January is not one of my favorite months- in fact I think it's my least favorite. After all the busyness and fun of the Christmas season, January arrives and everything stops, and it's cold, and kids are usually sick, and the month drags on forever. I always think that I'll enjoy the lack of activities and get caught up on things at home/enjoy some lazy weekends, and I do, but then it's January 15, and I'm wishing for Spring, ha! We did manage to have a little fun during this cold, dark, boring month though.
Matt took off work on of of the kids' last days of Christmas break and we spent the morning at the Discovery Lab. It's always a fun morning, and the kids burn off a ton of energy.
Elisabeth took a break from ballet in the Fall. I think she got a little burned out last Spring, but a few weeks ago she asked if she could sign up again, so she started at the beginning of the year. She gets to do tap along with ballet, and so far she's loving it. She was super opinionated about her leotards and picked all her new dance gear out all by herself.
And it's fun that she's in the same class as one of her favorite friends.
My mom, Elisabeth and I spent a Sunday afternoon getting pedicures. It was a girly, sweet way to spend the afternoon. I don't think Elisabeth stopped smiling the whole time.
She asked for rainbow toes.
Since it's too cold and dark to play outside in the evenings, the kids have resorted to some inside craziness to pass the time.
We went to a roller skating birthday party this month too. It was Samuel and Elisabeth's first time to skate, and while there was a lot of falling, they all had fun, and Samuel loved it so much, he locked in his birthday party location for his 6th birthday, ha!
Matt and I took turns chasing this wild child around the rink. Big open spaces where she can run and run are her favorite, ha!
Nathan started another season of Almighty basketball this month too. He's having fun playing and cheering on his team.
Miss Cutie requested piggy buns for church one Sunday.
Nathan has been saving his money for months because he wanted to buy the Lego Cinderella Castle set at Disney World. Matt and I had both thought that it wasn't the wisest purchase decision, and Matt was able to steer him toward a motorized Lego train set. He received some Christmas money which gave him enough to buy it, and it has been a great purchase. He plays with it all the time and has brought down a lot of his other Legos to play too.
Samuel has been working really hard at school. He puts 100% into every assignment. And I was especially proud of this snowmen worksheet he completed. His reading is taking off too. He's reading a lot of first grade reading level books with no help. I'm so proud of him.
It wouldn't be January without a little sickness. Both boys have been down this month. Thankfully the sickness has been short lived. Nathan got strep throat and was feeling pretty miserable for a night until the meds kicked in, and the next week, Samuel caught a little virus that I was terrified was a stomach bug- since that was his first symptom, but he ended up just having a low fever and feeling tired for a day. They both bounced back quickly thankfully and kept their germs to themselves.
All four of the kids played superheroes during one of our long days at home. I love them especially when they're all happily playing together.
January, you've been nice, bur we're all ready for a new month around here.
You are 16 month old and are a busy, happy, ornery little girl.
At 16 months old your favorites are books, patty cake, snacks, doll strollers, remotes, grapes, pacifiers, waving hi and bye, cookies, cheesing for pictures, and wide open spaces to run and run.
You're a happy girl most of the time, but when you don't get your way you can throw a big fit. In the last couple of months you've been figuring out that sometimes you have to share and that no means no. It is not your favorite word.
You love to play chase and run around everywhere. You also love to push anything with wheels. You love to throw balls, get tickled, play in your car and with your kitchen and get pulled on rides on your donkey by your siblings.
You're saying more words every day. You occasionally, rarely, hardly ever say Mama, but you say Dada, sissy (sssis), Nathan (Nay Nay), Bubba, night night (ni ni), hi, bye (dye), please (eez), snack (na), uh oh, and cookie (cu cu). You also say woof (oof) when you see a dog. You don't say no but you shake your head and whine to let us know what you mean. You still point, grunt, and whine a lot to let us know what you want.
This month you've started asking for shows on the TV. You rarely watch them, but you think it's fun for them to be on in the background I guess. You've "watched" Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. You do like to dance to the Hot Dog Dance when it comes on.
You ask for snacks all.day.long. You'll grab a package out of the pantry, get your bowl out of the drawer, and bring it to me, grunting, ha! If I tell you no, you'll take to to one of your siblings and "ask" them. I've watched you go through everyone in our family trying to get your snack opened.
When you want to go somewhere, you'll grab your jacket and bring it to us. You always take off your shoes and socks in the car, and you hate being carried when you have the opportunity to get down and run. That's pretty much your favorite thing- running. I joke with your dad that you'll be a track star someday.
You've started praying before you eat. Every time I give you food in your high chair, you clasp your hands together and babble a little prayer. Cutest.thing.ever
You're wearing 18 month and 18-24month clothes, a size 4 diaper and size 5-6 shoes.
