More Randoms in January

Maddie and her friend Isa.  These two love each other so much!

Maddie wrapped Zane's baby blanket around her to keep her warm.

Zane loves a ride in this cart and Collin is nice to push him around in it.

Collin drawing fun vehicles.  He is really good at it!

Maddie or Zane did this!  Lucky they didn't clog the toilet.

Maddie wanted a cast on her leg, so Allie wrapped her leg and we all signed it.

Best helper in the kitchen.  This is her helping to roll some meatballs.

Favorite thing is to ride around in this jeep!

Maddie loves to work in preschool:

Allie in her cheerleader uniform

He might have been in time out here.

Collin's den was in charge of the skit for pack meeting 1/26, and he dressed up as Darth Vader and said one word. 

More preschool work for Maddie:

I like how she came to preschool in her pajamas and matching Santa hat!

rockstar!

Maddie was a rockstar for a day at her friend's party last Saturday.  I took photos of 12 little rockstar-wanna-be's who just loved the guitar and all the hair and makeup. More at my photo site. Back to Maddie - she came with me to the doctor today - and I didn't break the news that it was also her 4 year old well check until we got there.  She was a little scared about getting shots, but since she was totally unprepared, she actually agreed (yes, agreed) to get her Kindergarten shots today.  All 4 of them. 2 on each arm.  I thought she was going to flip out and cry, but she didn't.  She even had the mind to pick out which of the bandaids went on her arm first.  She was so proud that she didn't cry!  And because we were already out, we went to her favorite cupcake store and got her a vanilla cupcake. 
She weighed 31 lbs 8 oz (10%), 39 inches tall (25%).  The doctor recommended that she get an allowance and some serious chores, along with more vegetables - since Miss Maddie is more of a fruit lover - she loves any and all fruit. Even the weird ones.  What I love about this girl is that she is willing to try anything. Broccoli, brussel sprouts, hummus. Tonight at Costco she reminded me that we needed to get vegetables to eat.  So funny!
Maddie started dance classes again last week.  She sat it out. and watched the whole time.  She promised not to do that again tomorrow.  We'll see.

13 Months

I got Zane's 13-month portraits done, they are pretty much in their raw state but I think they look pretty good this way. I got a few good ones from our 10 minute shoot, thanks to Maddie who kept Zane happy. Little guy weighed in at 20 lbs 12 oz (10%) and was 30.8 inches long (75%), head at 18.5 inches, at his 13th month appointment today. He usually isn't a crier when he gets shots, but today, he cried long after it was over. and cried and cried. The nurses were laughing because they thought it was cute that he was doing it to hear himself.

The train kept him occupied, and it is his favorite toy!

Zane is a drool machine. I almost retouched this photo, but I decided to leave the drool alone. :)

The classic "tease" face

Other stuff about Zane at 13 months:
- says mama, baba, dada, and CAR
- "car" because he loves to take rides in the Power Wheels jeep out back.  Anytime he sees Collin and Maddie, he wants to go out back!
- likes to put things back in containers (shoes in the trash, balls back in bowl)
- climbs up on dining table, big car box
- eats anything - typical breakfast: this morning: 1 buttered toast, 1 orange, 1 banana, 1 waffle and milk; lunch: 1 burger patty, 1 orange, crackers + milk. snacks: he loves those squeeze fruit packages, and can eat 2 in one sitting easy.
- he likes to clap his hands, especially when someone else is doing it.
- he likes to play hide and seek. His favorite hiding place? the curtains in my family room area. really, as long as he can't see me, he thinks I can't see him.
- he is a tease (already!). he knows when I am trying to get him to come to me, or when I say, "No, Zaney!" - he crawls away fast and starts looking back to check if I'm coming. usually accompanied with lots of laughs and giggles while he's doing it.

- Collin calls him "bug jug", no reason, just that's it's his new pet name for Zane.
- The other day he somehow managed to undo a Windex spray bottle and spilled all the Windex on the floor.  I have never had to put locks on my cabinets, I might do it this time.  He is into everything and cannot be left alone, not even for a minute.

- He loves cuddles and his naps still, for which I am grateful!  I love this little baby!

January so far..

I couldn't believe it is already the 20th.  January is whizzing by...and since Christmas, I haven't hardly had a minute it seems, and I haven't taken as many pictures, believe it or not!  New Year's was great - we spent New Year's Eve with family at the Merrills'.  We went home at 10:30 p.m. and us big people stayed up til midnight to start the New Year off right. Ha!  No fireworks for us this year though.  The kids were out before we got home! I loved having a quiet New Year's.  The only photo I took on New Year's Day was this:

Maddie was so excited to clean a toilet.  She spent a good 10 minutes brushing and cleaning this one.  This  pretty much sums up what we did on New Year's and the couple of days before the kids went back to school - clean and dejunk.

Kevin was all into organizing the house, so for the next few days, I decluttered and dejunked.  I found that I was "hoarding" way too many papers and receipts, magazines and kids' art work.  I narrowed down, grouped, and filed all kinds of things and collected all the books in the house.  Which also then meant we have to start a new bookcase wall project in the house - we had all kinds of books still in boxes from our move 3 1/2 years ago!  I found an inexpensive way to do "built-ins" in our office:

this will be a good project. I like the molding (not the word though) in the 2nd picture. If every thing checks out right, we will be able to do a wall of bookcases for under $500.  Kevin is deep in his NM Bar studies, so he wants to do it after he takes the bar, but I just can't wait that long! We'll see how that goes. 

Teeth News

In other news, Collin finally lost front tooth #2 - the one that's been hanging on like crazy for the last month.  His tooth fairy came punctually as usual!  Funny tidbit - when I was helping Collin put his tooth in the tooth box, there was a paper tooth (drawn and cut, colored, even the "roots" were bloody red) - with a note attached - "I lost my 3rd tooth, Love, Collin". That must have been from months ago, after his two bottom teeth were pulled, and he was dying to lose another tooth.  I don't think the tooth fairy was fooled.  Allie lost two molars this past month, and her tooth fairy hasn't come - maybe because Allie lost the teeth?  She can't find them anywhere.   Zane grew his two top teeth, they are so big and pearly white.  He looks like a whole new different boy.

I've got to run right now...I will finish this post later!



Bath Hair

Totally random post on Maddie's bath hair.  She always has so much fun with her hair swishing in the water!

  

    

Sunday at Home

As I looked through the series of photos I took on this day a few weeks ago in early December, I just had to smile - it is a just one of those typical, very ordinary days in the life of our family, but someone once said, there is magic in extra-"ordinary" days.  It is oh, so true.

Maddie consoling a very sad Zane. Crying (and occasional fighting, which results in timeouts and time sitting in a fighting bench) is very much a part of our life at home.

 Collin trying to hide from the camera.  He just wanted a "whiff" of the cinnamon rolls.  Fast Sunday is super interesting when you have 2 who are old enough to be part of the awesome "Fasting Club".  They are doing pretty well though and have been able to fast two meals.  We usually open our fast the night before and then they don't eat til dinner after church - it is nice that we have 12 o'clock church for this.  We close our fast with a prayer and testimonies are shared.

 Collin helping me make dinner.  This night happened to be beef and broccoli night I think.

Maddie, all curled up on the couch, taking a late Sunday nap.

Ordinary days after Christmas

Love these pictures of the kids being happy in the days following Christmas.  So cute!  Love them!