We’ve started getting Lila’s room ready, and with a new laminator (thanks, mom and dad!) we preserved a bunch of Liam’s artwork to keep in our new hope chest (more thanks to mom and dad!) to make way for decorating the baby’s room. Liam got to work making more owl art for her room from his hand prints.

And then there’s the snow. Lots of snow. We got several inches a few days ago, but it’s been so cold that it never got a chance to fully melt before we added another 8-10″ to the mix this weekend. And they’re calling for the coldest temperatures we’ve experienced in nearly 20 years starting tomorrow, so we made sure to take advantage of the snow while we could still play in it safely. The boys shoveled the driveway and Liam climbed (and had fun getting thrown into) huge snow “mountains” that continued to grow as the snow kept falling.

All in all, not a bad start to the new year! We’re looking forward to expanding our family next month and all of the adventures that will go with it. 2014 promises to be truly wonderful for the Karpiuks. Happy New Year to you and yours as well!