Here's a little of what we have been up to so far this month. Really not much it's been pretty laid back and it's so cold that we have spent a lot of time at home. And Paul has been working a lot, he is on General surgery service this month and the black team (which is the busiest) so lots of long hours. All I can say is I a thankful for the 16 hour max work day during intern year (and his program following the rules) so at least he is not there super late. Next year is going to be a whole other ball game, I'm really dreading it. At least he loves what he is doing!
On New Year's eve Paul was working and I really didn't want to keep the kids up until midnight. We Skyped with Connie and Ariane for a while and we ate a bunch of appetizer foods and then around 9 PM I told the kids it was midnight. They banged pots and pans, yelled Happy New Years and drank some sparkling cider and then went to bed.
One night we had the Spjut kids over while their parents went out on a date. We had a movie night and watched the Lorax and ate lots of popcorn.
I finally got these delicious chocolates in the mail. Paul's mom is an amazing chocolatier and makes delicious chocolates every Christmas. She starts in the fall and works so many hours making pounds and pounds of chocolate for all of her family and friends. This year was a little different,, she got started on them but when Paul's sister was diagnosed with cancer, Connie headed to Maryland to be with her and take care of her during her chemo treatments. So the chocolate making got put on hold. When she went home for Christmas she shipped this tin out to us. We feel lucky to have received a tin with everything else that has been going on with Ariane and Connie.
Lately Leila and I have been going the rounds. Some days we just really struggle to get along. We both are stubborn and like things done a certain way and most times our "certain way" doesn't match up. Leila has jobs that she has to get done everyday. They include cleaning her room, making her bed, putting away any of her clean laundry, unloading the top of the dishwasher and putting away her school bag and winter gear. Lately she has been super sassy and refusing to do these jobs. She eventually does them but only after a big drawn out refusal. She tells me no, stomps around, argues, cries, tries to put it off, stalls, pretty much anything she can think of to get out of it. When she finally does began to work it is done with lots of stomping, groaning, and yelling. She usually tells me I'm so mean, that she doesn't like me. One day after school I asked her to put her boots away, she didn't want to but picked them up anyway and then her idea of putting them away was throwing them across the room and unfortunately they hit and broke the blinds. She immediately burst into tears because she knew she was in trouble. She probably cried for a good hour and then asked me not to tell dad. I told her that was not going to happen. She was given extra jobs to earn money to pay for the blinds plus she lost all use of technology (computer, tablet, phones) for 5 days. She was not one bit happy but has decided a big dramatic tantrum is not the way to go. She has been better about doing her jobs and we have also started a program of earning pretend money that can be used to buy stuff in mommy's market. She earns pretend money for having a good attitude when doing her jobs and for doing her jobs the first time we ask or without us even asking. So far it has been better.
We had a couple warmer days and the snow was quickly melting, so the kids decided they needed to play outside before it was all gone.
Greydon has always been my good sleeper and still is. He still takes naps and goes to bed early which I am so thankful for. Most days he tries to get out of his nap but I just tell him he needs to have quiet time, and I give him his books and transformers. He always falls asleep within a few minutes of me putting him in his room. Some days I let him skip his nap if we have errands to run. This particular day he fell asleep on the way to the store, stayed asleep when I transferred him to the cart and then back to his car seat and then stayed asleep when I brought him inside the house. He must have been really tired because he normally wouldn't stay asleep for that long and that many transfers.
We've played lots of games and Grey's favorite right now is Zingo
This is a classic Asher face, he always sucks his lips in
Greydon is our new little Sunbeam. My favorite thing is asking him after church what he learned and then hearing his responses. He is such a sponge and is just soaking everything up.
I've been trying lots of new recipes lately. We loved this Thai chicken pizza. Some of our other favorites were twice baked potatoes, Dr. Pepper pulled pork, and lasagna roll ups.
One morning Greydon had watched quite a few shows on PBS so I suggested he go find his transformers to play with. About 5 minutes later I noticed he had not come back and it was really quiet. I went to find him and this is what I found. He has not had a binky for over 2 months now. Asher has had the newborn binky's and refused to take the bigger ones until just recently. Asher I guess left one in Greydon's room and Grey totally took advantage. When he woke up I asked him about it and he said he saw it and it just made him so happy. He hasn't tried to steal them again since that incidence.
If you can't tell this is a picture of Leila in the chair trying to read a Nicholas Sparks book. Paul and I had a good laugh about this. Leila loves reading and is such a good little reader. She can pretty much read anything. She's not quite to chapter books but any other book we have at home she can read and still understand the story. I always find her in her room or on the couch with a book. It makes me so happy that she loves reading because I love reading and I think it is such a good hobby.
My little water baby. He like my other kids loves to take showers and bath. Any time he gets near my bathroom he starts pulling on his clothes and pointing at the bath tub.
Some other things that have been going this month are lots of dentist appointments. I can't even tell you how many times I have been to the dentist since October. I am finally getting close on being done with all my dental work and we have had some huge blessings with the cost of all the work I needed done. The amount I thought we were going to be paying and what I have actually paid has been huge and I know it has been blessings from the Lord, there is no other way to explain how it has worked out. Plus the blessing of having friends that have watched the boys through all my appointments. The kids also had their dentist appointments this month. Grey's teeth looked great which is amazing since he had a rough couple of dentist appointments in 2012. He was also very cooperative and even let them get xrays. Leila has 2 small cavities and no loose teeth yet. I also took Asher because we have 1 pediatric dentist in Ankeny (who is awesome) but she is starting to get really busy and may stop taking new patients pretty soon so we wanted to get Asher established as a patient. He is also getting his molars and has been miserable and up several times a night.
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