~Our Life in January~

January 14

One of the things that I'm looking forward to with this 365 challenge of photos is that I'm going to be documenting all those things that mean so much to me in my world, that I would not think of taking a photo of usually. These two things below happen to be two of my favorite things about where these kids are at in their ages currently. They both amaze me so much. 

Abby has a corner on her blanket that she MUST hold onto when sucking her thumb and holding her "May May" (blanket). She says "Torner" (Corner) and we have to search the blanket for the corner with the hole that opened up to a simple edge without the stitching. She thought of this around age 1 and it means so much to her. She is amazing.

I love watching Hunter play the computer. For the longest  time, he would hold those fingers on his right hand so tight moving it on the touch pad that he would have to stop every 2 minutes and massage and stretch his hand. It was so funny! He is smart when it comes to these games online. I sat there that night watching him do gogirlsgames.com playing the cooking class. He knew right where to go and right what to do. He is amazing.

January 15

This ended up being another day that I didn't get to see the kids all day due to work. Things have been crazy at work and I've been needed to be there to keep things going as smoothly as possible. Just one of those things in life where lots of changes are going on at work and once we get through it, it will be better, but we have to muddle through the changes to get there. I won't post a photo of my work... but that was my day.

January 16

Our puppy-Tucker- LOVES "chewy's"... he gets so excited! Tonight was a good night for him because he got one.

Peeking out from behind the camera!

Abby said "Peek a boo!" with a great big smile!

He pulled this toy off the shelf and he hasn't played with it much since we bought it. Funny how things will come around again!

Tonight was one of those nights after long days at work, lots of stress, and what seems like a VERY long week... I just wanted to snuggle my babies all night. I only got a few short hours with them, but I did make sure to get my cuddles in. 

One thing I was super excited about today was that I received an email from one of the apps that I have on my phone that Abby uses. It is called Kid Zone. It sends me a weekly update of what games/songs/apps that Abby is choosing. It also sends me copies of her drawings on it and tonight she figured out how to send me a video message! It is a great program, I'm happy my sister told me about it! It was a bright shiny moment in a very long day!

~13/365~

Well I'm currently on day 13 of 365 for my 365 days of photos goal. I have to admit, I've so far missed one day. I didn't get to see my kids on Friday this week, so I missed taking their photo, or any photo for that matter. Hopefully, in the future, I'll take a photo that would do something.. but my progress thus far has far exceeded my hopes, so I'll just keep on with what I'm doing and understand that sometimes, life happens.

January 9

This was a Wednesday, which makes me capture photos of us in our "prime" our real life- so this night was the truth of what happens in our house- Hunter feel asleep at Nana and Papa's house, so he was brought home sleeping and stayed asleep all night. Abigail felt the need to dress up in anything that looked appropriate to go around her neck, and for me to get a picture was nearly impossible... she was super spicy this night! So here she is, in all of her sassiness giving me a look that says "take the picture already"

January 10

This was the theme of our night on Thursday, the kids love to cuddle with Dad, as he is the cuddly one of us two. They both requested him to lay with. Lately Abby has been a super stinker about going to bed and staying in her bed, so a couple times we have to lay her back down or lay with her on the couch until she settles down a bit more.

January 11 (no photos... sorry!)

January 12 (lots of photos- I made up for it)

 Hunter was having a great time this weekend playing SkyLanders on his Nintendo DS 3D. His cousin Gavin gave him the game as he is "getting too old" for some of his games that he has. Hunter is the right age though, I think we changed characters, umm... maybe 50 times?!

 I LOVE these photos! What sweet, wonderful kids I have. Jake was busy a lot of the weekend studying, so we were having a great time taking photos, playing games, and having fun.

Below you can see photos of Hunter and Abby running. This is one of their favorite things to do! They run in circles around the living room, run from the living room to the bathroom, all over! Jake and I are surprised with how fast Abby is... she is maybe going to be a little runner (yay!).

Abby playing with her baby doll carrier and stroller... she loves her baby stuff!

January 13

 A Sunday always starts out good when you can play sword fight and dad is Snake Eyes!