You're taking one good nap per day, usually at least 2 hours. You've been sleeping a little better at night. You wake up occasionally for a bottle in the middle of the night, but you've been going back to sleep easier after you drink some milk. You're also pretty addicted to your pacifier and like to have a fistful every night when you go to bed.
You love to read books and are always bringing me one to read to you. Bizzy Bear books are your favorite, and you also like peek a boo books and the Itsy Bitsy Little Spider.
You pull everything out of drawers, and if we're missing something, we usually blame you and know that it could literally be anywhere in the house because of you.
Weeks ago, Brooke and I were looking at our calendars and trying to find a time to get together with our whole families. We both realized we had New Year's Eve free and decided to spend the evening together. And then the more we talked, we realized how much easier and fun it would be if we had a whole family sleepover, and goodness it was SO much fun- one of my favorite nights of our whole Christmas break.
It ended up being even better because OSU's bowl game ended up being the afternoon of New Year's Eve, so we got to watch an OSU game (that they won- rare this season) together to start the fun.
Our kids always play great together especially with a house full of new toys.
We ate dinner after the game, and Katherine gave up on the New Year's Eve fun.
After dinner, we changed the kids into jammies and did some New Year's fun with them. Matt and I played the saran wrap ball game last year at a Christmas party, and ever since I've been wanting to have the kids play it. I thought New Year's Eve would be a fun time to make it happen, so I picked up a lot of little trinkets at the dollar store, and the kids played it before they went to bed.
The big boys knew how it was done, ha! All my kids asked if we could play it again next year, so it might be a new New Year's Eve tradition.
After the game, we gave the kids sparkling grape juice and turned on a couple of New Year's countdowns on Netflix (at 9:00).
Then we attempted to get the six kids in bed which surprisingly went pretty well. The girls went right to sleep after only one visit downstairs by Elisabeth. The boys stayed up talking for awhile (the big boys were up for a long time. They almost made it to midnight, ha!).
The BIG boys were ready for bed too after getting six wild children down for the night, ha!
The main reason we wanted to do a family sleepover was so the adults could play games. So we woke up the men, and played a few games together. Matt and I love playing games, and it's not easy to find uninterrupted time to do that with friends, so we really enjoyed playing games on New Year's Eve- even if I had to keep nudging Matt to keep him awake, ha!
We stayed up for awhile, but couldn't make it until midnight. We watched the ball drop in New York at 11:00 and called it a night.
New Year's morning we cooked breakfast, and then sent the kids upstairs to play and got another game or two in before we had to say goodbye around 11:00.
We had the best time. Our kids are all great friends, and I think it's fun that Brooke and Corey lived with us for a week back when they were moving here, because they are comfortable in our house and they're just like family to us- Matt didn't mind disciplining our kids in front of them, ha! We all decided that this should be a new tradition and are already looking forward to next year.
We did some traveling the week after Christmas. We stayed home the day after Christmas in our jammies. The kids played with their new toys all day while I cleaned up, tried to get the house back in order, and packed. Nathan spent all day in his room building his Ferris wheel. He was proud when he finished!
On Thursday morning the kids and I drove to Weatherford to visit Momoo and Granny and Grandaddy for a couple of days. We stopped at Momoo's house Thursday afternoon and had cake and cousin time. It was fun visiting and catching up with family.
Momoo got Nathan a Lego set for Christmas and he built the whole set while we were there that afternoon.
We left Momoo's Thursday evening and settled in at Granny and Grandaddy's for the night. We had pizza for dinner and the kids played in the basement.
Granny made pancakes for breakfast on Friday. Everyone was a fan. We spent the day playing fast track, and watching shows and making obstacle courses in the basement.
Samuel wanted to play king and made a crown out of paper, scissors and tape. He ended up also making a whole costume out of paper. He spent a long time on it and used up a whole pad of Granny's paper, ha!
Late Friday afternoon we said goodbye and drove to Matt's sister's house in Edmond to celebrate Christmas with his family for the weekend.
The kids were so excited to have another Christmas morning to open gifts. This time though they slept in until almost 8:00. It might have been because we let them stay up late watching a movie on Friday night. As soon as they finished breakfast they were begging to open presents.
For months, Nathan has persistently saved his money to buy the Lego Disney World castle when we go to Disney World in May. And then he read the first Harry Potter book and changed his mind to buy every Harry Potter Lego set instead, ha! I put a bug in Matt's sister's ear that he really, really wanted Harry Potter Legos and she delivered. I love his reaction.
As soon as we finished opening gifts, Nathan got right to work
We spent the rest of the morning playing with new toys.
We had a yummy lunch with family, and spent the afternoon napping/watching shows and playing.
We had planned to go to church with Becca and Bryan Sunday morning, but Katherine hadn't been feeling great and wasn't in the right mood to be left with strangers, so we loaded up and headed home Sunday morning. We spent the rest of the day unpacking and resting and Nathan and I watched the first Harry Potter movie too.
