February Phone Pics

Some of February's highlights in Phone pictures:

 Teya celebrated her 100th day of school by dressing up as a 100 year old.  Her tiny handmade shawl from Grandma Karen and her missing teeth were the perfect accents to her look.

Fancy Brinley wearing my necklace to church. If she's this cute now, we're in trouble when she's a teenager!

 After a LONG break from running due to surgeries, moving, holiday craziness and a nasty case of shin splints, I'm FINALLY recovered and making my comeback. New shoes, compression socks, and taking it real easy have kept the injuries at bay. Taber and I signed up for a half marathon in May so I'm pumped to have a race on deck again!

 Little miss Teya got a 100% on a spelling test! This is a HUGE deal because she has really struggled with reading and spelling in her new school. The curriculum is a lot more challenging than she was used to in NH so she's had to have special tutoring to get up to speed. She's worked so so hard on her spelling and even though it doesn't come easy to her, we are so proud to see her conquering this challenge!

 Treats from our Super Bowl party with Naomi and Kevin. I made 7 layer hummus dip, it was awesome!

 We discovered that our neighbors 2 doors down love playing Settlers! They don't have kids so we had them come over after our kids were in bed and played till the wee hours of the morning. That's how we party :)

 My niece had a puppy/kitty birthday party so I painted the kids faces. 

They looked SO cute!

Best part of living close to my sister, being there for my nieces birthdays!! So glad I got to squeeze the birthday girl in person this year!

 Another perk of living close to Naomi, Brinley gets to jump in on her at home preschool once a week. They made George Washington wigs for Presidents day. So funny!

 Cam wanted to wear a wig too. He took it very seriously. :)

 I organized my art supplies and have been trying to do more art projects with the kids. Finger paint is their favorite. 

 We took the kids to a bird exhibit and as we were walking out the door Brinley decided she needed a neon green tutu to compliment her red polka pants. Love that girl. 

 And finally, I conquered my fear/hatred of brussel sprouts and actually bought some for the first time in my life, AND cooked them. I'm pleased to say that my tastebuds have matured since my childhood and I actually enjoyed them. Kind of a big deal for me :)

Mommy's Little Super Helper

Next year Brinley goes to Kindergarten, so right now I'm relishing having her home with me, she is totally mommy's little Super helper.

She loves to help me cook and can mix up a mean pancake batter.

She's also a great grocery shopping companion and always asks, "Is that on the list?" When I try to sneak extra stuff in the cart. 

She keeps my toenails looking fabulous with her personal pedicures.

Seriously how awesome is this pedi? 

She's a great little snow shoveler

And the best helper with Cam, always entertaining him, bringing him toys, treats, blanky, and most recently she's even started helping change his diapers. 

She helps me with the dishes and is pro at putting away silverware.

And loading it in the dishwasher.

She loves taking the warm clothes out of the drier 

(mostly so she can cuddle up in them and get all nice and toasty:)

And pouring in the soap.

Of course I reward her for all her hard super helper work. Making cookies together is one of her favorite things in the world, so we do it...a lot :)

And when she asks to go to Chik-Fila to get nuggets and chocolate milk, well how could I possibly say no to that face? I love my little sidekick and and I'm so grateful for this precious time when she's all mine before she goes to school.

Finally some SNOW!!!

It didn't come until February, but it finally came! 

SNOW!!!

The girls were ecstatic!

Cam was happy too, despite being forced to wear his sister's hot pink hand-me-down snowpants. (I bought him snow pants last year but we never got snow, and then he grew out of them...so yeah...pink pants)

Since it snowed we have been taking full advantage of the white stuff. About once a week we go sledding in the backyard on the golf course. (usually Taber takes them but I went this time too)

When Teya gets off the bus after school she throws her backpack in the house and then goes back out to play in the snow. This is the snowgirl she built all by herself. 

And whenever Taber has free time it's usually spent with the kids out in the snow. 

Snowball attack on Daddy!

So even though the snow came a couple months later than we would've liked, we're all very happy that it's here. (As long as it goes away by spring break :)

Cam turns 2!! (and his 2 year old update)

Back in January our big Cammer turned 2!! 

We invited my sister and our cute neighbors to join us for a low key fiesta in his honor.

Cam was mostly just happy that we invited uncle Kevin since that meant lots of being thrown up in the air and swung around like a monkey. (Which is why all the kids love Uncle Kev :)

 I made Cafe Rio chicken with all the fixings

 Taber was so excited he made a Cafe Rio Mountain instead of a burrito. 

Cam was lovin' the beans and chips, 2 of his favorites. 

The highlight of the night was when we brought out his cake!!

 The low light was when we lit the candles. 

He was not happy about his food being on fire and had that concerned look on his face until the girls blew out the candles.  Luckily he was all smiles again after that :)

CAM AT 2 YEARS OLD

At his 2 year old check up Cam was in the 85th percentile for weight and the 50th percentile for height, so he's a pretty solid kid! He wears 2T pants and 3T shirts because his little belly won't fit in 2T :)

He loves puzzles, numbers, and letters more than anything! 

 This is his favorite morning activity, puzzles with sissy. 

Mommy cuts his hair (with no training and a wimpy beard clipper, so sometimes it comes out pretty sketchy!) On Sundays we do a faux hawk which has earned him the affectionate nickname of "Rhino" from one of the families at church who adores him. 

 He's receiving early intervention therapy twice a week from his wonderful Speech therapist, Miss Ali, and his occupational therapists, Miss Karen. 

 He gets to do lots of fun sensory things with his OT

 He also works on his core, to help with his extremely low muscle tone.

And we're trying to strengthen his arms, with the goal of him being able to wheelbarrow walk eventually.

His fine motor skills are amazing, but he still gets to practice those too to keep them sharp.

 He works hard, but he plays hard too!

In May he'll be increasing his speech to twice a week and scaling back on the OT. 

He can sign almost 40 words: (color, cookie, cracker, apple, milk, train, car, airplane, blanket, all done, water, open, no, yes, brush teeth, wash hands, eat, Daddy, Mommy, bath, up, down, hat, shoes, socks, dog, cat, bird, please, more, help, cereal, hot, cold, hurt, play, ball and sorry)

And can say about 10, (not counting his numbers and letters which he can approximate pretty well!) When he wakes up in the morning I usually hear him on the monitor singing, "A-B-D-D-E-EH-CHEE-A-I-Yay-K-EH-Oh-Eh-Oh-P!!" (his version of the alphabet) Either that or he's counting. :)

He loves music and will dance to just about anything. He also likes to lead the music in church along with the chorister.

His favorite comfort items are his blanket and his thumb.

His favorite foods are boiled eggs (I boil a dozen at the beginning of the week because he goes through them so fast!) Lentil soup, black beans, sausage, broccoli dipped in parmesan cheese, chicken nuggets and marshmallows)

His favorite shows are Mickey Mouse clubhouse, Diego and Dora the Explorer.

His favorite toys are cars (He usually has one in each hand)

and his favorite songs are Itsy Bitsy Spider (he literally cracks up laughing every time the rain washes the spider out) Popcorn popping on the apricot tree, and wheels on the bus. 

So that's the update on our big 2 year old! 

We love our handsome little Cam man and are so grateful to have this guy in our family!