dusting off the camera

I always slack off in taking pictures of the kids in the winter. It's hard to get great pictures indoors and so I just resort to using my phone or not taking any pictures at all.

Today I dusted off my camera and captured of a few shots of Clark.

Jason's B-day

We tried to make Jason's Birthday special this year, even though it's on New Year's Eve and sometimes gets overlooked.

I think he enjoyed the family celebration and we all definitely enjoyed the chocolate cake. Yum!

Clark at 18 months

Clark is all boy, boy and then more boy...

A few of his favorites lately:

Hitting people (he doesn't discriminate, he hits everyone)
Hugging people (almost as often as he hits, almost)
Dancing (the other day I was getting him out of his car seat when a car alarm went off and he started dancing to the beat)
Running away from me whenever I want to change his diaper
Emptying my pantry and every drawer in my kitchen
He's obsessed with balls and balloons
He throws everything
He loves being outside
He loves dogs
He's very social with other kids
He loves protein, especially cheese (so far his favorite is gouda)

Clark is a boy with a lot of spunk. He is like a bull in a china shop sometimes. I love to watch him play because he is always in motion. I hope he never loses that excitement and zest for life.

simple pleasures

It's a new year and it's already turning out to be a busy one.
Jason is flying out this Thursday for an unplanned trip to Singapore. He's home for two days and then he's off to California for 5 days.

My mom returned to Texas before Thanksgiving last year and Olivia and Clark are going to Miss Mindy's (in-home childcare) and Isabella started preschool last week. I started a new job in December, which I do enjoy. So, last week Jason and I found ourselves doing what a lot of working families do, getting the kids up and ready and out of the house by 7:45am so that we could both go to work. We only did it for 2 days and we were all exhausted by the end. I couldn't imagine doing it 5 days/week and luckily we don't have to.

This morning as we were all enjoying french toast at 8am with the kids still in their jammies, I was grateful for relaxing mornings. Isabella starts kindergarten in Sept and school becomes more demanding for me, so I know that our leisurely weekday mornings are numbered.

a very cool gift

Lytle inherited all of the creative genes in the family. I love how she comes up with cool gifts for the girls. She decided to make them a tent for Christmas this year. They love it, but we can only bring it out when Clark is asleep, otherwise that little Godzilla will tear it apart in seconds.

First snowman of the season

So far, this winter has been very mild compared to the last two years.
The kids were super excited when they awoke this morning and saw that everything was covered in a thin layer of snow. Isabella definitely prefers to admire the snow from the window, but Olivia and Clark love to play in it and get messy. Luckily, there wasn't too much of it this time.

Christmas morning

I love Christmas morning. I've also decided that I get way more excited about it than the kids do (I think). Of course they were excited to open their gifts, but I think I was expecting more jumping up and down with excitement, maybe some screams of joy and delight, but that didn't happen. They are still young and are just taking it all in as they figure out what Christmas morning is all about.

So far the dollhouse has been a big hit with the girls. It's now in their room and they spend time each day playing with it. Clark loves the set of instruments Grandma sent and I love the Shun knives that Santa gave me.