January was the first full month we spent in our new house. Here’s the summary of what we were up to:
After we bought our house, one of the first things I knew we needed to buy was some furniture for Savannah’s room. Abigail is using the nursery furniture (and Savannah and Brooklyn shared a room in the apartment), so I was on the hunt right away for something Savannah could use in her new room. I found this dresser (and a matching nightstand) on Craigslist. The paint needs some touch-up, but it goes perfectly with the bedding I bought for her room!
Brooklyn is doing a great job of making her bed most of the time these days. I love how she lines up all her stuffed animal friends on top. Apparently, Gabby wanted to blend in too :)
Brooklyn was so excited to do all the crafts from her craft boxes that she got for Christmas. She probably had all of them done in a week!
Rainbow fish :)
Abigail looked so cute in one of her new outfits from Paw and Rae Rae!
Most of the time, when I pull out our good camera to take a picture of Abigail, the other girls want to join in too!
The girls were thrilled to be able to go outside and play in a fenced-in backyard anytime they wanted! Didn’t matter how cold it was outside :)
Savannah loves this baby doll cradle that Cici gave her for Christmas :)
Another big hit from Christmas were these bath crayons and dissolving tablets. Who doesn’t like hot pink bath water? :)
This month, we got serious about potty training with Savannah. Might as well while you’re cooped up inside for the winter :) She enjoyed putting stickers on her chart each time she used the potty.
On January 8th, we had Matt, Maggie, and Korah over to watch the National Championship game with us. Brooklyn and Savannah helped me make puppy chow that morning to get ready for the big game.
The game was so exciting! We put our kids to bed at halftime, but somehow Korah managed to stay awake until the end. I thought for sure we’d woken the girls up screaming after the last play of the game, but thankfully they slept through it :) Roll Tide!
Getting better at holding that head up!
Nom nom nom…
January was also the start of the art explosion all over Brooklyn’s room. If you could see her walls now, there’s hardly a blank space at all. She definitely loves to draw.
One day, I caught the girls sitting side by side and flipping through magazines together. It was cute!
January 12th – Brooklyn’s first time making her own PB&J sandwich :) I thought she did a good job!
Making another masterpiece :)
In the winter, we leave blankets in the car for the girls to use since they aren’t supposed to wear heavy coats while riding in their carseats. There’s always a fight over who gets to use the flower blanket!
I rarely make it into pictures these days unless it’s a selfie :)
January 16th was our first snow day in our new house! I took Abigail out for a quick picture…doesn’t she look excited about seeing snow for the first time? :)
Brooklyn wanted to try to ride her bike in the snow :) That didn’t last too long…haha
This gives you a good idea of how much snow it was…really just a good dusting! It barely covered the grass in some spots.
Brooklyn was pumped regardless!
The best part about getting snow is having a snowball fight, of course! Usually, it’s Daddy against everyone else, and he wins anyway :)
The snow was pretty powdery, so it didn’t stick together very well. We had fun anyway!
We were happy for Daddy to get some extra time off work!
Hopefully, for our next snow, we can get Abigail out there too! It was a fun morning :)
Of course, we had to warm up with some hot chocolate once we got back inside.
Once Abigail started rolling over, we had to ditch the swaddle. I was nervous about it, but she really did well! We used the Zipadee Zip for a few nights before going to just a plain sleep sack.
On January 19th, the girls helped me make and decorate a cake for Rae Rae’s birthday :)
The best part was adding lots of SPRINKLES…and eating a few too!
Warm, cozy, and so cute!
We were excited for Paw and Rae Rae to come for lunch and a belated birthday celebration on the 20th!
Brooklyn even made Rae Rae a homemade birthday hat out of wrapping paper…haha
This year’s cake decorations included Marlin and Dory (from Finding Nemo) and a yellow duck finger puppet…haha! Brooklyn also wrote the birthday sign :)
We love you, Rae Rae!
Modeling their new PJs (I got a deal online at Kohl’s!)…this was the best picture we could get :)
Gabby and Brooklyn have an interesting relationship. Brooklyn loves Gabby and always wants to pet her and hold her. Gabby likes the attention…some of the time. Unfortunately, Brooklyn still enjoys chasing her and roaring at her occasionally. So, poor Gabby doesn’t know whether to run or stick around and hope to be treated nicely!
We don’t have a very big backyard at our new house, but it’s still big enough for the girls to run and play. The previous owner added extra concrete to the patio (the lighter color), and eventually we want to tear that up and put grass back down in its place. But, for right now, it’s great that the girls can ride bikes in the backyard while I watch from inside ;)
Brooklyn went through a phase after we moved into our house where she would make my bed and surprise me with it. (I’m all for those kind of surprises!). Even when it didn’t look perfect, it always made me smile :)
January 27th – taking a nap in the crib with no swaddle….making progress!
