Playing Catch-up: January

January Week 1 (Dec29 - Jan4)

 

 

Josh helped us welcome in the New Year before he went to bed by lighting up some sparklers!  This kid LOVES fireworks!

Here are the cowboy hats that I mentioned in my December post.  Audree's hat was automatically designated as the red one, and Josh the blue.  They love them!

These kiddos got some water color paints in their stockings for Christmas.  This is the first time that either of them have painted and they really enjoyed it.  Kept them occupied for a good 45+ minutes.  And what I love about water color paints is that they wipe right off.  Will definitely be pulling these out more often. 

Since I've been pregnant and seeing all the lovely Sakura Bloom slings being worn by my friends, I wanted to make one to have around when #3 comes along.  So I followed this tutorial to make one for a much more affordable price.  The kids both enjoyed being carried in it and it was a breeze to carry my big toddlers (even at 29ish weeks pregnant as I'm pictured here).  So hopefully baby brother likes it and it can see some good use.  

Went for a drive one evening while Jake was out of town, just to get out of the house and pass the time.  Was in love with the sunset that evening.  This picture doesn't even capture it's beauty.  Sure am going to miss these Idaho sunsets. 

My poor baby girl had a little bout of croup.  So one evening we went out and bought her some popsicles (these delicious creamy coconut popsicles, which really are awesome!) to help her feel better.  She's my independent girl who insisted that she hold a whole popsicle to herself.  She held on to that thing until her hands were bright red and hurt.  Poor thing.  Hate seeing my little kids sick.

Random videos from the week:

These kids were cracking me (and each other) up just by blowing on each other.  Cute kids!

You can find us often playing the "roaring" game with each other around the house.  The kids love being scared!

Audree has gotten really good at her forced laugh.  Caught it on tape so we could all remember just how cheesy it was. 

 January Week 2 (5-11)

 I had some extra sling fabric and decided to go ahead and use it for making the kids their own ring sling to carry the babies around.  I'm sure when we have baby brother and I'm using my own that it'll come in to good use. 

 With all of the stresses going on around baby brother during this time (the possibility of early deliver because of IUGR) I was getting in panicked nesting mode.  The only way that I felt I could start preparing myself was to go through old baby boy clothes and get them ready for his arrival.  I had SO much fun looking through clothes that my little baby Josh once wore.  Reminiscing on that little one, got me all the more excited to welcome another son into our family.  I couldn't believe how little some of the things looked.  With Audree being my baby, she seemed HUGE next to these little clothes. 

I also had an overwhelming feeling of gratitude and love going through this box.  We have SO much from what we had been gifted when we had Josh that I think we are definitely set!  These two piles pictured are just for the first 6 months.  So much love for our growing family over these years.  We truly are blessed with incredible family and friends. 

 We received a good snow storm while Jake was out of town, so Josh helped me shovel the driveway.  He had a lot of fun.  Luckily it was just light snow.  It ended up snowing the next morning too.  I decided to opt out of shoveling since I'm so pregnant and wouldn't want to risk an early delivery if I can avoid it.  So the driveway just had to deal with it.  :)

 Audree insisted on the baby taking a bath with her.  This doll is her particular favorite out of the 3 that we have. I love how much she loves her baby dolls.  Let's hope she shows the same kind of love to baby brother.  One can hope, right?

Went out for a walk one evening with the kids to get a breath of fresh air.  Even though it was pretty cold, it felt awesome to get outdoors again.  I truly hate being cooped inside for so long during the winter.

 Audree grew super attached to this hat at a friends house that we had to bring it home.  Don't worry Britt, we'll get it returned.  She wore it home and all around the house that evening.  Funny girl!

January Week 3 (12-18)

Love this little beauty.  I also love being able to do her hair and dress her up, and she enjoys it too.  She will constantly say "pretty shirt", "pretty pants", "pretty socks", "pretty hair", pretty everything while she is getting ready.  I love it!  I love how naturally she is such a girl.  Funny how they turn out that way.  

 

As of late, this is usually the only way that I can get both kids to smile at the camera on my phone; by taking a selfie so that they can see themselves "cheese" on the screen.   Love these sweet smiles!

Jake's been on the insane train lately.  Captured a shot of the kids doing some insanity themselves.  

January Week 4 (19-25)

 Received this beautiful quilt in the mail this week, from Baby Brother's aunt Tacy, my brother Enoch's wife.  She is so talented and we are SO in love with this blanket already.  I'm sure that baby brother will love it to pieces!

 Like I mentioned previously, this little girl is such a girly girl and a particular one at that.  She insisted that she wear this dress (I even tried to get her to wear something else, something a little warmer and she refused).  She also chose and put the headband in herself after I pulled up her hair.  Such a doll!  Love her!

 Josh was SO excited when I pulled out this "new-to-us" shirt from his upcoming 4T clothes lot.  He was thrilled to be able to wear it to school and couldn't wait to show it off to Daddy when he got home. 

 Little Miss Accessories

Josh has a serious obsession with ketchup (something I'm sure he inherited from his father).  Here is a quote directly from Sandy about Jake's obsession growing up:

There seems to be a "ketchup" addiction in our family. I remember one of my brother Dan's favorite sandwiches was a "ketchup" sandwich. I know pretty yucky, but he ate them all the time. Then my son Jake always ate his pretzel and potato chips with "ketchup". My son John used to complain that their room always smelled of ketchup.

On this particular dinner night, Josh took it a little far by dipping his bananas in ketchup (YUCK!!).  He then continued to lick the rest of the ketchup off his plate.  It has definitely helped him in eating new foods, so I guess there is a plus to it, but still.  That's just nasty.  We'll see if he holds on to it for  a long time. 

My little shoppers with their own grocery carts at Smith's.  I only let them both have a cart because we only came for 1 item.  Otherwise this wouldn't have happened.  Can you imagine the nightmare of directing two kids with shopping carts while trying to do your own grocery shopping?  Ha!  

January Week 5 (26-Feb1)

Took these kiddos out for their first sledding trip this season, Audree's first trip ever! There is an awesome hill just 5 minutes up the road from our house.  They both absolutely loved it!!  Jake and Josh enjoyed crashing on their way down.  And Audree just giggled on her way down enjoying every bit of it (that's until she got too cold!).  Anyways, we had a blast!  Even if it was for just 30 minutes, the kids had a great time and we had the whole hill to ourselves.  Hopefully we can take them again here soon!

Had a lovely Friday Family Night over the weekend.  We made delicious homemade pretzels, watched Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 and wrestled on the bed with Dad. Too fun!  Love making little memories like this with my cute little family. 

This picture captures Audree perfectly.  She is such a messy, wild and crazy little girl, but also holds so much sweetness.  Hope that I can remember these little bits in time forever.