January happenings

Aunt Katie has promised to send me the rest of the pictures from our trip, but she's busy wedding planning so it might be this weekend. That's okay Aunt Katie. We still love you! Now go sample cupcakes!

January is when I can really start getting depressed. Snow. Cold. Gray skies. Even Sammy doesn't want to go outside much. So we have been trying to stay busy with indoor activities. I don't know if I mentioned previously that I bought a few tools with Sammy in December...

Just your usual 5-year-old boy tools like a jigsaw and a power sander. No big deal. :) Well, I cut out the shapes and then he uses the sander, and the hammer and nails, and we make stuff. Last Sunday we made this little castle tower. It's very rough. The nails all went in crooked. But it passed an afternoon.

Wella's favorite past time is in the kitchen sink. She loves water!

We've (well, "they've") been working on this map of the world puzzle given to us by Grandpa Norton for Christmas. I helped a little bit with Canada, but now their is only blue ocean left and that's boring, so I kinda quit.

Rolls and rolls of chub.

We get her naked way too often to look at all of the chubs.

I took a leap and switched the master bedroom with Sammy's bedroom. Matt and I just never go into our room until we're going to bed, so there was really no reason for us to have such a giant bedroom. So now we live in this little tiny room that only fits our bed, but I think it's cozy.

I did it with Sammy and Claire one day while Matt was at work. He wasn't so sure about the switch when he originally saw it, but I think he's warming up to it.

Look at Sam's room now! It's awesome! I DID keep the big closet that is between this room and Sammy's room for Matt and myself, and my dresser is still in here, but Sammy is the first one awake in the morning so it's no big deal to get in here when we need to.

And now he has room for his costumes and weapons and games and there is a Leggo table (the little red stools are by the green dresser awaiting fuzzy stickers on their legs so they don't scratch the floor).

It's Sam's room, but I call it the play room because now the kids have some place to play since Luella sleeps in Claire's room now and is often taking up the room for her naps. Claire's doll house is in the corner I'm standing in right now, so she has that to do.

Here is Wella sampling the cars from a game called Rush Hour. It's a bunch of little plastic cars. Choking hazard? Maybe.

But she mainly likes the school bus which is too big to swallow so she's okay.

Claire's working on making her lifesize person with all the internal organs on it for science.

We got this idea from my sister who did it with her girls last year. Claire loves it!

 And I spent a day remembering how hard it is to be a mom with no one to take care of you when I slammed my finger between the sections of our garage door on Wednesday. It was worse than it looks on this picture. I promise. I'm saying that because it's true but also because I need a little pity since children aren't very good at nurturing you when you are hurt. Like, when you are trying to not throw up from the pain and they say things like "Are you okay mom? I don't want ham sandwich for lunch...I want peanut butter and jelly. okay mom? OKAY?" I have some serious character to develop in these children.

Anyway, we're just trying to make it through the Chicago winter. And looking forward to Katie's warm summer wedding!