S'Winter

Call me crazy but I love the winter. The hot chocolate. The warm sweaters. The fireplaces. The festivities. Staying indoors a lot and being more creative with my kids. Playing in the snow. I even love getting all bundled up to go outside. I can do without the slippery roads, but gratefully it's been a mild winter so far. Here's some of the fun we've had:

 Making cakes for no reason

 Even though they have a playroom, they prefer the closet

Snow time...they always want to go out when we have fresh snow, even if it's less than an inch

Yes, they are in dresses. At least they let me up leggings on them.

Niels is jealous...he just stands and watches them

Tupperware city

One day Hattie decided to "experiment" with food dye. Completely on her own, she dyed the apples all different colors, and did a decent job of not making a complete mess.

Lots of painting and other art projects

Hattie has really taken off with her writing. She made these one day after watching Winnie the Pooh. They are hard to see, but they say "Robin," "Pink" for piglet, "carrot" for Rabbit, "toy train," and "honey pot" for Pooh.

Then there's this boy who gets cuter every day. He is a master at climbing up stairs...but has yet to figure out going down. So in a tri-level house, it's REALLY hard to keep an eye on him. We need 4 gates to truly keep him safe. As much as we try to teach him, he isn't picking it up.

 Naps...he is folded over in half, but somehow is still sleeping...the flexibility of babies.

 And we often find the girls asleep together...we're glad they love each other so much.
 

Much to Paul's happiness, we have discovered a couple who is fanatical about board games as we are. During November and December, it wasn't uncommon to play games 2 or 3 times a week! We would put our kids to bed at their house (or they would put their kids to sleep at our house) and stay as long as we could stay awake! (in this picture we hired a sitter so that we could go out to dinner before playing games). This month, due to Paul's work schedule, our fanatic game playing has slowed, but we are happy to still get a game in about once a week.

And one of the most exciting things for me was an early Christmas/birthday/anniversary gift...an electric piano! I've been doing pretty well at playing almost every day, and I'm amazing at how quickly I feel like I am improving. The kids love it too and like to take a turn every day.

Next post: Christmas in Virginia!

A dream come true

Randomly one day Paul and I started searching for pianos on Craigslist...and we found one! It needed a good turning, as well as a billion odor-eaters to kill the smoke smell. Gratefully the smell is almost gone and it sounds great. Now the trick is finding time to practice, since Hattie is always right by my side ready to play.



In other news, Hattie and I are heading out to Richmond, Virginia tomorrow for a getaway! I'm meeting up with two of my college roommates to spend the long weekend, and then I'll head to DC for a while to be with Paul's sister, Erika. I'm excited to get out of town, but dreading the 3 hour flight on a completely booked plane. Any suggestions for keeping an 18-month old on your lap for that long?!?

Develop!

We finally caught it on camera! She does it pretty consistently now. As I talk with other moms, it's been interesting to learn about the things that their kids can do. I've realized that all kids develop at a different rate...for example, Rebekah who lives upstairs is 5 weeks younger than Hattie, but she loves to reach for toys and anything she sees, whereas Hattie is still pretty content to just stare at her toys. But Rebekah is not very close to rolling over. Comparison is never very good. But our new favorite thing to say to Hattie is "Come on Hattie, Develop!!!"

Piano update: No word yet. They say that no news is good news, but in this case, I assume it means that we didn't get it :(

Here are some cute recent pictures for your entertainment!

When it's Paul's turn to hold Hattie, he often browses the Internet or plays computer games. Together, he and Hattie take over the universe.

This is one of the only pictures I have of Hattie and me together, besides the first ones at the hospital. It seems I'm always the one to think of grabbing the camera!

As a member of our ward says, "She has helium in her feet!"

A dream come true, perhaps

Today at church the bishopric announced that the stake is selling a piano for $100! I immediately ignored Hattie's squirming and listened up. They don't know what condition it is in, or even what kind it is, but anyone interested could give their name to the bishop, and their name would be entered into a drawing for the lucky winner (who still has to pay the dough). So we are crossing our fingers VERY tightly in hopes that we win. I just hope everyone else forgot about it by the time church was over so that the pool will be really small. Wish us luck!