 Remember playing this game? Hunter came running out to me saying "Mom, it is really hot, there is LAVA in the living room!" this of course leads to two naked kids running around... of course.

 Hunter and Abby both had fun riding his new horse from Grandpa and Grandma Tom and Lori... he sure had it running fast!

 My beautiful daughter dressed in a new outfit from Grandpa Dana and Grandma Julie... she even had her hair back in a ponytail. As old as she looks in the photo below, she still is a thumb sucker and still my little baby in the photo above.

Onto another week! Wishing you and yours a good one!

~January continued~

January 6

On Sunday, we woke up and the kids had a scrumptious breakfast of hot chocolate and doughnuts! Guess what though? No one ate much of any doughnuts (for the kids anyway...) and only one drank their chocolate milk. Nonetheless, I enjoyed my starbucks and doughnut. Hunter was excited to get home that day and ate some of his sandwich from subway once we got home. Our kids have been refusing food all day lately, just to eat like crazy around 4-5pm and then all night some more. I guess I have days like that too...

January 7

Well, on Monday night Jake was at a Beer Brewer meeting so I decided to take the kids to the dollar store in hopes that I could find some stuff for the potty party that I'm having at my house. For more information on the potty party... click here. Well, I didn't find much for the party, and I ended up with a HUGE headache, but I did score some great $1.00 pirate hats that the kids wanted (along with a bag of bubble gum for each). Luckily the kids went to bed early as my head was about to explode... I was hoping that the next day it would be better.

January 8

These photos don't look like much, but I wanted to post them here because what we were doing at the time was watching America's Funniest Home Videos. I remember watching this all the time as a kid and I was excited to know it is still on tv. It is good clean, fun, and everyone in the family enjoys watching it. Even Abby giggles at it!

~January 5~

Well, every time you succeed at a goal, you should be proud. So, today, I am proud. Because I have succeeded in my goal for taking photos, five days in a row. However, I have not succeeded in running every slated day of my new years goal, but I digress. Lets focus on the positive. :)

January 4

 On Friday, we left to go to Oshkosh, so our entire time with the kids pretty much consisted of riding in the car, thus, our photo! Notice the difference in moods here, and this was 5 minutes into the ride, but continued 3 1/2 hours throughout the ride. Abby has never been much for riding in the car, Hunter has always been fine with it, and Tucker is always nervous, even if we are at home. 

January 5

 Kylin, our neice, ready for the packer party! (Jake was having his own Viking party)

 Hunter and Gavin, being grumpy, which was the theme of our afternoon. Sometimes we have these days as parents, and luckily they are short lived, but, we do still have them.

Abigail on the phone with Nana and Papa talking about babies that she is playing with Kylin. We have so much fun in Oshkosh with the cousins, the kids get along great (as much as kids can), and we have been having a great time. 

Ok, that is it for this edition, say a prayer that I continue on this great streak!

~*365 Photo Challenge*~

I saw on another blog a challenge that someone had for themselves for the new year, which consisted of them doing a photo of their child every day for one year. After some thinking about it, and realizing that as much as I would love to do this, and as much as I know I would fail, I wanted to do it anyway. So I've started. The biggest issue I run into is that getting the photos from camera to computer to online is sometimes difficult, especially with our upload being as slow as it is here. But, I'm going to give it a shot, one day at a time (pun intended).

I feel that this would go right along with our family blog anyway, I can continue to post blogs on what I was thinking during that time that I took the photo. Another goal of mine this year is to get enough blogs on here to make it worth making it into a book like I did with Hunter's blog. So, in many ways, these goals go hand in hand.

January 1

 Hunter and Abby played out in the shed while dad was vacuuming the car. Obviously Hunter was driving the barbie Jeep fast enough to make Abigail laugh! I'm sure they were about to run into the front of the car here... if it is scary and fun, Abigail laughs!


January 2

 Abigail was a bit restless in bed overnight, she woke at 4am and laid out on the couch with me for 20 minutes before asking for some water. I got the water and put her to bed with the cup. She started crying and Jake got up and gave her some milk to have in bed. Well, sometime after that, she got herself out of bed, went to the living room and laid face down on the couch. We didn't know about it until Jake flipped the light on after his shower and saw her there laying on the couch. Neither one of us knew! It was awfully cute!

