Enjoying Our Wintery Weather

We experienced real winter weather and had a ice day last week and one yesterday. The boys cracked me up with their jumping and sliding into the ice. They would run inside complaining about being cold, change their wet pants and get new gloves (we don't have any snow gear or water proof gloves) and then head outside to slide some more. I'm surprised how long they lasted before the cold got the better of them.

Second ice storm with a lot more ice.

Snow Angels

This wasn't anything like Utah snow they played in last winter, but we will take what we can get!

Finding the Humor

One of my goals this year is to find the humor in motherhood/parenting. I figure if I'm laughing then I'm not yelling. Zane will come home at the end of the day and ask how the kids were and all I can think of is the negative things that happened and yet there are so many funny moments or moments when I'm astounded at the intelligent, thought provoking words coming out of my kids mouth. I'm also hoping to catch it on camera more often so that I can remember those little moments that make me laugh.

Lili is a little climber. With her two brothers as her examples, she doesn't know anything different. It gets her in trouble. She thinks because she can crawl down the stairs backwards, that she can get off of anything backwards. She climbs up and down the chairs at church, in and out of a stroller (she will find an empty stroller at a play ground and start climbing), and she even tries climbing off of high items like her changing table or bed before someone catches her. She thinks she is invisible! Like any toddler, Lili is obsessed with the toilet. If the bathroom door is left open, she crawls in to play. Hopefully the boys shut the lid (or at least flushed)!

She climbs into this walker too. She can get herself all the way in sitting in the seat but she can't get herself out...yet.

Sometimes she chooses to try to stand on top instead. Good thing the boys help me keep an eye on her!

Gavin is a terrible eater. Dinner time with him is super frustrating. I'm choosing to celebrate the small victories though instead of getting to frustrated at him. Here we are celebrating him eating little florets of his once piece of broccoli. You can imagine that eating broccoli like this can go all night long!

There are some things Gavin will eat without a problem. Usually gross things like the conditioner in his hair. He tells me he wants to do his own hair (I'm trying to teach him to do his own hair to save me time) and then sometimes when he gets the conditioner in his hands, he eats it instead. It must be good because Lili likes it too. She rubs her head on her high chair while I'm doing her hair then turns her head to lick the high chair.

Gavin also really likes butter. He will lick the butter off the bread and then sometimes eat the bread.

When Gavin takes a long nap, he gets to stay up longer than Dallin. I love these moments of one-on-one with Gavin. His favorite game is to play Duck Duck Goose even if he is just playing with his dad or me. In this video Lili was awake too, but normally it is just Gavin.

Lastly, Dallin looked at Zane's head one day and asked if he was already resurrected because he had hair again. I guess we make a lot of jokes about Zane being bald instead of clarifying and saying he is starting to go bald.

Dallin is also blowing me away with how much he is learning. He started taking piano lessons and really likes playing. He makes up songs and likes to play those songs for people. He is also a really good helper with Lili. He knows how to calm her down, feed her, and plays great with her. Now if I can just get him to change her diapers....!

So amongst the chaos, fighting, wrestling (including the wrestling match after Sacrament meeting last week that I'm still trying to find the humor in...at least my skirt didn't rip as I was crawling on the ground trying to separate the boys), there are lots and lots of great moments to capture and remember!