January Happenings...

Sorry I'm such a blog slacker! When there's lots of things volleying for your attention, the blog tends to get put on the back burner. That being said, I am trying to update the blog at least once a month. So without further ado...here's what we did in January.

The first January happening: RR's annual b'day party! The kids had a great time helping with this. We put up a few decorations, bought him some gifts, and made a yummy dessert (cherry dump cake with ice cream...cherries are RR's favorite). We had a great time celebrating RR's b'day...his 37th...creeping ever closer to the big 4-0!

I let the kids each pick out a gift for Daddy. Bubs was intent on getting him fish. I asked him a dozen times, and his answer was always fish. And Bubs founds just the right thing: bathtub squirting fish. RR loved it, of course. :) The Bean picked out a more appropriate gift: jammies for Daddy.

The kids made some "door decorations"

On to the next thing: the Bean's K-4 circus party! I cannot begin to express how excited the Bean was about this party. The kids in the class all dressed up like circus performers. The Bean initially went back and forth between acrobat, elephant (what?!?), and clown. We ended up deciding on clown, largely b/c her friend Lynley was going to be a clown too. We went to the fabric store and let the Bean pick out her fabric for the clown outfit...with a little guidance from Mommy, of course. (FYI, if any of you are looking to make a clown outfit, I used a basic pants pattern, just made them a little bigger, a "peasant blouse" type shirt pattern, and this clown collar tutorial. Oh, and we found the coolest sequined turquoise sneakers that matched!! They were $6 at Hancock's...it was meant to be.) We painted her face with Crayola markers. Hope that's not bad...they are washable!! A real clown and a juggler were the class entertainment, and they had popcorn, cotton candy, and lemonade for snack. There was a face painter there too. How fun is that???

The Bean and her BFF, Lynley

The whole K-4 class...the boy with a whip was a lion tamer...how creative is that?!

Last happening: snow day! This was the most recent one, which was technically in February, but I'm putting it on this post anyway. We went outside all bundled up, and we threw snow balls, slid down our snow-covered slide, and went for a short walk in the neighborhood. We had a ball! And finally, the kids get to put there cute hats and mittens that I "splurged" on. (Splurged means I spent less than $10 on items that we used very infrequently...I just hate spending even 50 cents on stuff we hardly ever use. I'm cheap that way. I do not mind some sock mittens.)

Other un-photographed January events: Bubs first dentist appointment. He did great! We love our pediatric dentist. They have a fun play area to wait in, then they give you lots of cool stuff, like stickers, the obligatory toothbrush and toothpaste, and tokens to the "Treasure Tower"!! (Basically the Treasure Tower is a vending/gumball type machine of little trinket-y kid items like sparkly bracelets and bouncy balls, etc. But the kids love it!)

One more note if anybody is still reading - we find out the gender of our baby next Tuesday! I do not have a "gut" feeling about this one. I was pretty sure I knew with both my other pregnancies, and I was right both times. This time it's anybody's guess. Speaking of, anybody have a guess?? I will be 18 weeks tomorrow and am feeling great.

December fun

So as to not get any further behind on blogging, I decided to post all our December stuff in one post. This is kind of picture heavy...sorry!

We started off the month with a fun morning at the Robertson Reporter for our annual gingerbread house party. Or in this case, Pop Tart houses. :) Mom E was kind enough to prepare the houses and icing...I just had to bring a little candy. Last year Bubs had no interest whatsoever in decorating a gingerbread house, and he pretty much played with trains the whole time. This time he did much better and was more into the decorating. And neither of the kids ate as much candy as you might imagine, which is pretty impressive considering what a big sweet tooth the Bean has. The Bean's roof collapsed and Mom E had to do a little repair work, but other than that, their houses turned out very nicely. The houses were pretty much destroyed and salvaged for parts by the next day, FYI. The Pop Tarts and candy just sitting around was way too tempting!

Fast forward a few days in December to Christmas. We went to Mimi and Grandpaw's house for a few days and had a blast. The Bean got a lot of princess stuff, including a princess "laptop", princess sleeping bag, Beauty and the Beast DVD, and princess dolls. She also got a big doll house and doll house stuff...and she pretty much loved every single present! Bubs got mostly vehicle-related stuff, including a remote-control car, Thomas the Train stuff, a small racetrack, and toy golf clubs. And he loved it all. I got a Cricut, which I am super excited about trying out! RR got mostly money b/c he is harder to shop for. :) We had a birthday party for Jesus on Christmas morning and read the Christmas story from Luke 2. The kids actually sat still and listened!

