January was a very, very cold month for us here in Tennessee this year! We had several snow days (I think Dawson's preschool closed for 4 of his days this month due to the weather!) and many other days where it was just WAY to cold to leave the house. Needless to say, we didn't do a lot of going this month, but rather, we tried to stay busy and entertained at home a little more! It was actually a nice time to slow down!
Overall life seemed to slow down a little this month...John took moved into a new position at work which means he's now on DAYS!! (I could not be happier!) Even though he will work every other weekend, we are so, so excited for this schedule change! This alone has made life seem less hectic! John spent the majority of the month training and got into his new role at the end of the month. So far, he's really enjoying it! :)
Due to having spent more time at home this month, I was able to work a lot more with Carter on potty training, and he's doing AWESOME! Carter has amazed us with how quickly he's picked this up. Many mornings he wakes up dry and a lot of days he only has 1 or 2 little accidents during the whole course of the day (which includes when we leave the house too)!! He loves wearing underwear and thinks he's such a big boy!
We have had A LOT of little playdates at our house this month and gone to many at friends houses as well, although I didn't do a great job of taking pictures at our playdates. We had fun going to playdates at Charlie and Olivia's house and at Colt's house. Then Dawson was super excited to have a school friend, Dustin, and his brother over to play one cold morning! We also had a church playdate where A BUNCH of kids of the parents in our Sunday School class came over to play one morning! This was great because we had boys and girls and all ages! Dawson AND Carter both had friends to play with, and they had a great time. Another morning we had Carson, Harper, and Colt over to play!
Thankfully, I didn't let the boys take all of their Christmas gifts out of the boxes on Christmas day after unwrapping them because we had SO much cold weather in early January especially that we didn't really leave the house too much! This was the PERFECT time to allow them to open new things slowly! I felt like they enjoyed each give waaaay more this way too! I need to remember this for next year! :)
The kids were very fortunate to get a tv for the playroom from Nana and Grandad for Christmas. It is safely mounted on the wall out of reach of little hands! This has been so nice to be able to turn on for a bit here and there (especially as I get dinner started in the evening)! Each boy has a bean bag, but Carter likes to sit on Dawson's lap to watch tv sometimes, silly brothers. You can tell they're engrossed in this episode of Bananas in Pajamas!
In all of our at home time, I cleaned out the playroom and rearranged! We placed the train table in front of the sofa like a coffee table, and this train table has never been played with SO much! John and I joked that next Christmas we just need to rearrange the toys and the kids will play with them like they're new! The fun part of this is that Dawson and Carter both like for us to build intricate tracks, and they now both will leave them (for the most part) put together and actually enjoy them. Dawson wants us to take a picture of each track.
As I've mentioned, we had snow day after snow day this month. The first snow day where Dawson's school was canceled I knew I need to do a few special things because he was going to be SO disappointed. So we made these snowman pancakes (the details are in blueberries) for breakfast!
Carter and Dawson playing in the snow!
Carter got rainboots for Christmas, and I'm so glad we made that decisions because it has snowed so much he's gotten a lot of use out of them...now that he has learned to walk in them! :)
Brothers in the snow!
Snow fun!
SOOOO cold!
Carter likes the snow at first, but once he gets cold he's done!
We got him this hat for Christmas, and he absolutely loves it!
Any time he gets to wear it, he does not want to take it off! He makes us laugh!
More snow fun!
Almost time to go inside...toooooo cold!
Snow day arts and crafts!
We made Snow Dough! This was an idea I found on Pinterest, and it seemed really cool! We even put glitter in it to make it sparkly, and we used hair conditioner to make it so it even had a nice scent...BUT I don't think we will make this again....it was SO messy! The kids enjoyed it though!
Snow Dough!
Snow Dough!
We had a couple of pajama days in all this cold weather! One morning Carter asked to get in Nora Kate's crib. He loved cuddling up beside his sister!
Then Dawson didn't want to be left out!
Look at that sweet smile Nora Kate is giving Dawson!
Makes me sad to see how big Dawson looks in this crib that he and Carter both slept in as infants!
Carter keeps us laughing....all the time!
This afternoon in particular he was extra silly. He took his snack and sat in Nora Kate's Bumbo seat to eat it and proceeded to make all these silly faces! Dawson and I were laughing which just encouraged more silliness from Carter!
Dawson has been REALLY into Legos lately!! I'm really impressed with a lot of the things he builds. He will work and work on his buildings changing them over and over....usually at the end he wants a picture!
