Our January

Sometime I'll get around to finishing up our December pictures, but here's some pictures and funny stories from our month!

We have had some weird weather this winter--more days of snow, so much cold weather, so many days of hiding in the house with fast dashes to the van when we venture out.  I forgot how much work it is to get everyone geared up to leave the house, especially when we go out to play in snow and sled! :)  After spending two and a half days inside this week, our big adventure was to the grocery store where the kids and I ran laps on the sidewalk around the strip mall.  I'm a pretty cool mom like that.  We found lots of fun ice blocks and icicles that were fun shapes.  The kids loved it.

Abby got a great Lego Friends book from Grandma and Baba for her birthday.  That was a great afternoon-long activity.  That was great since she had school only today (3 days of school cancelled due to snow and super cold temps).

Oh, how I love these three people!

Sam has been really loving to build towers lately.  He usually uses these big Duplo blocks.  Lately, his favorite thing is to trap his Dr. Lizard (some bad guy from the super hero collection) inside his tower and then his super heros (Iron Man, Spider-man, Hulk, and Wolverine) attack both the tower and Dr. Lizard.  He will spend 15 minutes building the tower that will be in pieces all over the room in 60 seconds.  

I can't show a Sam picture without sharing some of his zingers from the last couple weeks.  That kid...he constantly makes us laugh:

• Sam was laying across my lap, "Mommy, your tummy is bouncy (giggles).  MY tummy is hard.  Feel it!"  The he begins to boing his hand on my stomach.
• The other night he said a really sweet prayer.  At the close, he said Amen , but before we could say Amen, he jumped in with, "And please bless all the bad guys to be eaten by sharks."
• Today we retold that story to my brother, who laughed.  I should have known the end of his prayer tonight would be, "And please bless all the bad guys to be eaten by sharks and crocodiles and let the crabs eat their throw-up."

Abby's PE class is doing gymnastics.  One of the PE teachers is my PTA buddy and sent me this picture of Abby (who is proud to be called PTA girl by the PE teachers).

And last, here is our big announcement!  We are happy to introduce the newest member of our family.  Big plans are being made by everyone, but especially by Abby.  She is so excited to have a new sibling, especially if this one doesn't wrestle her.  She checks in multiple times per day to see how "the baby is feeling."  All three have been excellent and patient during my morning sickness and exhaustion moments, which has been a huge blessing.  We're excited to meet this little one about August 10!