January

This month always seems to be the slowest but actually went by a lot faster than I thought. We are already into February and counting down the days till vacation time! January consisted of a lot of Children's Museum dates and going to The Stomping Ground. I joined a membership to this play place that has lots of things to do, classes and gross/fine motor toys for kids to play on. It's fun because you have your own key and can go anytime. It definitely helped January post-nap afternoons go by quickly. Charley is also finally on the 1-nap schedule. It took foreverrrr for her to transition but she is taking a 12:30pm nap for about 2 hours which is amazing! She is also winning at Nursery! It took a few times with Spencer staying in there for a while with her, but she is able to last the whole 2 hours now and has fun with her little friends. It's cute to watch her and her friend James play! We watched him the other day and since they are only about a week apart, it was like having twins. They are really cute to watch together and how they interact in their own little way.

 We went to the Natural History Museum (aka Night at the Museum) one Saturday. This place is HUGE!! It was kind of overwhelming how big it was and how much time you could spend there. We saw some really cool exhibits and this amazing origami tree that they have around Christmas time. All the animals on it are tiny origami's people have made! 

 Charley was Grandkid of the month this month for my parents! It's something cool they are doing with all their grandchildren. Each month they choose a grandchild to spotlight and they will do something nice for them during the month. Charley got a cute magnet book that she has loved playing with! My mom also made her a pillowcase when they came out to visit in November! 

My mom sent my this picture frame in their house of her being "spotlighted". 

 This girl loves a few things... her baby and stroller, her winter hat and that backpack! :) 

 We went on a date the other night and tried the famous NY ramen burger. Spencer liked it but I was just "meh" about it. It was fun to go on a family date though! 

 Morning runs are beautiful as usual! I love running around this park! 

 We made a goal this year to do FHE each Monday. I found a few sites on Pinterest that have some great 5-minute toddler appropriate lessons so it makes it super easy. For FHE we have talked about sharing and practiced doing it, we talked about temples and made a temple out of marshmallows and toothpicks and we have learned about Jesus and how to identify him through pictures. It's been fun and something challenging for me to find something each week! 

 This girl went to Target and Bath and Body Works with my one day and insisted on carrying the shopping bag! :) 

 So happy to be playing with kidney beans and purple jello play dough! 

 More fun with James at The Stomping Ground

 Love this girl! 

 Charley sometimes has an accident in the bathtub (very convenient I know!:) so I have to quickly get her out of the tub and clorox everything! Here she is waiting to get back into the tub after I wiped everything down. :) 

 SNOW!

 Eating and getting into the fridge! This girl LOVES to eat! 

 Representing Spencer's new company branding. They are now Workfront instead of AtTask. 

 25 weeks

 Charley has really been into helping me make dinner recently. I will have her stand on a chair and make her own concoction of things while I make dinner. It's hard since we have a foot of counter space and the stove is right there.. but she is really good at making and doing her own thing while I cook around her. I give her measuring cups, the salt shaker and spice shakers and she loves it! 

 Lastly, this girl graduated into forward facing!!! We bought her a new carseat and had her still backward facing in it but her legs were super tight, so we decided to turn her around! She has loved it so far!!