January was a different kind of month for us! We started the month out living at Nana and Grandad's house. We moved out of our Alcoa house, had all of our things in our new house, BUT we still had a lot of ongoing projects and it would have been almost impossible to live there and keep the kids out of the mess. SO we were beyond thankful to be able to stay a couple of weeks at the Zorio's house! I know we probably wore them out. We are not a quiet, easy bunch of house guests with our 5, 2, and 1 year olds! But it worked out great to be able to stay there. Some days during the day the kids would stay with Nana and we would go work on the house, and we would hand over the baby monitors at 8pm after putting the kids to bed and go work on the house for 3 or 4 hours. We got a TON of painting and other work done during these times. The kids LOVED every minute of staying at the grandparents house.
Making cookies in Nana's kitchen.
It was time for Dawson to go back to preschool from Christmas break while we were still staying at the grandparents. Here he is ready for his first day back!
They had so much fun helping Nana bake so many things!
Then it was time to move into our new home! Our sweet friends, The Myers, left these donut holes on our porch for our 1st morning in our new house. YUMMY!!
Dawson started his basketball games in January. Here he is headed to his first game.
John (and a friend) are coaching Dawson's team.
The team name is Swimming Sharks, and Dawson is number 3!
First game!
John and I were talking about snacks from when we were kids one day, and we mentioned Dunk-a-roos! Dawson thought these sounded DELICIOUS, and he kept asking for them after we described them. One day as a very special treat, we made our own dunk-a-roos! Frosting and chocolate teddy-grahams. They were a hit. And then the kids ran around the house on their sugar high!
(note that you can see the wall we are repairing in the background of this picture!)
Carter always looks so peaceful when he's sleeping!
When I went to wake him up from nap the sun was shinning on his face, and I had to run get the camera. So peaceful!
I helped throw a shower for Sara from Sunday School and her baby boy due in February, Lincoln!
My sweet boy grabbed the vacuum and started cleaning his room on his own! LOVE LOVE LOVE!
The boys are always asking to get in Nora Kate's bed. Why is this so fun for all three of them?! I don't know, but it's so so sweet!
Ignore the fact that this is obviously not the best angle for sweet Nora Kate with her BIG cloth diaper on BUT I took this picture so I could remember how good she has gotten at going up and down the steps in just the few weeks we've been in our new house that has steps. I let her go up with me right behind her and she comes down with me right below her. She does so good!!
We had a couple of warm afternoons in late January. We took full advantage of these by playing outside for a couple of hours!
"Just checking to see how the gator drives in the new yard!"
Carter's faces always crack me up!
He's totally in the air. Always running. Always jumping.
Colt and Alana invited us to go to the Healthy Living Expo one Friday. I didn't get any pictures there, but after the expo we stopped for lunch at Jason's Deli and Dawson took the above picture of his friend, Colt. I think Alana has a similar picture of Dawson with food in his mouth! Boys!
Carter at Jason's Deli.
The Expo was fun. The kids loved the fact that there was a mini cooper State Trooper car there and several booths gave out candy.
The ironic thing was that 24 hours after going to the HEALTHY living expo...we were not so healthy. We all-except for Dawson-came down with a HORRIBLE stomach virus. Horrible! We survived though!
Just a few days after we were playing outside in the nice weather, it snowed! Not much, but Dawson begged to play in it before school. I figured, why not so we got ready for school REALLY quick and had a little snow time!
Dawson's class was learning about space. They were given these bags and could decide what they'd pack to take to space in their "space bag." Dawson took Food, a toy truck, and a book! Smart boy. I loved hearing him tell me after school what things everyone in his class brought to take to space!
Carter was hilarious. About halfway home from picking Dawson up from school and Dawson telling us all about everyone's space bags, Carter (as serious as could be) said, "Soooo, you didn't go to space, Dawson??" Sweet Carter had heard all this space-bag-prep the night before and Dawson talking about it at breakfast and thought Dawson was REALLY going to space! LOVE!
Nora Kate was watching Carter and I just had to snap a few of her sweet expressions!!!
Best Friends. Carter was sitting on the chair watching Octonauts and Nora Kate climbed up and sat on his lap to watch tv!
One cold day we had a pj day. The kids asked to watch tv, so I let them watch our wedding dvd. They loved it!
Warm enough to play outside for a short time!
Carter made up his own game called "Octo-growler." I can't keep up with all the rules, but obviously Dawson plays it perfectly. It's a mix between chase, tag, and being underwater?! If you look closely you can see Carter's BIG GRIN as he and Dawson play Octo-growler here!
Go Swimming Sharks!
Dawson sis getting good at basketball! He has started making at least 2 but as many as 4 baskets each game. The first game both sets of Grandparents both told him they'd give him $1 for the baskets he makes. This kid is racking up!!
Grandparents better watch out, he's getting better every week!
Dawson REALLY seems to like basketball! He seems to enjoy it more than soccer and baseball-we may have found a favorite!!
Carter and Nora Kate do fair on the sidelines. Here they're getting some help with skittles from Lolly.
Carter got to watch an episode of Octonauts and Nora Kate went on her own and cuddled him just like this! She stayed like this for a couple minutes!!
We made a fun outing of Mr. Gatties and Froyoz!
Everyone poked their head through!
If big brothers do it, then this girl has to try it!
January was a great month! I promise I'm almost ready to start sharing pictures of our new house!!
