Interruption

I am interrupting my 2010 catch-up posts to do a quick recap of our January since February is already upon us and will soon be half over. Why am I always behind?

To be completely honest, January was a hard month for me, and so far February hasn't provided a reprieve. I've been feeling a little down and have been hosting all too frequent pity-parties for myself. I'm not sure, but I think it's a combination of several factors.....if you're up for hearing me ramble, read on, if you'd rather skip the whining part then just scroll down and enjoy the pics.

I always find it a smidge depressing when the hype and excitement of the Holidays are over. I love Christmas break. I love having my kids home with me I love having Chris home with me. My parents are teachers, so they even get a long break over the Holidays and we get to see lots of them.
Have I mentioned it's basketball season?....Let me just paint a quick picture of what that means. It means practice every single weeknight, and games every weekend. It means late practice every other week, which means no husband home to help with homework, dinner and the bedtime routine (I do realize that there are like millions of other moms who do the solo thing all the time, but it gets exhausting and lonely)
In years past, we use to be number one basketball fans and rarely missed a game, but the combination of Owen and Ava make that impossible. We all know about Owen and his wandering and fire-alarm pulling tendencies. He really is getting tons better, but for every bit of improvement he has made, Ava has become harder tenfold, she is entirely too mobile. She obsesses over scaling the bleachers. She has no problem stealing popcorn and pop from nearby strangers, and if I try to restrain her from either the stealing or the bleacher scaling, she throws a tantrum I wouldn't even believe a barely one-year old could even pull off....so, we usually stay home and are thankful if we are able to watch the live feed of Chris's games on the t.v.....and most of the time I'm ok with that, You see, I'm a homebody by nature, a hermit, a recluse. I am most comfortable and happy at home. It takes a lot before I start to feel symptoms of cabin fever, but I think they've been creeping in and I've been feeling a little stir crazy. I kept it at bay for quite a while, I busied myself de-cluttering and sorting out neglected closets and baking....and then baking some more, things like cookies and cinnamon rolls and more cookies. Sadly after a while, even mass quantities of cookies weren't keeping the cabin fever at bay and I started to feel guilty that everyone else was starting eat-healthy new year's resolutions and I was doing just the opposite and I began to fear that my already snug jeans were no longer going to zip.....so I cut myself off from sugar thinking that would surely boost my spirits. But then I started baking bread because wheat bread is waaaay better for you than cookies, right?...even if you slather it with honey and butter? Honey doesn't count as sugar, does it? I mean technically it comes from flowers that grow on plants, just like fruit and even vegetables, right?....so I've been having all of this inner-turmoil and dialogue and I've been wondering why I don't seem to keep up with it all like I want to and why sometimes I am a total crab and snappy and just not really very nice. I'm trying to prioritize. I make sure I'm up in the mornings before everyone else so I have time to read my scriptures and pray before the morning madness hits of getting everyone out the door, but I'm still struggling. Maybe it's the weather, maybe it's hormones, maybe I'm just ready for the change in dynamics that the end of basketball season will bring.
So anyway, thanks for listening. I know it sounds a whole lot like I'm complaining, but I'm really not. I have so much to be thankful for and I truly am grateful, but I also want to be real and document what I've been feeling so maybe someday when I forget, I can look back and remember.....you know, just in case I forget and wonder how I handled it all so well, now I'll be able to read this and remind myself that I didn't.

Ok, on to the fun side of our January.....

I'll probably regret it someday, but I let Owen play with his food at lunchtime. He really misses his sisters during the day and sometimes he gets really bored and it's freezing outside, so I figure playing with his food adds a little excitement to his day and fosters creativity......or something.....

green olives stuck onto a spaghetti noodle....

Ava thinks Owen walks on water. She looks at him with stars in her eyes.

His chainsaw does a stellar job at cutting cheese;)

He always wants to stir the macaroni.


So, one afternoon Owen bit off a piece of a foam block then proceeded to shove it up his nose. I tried several times unsuccessfully to remove it. It was wedged up there pretty high. In the end I waited for Chris to come home and he held him still while I dug it out. Once I got it out, I couldn't believe how big it was.

Everytime I wipe down Ava's tray she grabs the rag and puts it in her head. She thinks she is sooo funny.

She also thinks she is pretty funny when she turns the tv off.....

Random Lily.

One day I looked over and saw Owen smooching my computer screen. He was wearing his sister's lip gloss.....Today he wore glitter in his hair to school, he put it in when I wasn't watching. He had already had a bath and there wasn't time for me to bathe him again, so he went to school sparkling. Should I be worried? He may wear lip gloss and sparkles occasionally, but the vast majority of the time, he weilds a paint-stirring stick "sword" and insists on being reffered to as Spiderman.

Luckily he has a soft side when it comes to his baby "Aba," these pictures probably should have been first since they are from the beginning of January, but whatever....anyway, it was after church one Sunday night, he was eating yogurt and Ava really wanted some. 

He was happy to share.


Ava is looking at Chris and signing "more" in this picture.

She is completely unaware that Owen is already holding out a bite for her and patiently waiting for her to eat it.

Between these pics, Owen gets tired of waiting for Ava to turn around and take the bite he's holding out, so he eats it, but then Ava turns around ready for her bite so he quickly holds out the spoon for her, except now it's empty. oops.