 Hunter likes to play with his lego sets, sometimes he thinks that they are guns. I have a strict rule that he cannot "shoot" mom with the guns, but this time, he was "shooting" the camera. Boys will be boys Jake tells me!

January 3

 Hunter can now play the Wii, Xbox, Nintendo 3DS, and the computer pretty well. He is on an xbox kick. He plays a game that I would prefer him not to play, (I won't mention the name for fear of judgement!) but I was figuring last night that we frequently tell him that the games are for pretend and we don't let him play them too much. Sometimes as a parent what you think was appropriate and not appropriate before you have kids gets changed based on who your kid is and what they are like. If he was difficult to control and not so stinkin sweet, maybe I would not let him play these games.

Abby was taking a bath last night and I noticed how long her hair is getting and I wanted to take a photo to remember my awe. I set up her (and Hunter's) annual doctor appointment yesterday and while stating what check up she is having I did say out loud "wow, I can't believe she is two" I still can't believe Hunter is 4, I still can't believe I've been married to my best friend for 5. Time flies. 5 more years and I will be in my mid-thirties, Hunter will be turning 9, Abby 7. I just cannot believe it.

*2012 Wrap Up*

Well we made it. Despite the Mayans, despite the terrorists, despite the flu, we made it. December ended up being a VERY busy month for us! Not super surprised, as it always seems to be a busy month, but wow, it is January 1 already.

Here are the highlights from the month (with photos... of course!):

Christmas at the Verdons

Hunter received a Nintendo 3DS, Mario game for it, Legos, and a new Vikings Jersey

Abby received a Bitty Baby crib and crib mobile, matching pajamas with the bitty baby, and a single bitty baby stroller

Christmas with the Lemke's

Sorry... I don't have photos of the Christmas at my sisters house... but we DID have a great time with Grandpa Tom and Grandma Lori... Hunter got a dress up horse, matching pajamas with his bear, and a new truck and trailer. Abby received matching pajamas with her bear, barbie mustang, and new books

Making Christmas Cookies

This was a lot of fun... my favorite part? Abby frosting the bottom of the cookies and then sticking them bottom down on the table... more than once too! By the way, Hunter is convinced that Santa has bad manners, he doesn't eat all of the cookie, he just takes bites. Maybe next year we should leave a message to have Santa eat ALL of the cookie!

 

Christmas Morning

  This was a fun year opening gifts. The kids are older, understand so much more and get very excited about gifts. It was great to see the smiles and hear the excitement.

Hunter got some legos from Santa!

Abby got licorice and a new Ariel doll! (maybe we should get a Little Mermaid movie...)

He sure loves her!

Her "new" face... she does this a lot now!

Her favorite gift was the aqua doodle!

Playing with her new doll crib!

My silly little boy! Loves to make faces and then look at the camera to see what it looks like!

Christmas at the Cooks

We had our first year at Grandpa Dana and Grandma Julie's new house. It was a fun Christmas... other than Hunter and Abby did not feel well. Hunter sat on Dad or Mom's lap the whole night, but besides coughing and a runny nose, nothing was going to slow Abby down! They enjoyed opening gifts, but we did have to leave a bit early due to the crummy feelings of both of them. Hunter got a Bubble Guppies DS game, new Jammies, and the whole collection of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures! Abby got a baby high chair, dress up shoes and clothes, and new Jammies as well.

 

Looking for trouble...

Oh Man he loved jumping in the wrapping paper pile!

Sick.

And then they were sick... we stayed home almost all weekend (other than the Cook Christmas) to do some R & R on these two. Hunter had cough, runny nose, fever and vomiting. Abby had fever, runny nose and cough. Hunter has an unusually sensitive stomach, so I am not convinced that this is much more than a cold, but there are lots of bad things going around for viruses... so it could have been a lot of things! Good news is, 18 hours of sleep, lots of cuddles, and some of Nana's home made soup and they are both on the mend!