My little C isn’t so little anymore. He had a birthday!

The kids wanted a pinata, so I attempted paper mache and made them one. It was fun, and only one person got hit.

C is an awesome boy. He is very playful, enjoys a wide variety of activities like play dough, sandbox, blocks, legos,reading books and spinning. He’s got a great smile that he uses frequently. He is still a pretty quiet kid, although he has been gradually talking more. He can count to 12, paint a pretty good picture, and knows almost all of his letters. Right now, besides the occasional potty accident, he is by far my easiest, sweetest child.

These next pictures are an update from instagram. They go back awhile.

Right before my brother headed back on his mission. Peter wants to go to Canada on his mission, just like his Uncle.

I think this has been an ideal winter. Plenty of snow, and just when the inversion and cold was insufferable, it cleared out and left behind 50 degree days. Warm enough for no coats and sandals for some.

That coat of H’s has turned into his security blanket. Whenever he is at a babysitter’s, he will find his coat and refuse to let it go. We had a tantrum this morning when it got dirty and he couldn’t wear it anymore. He knows that it means he is leaving, going outside or going somewhere fun.

We finally found an inexpensive pair of snowshoes for our kids. The boys loved combining snowshoeing and sledding.

Then the weather warmed up and their isn’t as much snow. We wanted to go snowshoeing again, but where we choose to go didn’t have enough snow. But there was still enough to sled on.

 

Joe brought home these beautiful narcissus one day. One of my kids took the picture. It is still winter, but spring is not too far away.

Really, spring is not that far away. I’m already late starting some of the seeds. I found this organizer at the thrift store and got to work organizing my seed collection. Now I just have to find some potting soil.

Peter organized the cars by color. It turned into a wonderful opportunity to take pictures. That child has admitted to liking complaining, by the way. NOT COOL.

Isn’t this kid cute? He is finally starting to talk more. He will be four very soon.

I forgot how hard it is to have a toddler. This boy can be happy, loving, cuddly and it fun to watch him explore his world. We try to understand his little words, enjoy watching his funny dances and see his expressions.

But he also spends a lot of his day asking for things that he is not old enough to play with, throwing little tantrums, needing more snacks (he is a string cheese connoisseur), and trying to do things that result in injury. Like climbing up on stools and finding knives. Luckily mommy exercises constant vigilance. Or tries to, and is just very ready for nap time when it comes.

Borax Crystals: You really should try this. This was the best crystal experiment we’ve tried. We put about 1/2 cup of borax and 2 cups of boiling water in a jar. The snowflakes were made from yarn and piper cleaners. We dipped them in, and just a few hours later we had crystals. We left them in overnight and had these beautiful ornaments. They have been pretty durable too. I’ve had them hanging about for a couple of weeks. 

Scripture Puppets: This collection is three years worth of cutting out scripture puppets from the back of the Friend magazine. I didn’t miss a single set, and now we have them to play with every Sunday.  

I’m in a bad relationship with my camera. He just isn’t good enough for me anymore. He keeps leaving tacky captions on all the pictures, and can’t focus. We are seriously considering a break-up.

I just miss my old camera. We would still be together, but he decided to break it off. He put scratches all over the most important part of our relationship. It just had to end after that. But he always took the best photos before he broke.

If you happen to know of a camera that would like a new relationship, send him my way! I want something simple, but still capable of a bit of customization and beautiful pictures.

I’ve seen melted crayon art all over the place. But I haven’t seen it done as a kid-led art project. We had a bunch of crayon scraps and I wanted to try it with the kids.

They picked out their crayons and placed them on the card stock. I hot glued the crayons to the paper, and then used my blow dryer to melt it down. I was worried it would take a long time to melt the crayons, but with just a few small crayons it only took a few minutes. They loved their final pictures.

