January was a great and relaxing month for our family. We were able to slow down after the holidays and get back into a daily routine, which was really nice!
When your kids want to take a selfie with you.
Oliver turned 4 months old:
He discovered his hands!
Oliver got his first hair cut!
Before and ...
After!
There wasn't a lot of snow for some of the snow activities I had planned, so we did this instead. I made these little snowman heads out of baking powder and water. Then the girls got to dissolve them with vinegar, creating "melting snowmen". They loved it, especially Rylee!
Parker's "leg cross thing"
One of Ashtyn's favorite activities is burning holes into black paper with her magnifying glass.
Parker's picture of Link, holding a sword and eating French fries 😂
Rylee has reached that stage where she doesn't nap anymore, but it can be hard to make it to bedtime still. I try hard to keep her from falling asleep most days, otherwise bedtime can be rough. Sometimes though she just falls asleep or I can tell she really needs a nap and help her hold still long enough to zonk out.
While learning about the creation for Come Follow Me, we got out the playdoh. The kids had a lot of fun making each part of the creation story and then had fun with the playdoh afterwards as well.
Playdoh is such a good, creative "toy"
Cousins 💓
Oliver and Rhen (Ben's cousins' baby) are one month apart.
One day, we did space worksheets and learned about constellations.
The kids then got a box out of the garage, poked holes in it, covered it with a blanket to make it dark, and used a lamp to create their own stars.
Ashtyn still loves to build with blocks!
Ashtyn had a goal in 2021 to read every night before bed.
This was her calendar to keep track of her streak!
Parker gave a talk in primary on the creation. She did a really good job with it.
Ben has been paper prototyping some of his games for his business this year.
This was a game he and Ashtyn prototyped together, a sea monster fishing game!
This was a cute activity where they got to draw "gross" toppings on their pizza.
They all had fun with it. Then they got out the playdoh to make more "pizzas".
I especially love seeing Rylee color now, it's so cute.
Parker loves to write. She is constantly asking me how to spell things now so that she can write them down. She also loves to copy things (for example, when we play music on the TV, she'll copy the name of the song and the band onto a page in a notebook).
This is on the wall. I guess I'm just happy she's interested in writing
One day, she wrote this down and asked me what it said.
I wasn't quite sure how to respond 😂
Another thing the kids did on their own was make these fishing poles out of sticks, string, and broken paper clips. The socks were their "fish" until we told them they couldn't hook the socks for reals (it would make holes), then they made a bunch of paper fish.
A few days later, they tied the end of their fishing poles to toy cars and created a new toy with them.
Sometimes the simplest activities are the ones the kids love the most. My girls love rainbows, so for the story of the Ark for Come Follow Me, we colored these rainbows together. The girls loved it and I really enjoy coloring with them.
Jessica found a video of Donovan doing jumping jacks and Caleb edited it for fun and Parker wanted to try it 😂
The girls love dancing 💗
January was also a month of trying to go through the house and reorganize some. After Christmas presents, we also tried to declutter to make room for the new toys. This was after I finished our pantry (I wish I had done a "before picture" because it was pretty bad before).
We also started a new system for our coat closet. I think I already shared this here, but I love it. The kids can get to their shoes and jackets really easily and also put them away without my help. It's made a huge difference for how clean our laundry room is!
Oliver loves Signing Time! We'll let him watch for 10-20 minutes at a time (he doesn't usually want to for longer than that anyway) but he already gets excited to watch it. He sits and talks to the screen and I think it's the cutest thing.
I love his little voice and the way he is discovering his body!
Watch to the end to see how he plays with his mouth right now.
Oliver loves taking bathies now 💗
In fact, I will often wait until he's a little grouchy before giving him one and it always makes him happy again.
His little toes 💗
This mirror is still his favorite toy.
He started lifting his head up during tummy this month, and rolling from stomach to back (he hasn't rolled the other way yet).
The second time he rolled over.
The first time he shocked me and I didn't have my camera ready 😂
He also grabs his feet all the time and is super interested in his toes, which is adorable.
Such a cutie pie 💗
This is another of his favorite toys. He got it for Christmas from our friend Liselotte in Norway.
Selfie! 😂
When I'm trying to get a picture of him now, he often grabs my phone and tries to eat it. Oliver loves to laugh and Parker loves to make him laugh!
Oliver has been doing really well at night lately, sleeping 10.5-11 hours at night.
His naps, however, have been mostly a disaster. I feel like if I could get the waketime between naps correct, he would do a perfect schedule for me (two 1.5 hour naps and a catnap) and some days he does. Most days, it's a struggle. This month, while I was trying to figure out waketimes, I would go up and rock him if he woke up early and he would sometimes go back to sleep on me. He even had a day where he would only nap while I was holding him (I still don't know what happened that day). Now, he's back to not sleeping on me unless he's been awake for way too long (and then he doesn't sleep for very long), but I enjoyed the snuggles.
This last picture is him grinning up at me instead of sleeping.
Talking to Mom instead of sleeping.
The little pill 💗
Oliver loves to give "kisses" now!
Rylee's favorite thing is to snuggle me while I'm nursing or holding Oliver 💗
The weather is starting to warm up and I'm loving it! In fact, Vernal didn't get nearly as cold as it normally does this year (that's how it felt, at least). It made it a lot easier to make it through January when the kids could often go outside in the middle of the day.
Trying to work on my blog/YouTube with a baby.
He was very interested in my foot.
We lock the fridge because during shows, if Ben and I aren't out with the girls, they immediately think they need food. 😅
Poor Parker has very thick hair. This was after two days of not brushing it. TWO DAYS. It was like this from one side to the other and front to back. I had washed and conditioned it before brushing it out, which really helped. But I need to figure out something to help her hair not get like this.
We had a late Christmas! We exchange presents with our friend in Norway but her package somehow got stuck along the way and it only just arrived. The girls were so excited and loved what she got them! We are so lucky to be friends with her 💗
German pancakes! This one got a nice big bubble on one side 😂
We also made strawberry ice cream for the first time this month.
It turned out so yummy! Our next flavor we want to try is strawberry cheesecake ice cream.
For Ben's birthday, we did a special date and his parents watched the kids.
They were so excited for a special movie night at Grandma and Grandpa's! They ate pizza and kettle corn and watched Looney Toons.
For his date, we made steak and zucchini squash, both in our new air fryer. They both turned out super yummy!
I also made an Angel Food Cake for the first time and I was really happy with how it turned out! It's Ben's favorite dessert.
The girls' favorite movie right now is Riverdance on Netflix. It's an animated movie based off the dance show. It's not my favorite movie, but I do love that the girls are into Irish dancing because of it and I also love that they use the original music.
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