February 2013

 Not a whole lot going on in February either. Just more pics of the kids being the center of our universe. Like this little cutie all dressed up for church.

  Or dressed up for her snow-shoveling, woodworking (loves her tape measure) ballet.

 I love her "angelic" face when her cheeks are flushed.

 Or her super wide-eyed self-portrait. She takes a lot of self portraits.

 Actually, she takes a lot of pictures of everything. The TV, the couch, unsuspecting family members... I try to erase them as I find them, otherwise I have 78 blurry pictures of our furniture or my bum. However, she must be getting better as this happy couple asked her to do their wedding pictures. She took about 30. I think this is the one they'll get framed.

 

 Super-hero-princess-Avenger!

Winston, hiding by the window behind their make-shift closet. Did I mention that the kids live in the den? We converted it to a temporary bedroom and it has worked pretty well.

 Cute.

 Ooh, heart braids. I must have been bored.

 Winston's freaking cute hat I tried to make him wear all the time. He was not a fan.

 Here he is saying, "Get off. Get ooooffffff."

 Dressed up for church.

 This little blazer kills me. I mean, come on, people! How much cuter can it get for a little boy? A plaid blazer? Just stop!

January 2013

January was a nice month to settle down after the holidays. Winston got a toy train from his cousin exchange with Audrey and I took these pictures to show them how much he loved it. Pretty sad that I finally got the picture downloaded to my computer today. As in June 10th. 

You can call me Johnny on the Spot.

 

 Anyhow, THANKS, Audrey, Tyler and Rachel. He loves it, and I can say it has stood the test of time. He still plays with it a ton!

 So happy!

Winston is our hilarious little lounger. He will curl up in the funniest places to watch a show or play with toys.

 Neck strength!

Of course, the usual, his office on the window.

 Grandma's closet. 

(Which is normally so clean, but I had hijacked it to shove my stuff into for a quick cleaning moment.)

 And just being cute.

 For Christmas/Birthday, I got Clayton tickets to a Jazz game versus the Miami Heat. It was my first NBA game so I was enthralled with all the non-game stuff that happens. Like when they send little parachutes sailing down from the ceiling. You can barely see them in this picture, but all I could think of was how it looked just like the Hunger Games!

.

 There is Lebron, not bringing his talents to SLC. Ha ha ha. I made that dumb joke too many times that night. But seriously, the Jazz killed them. I was surprised how the crowd "boos" Lebron any time he enters the game. So mean and hilarious.

 Yeah, we party in the nose-bleeds! Woot woot!

 Back at home, my kids enjoy standing over the kitchen heat vent on cold mornings.

 

 Although, Eleanor, you might be warmer if you tried an extra layer or two of clothing. Do your girls live in swimsuits?

 Pajamas.

 SO FUN!

I Made My First GIF

Miscellaneous Winter 2012

 A few that slipped through the cracks.

Creeeeeeeppyyyy eyyyyyeeess.

 We curled Allie's hair, that's a big day for us.

 

Sweet cousins!

  Winston visiting with Grandma Marguerite.

 

 Oh goody, look who got into mom's makeup!

 She did a great job blending, dipping my mascara wand into my liquid eyeshadow. (Which was a champagne color and is now a murky gray. Yay.)

Luckily I gave her a good talking-to and she learned her lesson. Oh wait, that's right! She totally didn't, she only ramped up her application. Funny girl.

Christmas and December 2012

Last year we missed seeing Santa, despite a few tries, so this year I was determined to make it. We got to the place right before he went on his hour dinner break, but when the kids are dressed up for the friggin picture, I was not going home. My poor mom got wrangled into coming with us so I dragged her around while we waited for Santa and then waited in a crazy long line. Winston does not like waiting in one spot, especially when there are a thousand decorations to try and touch/ruin. Luckily, right next to the "North Pole" they had set up a bell station where you could try your hand at bell playing. Eleanor loooooved that.

 

 She then got to go on the carousel to kill some time.

I didn't trust Win on the carousel, so he got a smaller ride, which he was fine with.

 Hooray for quarters!

 So cute together.

Here is the official picture with Santa, however...

 I loved them all so much that I ponied up for the rights to all of them. I had never seen Winston respond to a camera this way before! Each picture was cuter than the last so all in all, best $5 extra bucks I ever spent. (Although, I do say that a lot.)

 I know, if you aren't blowing them up, they all look the same. Still, SO CUTE!

After the long evening for a few pictures, we stopped at Taco Time on the way home. (Have you had their crisp chicken burrito? No? Go get one, one of the edible fast food options out there.) Eleanor was being hilarious so I took out my camera to take a few pictures. I got a different expression each time.

 

 My favorite.

 The old pirate look we don't see as much anymore. Remember how often we used to see it?

Hey, this is Winston's look.

 For patting myself on the back, December was the month of embroidery. I made this for Shagan for Christmas. The line at the top is from "their" song. They are kind of the most adorable couple ever. Just so you know.

I made this for my mother-in-law, Kathy. There are 7 little seeds sewn on to represent their kids. (I was too lazy to add spouses, and grandchildren would be an ongoing project.)

I gave Kathy this one too. This is what started it all, my mom embroidered dish towels for all of her daughters and grandkids so I did one too. Now I am kind of hooked and think of things I want to embroider all the freaking time!

 

Miscellaneous, little Win (like all tiny people) likes to reorganize the cupboards. He's gotten really good at stacking my mom's Tupperware canisters in ascending order. I'm pretty sure he's a genius.

 I also need to note that he is wearing his guitar shirt. He freakishly loves guitars. He has a little picture book with animals on one page and cars on another and so on. Well, he would carry it around, open to the music page and then sit down and rub his fingers up and down across the strings (on the one dimensional page). My parents got him a ukulele in Hawaii and he is in heaven. He is very into music, drumming, guitars, piano etc... I can't wait til he is a little older to start him in lessons.

 For Allie's present from us, I wanted to make her a balance beam for her American Girl doll that she asked Santa for for Christmas. However, my pathetic and lame skills fell way short and so I had my dad help me out. He freaking welded together a steel support for the wood piece I bought and helped me get it all together. It turned out so incredible! I love it! She loved it too, lamely, I don't have a decent "after" shot. I'll work on that.

 Christmas Eve! The kids got superhero pajamas, complete with capes!

 Fuzzy pictures, I know. It's always challenging to get a shot of them both looking at the camera.

Cute!

The next morning the kids were delighted to open their presents. Eleanor asked Santa for: A toy buffalo?, a doll that looks just like her and a squishy purple heart pillow. (Remember the micro-bead pillow she destroyed?) My mom took care of the heart pillow, Santa got her the doll (Only the hair is almost imperceptibly lighter, so she still wants one that looks JUST like her. Oh brother.) and the toy buffalo was a no-go. I think it's important that they understand they can't get all the things all the time. (She got it instead for her birthday in March, sooo lesson not exactly taught there.) Eleanor said Winston wanted all the exact same things, so Santa got him a basketball hoop that was a total home run!

 As you can see, they also got superhero capes and masks.

Clayton got them both some Thundercats toys online.

 

 And then I apparently stopped taking pictures for the rest of the holiday. Nice. It was all fantastic. The other cute moments from the end of the month, Winston helping grandpa clean the oven.

 I love it when he thinks he's super-helping.

Clayton turned 32! Or giant fire number, apparently.

Winston watched me shovel snow from his desk.

 Gave us more frowny looks.

And more darling ones, too. 

Hot dang! I finished the year! Now I am only 5 months behind. WOOO HOOOO!