Not only did Savannah potty train during the month of January, but she also gave up her paci! More details below in the notes, but I’ll just say here that it went much more smoothly than I figured it would. I took her to Target, and she got to pick out any toy she wanted as a special prize!
What did she pick? Princesses, of course! Also, Savannah is the only kid I know who can manage to look angry while “smiling”…haha. The Pookie Scowl strikes again!
More artwork by Brooklyn – this one is of Daniel Tiger’s family :)
Building with Magna Tiles is so much fun!
On January 31st, we met some friends from church at the new library in Madison for storytime. We love the new library! (It had just opened earlier in the month, and we hadn’t been yet.) The kids’ area is in its own section and is closed off with doors, so you don’t have to worry about your kids being too loud and bothering other people who are there to read.
This hat has been one of our favorites. It came from Cindy Jones, a friend of my mom, and it is the best! So stretchy, and it stays on really well.
Ready for Bible class later that afternoon!
The best gifts come in small packages :)
Quotes and Notes from January:
- 1/5/18 – Savannah has a potty chart taped to the bathroom door, and she is supposed to put 1 sticker on it every time she uses the potty. After she used it tonight, we told her to go get a sticker and put it on there. 5 minutes later, we came around the corner and her chart was almost full of stickers…haha. When we asked her how many stickers she’d put on there, she laughed and said, “Mmmmmm……7!” Then when we asked a few minutes later, she laughed again and said, “Mmmmmm….3!” Who knows how many it really was, but it was definitely more than one!
- 1/6/18 – Travis found “blue throw-up” in the guest bedroom upstairs. We were trying to figure out how in the world Gabby threw up, and it was blue. Brooklyn told me a few minutes later, “I know why Gabby’s throw up was blue. She was in my room during quiet time, and she wanted a blue piece of (tissue) paper, so I gave it to her. I think that’s why her throw up turned blue.” At least Brooklyn’s honest!
- Savannah loves her “pack pack” (backpack) and always wants to wear it around the house. She fills it up with random toys and wears it proudly!
- 1/15/18 – It is supposed to snow tomorrow. Brooklyn was so excited when we told her it might snow, and she said she can’t wait for “snowball fighting”!
- 1/21/18 – Brooklyn said, “My feet are sparkling!” She was talking about her feet tingling (I think they’d fallen asleep after she sat on them while eating breakfast).
- 1/21/18 – This Sunday will go down in infamy as the day Pookie went “commando” to church! Travis got her dressed that morning, took off her Pull-up, and I guess he forgot to put a new Pull-up or panties on her. At this point, we still weren’t completely comfortable taking Savannah to church without a Pull-up because she was having accidents pretty often. I didn’t make the big discovery until we got to Cici’s house for lunch. When I lifted up Savannah’s dress to unbuckle her, I got a big surprise…haha! It’s pretty amazing she didn’t have an accident after she hadn’t gone to the potty all morning. We got really, really lucky :)
- 1/27/18 – This was the first night Savannah went to sleep without her paci (“purple”). We have tried to get her to sleep without it a few times before, but she always got upset and started crying. Tonight, we had Abigail in the room when we were tucking her in, and showed her how Abigail was sucking on her own paci. We asked her, “You aren’t a baby, right? You don’t need a paci like Abigail does.” Savannah handed her paci to Daddy and didn’t even cry! We haven’t looked back since that night, although she has had trouble falling asleep for naps ever since then. Many days, she doesn’t even take a nap because she never falls asleep :( But, overall, it was a big success, and we were so proud of how easy Savannah made the transition! Between learning to use the potty and giving up her paci, January was a big month for our sweet girl!
- 1/29/18 – We took food to one of the KSR members who had been sick and had just gotten out of the hospital, and the girls drew her some pictures that I included with the food. Mary texted me later and told me to give the girls a big hug and tell them that they brightened her day. When I told Brooklyn what Mary said, she said, “We FRIGHTened her day??”
- 1/31/18 – Brooklyn asked randomly, “When are we going to swim at the big pool on Kyser Boulevard??” We had no idea she knew the name of the street that our apartment was on!
- 1/31/18 – Travis did a U-turn on the way home from church, and Brooklyn exclaimed, “Wow, that was fun!” A minute later she said, “You’re driving the fun way, Daddy!” :)
On to the month of February! Thanks for reading!
