Words

Maggie started using some funny phases.  While driving past an awful example of a modern house, she exclaimed, "What in the world is that?"  Another time, while driving home she told her Mom, "I can't hold my horses" —meaning she needed to go potty.

Henry still doesn't talk much but he can say a few words with coaching.  Still his favorite word is "heesus", which he says while pointing to a picture of Jesus.

Lucy's blessing

The Donovan's boys now have a baby sister.  Lucy is adorable and we are glad we made it to her baby blessing.  I must say, Brian's backyard is looking very nice.  The kids always enjoy running around with their cousins in their yard.  They are such good kids and Maggie enjoys being able to rough house her boy cousins, although I do think the new baby has softened them a bit.

Valentines

I still can't believe we didn't send valentines out this year.  I love making cards and Maggie loves to draw... but we were a little preoccupied.  Sara and the kids enjoyed opening a ton of valentines from family.  Next year, I promise.   Thanks for all the valentines.

Rainbow Party #4

Maggie got to celebrate her birthday in California this year.  Grandma and Sara put together a fantastic rainbow birthday party, per Maggie's request.

Rainbow dress and jacket

What happens when Sara and Grandma plan a party?  Maggie gets two outfits.  The first rainbow outfit was adorable but of course they found something better.

First snow

Okay, it was more like hail but sometimes you gotta go with whatever you get.  Maggie and Henry enjoyed their first snowfall of the year with Mom.

Learning time

I try to do learning time with Maggie everyday.  We have been using Starfall lately to help with reading. She can navigate through most of it on her own but tends to gravitate towards the math games and it's questionable just how much she is really learning.  When I have time, I like to review the reading elements with her, she likes to guess by clicking on all the available answers but if we go through it together I can get her to stop and think about the sounds and letters instead of just guessing.  She catches on quickly but she also forgets a lot.  Do you have any suggestions in the learning-to-read department?  Sara, reads to her almost every night.  I spend most of my time helping her recognize letters and their sounds.

JW Winkleman milk can

I brought our milk can in from the garage.  I can't believe I inherited this dreamy relic from my childhood.  It was my high chair as a kid.  Originally it was used on my great-grandfather's farm; I am sure it once was a shiny silver and got thrown around a lot.  I am not sure how my Mom got it but she painted a nostalgic scene around the cylinder, which I vividly remember enjoying as a kid.  When we weren't using it has a chair, it doubled as a flour container, which is exactly how we use it.  Now our kids fight over who get to sit on the milk can at meal time... who would have thought.

The fifteen fingered man

Straight from Maggie's imagination.

The family

Capturing the family is not what it seems.  It often involves several bribes and a lot of threats.  And it is near impossible when the camera is sitting on a tripod taking a photo every three seconds.  I am still working on a way to get this to work but here are the results of 300 pictures. 

Recesses of the imagination

Maggie has two imaginary friends, Flower Garden and Sally.  Both have jobs and usually work the weekends.

Henry chilaxing

Despite how it may seem, Henry is difficult to photograph because he is constantly on the move.  I was surprised by how many photos I have of the children eating, perhaps because they're held captive by their food and it's an easy shot.  It was nice to capture this one of him chilaxing.

8 Good reasons to visit

We just got a membership to the Discovery Children's Museum.  It admits eight for free.  The children love all the interactive exhibits. However they spent equal time inside as they did outside, playing on the landscaping and running around the plaza.

Star Wars

Maggie and Henry both love watching the Star Wars movies.  Henry now runs around picking up sticks, pens or anything that resembles a light saber, usually he gathers two so that he can offer you one  for the epic battle.  He is surprisingly good at gently swinging and spinning things around and the sound effects are incredible.  So far nobody has been seriously hurt, so it is all fun and games.

(un)posers

Unposer: 1. one who does not require posing.  2. one who simply is without exaggeration

Maggie's playground

Breathing treatments

When the doctor told me Henry would need to have breathing treatments for two months, I thought it would be the death of me.  In the past it has turned into him screaming for 10-15 minutes.  He really hates to be restrained but it was near impossible to do treatments without restraining him.  That is a lot of moving parts and I only have one free hand to accomplish it.   But this time around I decided after a few minutes of struggling, to give him back the reins and some magical happened.  He held his mask for a full ten minutes.  And as the weeks have past he has come to really like his breathing treatments.  It is an awful feeling to restrain your child for the greater good of medicine, so I can't express what it means to see him enjoying it.

Fantastic artwork

I love Maggie's drawings.  She loves to draw.  She will draw for hours at a time.  I often find her drawing things with her arms waving around in the air, silently conducting an orchestral of pictures in her mind.  It is very fun to watch her explaining things by drawing pictures in the air.  Kids can be so imaginative and their pictures can give you a small glimpse of what is going on inside their minds.

It's not too late...

I am posting this for Chad.  I know you are about to leave BYU and start your traahhvaallls through the lone and dreary wilderness, so I thought I'd give you a new profile pic.  Women love a guy holding a baby, especially when it's not his.

Sugar high

We are slowly licking up the odds and ends of the Holiday sweets.  Paige helped make cake pops while they were here but left us with the entire batch.  I usually am not afraid to eat too much sugar but we definitely over did it this season.