49 Days

As of today, there are 49 days until Spring. That's it. This winter has not been too bad. We have had a lot of snow and rain which has kept our air pretty clean and Dallin's obliques pretty toned with all the shoveling. Usually by this time, we are so depressed with the dirty inversion, the old, mucky snow and just freezing temperatures. That has not been the case this year. However, we are still pretty good hermits, mainly because I am too lazy to bundle up my children to go anywhere and have a slight OCD about germs around little Caleb. Yes. I'm one of those crazy moms. But, I'd rather stay in my house then in a hospital with a sick baby. So, we have been pretending we are bears, hibernating. I think they have the right idea.

Sleeping like a boss

They are the best brothers

Taking a note from papa's book.

For New Year's, we took Luke ice skating followed by hot chocolate in Farmington. He was not quite sure about the whole ordeal. Nevertheless, he kept saying it was fun, but a little bit slippery. His face says otherwise...

When did we become winter, mountain people with our boots and big jackets?

He was pretty confident about this part of the trip

Caleb and I just hung out under the heating lamp

That face

The swings all over again

The following week, Dallin took Luke on a little daddy-son date to the Clark Planetarium in Salt Lake. Caleb and I hung out at home seeing as I still was in pain and snuggles with Caleb make things better. Also, the germs...

Anyway, the patriarch and his firstborn had fun exploring space.

The wheels are turning as to how he can climb up there...

Oh, you know, just hanging out with Neil Armstrong

When I asked Luke to tell me about his trip from the pictures I got, "Oh yeah! That's when I climbed through the tire!" Thanks for the clarification on that one, buddy.

No gravity!

Caleb had a cold that resulted in a yucky little cough and with his already narrower airways, we took him to the doctor just to make sure he was getting enough oxygen and all was good. He is fine, and on the mend! Anyway, while Dallin took him in, Luke and I got to go on a little date to the indoor dinosaur park at City Creek. It was fun seeing the difference a year can make, which was the last time we visited the dinosaur park. Last year, Luke could barely go down a little dino slide; this year he was running, climbing, jumping like a parkour champ. We then visited the fish in the stream that runs through city creek to which he informed me he wanted to catch one with his hands and eat it. Okay, Gollum.

What do we do inside all day, you ask? Well, let's take a look! Pictures never lie...

LOTS of puzzles....

Luke got a lot of puzzles for Christmas and he LOVES them. They are usually the first thing he pulls out every morning and he will not let me clean them up without a fight. Oh. In case you were wondering, he has decided he is a 15-year-old boy who likes to yell at his mama. We are addressing that behavior, stat.

Some exercising

With my neck pain, I went to a doctor just to make sure that it was not anything serious. What did he prescribe, you ask? Weekly massages. Sounds great on paper, but honestly, who has time or money for that?! Thus has been born my newfound desire for yoga. I have been doing a yoga challenge with my sister-in-law and baby sis every day and it has helped! It no longer hurts to take a deep breath or have the hiccups and I just feel good throughout the day. Caleb is trying to disrupt my morning yoga time by waking up more at night, along with Luke who has decided 5:45am is when he needs to start his day. It definitely is not. Regardless, I get it in every morning and take that time to set the mood for my day because when a doctor prescribes weekly massages, that means mama is holding in a bit too much stress.

Referee the siblings

MOST of the time, these two play quite nicely together. Luke takes care of Caleb by sharing his toys, making sure he is okay if he starts to cry and heating up his bottle. However, he is 2 and has his shining moments throughout the day where he tries to "Ka-bobble" his baby brother by body slamming him or eat him like a "Yummy cookie." Literally.

Go for walks

 Okay. I'll be honest. Walks happen about once a week. As I mentioned before, I'm lazy and would rather just throw the kids out with no shoes or jackets, which is why we get outside more in the summer. In the winter, however, it takes SO much work to get two kids ready for a 10 minute walk. A lot of times, it doesn't seem worth it. Then again, other times it seems VERY worth it.

Kiss on these rolls!

 But seriously. This baby is so yummy!

Date nights

Dallin has been coming up with some pretty creative, staty-at-home dates. This particular one was part of a minute-to-win-it date night where he had different challenges we had to complete in 1 minute. This challenge was to build a house with toothpicks and marshmallows. Dallin's is on the left. Others have been painting pictionary where we had to guess what favorite memory the other was painting and game nights.

Housing varmints

 This one has been involuntary. About a week after we got back from California, we had a mouse sighting. Dallin didn't believe me the first night when I was feeding Caleb and saw the ominous shadow scurry from the bed to under our heater vent. A few days later, I saw it again while pumping in the living room. When I beckoned him in, he admitted he saw the same thing the night before. He crouched down on a mission to find the dirty rascal and discovered him hiding under the heater, beneath carpet in the corner of the room. He set up some traps and we found the unfourtunate critter in his final resting place NEXT to the trap a couple of days later. Explain that one, please.

I'm not a varmint person. My mom was sending me stories of mice in their married student housing that gave me nightmares for a week. Tales of little mice babies coming out when my mom and dad had offed the mama mouse and half dead ones clinging onto the side of garbage cans. Bleh. Bleh. BLEH! Pictured above are tracks we found a couple of days after the mice eviction in our backyard. Mama B won the prize by correctly identifying them as rabbit tracks. Lucky for him, he never made an appearance inside.

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Eating

We eat. A lot. Some current favorite foods right now are Nutella on graham crackers, sweet potatos, apples, kiwis and baby oatmeal.

Paying off debt!

One perk of never going anywhere is that we are not spending as much money which means we have been able to completely pay off student loans and medical bills! Woot for that.

Anxiously waiting for daddy to get home

 We call dad throughout the day. A lot. Then, when we hear the familiar beep of the car locking outside, excitement rises and life is good. I try to be exciting, but most of the time I get funny looks from Luke and, let's face it, mom will never be as awesome and fun as dad. We sure love dad.

Getting new callings

I got called to be the Primary Secretary at church which means that I get to do the behind the scenes work for the primary presidency to help all the children in our neighborhood feel loved and like the amazing children of God that they are. We joke that the reason I got called to this is so that I can manage my own hoodlum when he graduates nursery next year and joins primary. So far, it has been fun and I'm excited to get to know all the littles!

Playing with all our new Christmas goods

We got a lot of toys for Christmas. It has been so fun getting to see Luke's imagination explode. He enjoys putting my cozy socks on and drive, run, slide...just be awesome. Cracks us up. He also loves to give Caleb as many toys as possible. Luckily, Caleb doesn't mind most of the time. There are times that he has had enough, to which he confidently lets us know he is done.

Snuggling

 What better way to spend a day then with lots of snuggles?! We start the day snuggling (mostly to try to get a few more minutes of sleep when Luke climbs into bed with his entourage at 6am), we snuggle with books, with puzzles, with shows, just because...lots of snuggling. I'll take it.

 

Cooking

Tying in with the reason we are eating so much, we are cooking a lot! We love food in this house.

 So, for the next 49 days, we will be doing much of the same. If you want to come break up the mundane, we welcome phone calls, ideas for new activities and visitors. We are excited for papa B to come in a week to cheer on the Broncos with us and go sledding (SURPRISE! We're taking you sledding, papa).

 Much love to you all!