Mountain Man

Nate would probably claim this beard as one of his great accomplishments of 2013.  He has wanted to grow a beard since as long as we have been married and he decided that December 2013 was the time to do it. It really wasn't a bad look for Nate, but man that beard was scratchy.  I was not a huge fan of the beard, and did not shed any tears when it got shaved off.  Nate on the other hand could not bear to shave the beard without checking out all of his possible looks with facial hair.  So here is how Nate would look with any combination of facial hair that you can imagine.  Hopefully this has gotten the growing of facial hair out of Nate's system.

City Project

In school this year Carson has been learning about communities, and as part of his studies he had to do a city project.  Carson came up with a business called, Carson's Aquatic Laboratory.  He built a model of his business to be combined with other models that the 3rd grade made to make an entire mini city.  It was pretty cool.  It was also a ton of work.  Carson came up with the idea and he cut and glued on every item on his model, but it took a lot of parent supervision and a lot of time (most of the Marten Luther King Day).  He worked soooo hard on this project and was super proud of himself when he was done.  It was really great for him to see his own efforts pay off in a really successful project. 

forts

One of Lincoln's specialties is building forts.  And being a fort specialist is pretty much synonymous with being a specialist in turning the house into a disaster.  Lincoln pulls blankets and pillows out of every closet he can find in the his quest to build the perfect fort.  You can imagine all the folding that goes on when it is time to clean up one of Lincoln's special forts.  Despite the mess, it is fun to see him be creative and get excited about building something. I try to remember that when I need to assist in the folding and putting away of all the fort parts.

Hanging out

Lily and I hang out a lot.  We have been hanging out at home a ton this past January, because the weather has been so gross.  The dry winter weather combined with wrestling her brother on the carpet gives her some crazy hair.  We have a bit of a routine Lily and I.  Frequently, during Grants afternoon nap Lily and I read a story and then play a game of memory.  She has a great memory!  She loves to play the game and then count up her matches to see who won. She takes the game pretty seriously, and will get upset if she looses.  She loves to play in her tent.  I will frequently hear her talking with her horde of stuffed animals in her tent.  One day this winter huge snowflakes were coming down, and she just wanted to walk outside in it, because she thought it was beautiful.  Since it is just her and Grant home with me a good part of everyday, she totes him around to wherever she is playing.  I frequently find that she has built some kind of barrier out of  pillows and furniture so Grant can't escape her play area.  She loves her brother soooo much, maybe a little too much for poor Grant sometimes.  I love hanging out with Lily.

Grant 7 months

Look at my little one getting big on me.  I can't believe that he is going to be one in just a few months.  Grant is a sweetie.  He is definitely a mamas boy, which I have to enjoy now, because they all defect on me and usually prefer Nate by age two.  This 7 month old is extremely mobile. He is a fast crawler, and pulls himself up and cruises around anything he is able too.  He loves his solid food, and has now tried many table foods, all of which he loved.  I don't know what food was his favorite, but he downed the pumpkin chocolate chip pancake I gave him pretty fast (he is a fourth child I may be a little bit more lax in the food department).  He is very ticklish and it is not hard to get him laughing.  He did love the bath until he lost he balance and went under, now he is a little less sure about bath time.  But the first time I put him in the big bath he splashed up a storm and had a great time.  He loves music and being sung to, and is mesmerized by Baby Signing Time.  We sure love this little guy (and he is little, his stats are mostly in the 50th percentile) he is such a great addition to our family!

New Years Eve

After we celebrated Lincoln's birthday, we caught up with the rest of the family at Meridian Lanes for our traditional New Years Eve Bowling. After the bowling we headed over to my Uncle Drew's place where we pretty much stuffed our faces, and partied like it was 1999!  It was a good New Years Eve.

Lincoln is 6

Lincoln turned 6 this year.  It is crazy how fast time flies.  Lincoln requested a Lego birthday cake this year (in case you couldn't tell the cake is a bit ghetto.)  Lincoln is such a great kid!  Lincoln loves to build, draw and create all kinds of things.  In fact if we had given him a cardboard box, markers, and duct tape for his birthday he probably would have been happy.  He is constantly making things.  It is hard to keep glue, tape, and paper around the house, because he is always using them for his creations.  I guess maybe he is a MacGyver in training.  He is very adaptable child and can play well with just about anyone and make him self agreeable in most situations.  He continues to love everything that Carson loves. So he is a football fan.  His team of choice is the NY Giants. He adores his older brother, and has told me before that whatever Carson does when he grows up he wants to do that too so they can work together.  Lincoln has a funny/goofy streak and keeps us all laughing.  He continues to be a very sweet and affectionate boy. I Can't imagine life without this kid.  We love you Lincoln!  Happy Birthday!

Christmas morning

Christmas morning is always such a blur.  I always take very few pictures, because I like to just watch the chaos unfold.  Lincoln started tinkering with his camera first thing.  Lily got into her stocking and ate all of her orange tick-tacks before she even looked at most of her toys.  Carson took his time looking at all of his Santa presents.  The kids exchanged books as usual, and then we dived into the rest of the family gifts.  It was a fun and relaxing morning.  After all the gift exchanging we left a giant mess at our house and headed to my aunt Holly's house for her awesome Christmas brunch.  After the brunch we just puttered around at home.  We enjoyed Christmas dinner at home with Grandma Barlow and Sean and Jamie and their kids.  It was a great day!

Christmas Eve

We kept with the usual Christmas Eve traditions this year.  Our Christmas Eve included: lounging, cooking, decorating gingerbread houses, making candy with Grandma Barlow, enacting the Nativity with family, singing Christmas carols, and getting new pj's.  Everything went relatively smoothly except that Nate could not get the gingerbread houses to hold, they kept collapsing. Finally, after a lot of frustration on Nate's part the houses held and the kids got decorating.  The only other glitch in an otherwise very fun day is that Carson was super disappointed that the gift he got to open on Christmas Eve was pajamas and had a bit of an attitude about it before bed.  He would not smile for the kid picture in front of the Christmas tree until I finally threatened him with less presents.  It really bothered me that he acted this way.  I hate ingratitude.  Luckily by Christmas morning he was a happy and appreciative kid. Also Lincoln had a melt down on Christmas Eve night because Mr Squirt our elf on the shelf was going back to the North Pole.  He shed a few tears over Mr. Squirts upcoming departure, but of course on Christmas day had completely forgotten his little elf buddy.  It was a fun Christmas Eve.