Family Update: February

Our sister-in-law Mindi had the brilliant idea to do a once-a-month family update on their blog, and I LOVED that idea, so I'm stealing it. So, here's what's been happening with us this past month:

Bethany--is getting stronger everyday, and is now holding herself up pretty well while sitting, standing, and doing tummy time. She's also just started rolling onto her side. She has recently found her hands, and LOVES to put them in her mouth and talk while she does so (num-num-num!). She also loves to watch us with her wide blue eyes and talk to us while we eat, and is cooing more other times as well (so we're thinkin' she's getting close to being ready for "table food"). She's been a great sleeper (only waking up once a night to eat), and is generally a good napper during the day as well. Her other likes are to hold hands, read books, look at bubbles, watch her big sister, and be rocked to sleep. She's our sweet, happy baby and we love squeezing and holding her and just having her around.

Grace--loves to play with her playdough, and especially now that she just earned a playdough tool set (by helping Jenny around the house with dishes and setting the table; we were SO proud of her for her hard work and patience in earning it!). Her favorite TV shows these days are Signing Time, Curious George, and Word World. She also enjoys reading and is starting to be able to pick out sight words (like "the" and "and") when we read, as well as spell simple words with her magnet letters (like "log" and "bus"). A new favorite activity of hers is playing in the water in the sink, and she is looking forward to Spring so she can play in her water table outside again. Another new activity of hers is playing with the nativity set that we've left out from Christmas; she daily asks me to tell her the Christmas story as we look at the different figurines (and has added raisins in to the Christmas story; apparently the wise men like to eat them on their journey ;).). Another still is getting piggy back rides from mom and dad, which she asks for daily. She continues to love to sing, and can often be found singing "Book of Mormon Stories," "I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ," and "Paradise" by Coldplay (interesting selection, I know). And of course, she loves to talk to Bethany, hold her hand, and give her kisses (telling her what a "precious tiny baby" she is :) ). We sure love our sweet, helpful Grace girl.

Jenny--mostly stays busy watching the girls, but makes time to do a weekly Zumba class with some other girls from her Ward, go out with friends on "girls nights", and do lots of reading (for fun and personal enrichment). If only there were more hours in a day, right?!

Travis--just finished his 3rd year of Podiatry school this month (hooray for no more test weeks--ever!), and has thus also started his 4th year (which is the year of his externships). He also just signed up for a 50K race in May and is excited to get going on his training for that.

Life is busy, but good, and we're looking forward to the adventures this year will bring!

New Posts!

Keep scrolling down to see our latest posts:
*Snow Fun!
*Bethany Lovin'
*Best friends are we, my sister & me
*Thanksgiving & Pre-Christmas Fun
*Texas Trip Part 6: Museum Day
*Texas Trip Part 5: Christmas
Enjoy!

Snow Fun!

We've gotten a couple good snowfalls this past week in Cleveland, and since Grace hadn't really been out to play in it yet this winter (probably since she never asked, and I never offered--snow me no likey), we dressed her up and let her run-a-muck!
Getting all suited up:


Travis went out to shovel one night and Grace begged to go out and help him, the cutie. :) So we got out her sand shovel and out she went!
Our hard workers (gotta start em young, ya know! ;) ):


They had a blast!


A couple days after they shoveled, we got another good snowfall (if you can consider snowfall good). I had promised Grace all the next day that after dad got home, he could take her sledding in the backyard for a little bit. She was SO excited. Well, Travis got home around dinner time, so after her bath, we got Grace dressed in her snow gear, but all throughout dressing her, she kept talking about her shovel. Confused, Travis explained to her that she didn't need her shovel, that they weren't shoveling the driveway like they did the other night, and that tonight, they were just going to go sledding. To this, Grace happily exclaimed: "Oh! Hooray! That would be really, really perfect!" Travis and I laughed so hard!
Off to the backyard they went, where Grace proceeded to squeal in delight while Travis pulled her in figure 8's around the backyard.
You can just see the joy in her face:

After she was done sledding, she played on the slides a little bit too (cuz why not!?).

They had "snow" much fun in the snow!