I didn’t get my flu shot this year. I’m not anti-vaccination or anything. (The decision to be anti-vaccines is frankly stupid but we don’t need to go into that, right? I want to live in a world without polio and small pox and even chicken pox and rotovirus. Which means vaccines…for everybody.) I’m just a healthy-in my twenties-and not working in heathcare individual. Flu-shot was not a priority. It did make it on my list a couple times, but was too much a bother.

The baby did get his flu shot. Twice, as he was supposed to. Thank goodness for well child checks that make sure that this mom is staying current on vaccines. (Which to me is the main reason for well child checks. Because I can tell my child is healthy, and I usually don’t need a doctor to tell me that too. But kids do need their vaccines. See above.)

Saturday we had such wonderful plans. All of which were shortly cancelled. Peter was sick. Sleep-all-day, high temperature, icky sick. We stayed home and worked on home projects. It was actually really great.

Then Sunday, I got sick. I thought it would just be a day or so, but one day turned into four. And Curtis got sick, and lastly Joe got sick.

The flu is awful. I didn’t have headaches, tummy trouble, or any real symptoms besides a sore throat. But I didn’t exactly want to move either. My body would vary between fevers and chills and the best stage: asleep. I didn’t do anything for three days except drink strange warm beverages that might make me feel better. (I think warm water would have done the trick. I firmly believe that home remedies have their place, but a lot of that place is to get a good placebo effect.) Well, I’m a mom to young children so my not doing anything is still doing a lot.

Yesterday I felt better. It was so awesome! There was more to life than surviving until the next nap. Playing with kids was actually fun. I could clean! And make chicken noodle soup, and read a book and get excited about things.

Joe (Or Dad. I always call him Joe but then he gets a bit upset because the kids start calling him Joe too.) should be better tomorrow. And we can go back to living a normal life.

At one point I was really mad because I was sick. But the great thing about being sick is you realize how wonderful it is to be healthy once you get better. I’ve been very blessed in my life. My health history is still extremly short. When Peter started to get sick, I mentioned to Joe that I had not been really sick the entire time we have been married…and longer. I was due for a bout of the flu, and it just made me grateful that I’ve had a healthy life.

But it mostly taught me that I should prioritize my flu shot more. I don’t ever want to get the flu again.

We started and ended in the same place. No moving, no new babies, no job changes. Since we weren’t doing anything else, we started to re-model our house. I organized a family reunion for the Braithwaites in the summer, and we also had a camp out with my family. Peter started kindergarten and played soccer. All the boys took swim lessons. We went on a trip to Denver. I also volunteered at the community garden and raised a baby. (The baby made a lot of other goals non-existent.)

Here are my favorite pictures from the year:

H had a birthday! As the youngest of three and also have a birthday close to Christmas, his birthday was easy to overlook. We had a birthday with friends and cake and ice cream, and he received a few pop up books. He adores them and then tries to rip them apart. They have to usually be hidden, because if he sees it he wants to read it. Again and again and again. 

H is my skinniest kid. All three of my kids were the exact same height at a year old, but he’s five pounds lighter. He’s also by far the best walker. He’s already been walking for about a month and toddles around everywhere–including up stools and stairs and anywhere else he can climb!

He loves sitting in chairs that are his size, still nurses a bundle, has just barely started sleeping well at night, and loves playing with his brothers.

Christmas. We did all our normal traditions. On Christmas Eve, my parents and sister came over. We walked up to the outdoor nativity and listened to the narration, and then came back home for presents. Christmas Day was Santa, more presents, and than lunch with Joe’s parents. I think the kids all liked their presents, and we all had a good time. My present was a yoga sling, and everyone has had fun with that.

On New Year’s Eve we had a party that night that involved popper fireworks, balloons and a movie. We had a countdown at about 8:30 with the children and set them off to bed. It was a lot of fun.

My sister came up the next day to visit. The high that day was 20 degrees. We were a bit nervous about going sledding but decided to go for it anyway. After a bit of a cold start, we found a hill that was better suited for our kids and stayed far long than I anticipated. Some of the adults even got a little snowshoeing in around the area.