Ok, so here are a few other things from January . . . the long, cold, boring month of January.  Thank goodness it's over.  And that I'm finally documenting it 3 weeks later. 

Sofa cushion mountains/forts are one of the boys' favorite things to do.

Lots of play dates with friends to keep us busy.

Rockin' a killer outfit. 

Chubbs helping with the laundry.

Owen making sure Em was sufficiently entertained.

Potty training!!!  I'm not sure what O is showing you . . . probably the number of times he peed on the floor that day.

A little bit more snow.  He was "building a fortress to proctect us from the trolls."

Sam helping me make dinner.  I was whining about how much I hate cutting onions.  Samuel saved the day with his matter-of-fact solution, "We just need our sunglasses on!"

January 7, 2012

It's been a pretty dry and warm winter.  I'm not complaining.  But every time it does barely snow, the boys go nuts and want to go play.  I told them they had to wait one snowy morning because we needed to run a couple errands.  As soon as we got home, both Samuel and Owen bolted out of the car into the snow.  Once Emmett went down for a nap, I rounded up some snowman supplies and we all got to work.  Samuel tried to name him Sam, then settled on Frosty, even though I suggested Quasimodo.  (He thought that was funny.  Every time he told someone about the snowman, he'd include, "And we named him Frosty but my Mom wanted to call him something else, what was that name, Mom?  Yeah, Quasimodo, hahaha!")  This time, at least, the boys got their fill.  A good 90 minutes later they both came inside freezing, soaked, and screaming, "WE HATE THE STUPID SNOW!!!!"  And later that day, poor Frosty had already fallen over.  Owen found that pretty amusing, and kept running to the front window, pointing and explaining to anyone who would listen (for the fifth and sixth time), "Look, look at dat poor snowman.  He felled over!!!"  It was fun while it lasted.

Never will he miss an opportunity to ride his bike!

The boys don't care that it's cold and 15 degrees outside.  They definitely don't care that it's snowing.  They want out.  And they really like their mittens.  So I say, good riddance, and warn them that no one is allowed back in if they're crying or whining about being cold or wet.  And they never are.  They did find a good place to "protect us and give us shelter."  Sam is always the first one to come in, and if Owen didn't always need a buddy out there, he would stay outside all day.