January Misc.

Here are some random happenings from the month of January. First of all, some playground pics... We've absolutely LOVED our first winter in Texas. Unless it's raining, we can easily play outside every day. Our boys haven't worn winter coats in Texas all season! What a change for our family! We enjoyed frequenting quite a few playgrounds throughout the month.

This particular January day was actually a bit chilly (for Texas at least). We had the entire playground to ourselves all morning! It was great!

Cody and Jaden are getting braver with trying out new playground equipment. Check out the super tall tube slide in the background!

This next picture is from our neighborhood playground. Jaden and Cody's most recent favorite game to play at any playground is a self-created, self-titled "Lost Pets" game. The boys will pretend to be an animal (a pig is their most commonly chosen pet), I will put these animals to bed, and then the animals will run away. I, the irresponsible pet owner, will always find my missing pets giggling at the top of this tower. Then, they return home and we play again. And again. :)

We visited the Children's Museum twice this month, once on our own and once with cousins Ryan, Nathan, and Isaiah. Here, Cody, Jaden and Ryan are doing the museum's craft-- a surface scratch painting. My boys rarely take time out to do the craft, so it was fun to see them engaged in it this time.

One of our favorite exhibits is the fireman station.

In the middle of the month, we attended a birthday party for Cody and Jaden's new friend Elise. Her 4-year-old birthday party was themed after the movie Frozen. One of the games involved getting these frozen necklaces out of rather large ice chunks.

This job wasn't easy! Eventually all the kiddos discovered that it was easiest to just repeatedly drop their ice on the ground until the ice broke. This tactic worked quite well.

Cody and Jaden continue to being willing helpers whenever we grocery shop. If my shopping list is relatively small, I will allow the boys to steer their own carts around the store. This adventure is such a treat! The boys have only run into each other, or Mommy, a few times (and only once into a pole...) but never yet into other shoppers, so I'd say our track record is pretty decent. :)

Cody and Jaden are also big fans of helping in the kitchen... especially when we're making desserts and even more so when Mommy lets them lick the batter!

Cody says, "Yum!"

Also in January, I got to spend some wonderful time with my dear sister and sister-in-law doing some crafting. We all tried making deco-mesh wreaths for our first time. I'm generally not very good at trying out new crafts on my own, so I loved having their support and creative ideas. It was a perfect type of craft to learn with my sisters nearby.

 I loved how our wreaths turned out! It was some quality girl time too.

Here is our attempt at taking a picture of ourselves with our wreaths. Surprisingly, everyone's face is visible!

And my final product on our front door...

That's about it for our month of January!