Happy 16 months Alex and Jordan

{Alex and Jordan}

* 1 afternoon nap and lately fighting this as well so sometimes NO nap!

*Speaking more words each day eg. deer, what's that, dog, cat, momma, daddy, sis, aida (aiden) and others

*Big appetites

*Refuse to be spoon fed unless you have something else that you can independently eat at the same time. I rarely feed you myself unless it is something like oatmeal (messy) or soup (runny)

*Jordan you often are slow to warm up to new situations but once you overcome your apprehension you are social. You like to be physical with other kids. You love to push, hug and kiss other kids at your Tumble Time class.

*Both extremely happy, giggly and good natured.

{Jordan}

*Alex, you tend to run quickly into social situations. You are gentle and like to point or gently touch other children. You tend to stand back if we are meeting a dog or animal and take your time.

*Alex if you get hurt you will often stand off to the side and wait for me to come to you. Jordan you will come running to me quickly. You both just want a little sympathy and then you are off running again.

*Alex you adore balls and have an amazing throw and kick

*Jordan you love cars and make the car sound as you drive them around

*You both feed off the other's mood.

*You fight for my attention when it is close to nap time.

*LOVE being outside aka "uh sie" and will run and get your shoes when it is time to get ready.

{Alex}

The kids and I went for an adventure at Centennial Park today. It was below zero and very cold, although the fresh air felt invigorating. Getting the kids out of the house for a run around is always a good thing!

Swans at Sepa on Sunday

Sometime early this morning.........

Caileigh works on printing practice while.........

Mikayla works on a puzzle while........

Aiden works on his Math while......

Alex and Jordan eat breakfast.

{Jordan}

{Alex}

Just a typical week day morning.

A train of events.......

Jordan is happily playing on the train and Alex decides to join him.

Alex manages to push Jordan off the back of the train.

The two momentarily make peace and play together.

Jordan finds his opportunity and pushes Alex and the train over.

Alex retaliates and gives Jordan a good hit on the head.

Jordan drives away as quickly as he can leaving Alex in his dust......

The kids watch Sean work throughout the year on various organizations. Safeway has four main fundraisers each year for Muscular Dystophy, Easter Seals, Prostate cancer and Breast cancer. I'm hoping that as the kids get older it will provide us with a chance to get them involved. This year the kids helped supervise the making of cupcakes. I also made some pretzel dough with pink dye added and Sean made the pretzels into the breast cancer logo. It was funny though because once they were bagged up I guess some people thought they were dismembered body parts!! Whoops.

We put some hair dye in the kids hair (washable) to match Daddy's and set off for Safeway to do our part in buying more product! (excuse the eye make up on Aiden and Caileigh.....it was from dramatic play)

My kids behaviors remind me of laundry.

Just when you think you are all caught up and can breathe a sigh of relief.......they go and jump in mud puddles and you have to start over.

It's buckle down time people. See you on the other side...........

Things are starting to cool off around here. The mornings have been as cold as -10 and my flowers that were still in bloom a week ago have all died off in the heavy frost. We've been spending time outside each day but usually waiting until the afternoon when things have warmed up a little. The boys aren't very fond of this new arrangement. They will cry most of the morning, "uh sie"!! They adore running, climbing and exploring outside. The boys are both teething and have terrible runny noses for the second time this month. They seem to be dropping their morning nap so our schedule has come up with "plan A" and "plan B". Both work out pretty good, however the lack of a morning nap sure makes for a long morning!!

Our green wagon that Aiden received as a Christmas present from Gigi when he was 16months finally packed it in so Bupee bought the boys a new blue wagon as an early Christmas present. The day it arrived, Alex woke up from his nap first. He climbed in and happily played until Jordan woke up from his nap. Alex was not impressed that he was expected to share his wagon!

One thing I love to do is take pictures. I don't know very much about photography but is just something that I find enjoyable. The kids have been asking to take pictures. On Thanksgiving Sunday, Aiden and Caileigh took turns going around our yard taking photos.

This one is compliments of Caileigh. I think maybe I'll allow them to experiment more in the coming months.

Aiden is doing well in first grade. He still loves Math and Science the best. We're studying the grasslands and he loves finding "specimens" as he searches around the yard. A lesson on ancient civilizations had him spending weeks trying to hunt a squirrel in our back yard. I am thankful that the squirrel seems to have finally gone into hibernation. I think that is a safe idea!!

Piano is another favorite activity as it fits in with his plans of becoming a famous musician/song writer one day. He practices every day and I often don't even need to remind him.

Caileigh is enjoying her school year. It is nice that they are so close in age because they are able to participate in the same curriculum, with the exception of math. Her favorite subjects are History, art and listening to stories. She spends a lot of her day drawing pictures and reading books. Caileigh suddenly seems so "5" even though we still have a few months before this comes official. I notice an extreme independence developing (more than before) and with this comes some of the lovely (spoken sarcastically) behaviors. Lot's of hugs and hopefully this will pass quickly.

Mikayla has been participating in a few activities herself. She gets to color letters, glue items to paper and listen to stories. She is extremely "monkeyish", however, and can't be left alone to her own devices. She loves to eat felts, bingo dab walls and rip the pages of books. Just last week Mikayla "cried wolf" and told us she had swallowed adult Extra Strength Tylenol. After an impromptu visit to the ER and some blood work it was confirmed that there was 0 trace of Tylenol in her system. She then cheerfully responds, "I didn't eat the medicine!" I'm pretty sure this experience may have given me my first gray hair.

Sean is continuing to work a lot, however there are some changes happening for him and hopefully we'll see a change in his extreme work schedule soon. I seem to think I have written this before? He is so hard working and we're certainly proud of him! When I do see him, you can usually find us camped out on the couch watching a movie or one of the new fall sitcoms that we've started to enjoy watching.

Me, I'm good. I've been realizing more and more how quickly these early years go. While I'm happy to see all the exciting things we'll be able to do as a family it makes me sad that my babies are growing up. I like this stage, however hard and extremely trying it can be......and it is! I have my days of pity parties but I try and start fresh the next day......and eat some chocolate.

Go Pink!

It's that time of year again. Sean has gone pink for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. They are nearly at their store goal and the cashier that raises the most money will get to shave his head at the end of the month.

I'm thankful for....

My grandparents amaze me! It was great to spent time with them during their visit this week. Thank you Grandma for bringing them up for a visit. We were sad to hear that Poppa ended up in hospital with pneumonia on the day they returned but we'll be praying for a quick recovery!