Monday, Monday...

I don't have any pictures for this week, but this is a cute one from a few weeks ago. Before bed every night, I have the kids help pick up from the day (even though it takes a lot longer when they help :). I like them to be involved in the process, and they often "tidy" on their own now too. Anyway, we were all tidied up for the evening, and were doing the songs, story, scriptures, prayer routine. As you can see, Ben-Ben thought he would be sneaky, and go over to the toy box while every one's eyes were shut for prayer. Luckily the prayer ended before he dumped out all the toys again. And I got a picture of his "caught!" face. Love that boy!


So, it's Monday. We had a fantastic, yet uneventful, three day weekend and I was sad to see it go. BUT, story time started up again today, and that's fun for everyone. I like seeing the other mommas and catching up. Anna just loves the stories, seeing her friends, Ms. Susan, and the activities. And Ben-Ben is simply excited to go anywhere. We did our morning routine, I got the kiddies all bundled up, I cleaned the snow off the car, and we braved the elements to get to the library. By the time we got there, I was wondering if I should have bothered. But it was awesome! It was great to see everyone after a two month break. Anna wore her red cowgirl hat, and her favorite jumper dress to show everyone. (Anna loves wearing dresses, and asks to wear one almost everyday.) I was especially happy at how much Ben-Ben sat and listened, and participated in the songs and actions. Such a big improvement from the fall story time. He only sat for about 20 minutes out of the hour, but man, I'll take it. My baby boy is growing up! (The rest of the time he was walking - and sometimes running - around investigating things, and yeah, getting into a little mischief...pretty typical for a one year old boy.)

We had a few big-ish snowfalls this week, so we've been playing outside a lot. We've gone sledding a few times, played on "our hill" with some kitchen supplies, and once we got all bundled up to go play at the park. Anna and Benjamin thought that was the coolest thing ever...playing at the park during the winter with the snow. Wow, it doesn't take much to impress little kids! But their favorite was the "sled dog" activity. I'm sure you can you guess what this means. Yeah, Ethan and I would take turns being the sled dog, and would pull the kids all around the apartment grounds on their sled. They loved it, and it was a really good workout - it's hard running in snow, pulling 70 pounds! And just like most new things, Benjamin took awhile to "warm up" to these new activities, but by our third outing, he was loving the snow.

I'll end the entry with this too cute story about Anna: We had just settled into the car a few days ago for some sledding, and Anna was very excited and happy we were going. I looked back at Anna, and it looked like she was crying. Me - "Anna why are you crying...Are you sad?" Anna - "Nope, I'm not sad, mom." Me - "Did you get hurt?" Anna - "No." Me - "Then why are there tears on your face?" Anna - "Oh. Hm. Well, well, they must be tears of joy. Probably because I love you so much and I love daddy so much and I love Benjamin so much....I'm just really happy." Where does she get this stuff?!?!?! Really, I think some snow got in her eye, and it looked like tears, but I like Anna's explanation of it much, much better. Sweetness!