it's been a while...

Well well well.  How has January slipped away so fast.  And February isn't far behind being gone too!!  It's been an eventful month.  Hum…where to begin?  In no particular order…Claire, Benson, and Mabel all learned to swallow pills at our house.  This amazing talent was in part conquered thanks to a purple onion.  We had a take-out salad from Olive Garden in the fridge and the purple fresh onion ring usually gets tossed right away to the trash.  But as it was sitting on the kitchen table, Benson dared Claire to eat some.  So she pick up the ring, broke off a pill-sized onion piece, put it on her tongue and swallowed it right down.  Benson thought it was hilarious!  Eventually, all three of them were taking turns swallowing onion pieces like champions.  Even….or should I say….especially Miss Mabel.  She is so good!  And she'd always try to one-up the other two by getting a bigger piece or two pieces together--and she was always successful!!  It was quite entertaining and so funny to watch them swallow their "pills."  It actually turned out to be a perfect thing to practice on because they're slippery, and no one really wants to taste them or chew them up after an unsuccessful swallow….so they make sure it gets down nice and easy with a loud, empty-open-mouthed "AWWWW" to finish it up!  So great!

Benson and Claire have also found a new talent in knitting hats and scarfs.  We bought some circle looms and yarn and it was like Christmas all over again!  I hadn't ever attempted such a product, but it turned out to be quite easy.  We all enjoyed learning and creating together.  They were so excited about their newest creation...it was difficult to go to sleep before their hat was complete!  I'm exited to see what other knitting products we come up with as we continue to explore.  Claire's is using her baby to measure the size of a real baby's head.  She wants to make a baby hat, blanket, & booties for her baby when she becomes a mom.  I love the planning.  Benson thinks she will loose all these things before she becomes a mom but Claire is sure she'll keep them safe for her little one.  I love the love she has for babies and her desire to be a mom.  So sweet.

Jared fell off a roof and fractured his pelvis in two spots.  Yikes, right?  Yep.  Yikes.  That wasn't so good.  Luckily he wasn't hurt worse than that.  He was bed/couch ridden for a good two weeks and couldn't really get around until we were able to track down a wheel chair.  That was a nice change of scenery for him to get around on some wheels.  After a good couple of weeks, he began walking around with crutches for a bit, and then was slowly able to get around, with a grandpa-sort-of walk for a while.  And now, one month later, he's doing excellent!  He's still not 100% recovered, but he's getting around great and will continue with some physical therapy till his recovery is complete.  It was a rough few weeks there, but things are getting back to a more normal state-of-being these days.  He has been very blessed through this process to not have a lot of pain and to recover so quickly.  He was even able to fly out to ID three weeks after his fall to attend his brother's wedding!  Great he could be there for that.  

We had friends from Rochester, MN come visit us the end of last month and that was such fun!  We love going on adventures with good friends and are so glad they made the drive to come visit!  Claire and Mabel picked up their friendship without skipping a beat and loved being with their old friends.  We enjoyed going to the Red Rocks amphitheater, out to lunch and you just can't beat the late-night game nights!

Benson is playing basketball and Claire is in a singing and dancing class.  They both really excel in these and love participating!  They both also started a gymnastic class and they really REALLY like that.  They get to learn skills on each of the apparatus:  floor, balance beam, bars, vault, and trampoline.   They absolutely love it and it's so good for their little bodies to jump, stretch, balance, and twirl!

The songs of Frozen are in our house and heads pretty much constantly.  We saw it twice in the theaters.  We love it.  All 3 kids could seriously probably sing every single word of every single song.  Cute show.  A new favorite for sure!

And me…well, I've had a few colds (ugh), got a 24-hr stomach bug (double ugh), got a new road bike & a new phone.   I read the biggest book I've ever read and thoroughly enjoyed it:  John Adams by David McCullough.  I really enjoyed learning more about this time-period and came to admire John Adams in many different ways.  It was enlightening for me to see all our founding fathers overcame and accomplished.  Jared and I watched the 7-part series about John Adams after I finished the book and enjoyed that as well.

It's been a good month.  Challenging.  But still busy and fun!  Having Jared stuck to the couch for a few weeks got to be pretty boring for him…but pretty fun for me and the kids to have him available for book reading, coloring projects, and just good-ol' daddy chats any time one desired!  But we're glad he's recovered so well…glad he can walk now…glad he can help with dinner & dishes :) …glad to have him back!