The first haircut!

Last Sunday we decided to finally take Jake in for his first haircut.  It's been a long time in coming as we've been contemplating this for about 2 months.  Jake did a great job...just sat still and enjoyed the action.  Now, he looks a lot older...my baby is no longer a baby.

Before

During

After

Even Tabs got in on the action last weekend.....

Tonight was another evening worth savoring.  After a few moments to myself after dinner, I joined the rest of the family in the basement.  Jake was wandering around playing with toys and practicing his standing and Tabs was watching Care Bears when I came down.

First, I just sat on the floor watching them.  Then, I remembered that I had a Care Bear my grandma made for me.  Amazingly I remembered right where it was and grabbed it for Tabs.  She looked in awe at it and couldn't believe I had just produced it for her.  She thought it was soooo cool that "heaven grandma" made it and it was now hers to keep despite a few stains and a very worn looking body.

After that fun with Tabs, "Super Jake" started curling up in my lap, then climbing off, then curling up and hugging me.  He soon got tired of that and we then started taking turns playing the xylophone.  He would bang away and then hand the mallet to me.  I took my turn and handed it back.  We did this over and over for quite awhile.

Even though it was only 20 minutes of this tonight, it was the best 20 minutes of the entire day!

 

Happy Valentine's Day

What a day!  I'm not sure I would change anything about today and it is rare that I can say that on a regular basis.  Everyone woke up happy this morning, there were no complaints about breakfast, and no rushing out the door for dance like a normal Saturday.  James took Tabitha to dance with Jake while I went to run a 5k.  I felt pretty happy about it considering it was -30 wind chill and my clothing added about an extra 10 pounds just to keep warm.  

Later in the day james worked some magic, ditched cable and is saving us big money!  This evening we went out for a yummy dinner where everyone was happy.  Finally we ended the day with playtime that was quite.

Yay for great days!

Crafts by Tabitha

Tabs loves her crafts.  She wants to sit down with someone and make something.  So, for Christmas she got a bunch of different crafts to do.  One of the first crafts we sat down to do was pot holders.  While a little tricky for her, she certainly showed her fine motor skills with the one.  In the end, with a little adult help, she had a brand new potholder for us to add to our drawer. 

Tabitha's potholder is on the right.  The potholder I made with my grandma about 20 years ago is on the left!

Who needs a dog when you have Jakey...

Just some birthday selfies with my Roos from Monday....

2015 has started out more than crazy!  Weekdays are busy enough between work, school, dinner, and having just about an hour as a family before bedtime routines start.  While I would like to say that the weekends are a bit calmer, it hasn't been so far and February doesn't appear to slow down any either.  

With that said I haven't blogged much in January...not that there hasn't been anything happening because there has.  But before I get too far into 2015, I better recap the end of 2014.  We had a nice quiet Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  Santa came, we went to church and spent a few hours with my parents.  That evening we decided to depart for Indiana to see James' mom.  We thought we would try the drive through the night trick with the kids since it is a minimum 10 hour trip. This actually worked quite well, even in Chicago where the highway lights seemed like an airport landing strip.  But what we came to realize is that James and I can't pull all-nighters anymore (although, those of you who know me, know I could never do that when I was young!).  We spent a few great days in Indiana playing with grandma, visiting the Children's Museum and just relaxing.

As we headed home, we decided that we would only drive halfway and spend the night in a hotel.  This was a much better decision, and we've decided that as we plan trips to Indiana in the future that we will do it this way, staying overnight at places the kids might enjoy like Wisconsin Dells and Chicago.  Later in the week we had Christmas with my family.  My sister and her family drove up and we had a lovely time catching up and watching the cousins play together.

Finally, to wrap things up we had friends from up north in town for a few days, so we got to hang out with them one day letting the kids swim together.

All in all it was another great Christmas.  The decorations are down now, but that doesn't mean that Tabitha doesn't add in a "Hark the Hearld Angels Sing" in between Taylor Swift and Echosmith.

Here are some fun pictures from the holidays! James has more in his blog at Chacodunbar.blogspot.com.

Cookies for Santa...unfortunately Santa lost a cookie to Jake's tummy.

This is what happens when daddy's in charge...she wanted an "Army tattoo"