Singin the winter blues...

 

 

I hope everyone is enjoying all this crazy winter weather we have been having.  Its warm, its a blizzard, its crazy air quality and so forth.  The main thing we have had to deal with is some serious cabin fever.  We have tried lots of projects to get us through these LOOOONG days and are almost well enough that when the current blizzard lets up I think we can start to get out of the house more.  Meanwhile we have made cotton candy, planted starts for the garden (which Julian is so sad don't have any tomatoes yet), made playdough, lots of treats, colored, made an alphabet tree out of felt, painted a "cuckoo bird house" and organized a lot. Thank heavens for the basement and Ducktales or I don't think we would have made it this far... Anyway apart from all those fun activities we have had some fun highlights.  We went to the travel expo to see my uncle and got to watch a real live marachi band (my favorite)!

 

 

Gretch is walking everywhere now for about a month and now I understand why they call this stage toddlers.  Julian never toddled. He just walked like a normal person, but Gretchy toddles everywhere and it is so cute! She still climbs on everything and loves to run and jump from the love sac to the couch and vice versa (oh my) and she loves to dance to any kind of music.  Julian also made a drum set that he played while Gretch danced away.

She also got in her two top teeth about a three weeks ago and has the two on the side of that coming in right now.  She has needed a lot of love!  Her and Julian play together all the time and love to color together.  Gretch loves to color and write. 

Julian has born with me through these hard cabin fever days and has been a pretty good sport.  He continues to be a big helper and has done some really sweet things lately.  One was when we were food shopping Gretchen was getting really tired towards the end of it and started to cry.  Julian was like "uh oh baby," put his arm around her and started to sing twinkle twinkle little star.  I love how he is always so into how she is feeling and trying to make her happy.  It melts my heart.  The other time was when I told Julian that I had to get ready so that we could go to the store. He instantly yelled out "boots, boots" and grabbed my boots out the closet and gave them to me.  He then ran around the house collecting my glasses and purse for me so that we could be on our way.  He is also getting more and more independent.  He does the whole potty thing by himself now and comes out all dressed and he also puts on his own shoes. He and Gretch still love to play together but do strange things like repeated face/body plants into the love sac laughing their heads off as well as love head butts to each other:)  So weird but that is one way to know for sure they are my children...  So much more has happened which I cannot remember because I have been so tired with sleepless teething Gretchy and have put my hands down to realize that my front pockets were behind me, told a neighbor that I hoped her foot was better when I was actually there when she broke her arm, bought baby lotion when I looked forever for the perfect body wash. Anyway ya know, not all there. So these little humans of mine are turning into little people and it is so fun to watch.  Even when it includes coming out to watch them rolling mason jars down the stairs and Gretchy's whole body art tattoo after coloring with Julian.  Julian has been talking so much more lately too and I have hope that he will eventually catch up to his friends.  He just talks about everything now and does his best to put his little sentences together. 

 

Besides all the fun baby stuff we had a wonderful Valentine's day where Aaron made a special breakfast for all of us and the kids got their valentines from him and I, and then we made cookies for Aaron, who shared with all of us;) That night Aaron took me on a romantic date and this was after gorgeous flowers and chocolate covered strawberries. He made me feel so special and I just love Valentine's day and feel like I have the most wonderful Valentine in the whole world. I think we should make the breakfast and valentines a tradition for our little family. We also celebrated Aaron's 30th birthday with a lovely family dinner at the Pie and fun shopping for presents!  Here's a few more cute pics for posterity:) 

 

 

 Popped corn from the cob.  

 

 Gretchy loves yogurt!

 

 Julian and Gretchen flying in the plane Julian made out of the pillow cushions.

 

Hope you had a great weekend!