We've been having climbing issues around our house. Carter is in a climbing phase just like Dawson went through at this age. However, when Carter climbs it reminds Dawson that he can climb. We've really been working on stopping the boys from climbing, but it's been a struggle. One day after lunch I was cleaning up the kitchen and the boys were playing nicely in the playroom. Next thing I know Dawson had jumped off of some plastic toy drawers and hit his front teeth on the floor....his lip was bleeding and his two front teeth were loose. In panic mode I called Dad to come stay with Carter, and we went immediately to the dentist, so far his teeth are still in place. They never fell out, but one of them is still loose. :( I was afraid they were both going to fall out on our way to the dentist so I made him take this picture before we went (his eyes are puffy due to crying) to the dentist so I could have one last picture of his front teeth in his smile. Thankfully we didn't need it since they're still in place. I'm just praying they stay put for a couple of years like they should!!!!
Sweet smily girl!
Another Christmas gift that has been wonderful! Lolly and Pop gave the boys a dual screen DVD player for the van. They are not allowed to watch it all the time, but it's a big treat when they get to! This particular Sunday we let them watch it while we had to make several stops on the way home from church, and Carter was getting very sleepy! EVERY time we get in the van now, Carter says, "TV? Carter watch tv? Watch Ruby? Watch Monkey?" (Asking to watch Max and Ruby or Curious George!) I'm really looking forward to having this when we take a few trips coming up this Spring and Summer!
My best friend from high school, Cassie, is expecting her first-a little boy named Campbell!! Mom, Nora Kate, and I went to her baby shower this month! It was good to get to see Cassie and her mom, and I CANNOT wait to meet sweet Campbell! (Also, I love how we coordinated black and pink without planning it!)
One morning that John was home from work, we took the kids to Gym Bugs! Carter loved it, despite the face he's making here!
Dawson loved Gym Bugs as always too!
Gym Bugs fun with Daddy!
Dawson was SO excited that we ran into a school friend, Broox, there!!
(Later we went to the park and ran into another school friend, Callyn, and he loved that too!!!)
I haven't done much crafty stuff this month, although our Sunday School class was needing some curtains for our room...so I made this simple little valance.
Tummy time fun!
Baby food making has been in full swing this month!
I seriously feel like I *just* finished making all Carter's baby food!
One of the lighter snows we got!
One of my very favorite things we did this month was a "Mommy-Dawson-Date!" John stayed home with Carter and Nora Kate (or "the littles" as Dawson has started referring to his younger siblings, hah!), and just Dawson and I went to the movies! We saw "Frozen" which was really cute and Dawson enjoyed it! He acted SO big the whole time!! On the way back home he told me he had fun "because Carter wasn't whining and Nora Kate wasn't crying for stuff." I really enjoyed my special, uninterrupted time with my big boy, and his comment reminded me I need to do this more often because it was SO important to him. In fact, he's still been talking about when we went to the movies! :)
The friend from school that Dawson talks about the absolute most is Bailey! One Saturday afternoon Dawson and I went roller skating with Bailey and her mom! Dawson was SO excited to do something with a school friend. This was Dawson's first time roller skating, and I thought he did really well!
Learning!
Sweet school friends!
One thing Dawson has been doing a lot of lately is trying to make words. Then he'll ask me to say them. Here's a perfect example of one of the "words" he made and wanted me to say! :)
Three sweet, happy kids one morning before taking Dawson to preschool.
We had our biggest snow so far at the end of January...we probably got about 4 inches. It was on the roads and a lot of schools and business shut down for several days. The roads were SO slick with ice! Snow plows were constantly coming through our neighborhood! Dawson and Carter loved watching the plows! Dawson wanted me to take a picture of one of the plows one morning!
We went back to the "airport hill" in our neighborhood, and the sledding on the road was AWESOME! Dawson and I had a blast!!!
Dawson in our front yard in the snow!
When it snows I think the golf course is SO pretty especially how you can see the mountains in the background!
When it finally warmed up, we all had a lot of energy we needed to run off. John's suggestion of an afternoon at Sandy Springs park was perfect and much needed!!! Look at Carter climbing and wearing his hat!
Swing fun!
So happy to be outside!
Nora Kate enjoyed the park too!
The boys found this big stick/limb at the park the insisted on carrying around!
Love watching these two play!
January was a great month, and February is looking to be a fun month too! We are looking forward to playdates, Valentine's parties, friends from Alabama coming to visit, and hopefully warmer weather before too too long!
