Fun Family Days

We had the best weekend with the kids.  Saturday we ventured to one of our local YMCA's for a FREE family fun day.  We surprised the kids with an indoor water park adventure, and they were so excited.  We spent hours swimming, splashing in fountains, floating through the lazy river, and just enjoying time together.  It was a fun activity that we will be sure to do more often this winter.  It also made the children sleep so well, which is always a win in my book!

 

 I was so close to getting a picture of all of them looking at me.  So close......

Yesterday, Nick and I had a lunch date with the Hartke's and then we tried to go see American Sniper.  Unfortunately it was sold out.  We were all super bummed, and the sitter could not stay long enough for us to watch the later showing.  We decided to improvise, and the guys went to watch it first while us girls kept the kids.  When the guys got back Michelle and I went to watch it while they took care of the kids.  It worked out great, and we have vowed to do that more often.  The movie was amazing. Sad, patriotic, heartbreaking, scary....it is a must see. 

Today we awoke to a little bit of snow.  There wasn't much on the ground, but it was enough to keep us inside all day.  I swore we were going to the gym this morning, but it looked way too cold out, so we skipped.  Instead, the kids and I whipped up a fun sensory activity for their water table, and they spent hours playing with it.  (5 cups flour, 1 cup oil, and a few sprinkles of cinnamon- apple pie mix).  They made and "cooked" lots of apple pie cupcakes, added sprinkles, and blew out pretend candles.  I am sure after quiet time they will be right back at it. 

January

These past couple of weeks have been filled with us getting back into normal life.  Kids are going to school, moms group at church has started back, and I just started going back to the gym today.  It has been a great month so far, and it has even given us a few nice days of weather. 

Wednesday Mckinlee does not go to school, so we have made a new habit of going to the gym, and then heading to the library for story time.  Her and Paxton really enjoy the class that is offered on Wednesday mornings.  Paxton, is really becoming quite mobile and adventurous now, and he was all over the place this morning during class.  He was crawling up to kids, sitting with them, trying to pull up on random parents. I spent a lot of my time bringing him back to our seat.....#andsoitbegins.

It felt great to get back in the gym this morning.  I had put our membership on hold for 3 months to get us through traveling and the Holidays.  Despite my best effort I did not work out very much during those three months.  I felt how out of shape I am now this morning, but it felt good to make the effort to get back at it.  I am not focusing on losing weight. I would love to tone up, but mostly I am just focusing on creating a healthy lifestyle.  I want to be healthy for myself and my family. 

Paxton grew up over the weekend.  He went from barely pulling up, to pulling up on everything.  He also started walking behind his push walker, and has even taken his hands off to balance a couple of times.  He is also cruising all over the furniture.  He is still mostly army crawling, but this weekend he for real crawled a few times.  My baby :(. 

The kids really enjoyed getting out of the house and playing outside the past few days.  They rode their bikes non stop, and I think it was good for all of us to get a little vitamin D.

Nick and I enjoyed a fun date night, and I made sure to have some fun with my big man before we left.

 

A New Year, A New Start

I am finally caught up on the blog, and I feel as though I am ready to start blogging about daily life again.  I have missed doing so.  I will probably not blog every day, but I am going to try to make a weekly commitment.  I miss it. I know I will also regret not having this time recorded.  I love looking back on past posts, and I don't want to stop now. 

With that being said.  Our first week of January was a lot of fun.  School started back, we had friends visit, we had some fun outings.  So far this year is off to a great start.

School started back on Tuesday, and after school Caleb was in tears.  He told me that 2 of his friends had been mean to him, and that he played by himself most of the day.  I can tell you right now that the mama bear in me came out. I wanted nothing more than to cuss some bratty kids out, but instead we had a talk about how kids can be mean.  I told him that it is more fun to play with kids that treat us nice, and that maybe he should try to distance himself from the kids that hurt his feelings.  (it was a hard parenting moment).

To cheer everyone up we went to the museum with the Pickett's.  The kids had a blast.

While Caleb was at school on Wednesday the two younger ones and I went to the library.  We met some friends there and attended a story time.  It was a nice relaxing activity that kept us out of the frigid weather.

There is not much else to report this week.  I am currently deep cleaning/lysoling every inch of the house in an attempt to keep sickness at bay.  The kids are becoming used to their afternoon bath time, and vitamins are being given.  Here is to hoping we can remain healthy. 

I am also in the process of planning Mckinlee and Paxton's birthday celebrations. They will both be on the same weekend.  #joysofclosebirthdays #notjoystress. Hopefully they will get more than a cupcake each :). 

Paxton 10 Months

My sweet boy is almost 11 months, so I figured I better hurry and get this update up. 

Sleeping: You are sleeping much much better now.  About once a week we will have a night where you have issues going down, but once you are down you are sleeping through the night (please don't jinx me).  You sleep until around 7:30, eat, and go back to sleep for another hour or so.   You are napping 2 times a day. 

Eating:  You are basically over purees.  I still give them to you on occasion out of convenience, but you prefer table food.  The only food you do not like so far is banana's, watermelon, and cantaloupe. 

Size: You were 17 lbs at your last appointment.  You are mostly in 9-12 month clothing, and a size 3 diaper.

Teeth: You have 3 teeth now.  The 2 front bottom, and 1 front top.

Speech: You say Mama and Dada.

Exciting New Things:

• You like to point at stuff and say "Uh Uh".  You like for us to tell you the name of the object you are pointing at.
• You are pulling up consistently on low objects, and trying so hard to pull up on higher objects.
• You are starting to test your boundaries.  We will tell you no, and you will smirk and do it anyway.  It is so stinking cute....as of now.
• You are obsessed with attacking Bella. 
• Caleb can still make you laugh the best.
• You are starting to get a little stranger danger.
• You cry after daddy now.
• You hug my neck so hard and plant big kisses on me now. I love it!

You are perfect, and adorable, and content, and sweet, and PERFECT! We love you so much sweet baby. 

Christmas/New Years 2014

We had a nice, relaxing, loving holiday season this year.  The kids received more gifts than they knew what to do with, we had fun with family, and we had some amazing dinners.  It was Paxton's first Christmas as well, which is always such a sweet first. 

Christmas Eve morning after the kids woke up, we had a big Christmas breakfast at our home.  After breakfast we let them open the gifts from us.  We had told them in advance that they would only get a few small gifts from us since we had taken them to Disney.  They were perfectly fine with that, and were happy with what they received.  We mostly bought them board games, and art stuff.  We spent a few hours after gifts playing their new games with them.

After games we built a gingerbread house.  The kids had fun with this, but I think they enjoyed eating the candy more :).

We then got ready, and headed to our church Christmas Eve service.  The kids came to service with us, and had fun shaking glow sticks while hearing the Christmas story.

Christmas Eve night was spent with Nick's family.  We had a big family get together, and the kids put out the cookies and milk for Santa, and went to bed. 

Christmas morning they awoke to see what Santa brought them.  They each received the three gifts from Santa that they asked for.

After Santa gifts, they opened gifts from Nick's family, we had a big breakfast, and then spent the day together.  We played a lot of play dough and board games. 

My family came to celebrate a few days later.  We had a dinner at my house, and the kids enjoyed opening gifts from my family. 

New years was lazy.  We went to a friends house, in pj's and hung out until the ball dropped. We then headed home, and quickly went to  bed.