January

I think January is my least favorite month.  We spend most our time avoiding going outside the house because of the inversions and single digit temperatures.  And when we do go out, our shopping trips sometimes end like this, reminding me why I don't get out much.

So we have tried to get a bit creative around here and find new ways to entertain ourselves.  Brigham loves his music, and we listen to a lot of it and sometimes make our own music.  He loves to help me sing songs.  One of his most requested is currently "Up on the Housetop" and "Jingle Bells".  Apparently two year olds don't understand that those songs are just for Christmastime.  He also continues to call anyone with a long white beard "Santa", including Dumbledore, Gandolf, and Lorenzo Snow.

This girl must be going through a growth spurt.  All of a sudden she is a big eater and tries to eat everything she can find, even things that aren't food.  She crawls around eating crumbs from the floor right after she has eaten a big meal.  She is actually starting to fill out some of those 6-12 month clothes that have been too big for her.

Brigham still loves his "Sessy" and often wants her to be sitting next to him or playing with him or wrestling with him (which consists of him laying on top of her or rolling her around on the ground).

One of the highlights of my month was spending a weekend at the City Creek Marriott with these lovely ladies.  We had lots of yummy food, went to the jacuzzi, braved the snow storm and freezing temps, did crafts, shopped, stayed up way too late, and had such a fabulous time with each other.  I sure am grateful for my crazy fun family.  Thank you to Dixie and girls for all your planning and Aaron for watching the kiddos.

I leave you with one of my favorite pics of the month.  This is what happens to baby hair when you have to run your heater  a lot.  Makes me smile every time I look at it.

2013

We started off 2013 with a couple of sick kids.  It started with Brigham who threw up on New Year's Eve and spent a lot of the day on the couch, sometimes cuddling with baby sister.

So Aaron volunteered to stay home with the kids while I celebrated with the Bodell clan.  We had an early New Year's Eve party with a photo booth, yummy food, and an exciting game of "I've Never."

Brigham shared his sickness with Lexi and for a few days she spent much of her day like this.  She was so exhausted and just wanted to cuddle and sleep all day long.

She seems to be mostly better now, except for the whole teething thing.  She is ten months old and into everything.  She likes to climb over and under things and into tight spaces.  She can stand on her own for 5-10 seconds at a time and walk when she is holding on to things.  I am trying to not be too sad that she is growing up so fast.

Brigham is loving the new play room we made to house all the toys.  He is also enjoying Lexi's Christmas presents more than she is.  His Cars have taken over the castle (along with many other areas of the house) and he loves to sleep with Woody, Jesse, and Buzz in bed with him.

He also loves to listen to music and is developing strong opinions about what music.  His latest favorites are Disney soundtracks.  One day I made the mistake of finding the Dumbo soundtrack on Spotify and he became a little obsessed.  Any time I turned on music he insisted that I switch it to Dumbo.  He would run around to Casey Jr, get scared during the part where Mrs. Jumbo gets mad and is taken away, and would pretend to be an animal in the Circus Parade.  I have recently gotten him to expand his musical tastes and listen to the Jungle Book soundtrack.  Now he asks to "march" each morning and we listen to the Elephant March song while he gets on all fours and marches around the kitchen.  Then he asks for "nessities" and dances around like Baloo and Mowgli including the parts where they taste the pears, scratch their backs on the tree, and float in the water. I'm posting a video below.  It's a few minutes long and you have to go to the actual blog to watch, but in case you are interested...