January Roundup

We had a great January!!! Lots of relaxing and lots of fun. Here are some things we did/made over the past month that didn't make it into other posts.

First, we received an AWESOME gift box from Aunt Lu and Uncle Ed. We always know it's going to be great but they outdid themselves this year (especially my Aunt with my present.)

Brett got a cool wine bottle opener

Owen got a kazoo, flashlight, and the movie How to Train a Dragon. Maddi got a wonderful book where they read to her and she can listen. It's so great, I love it!!!! And she likes to listen to it over and over.

Perhaps I'm biased, but the best present was for me:) My Aunt made me a smash journal. It's like a scrapbook but better because you don't have to worry about things going in it in a perfect way. You just smash them in there which makes it so much fun!!!! I can't believe she took the time to make it, it's so cool. She also bought me one along with some rub-ons for making another one. She's my crafting soul mate!!!

Although as usual, the kids got a big kick out of the wrapping itself...

 Miss Maddi looking cute in her outfit from her Godmother Jen

Maddi has really been getting into her baby dolls lately. It's so sweet.

 

Just being cute

 

 As part of a school assignment, Owen got to choose Daddy's clothes for the day:)

 Just hanging

 

 Monster truck in the Happy Meal. You would have thought it was a $1MM.

The kids have been having a great month at school as well.

Maddi

Maddi is learning her colors and can almost count to 10!!! She has a blast and runs into the room everyday so ready to learn and play with her friends.

 Owen

One of his class projects this month was to make a winter scene. We had lots of fun doing it. Owen had lots of fun suggesting items to add, his favorite was the campfire.

Here is some miscellaneous artwork Owen created this month (and a few from last.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Owen described this as himself inside a tornado. Looks like his room.

 

 

 

Owen even received a drawing from his girlfriend Dava:)

Goodbye January, Hello February!

Snow Day

I never thought I'd say this, but FINALLY we got a decent amount of snow so that the kids could go out and play. What a strange winter this has been.

Their favorite snow-time activity right now is shoveling. We'll see how long that lasts...

Annual January Florida Trip

We just got back from our annual trip to Florida to visit my Dad and Stepmom and had a GREAT time!!!! It's always such a nice treat after the holidays are over to have something to look forward too.

As always, we have lots of fun. This time we spent a lot more time just hanging out which was much needed.

Barbara had the brilliant idea to get some of those big cardboard blocks to create our own Angry Bird structures. Owen was THRILLED!!!

Until of course his sister knocked down his structure...

On Sunday some of Barbara's family came over to visit. It was really nice to see everyone and catch up.

 Barry and Candy brought Owen an AWESOME truck!

 

 

 

 

 

Maddi and Papo took some time out during the party to pick tangerines off the tree in the backyard. Maddi loved them:)

They of course had their love fest with Papo reading to them. Barbara found a cool ocean book that makes noises. This is Owen's favorite book now.

And it was particularly special since my Dad had gotten Maddi some Golden Books that were his favorite. We read "Three Little Kittens" which he used to read to me.

The weather so was beautiful down there and on Monday we headed down to St. Augustine for some shopping. They have a really cool park too right by the shopping which the kids loved.

 

 

 

 

 

 LOVE the perspective on these shots.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had such a fun time, it was so hard to come back. Owen told me he didn't want to come back to Chicago because our house doesn't have enough space. Aint that the truth.

One funny thing was in the airport terminal at O'hare that we were at. They are actually growing produce inside the airport. Strange.