Christmas was a huge blur for us because we traveled up north to see family. Our trip started off really well with visits with friends and family. However, Christmas night Amelia came down with croup, effectively tweaking the rest of our trip. We took her to Instacare on the 26th to confirm our suspicions. Croup is nasty, we had a lot of long nights. We are grateful for our family who helped us take care of Amelia and to our friends who understood that we could not meet up like planned. We were able to make it up to Logan and visit Nathan's aunt and uncle. It was so great to see them since they've returned home from their mission. We also made a quite stop to pick up some beloved Aggie gear. Two days after we returned home from our Christmas trip, Amelia caught the Norovirus bug (stomach flu), while at Target. We have now joined the elite group of parents who have had their child throw up in public places. I'm pretty sure we need matching bracelets for this club, so we can recognize members and commiserate. So we canceled our New Years plans and Amelia missed out on a friend's birthday party, but we thought it wise not to share our sickness cooties. Then Nathan came down with the stomach flu, and the fun continued. So that was December for you. Oh and the world obviously didn't end on 12/21/12.
Next came January. I secretly and perhaps not so secretly love January. Its cold, gloomy and perfect. I love winter. Anyway, Nathan and I both have birthdays in January and sometimes we combine gifts and do something special or big. We decided this year for our birthdays we would redo our bedroom. It's been a lot of fun planning and using Pintrest to come up with ideas. In fact, although its now March we've (finally) decided on the direction we are going. It takes a while when you have very different ideas. So things are starting to come together, slowly but surely. Can't wait to let Amelia help paint. Speaking of painting, Amelia has been loving her easel she got for Christmas, and she has become quite good at drawing circles and smiley faces (except her faces don't smile). I love how excited she is to do art. She also painted her first canvas board. She is so independent and definitely has her own style. The other fun thing that happened in January was that my dad and sister came down to spend my birthday weekend with us (and to enjoy some sun, I'm sure). I was completely surprised and shocked when I answered the door. Nathan has officially planned 3 surprises for my birthday's, you'd think I'd catch on but really I can be completely dense when it comes to surprises. Nathan also made me a fabulous birthday cake, he worked so hard on it and it was delicious. I'm a lucky girl, birthday surprise visits and two birthday cakes, what more could a girl ask for?
February rolled around, and with that came Valentine's Day and art classes. I taught an art class on Kandinsky (He's the father of Abstract art). My 2nd grade students loved learning about Kandinsky and Abstract art. Little kids have the greatest imagination and when given the freedom of abstract art, they are able to create some wonderful projects without fear of doing something "wrong". Its quite liberating. Amelia had a lot of fun with the class as well, the kids just love having her there to help. Nathan's been quite busy with work but he was able to take us out for ice cream on Valentine's Day. I picked out a few boxes of conversations hearts that were blank, it came with a pen so you could make your own conversation hearts. Amelia loved them. They were a perfect addition to our sugar cookies. If you're curious yes we had fun coming up with "rejected" conversation hearts. Our neighbors really appreciated them. February was kind of a blur to be honest, we've been super busy. Nathan was a coach for a city league volleyball team with his coworkers, they just finished their tournament this week. He's decided that he enjoys playing but not coaching. Amelia and I enjoy cheering him on. I've been helping out some friends and so we've been having a lot of hectic days/weeks. Things are finally calming down, which is good for us and blog updates!
I'm loving March so far. We celebrated Dr. Seuss day this past weekend and Amelia's birthday is at the end of the month. Which means I've got to finalize plans for her special day. I can hardly believe she's turning three. Amelia is currently in love with playing in the dirt with her bucket and shovel. There is a big pile of red sand by our house, due to a new home construction, and its become her favorite place to play. She loves tying blankets around her like a cape and running around. She is quite stubborn and independent, which is sometimes not my favorite thing. She likes to dress her self and play hide and seek. She says the funniest things. Usually in the morning she hollers "Mom where are you? I'm awake!" Recently we have been dealing with some night time separation anxiety. She's been waking up and wondering where we are and sometimes freaking out because we aren't with her. Its been hard and frustrating since she's been such a super star sleeper, I guess we were bound to have some sort of sleep issues sometime. The first week Nathan and I walked around like frustrated zombies but now we've got a system that's working and we are close to being done with the phase. Hallelujah!
So to wrap it all up, sickness, busy schedules and lack of sleep contributed to the delay in updates. That's my excuse and I'm stickin' to it. Happy St. Patrick's Day, because lets be honest, I might not update before then.
Nathan and Amelia building snowmen Christmas Eve. Nathan's first snowman in fresh wet snow.
Amelia's very own Christmas tree, with ornaments she picked out herself. She redecorated it at least 10 times.
Luminaries on my mom's grave on Christmas Eve.
Amelia's first live Nativity.
Amelia sick with croup. Worst Christmas gift EVER.
Aggie Love. Or as Amelia says when she sees an Aggie bull, "Daddy moo cows".
Amelia coloring Curious George's face on her easel.
Funny Faces.
Canvas Board painting.
Nathan made me this super yummy birthday cake. Look at the ganache oozing :)
Amelia's conversation hearts.
Rejected conversation hearts.
Amelia style.
Learning how to blow chocolate milk bubbles.
Strawberry ice cream on Valentine's Day.
Picnics are more fun than eating at the table.
Dr. Suess Day.
One fish two fish.
Dr. Suess style sugar cookies.
Practicing faces. The circles are hair, according to Amelia.
Watching some cartoons before church.
Spiderman love.
What to wear? how about your Halloween costume. In February.
