Everyone should have relatives who like to take pictures, and who are hopefully good at it too. My sister came and visited. (I loved having her over. She liked it too.) She took the following pictures for us.
The next ones are just playing together outside.
This one is funny to me…in the background is Peter and he is stuck. He was rescued soon after. 
I love having a yard. We can now
And the snow is all melted. I love that it is warm enough to go outside and play! Spring rocks.
Here’s the birthday boy enjoying his cake. Love this kid!
Mr. C is starting to walk. He’ll take a few steps unsupported. I’m amazed that he is already almost a year old! He is also into everything. His favorite activities now include eating pencils and crayons, losing his binky, pounding the keyboard, trying to get into whatever Peter is playing with (much to Peter’s dismay), emptying the fridge and chewing on anything in there even if it is wrapped in plastic. One day he managed to get a loaf of homemade bread out of the bag and was eating the whole loaf like it was a heavenly giant piece of bread. There was also a morning where he dumped a half gallon of apple cider vinegar all over the floor. It reeked and took forever to clean up. Luckily it could have been a lot worse, because it was vinegar which makes a good cleaning solution. I guess Mr. C just decided the floors needed to be cleaned that day.
PB is fun. We have been doing lots of fun activities including the following.
Hill Aerospace Museum.
Blowing bubbles. Except Peter sucked instead of blowed. We need to return to this craft sometime.
Sweetheart Sorting. I loved this activity for Valentine’s Day. We found the worksheets here. And the great thing about this was the conservation hearts we bought were disgusting, so there wasn’t candy binging along with the activity.
Puffy paint. This is made by simply mixing glue, shaving cream and food coloring. I enjoyed painting probably more than PB.
Play rock garden
PB’s favorite activity is still listening to songs. He will listen and rock for hours. My mind wonders if this is a good or bad thing: is it good down time for him, or a waste of time he gains nothing from? I simply try to limit it. I do think it is better than TV, but he needs to get up and play too.
Lately I have found strange things relaxing including baking chocolate cake, making laundry soap, germination testings, and shoveling snow. I shoveled the whole walkway in the middle of the last snowstorm. Joe and I were supposed to take turns…but I just got working and it felt good to get my mind off things and I enjoyed being outside.
Joe has starting working (finally). It was nice having him around, but so much better to have him working. He’s enjoyed his job so far, and I am looking forward to having paychecks.
Is the cold winter weather and snow getting you down?
Tired of being inside with nothing to do?
Go outside anyway.
Here are five things to do in the snow.
One: Take pictures. There is nothing like a beautiful fresh covering of snow to get a good batch of photos.
Two: Go sledding.
Three: Build a snow cave. (My husband built this beauty)
Four: Throw snowballs
Five: Go snowshoeing or hiking
And if that doesn’t inspire you (or if the snow is crusty and old), stay inside, gobble down chocolate chip cookies, and enjoy a good book. That’s what I”m doing today.
We moved. I like our apartment, and I only have a few boxes left.
Joe passed his test. He should start working just as soon as his license goes through.
So we are pretty good here, but pretty busy too. I’m going to go unpack a bit.
*Update: All done unpacking. 🙂 Still some organizing and decorating left. And a massive pile of boxes to get rid of.
Mostly just waiting here…waiting for Joe’s exam to be done, waiting to move, waiting for work to start. We have visited my sister, refinished a table, went snowshoeing, and played a whole lot. My computer also crashed. (Let this be a reminder to you: go back up your files NOW, not at some distant point. Luckily most of my files are recovered.)
The gang that went snowshoeing.
One day after nap Peter decided he wanted to watch a show we got from the library and nothing else. I said no. Admist all his tears I turned into a hug monster. He loved running away or just enjoying my hugs. We went outside and played some more. It completly changed the atmosphere, and I got mychild happy without turning on a show.
C enjoys walking. Can’t do it yet without assitance, but he get around with chairs, his wagon, the vacuum, parents, couches and whatever he can find.
I like going outside, whatever the weather. Snow, rain, cold, wind can just make things more interesting. Just make sure you are wearing the right jacket. But in Utah when it is below freezing, and it fills like you are breathing in car exhaust due to the inversions, staying inside is just fine.
In the middle of freezing temperatures we had a clear, warm(ish) day. These pictures are from that day.
This is how we started the day. Color mixing is fun, but even better when you take it out in the snow.
Walking over to the sledding hill. If you are from here, notice you can see all the mountains perfectly clear…no smog!
The next two are from an earlier day…they seem to still belong with the set.
I have been lackadaisical when it comes to picture taking. The only pictures on my camera are a series of shots of dyed play rice:
Although the rice has been pretty fun, we’ve done more that I should have pictures of, but lately the camera has been left behind. It sits lonely on the computer desk while the family has fun.
It has been cold and smoggy. I love going outside, but when it is less than 20 degrees outside and the air is thick with a blanket of smog, the outside loses it’s appeal. At least there is snow and icicles to make up the difference. We actually went hiking here, in spite of icky weather. Don’t get too amazed, it was for less than an hour and involved a lot of sledding.
So we went shopping at DI (which is very well stocked after Christmas), and ended up with a bike, 2 crock-pots, some clothes, and the best find The Farming Game. A lady had two in her cart and I mentioned, “Oh, hey, that’s the Farming Game.” I ended up with one (basically the point of mentioning it in the first place). It is the best game ever. (And if the rules appear to not be included it is a better idea to look around first and not spend forever finding and printing them. But now we have three sets of rules.)
Curtis loves clapping his hands. When I see him do it, I’ll exclaim, “Yeeeaa,” clap my own hands, and we have a moment of rejoicing. He lights up: his smile grows bigger and he claps with more vigor.
Final thing for this rambling blog post: we found an apartment. It has a garden plot, three bedrooms, no stairs, all at a good price. We went to others, some of which were cheaper or nicer, but I want a garden. We didn’t even really think or talk about it. Just filled out the application, and I’m very excited to move. (But not for another month.)
Liz Braithwaite 