November Crazy

Don't get me wrong, we do crazy a LOT. Like our entire lives. But we are coming out of a winter that we will be glad to say goodbye to. So here is the fun before all that happened.

Olivia was never a climber. Mess maker...yes. Adventurer...yes. But she didn't do an extraordinary amount of climbing while she was a toddler. So imagine our surprise when Alex happened upon this one afternoon! You can see the stool and drawer, his steps, but I'm still not sure how our scrawny little boy got himself all the way into the sink!

*note: I just realized that I didn't crop or edit any of these pictures...and I'm not going to, so sorry!

The next day we said 'yes' one time when we shouldn't have. I'll admit that when O says something new and funny, we are likely to say yes if we can. This time it was 'Mom, that's Old MacDonald's! We need to get ice cream. Can we ask Old MacDonald for ice cream?!'. We were laughing too hard to say no...but we discovered that 3 and 1 are not good ages to give kids ice cream in the car. Carter's was just a little ice cream in an empty cup, but you wouldn't know that by the pictures! He liked to touch it, then would give a goofy face :)

Olivia and I had a mommy dad that evening to watch Maely and Elli at gymnastics practice. It was so fun! I didn't get any pictures of Elli, but these girls have serious skill! I thought Maely was going to fall for sure, but she managed to get herself out of this mess on the rings :).

Looking back, this pictures is like a forewarning...but at the time I just had a puny little girl and didn't think anything of it. I always enjoy the snuggles of sick kids, and they enjoy the movies and crackers :).

I might have teared up a little on the 7th when I walked downstairs to this sight. We are so blessed to have a beautiful piano in our home, and it is often the center of family fun and music in our home. I love how special the kids treat it, and the fun that they have playing and singing together.

Alex had a few late days in early November. I always dread the hour between dinner and bedtime, but one day was particularly bad. The kids were just whiny, they had been all day, so after a slight loss of temper, I threw them in the wagon (buckled them both against their will of course), and gave them a blanket so we could go for a walk. We ended up walking for about 20 minutes, they were both enjoying the time outside, and were sad to go inside, but as you can tell by the second picture, they weren't properly bundled for a night walk...

Here's a helper I had sorting laundry one day. He got himself in there, was laughing and happy for about five minutes, then super mad that I wouldn't get him out. Eventually he figured it out though, and proceeded to empty the entire basket. Thanks helper!

In October we had Olivia's first drawing of a person! We follow that up with a drawing of a dinosaur :). She named it Fina, but then again she names EVERYTHING Fina :).

The 11th of November started our cabin fever. The kids just weren't very healthy, and had been sick for about a week, so we started to get creative with our entertainment. Of course the first thing we thought of was stair sledding! The kids had a blast, but it didn't work for bigger people :(.

Carter was harder to get pictures of because he doesn't have enough weight to stay on the mattress...he needs a lot of help.

Sick baby means extra video game time for Dad. But I love that he can hold him for hours without complaining while he goes back and forth between sleeping and 'helping'.

Puny Olivia fell asleep on the floor...which is a BIG deal for her. She takes a while to fall asleep normally, but she was just struggling this day.

Just some adventuring from our climber. And the reason that my computer screen has a nice scratch in it...as does the iPad. Carter's favorite place to sit all through November and December was on my computer desk, after he pushed everything on it onto the floor.

We had a blast in Oregon! My cousin Jonathon got married on Saturday, and we absolutely adore his new wife Adrienne. After the reception we headed down to Keizer for some family fun. I really wish I was better at taking pictures when we are on vacation, but here is the extent of what I got :). Kids going on the spinny 'up chairs'. They really enjoy having Grandparents who are game for repeating activities over and over and over...

On Monday we visited our good friends who had a beautiful new baby to meet! O enjoyed playing with Grace, and I just sat and chatted while loving on sweet Adelyn. What a fun treat, and a great way to spend the morning. We can't wait to visit again soon!

We always try to pack as much into our vacations as we can. This fun 4 day weekend was no exception. We had an evening at Aunt Kathy's, complete with the super exciting news of twins joining the family this spring! We can't wait, and Olivia was excited about touching her new cousins...unfortunately knowing that there were two babies prompted her to rub the wrong baby bumps :).

Our kids were healthy during our entire trip, and I was SO relieved when we got home with four full days of health. Of course we had more puke the next day...I should have kept quiet! This was just the beginning of our Winter Quarantine...but we never let that stop us from having fun and adventures :)