Jan. 28 - Feb 3

P3 got "stuck" in our coffee table this week. I pulled him out, and he immediately went back in. Not the best survival instinct...

We love to see the sun! A little walk outside turned into playing at the park. P3 crawled up to the biggest slide and went down on his tummy, no hesitation! This kid has no fear! He went down a second time and managed to do it sitting position.

He also fully enjoyed the little slides.

Later in the week, P3 came down with a fever. Poor kid. We had a few snuggle naps.

We went and got some croissants for National Croissant Day, and also stopped at the video store next door. We rented a bunch of Disney movies to prep our kids for Disneyland.

P3 got away with anything while he was sick. Here he is, elbow deep in goldfish crackers.

On Sunday, we had a visit from grandparents who were in town. P3 enjoyed walking in his aunt's shoes.

At dinner one night, the older kids were pretending to be Bulbasaur (a Pokemon) and were saying "bulba...bulba". They asked me to say it too, and before I could, P3 very clearly said "bulba...bulba". So he was our little Bulbasaur the rest of the day. He really can talk, he just chooses not to.

PE and I enjoyed our first double date in who knows how long! We've been trying for months to go out with our newly married friends. We ate lunch at the Bohemian Brewery. They serve Bavarian food, and it was delicious! I had the pierogies and bratswurst. PE tried the schnitzel. It was nice to get out and enjoy time with our friends.

I had a work training meeting this week. They wanted to train me to help out with a new project. I had no idea what I was walking into. It's a big project, with a ton of data that is all over the place. They want me to organize the data so that they can analyze it better. I guess they think I am a miracle worker? Which is good, I think? So I have no shortage of work, but now I just need to figure out where to find the time...

I have never really sought out work, but I have been blessed with many opportunities through out the years. I don't NEED to work, so I have been more than happy with my few hours a month. I can even go months without working at all (I have the best employer!). I have had the occasional request that requires more time. I worked 30+ hours over Thanksgiving week last year. But that is definitely not sustainable long term. I do after all, have a full time gig of being mother to 3 children. And laundry and dishes can't be neglected forever....can they? It's all about finding that right balance I guess. So, if you find it, let me know!

January 21-27

The kids practicing "diving". I guess they are anxious to start swimming lessons again.

P3 loves playing with P2's dolls.

We finally got out and played in the snow. It has been a very mild winter, and the little snow we have received melts quickly. P2 was the one that wanted to go outside, but she was the first one to go inside because she was too cold. P3 surprised me, he loved the snow! I fully expected crying after he fell in the snow the first time, but he was happy to get right back up and try it again. He loved it so much that he cried when I brought him back inside.

 

P3 trying to be the loudest person at the dinner table.

P2 with her beautiful jewelry.

On our way to church: 

We went to grandma's house for dinner, and here they are attacking their aunt with cuteness.

We are prepping our kids for a Disneyland vacation this summer, so we have been talking a lot about it. So, P2 built her own little Disneyland out of Legos. And she took one of her Lego mini-figures, and put an orange circle tile on its head to be P1.

P1 built himself his own TV and Nintendo Switch out of Duplo Legos so that he can watch shows and play games whenever he wants, even on Sundays! That's just fine P1, you can "watch" whatever and whenever you want. 😄

January 14-20

P3 chillin' in his chair with cheerios. He likes to wrap his blanket around like a shawl.

With my permission, P1 got all the kids a bowl of goldfish one afternoon. P3 was quite happy with this.

My silly little goofball:

Playing Smash Brothers with Dad. P3 always has to have his own controller.

I walked into the toys room one day, and P3 was talking! We have a Pokemon guessing game, where it asks you yes or no questions until it can guess the Pokemon you are thinking of. Well, when I walked into the room, P3 was answering all the questions with a "No!" It was super adorable. He did it for a good five minutes. He would always wait until it finished asking the question, and then he would say "No!". I think this may have gone on forever if I hadn't turned it off.

P2 colored this picture and then wanted me to take a picture of it to send to her friend. So I sent it in a text to her friend's mom. Then P2 decided I needed to take a new picture and send it to grandma, and another one to send to her aunt. Don't tell her, but I just used the same picture! 

We helped clean the church on Saturday, and the kids were good little helpers. P3 loved wandering the church. When we came home, P1 started building the church out of Duplos. It was complete with a sacrament table and everything.

I started taking an online class this week on how to use Microsoft Access. My work is paying for it, and it has been nice to be in a class again. I guess I enjoy being a student. So far it has been pretty easy, but still informative. So yay for learning!

January 7-13

P3 and I visited my dad at work on his birthday. We decided to put P3 to work:

Watching Dad play Smash Brothers on the Nintendo Switch:

P3 loves it when I play Zelda: Breath of the Wild. He likes to sit by me with a controller. It has been a fun game to explore. I like hunting and cooking food. P2 was watching me one time, and I had a bird in the cross hairs. She cried out, "Don't hurt it Mom! Just go and say 'hi' to it!" So I didn't do much hunting that day. I think she may become vegetarian at some point. We ate shrimp on New Year's, and she wouldn't eat it because it looked like a real animal. And this week, we were eating sweet and sour chicken, and she asked, "What animal did they kill for this chicken?" 😆

 P2 with her collection of dolls:

Last week, P2 came home from preschool claiming that two of her classmates were moving to Hawaii, and we should move there too. (Really, one of them is going on a trip there). I told her maybe we could visit there one day when she was older. I mentioned how I went there as a kid, and got to see a volcano. She asked about the hot lava, and I told her it was a sleeping volcano. So when Dad came home from work, she told him that when we go see a volcano in Hawaii that we have to be very quiet so that we don't wake it up. 😆

Well, the next day, PE sends me an email from his company that is asking for an engineer to move to Hawaii for 2 years. I thought that was pretty crazy! It's probably not in the cards for us, but the timing was pretty great!

Today, P3 finally said a new word! He said "more" when asking for more food. And he has used it many times today! Hurray! He doesn't talk much, and usually just grabs your hand and pulls you to whatever he wants. And then cries if you don't get the right thing.

Last week, I taught the kids about the parable of the 10 virgins. We talked about how we are responsible for filling our own lamps with oil. I had prepared P1 his own Book of Mormon, and as soon as we had finished talking, he wanted to start his own scripture reading. Every day I help him read a few verses. He reads all the words (I help him sound out the hard ones), and then we talk about what he read. This week, he was able to read an entire verse by himself! I am so proud of him, he is a great kid. His primary teacher told me that he is so cute and good in class, and that he knows all the answers.

January 1-6

Oh, this child!!! I'm either completely smitten by him, or completely frustrated with him! Our newest challenge is eating. He has become a big stinker with eating. He does great eating crackers (Club crackers are his favorite food), cheerios, applesauce, bananas, eggs, and treats of every kind. And I guess most fruits he will eat. Other than that, he will not eat his food. If we manage to sneak a bite of something else in his mouth, he will sit there and sob with the food in his mouth. He absolutely refuses to swallow it. He will sit there for a good half hour, just sobbing with the food in his mouth. If we try to force him to swallow by giving him a drink, he will throw up.

 

The kids helped me build a Lego set I got for Christmas. I'm pretty sure P1 built more than I actually did. I had to keep reminding him that it was my set. We built most of it while P3 napped, but he wanted to play with it when he woke up.

P3 waiting for his big brother to come home from kindergarten:

This kid loves to sit in boxes. Here he is reading books in one of our toy totes:

 

Helping Dad playing Pokemon on the Switch:

We finally got around to building the gingerbread train that our neighbors gave us. The kids loved it!