Random Winter Mix

Olive has a perpetual snuggle partner. 

I think it was about the beginning of December when Weston catapulted himself over the couch in his excitement to see Dad. I heard the crack. Not thud, not smack. But crack. I thought for sure he had busted all his teeth out. Just the chin. And a good gash in his lip where his teeth cut through. Darn kitchen tile! 

This makes the second time I've ended up in the dental chair, with Weston on my lap, getting stitches on his face. I'm so grateful though! The peds office doesn't do stitches and theres no Urgent Care here, so it would have been a long wait in the ER with all the winter germs of Gallup. Bleh. Yay for dentist Dad!

He was a champ, but it wasn't without tears or his whole body seizing up in my arms. I felt so bad for him. 

This was the sweetest scene I could have walked in on, one night. The first bath Dad has given Olive. I think it took 4 months before this happened. I usually bathe her in the day since it's too chaotic at night. 

She gets swaddled with one arm loose now so she has access to that thumb! I thought this pose was funny. "Do you wanna join my crew?" Hot Rod fans?

I thought this little hat turned out cute. I made it for Megan's little guy, Steel.

He might like stuffed animals.

Her middle name really ought to be Blowout. I swear this girl doesn't poop without it gushing out everrrywhere. I need to buy stock in Oxyclean and Shout.

I found Collin ferociously pounding away at a balloon and exclaiming that he was "Goldshmint" and hitting "bombs". Puzzled at how closely that sounded to Goldschmit (and trying hard to recall if that was in fact the name of a baseball player), I questioned him about it. Yup, he knew exactly what he was talking about! Aunt Aubrey taught him all about her favorite players on the Diamonbacks! He was so proud of it too. I'll also get admonished regularly from Weston, with a very sober expression, "There's no crying in baseball." You must have hit home, Aubrey. :)

Oh my heavens. If this didn't give me ulcers, I don't know what will! I was recently called as the ward's Cubmaster and conducted my first pack meeting in December. I was a hot mess. A hot mess, I tell ya! I don't know the first thing about scouting and it's honestly like learning a new language. Belt loops, Webelos, patches, beads, getting hung upside down to get your Bobcat, flag ceremonies, Bears, Day camp, the Law of the Pack, Wolves and cheers! Oh don't get me started on the cheers! It is SO much to learn. And I'm on display, leading all the chaos in front of a room full of parents and kids. I was scared out of my wits. And it showed, I promise. I started 15 min. late and ended 15 min. early. What a circus. Travis blew up 6 black garbage bags full of balloons for the boys to play a game with. He is amazing. We dumped them all in our living room afterward and the boys ran around, playing with them for a straight hour afterward. This will all be a huge learning experience for me. Now that I'm several den meetings in, I can say that I'm starting to like it. It's very disorganized, but I like the boys and my attitude is definitely starting to change. You never know what you're capable of til you try it!

We had a few snow storms before Christmas and I feel like by back door will always have a pile of coats, mittens, boots and hats by it. Along with a muddly trail of footprints around the house. Sigh. Life in snowy places. 

Some tummy time! 

You'd think she was getting teeth because she is ALWAYS knawing on something! Her hands, arms, MY hands, a blankie, towel, etc. Slobbery mess. She seriously has my heart. I just look at her and wonder how I got so lucky. I love this little girl so much.

Now, I'm getting out of order here..... these pictures are from after Christmas. We went to Albuquerque the weekend after we got home and took the boys to a place called Gravity Park. They had a ball. I mean a jump! ;)

The Dad's had a pretty good time too.

I had my good time at Hobby Lobby and TJMaxx. 

And then we all ate good at a Mexican food place called Sadies. It's just so fun for us country folk to go into town. :)

I also got the results from Collin's allergy test after Christmas. High allergy. Class 3 apparently. It was something like 7.5 on a scale of 1-100, so that seemed like nothing to me, but anything over 3.5 is a high allergy. Weird. They only tested cashews and peanuts though so I'm a little irritated. It was no small thing getting him to hold still for that blood draw, and I want to know if he's allergic to any other tree nuts! And even though he hasn't had an anaphalactic reaction before, it's better to be safe than sorry, so we are now the proud owners of Epi pens. Except, not so proud owners. Allergies are so annoying! I wished so bad my kids wouldn't have them. Maybe that's why we got 'em. :(

Some things just make you so giddy happy that you HAVE to dance a jig right in the middle of your kitchen. Cardamom bread does that to me. And I only make it once a year. And since last year's batch got burned, my jig was two years in the making. If you could overdose on Cardamom, I most definitely did that week. I will always revere Diana Hopkins for this recipe!