January

We got home from California and settled in for a few more months of winter. Every winter I tell myself I'll make the best of it. Get out and enjoy the snow, embrace the season. We did our best. Lucy enjoyed the snow until her hands got cold and then cried hysterically until we came inside and got them warmed up. I got my exercise by pulling both kids around the backyard on the sled. 

Lucy's battle wounds. She got in a fight with the trampoline and the cupboard door.

Staying sane with dance parties. Trolls soundtrack on repeat, dance light, and scarves make for a fun night.

Playing farm and a tea party, all on the table of course so Lucy doesn't RUIN it.

SO MUCH SNOW!

Watercolors and snow after church. That lasted 5 minutes.

Assembling our Saturday Ikea haul.

The library closest to us is under construction so we've ventured out to a few other branches. They've been renovated and we LOVE them. It makes us so excited to have ours finished. 

Lucy looking so big. Still lacking hair but she's working the mullet.

Joined a local mommy hiking group for a snowy hike. Met some nice moms, Ellie ran around and ate lots of snow. Sometimes staying home with the kids is so much easier than packing them up and going out somewhere. I usually refuse to interrupt Lucy's afternoon nap, it's a nice quiet time for all of us. Sometimes the stars align and we get out for an adventure, it's always a good time, even if the adventure are few and far between these days. 

Jared and I made the decision to start implementing R&R back into Ellie's day. This kids just has so much energy and really benefits from a little nap. Since she stopped napping I would let her have quiet/alone time in the play room sometimes with a movie on. Well this wasn't working. Every 15 minutes she would come into the other room asking for a snack or some other bizarre request. I could tell by the look on her face that she was about to fall asleep and thought up some reason to get up as to not let herself fall asleep. WHY DO KIDS FIGHT SLEEP?! So she wouldn't take a cat nap and come dinner time she would be melting down at the dinner table. So tired she couldn't think straight. I was loosing my temper frequently at the dinner table and so we made the decision to bring back R&R. We have her lay in our bed with some books. I have her stay in for 1 hour, we show her the hands on the clock and tell her not to come out until the hand is on the right number. She falls asleep 95% of the time. I let her stay in the room for about an hour and a half and we are all much much happier. THE END ;)  

Ellie's future aspirations, waiter, rock star, police officer

She set the table by herself and even rolled the silverware. 

Saturday chores. We started having Ellie earn a little money for chores around the house. Usually she just gets a quarter maybe two. It sure gets her excited and she does a pretty good job. Her favorite is vacuuming the couch and washing windows. She does a pretty good job on the bathroom sink too! 

Ellie's artistic skills have really improved lately. It's so fun to see. This is a drawing of Grandpa Ric surfing. 

So much snow again. The shoveling never stopped. Those mountains of snow were so high! 

We survived you January, one more month of Winter!