Listening to Grandpaw read from Luke 2

Bubs stuffing his face with birthday cake...don't know what happened to his pants! As a side note, my brother is notorious for taking the last bite of desserts, or just plain being a dessert hog. So for fun/just to be mean, I grabbed the last half of his piece of cake and scarfed it down. This was followed by a small food fight between my brother and I. SOOOOO glad the kids weren't really paying attention. Didn't get any pics of my face or my brother's bald head smeared with icing...sorry!

Eating birthday cake for Jesus

And let's not forget about the snow! Sadly, the one thing I left at home during our trip to Mimi and Grandpaw's was our coats. Oops. So we really had to get creative to let the kids play in the snow. They have on a hodge podge of clothing/mittens/hats belonging to various people. Bubs caught on very quickly to the idea of throwing snowballs and was pretty good at it! He liked being hit and hitting others with the snowballs pretty equally. And I think he is part Eskimo. It's like he doesn't even feel the cold! He could've stayed out there forever if we would have let him! AC helped build a snow man and made snow angels. We all had a great time!

The glorious snow man (mostly the handiwork of Evan and my brother)!

The glorious snow man being tackled to the ground about 30 seconds after he was finished!

I have on my dad's sweatshirt and jacket, and my mom's shoes...the Bean has on Grandpaw's ski mask, Aunt Marianna's sweatshirt hoodie, and Grandpaw's tube socks for mittens. And I had even bought my kids cute hats and mittens this year!

Last little happening for December...Bubs is potty-trained! He had been showing a lot of interest and asking to use the potty from time to time for the last couple of months, and the week after Christmas he just refused to put on diapers. So I went with it, and he has had very few accidents since then. He's done really well, even when we're out and about. And he was accident-free his first day back at MDO, so that's a good sign! He's truly just trained himself. I've been very proud of him! And just in time, since baby #3 is due in July!

Snow

Packing down a snowball...
Chunking a snowball at Mama

This is "Crocodile Lake" in our neighborhood. No, that's not the actual name...just what the Bean calls it. I think she got that from a Dora episode. (Note the lack of snow!!)

Walking tall and carrying a big stick. :)

By the time we went out and played in the snow, we really didn't have much snow in our yard. So we went for a little walk to our neighborhood park and enjoyed some snow on the way. I also realized how unprepared we are for cold weather. I am the only one who has a hat, scarf, and gloves. Ray has two of the three, and Bubs has a hat. The Bean had nothing. So the kids wore "sock mittens." Is it just me, or is anybody else too cheap to buy a hat and mitten set when your child MIGHT use it once or twice a year? Their coats have hoods, so most days that's all they need! Anyway, the kiddos had big fun playing in the snow. Bubs mostly just liked walking around in it and was content to carry sticks around during our walk. The Bean, however, instigated a snowball fight with Daddy. He was happy to oblige. :) It was beautiful to see everything dusted in snow. That was my favorite part!

Snow Day '09

Warming up w/ some hot chocolate

RR and the Bean only added to this snowman, I think...some other kids actually built it. There was also a 2nd snowman in this field...hence the lack of snow on the ground.

The kiddos and I...I do not have cold weather clothes either. I have on sweats, Timberlands, a hat and scarf, and my nice coat. I think I look kind of scary, actually. :)

Ian and the Bean...note the Bean's pageant feet. Thought that was funny.

All bundled up

Yesterday the Bean woke up to quite a surprise - snow! This was her first "real" snow...we had some flurries last year, but nothing significant, so this was her first time to see snow. She wasn't quite sure what she thought about it. She wasn't in any hurry to get outside, and once she got outside she was kind of just wandering about. :) Several of the neighborhood kids, including the Bean's friend Little I, were outside playing. Baby G and I made a very brief appearance outside, since he's a little under the weather right now. Then we came inside to warm up with some hot chocolate. It was a little interesting to dress the Bean to go play in the snow, since we really don't have a lot of cold weather clothing. The hat and gloves were 12-18 month size and therefore were squeezed on her, and we just layered up really good. She has a turtleneck, a sweater, a hoodie, and a coat. But just one pair of pants. Harder to layer pants. :) I honestly think she enjoyed the hot chocolate more than the snow, but RR and I had fun watching her play in it!