Writing

I couldn't wait until the kids could read. I always thought it would be so awesome watching them "get it" and learn to love books and reading. And it has been awesome...seeing Charlotte curled up in bed at night with her Junie B. Jones books makes my heart so happy.

I didn't give much thought as to what it would be like when Charlotte and Jensen learned to write...but it has been the BEST THING EVER. The way they sound out words and spell them, their handwriting, the way they are learning to express themselves, the fact that I get these tangible memories of the thoughts that come from their amazing little brains.

Here are a few of my recent favorites...

Charlotte describing something it was hard for her to do...learn to ride her bike without training wheels.

 Jensen writing in chalk on the driveway...Mr. Jensen hearts Mrs. Mama.

This one cracks me up. Charlotte was mad because Finn and Izzy ate lunch together so she wrote out her frustrations about their "love lunch".

Charlotte's dream...that it would snow in Texas every winter.

Charlotte's note to the tooth fairy.

Jensen's punctuation after writing his name on his school work.

One of my favorites. This was on his classroom wall at open house. None of the other students wrote their full name or added a Mr. in front. His sentence is pretty awesome too.

Charlotte's description of something she did over spring break.

Another favorite. Jensen recently decided he loved my bridal portrait and wanted a copy of his own. I went to get in bed one night and found this note on my nightstand asking for a picture for "my self". Then he stapled the "tomorro" on the side to make it known that he wanted the picture the next day. I could not stop laughing. 

And after a request that sweet, how could I say no? Jensen had his own picture, for "my self", ASAP. :)

Ski Bunnies

We took the kids skiing for the first time in February 2016 (they were five, almost six). We always knew we wanted to get them started early like Brian did when he was a kid. However, we weren't sure how it would go...when it comes to kids and cold, kids and lots of equipment, kids and being left at ski school...you just never know. We hoped they'd like it, but they ended up LOVING it...especially Charlotte. Both kids took to it like naturals.

They were really sad to leave. In fact, Charlotte immediately began a campaign to get us to move to Colorado permanently.

So of course we went back this year and this time we brought the Wrens along.

We have arrived!

The weather was much colder this year and I was afraid that the kids would not have as much fun. It was SO cold...one afternoon on our way down the gondola all three kids started crying because their hands were freezing. But other than that, they did awesome once again. They did two days of ski school and then skied with Brian on the second afternoon. On the third day we did some relaxing and some (very un-relaxing) snow tubing.

Toothless Wonder in the snow.

Thanks for another great trip, Breckenridge...see you this summer!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Mono

For the past several years, Charlotte's immune system has been a thing of wonder. She hardly gets sick, and when she does, she uses whatever special juju her body has and fights off the illness usually within a matter of hours. So when she came down with strep in early December, we thought she'd be back to business before we knew it.

With nurse Bella.

But then she didn't get any better, and then she woke up with a rash. A trip to urgent care resulted in a a amoxicillin allergy diagnosis. Something about that didn't seem quite right, and the rash got worse, so we saw a nurse practitioner at our pediatrician's office.

Almost immediately she wanted to test for mono, and the test came back positive. The rash was a reaction that can happen when someone who has mono is given amoxicillin. And the rash continued to get worse...

It hurt and it itched and I mean, it covered her entire body. She was miserable and I could hardly look at her without wanting to cry. She was super tough and did not complain once. Even though at this point it was barely mid-December, our Christmas vacation and actual Christmas were quite lacking. We missed out on a lot: caroling with friends, Charlotte's Christmas party at school, church service on Christmas Eve, you name it and we pretty much missed it.

The dreaded Hatchimal.

We still managed to have a nice Christmas Day opening gifts and spending time with family. The kids got to shop at school at a little fundraiser, and they each enjoyed making their shopping list...

...and presenting their gifts to their recipients. They were so proud of what they picked out; it was so sweet. 

The volunteer at school got a kick out of the fact that J addressed his gift to "Sir".

So proud of his Super Grandpa hat. And still sporting his cast.

I wound up with two identical "Most Beautiful Mom" mugs that I couldn't love more. :)

In addition from feeling yucky from the mono, Charlotte's immune system is still not back to where it usually is. She has gotten a couple stomach bugs and had a few days where she was just exhausted. She gets a vial of blood taken every two weeks (and has gotten to where she's not bothered by doing it at all). As of today it's March 1st and we are just hoping that this dreaded mono is gone by Spring.

And finally, our Shelton kid pic from Christmas 2016...