february things

i think i'm finally figuring out that february can be kind of crummy month some years.

i don't know why we chose to do a whole30 this month.  

it's definitely added to the weariness.

in case you're wondering, a whole30 is a super strict paleo diet for 30 days.  no dairy, no sugar (not even honey, agave, or maple syrup), no grains (not even oats) and no legumes. 

i mean, the first two weeks were fine, really.  i like the satisfaction of making a meal that's both yummy and super nutritious.  but now, i just really want chips and salsa. and i was jealous of the kids goldfish crackers today at lunch.  i'm not missing sweets at all.  but definitely crunchy, salty things.  and trust me, i've tried lots of crunchy, salty substitutes, and they can be pretty darn good, they just take T.I.M.E.

we started on feb 1st and so we only have one more week to go! 

the kids had dentist appt at the beginning of this month. 

they did so good.  this was ian's first xray. 

but poor, sweet avery doesn't have the best of luck with her teeth.  remember when this happened?

well, apparently after her run in with the bleachers, she killed some nerves above one of her teeth and has since developed an abcess which they discovered in her xrays.  so we had to go back.

what is it about the dentist that makes you feel like a bad mom?  oh wait, it's probably because we already have so many areas where we feel like we are failing our little munchkins and so it's awesome to be reminded that their teeth need to be flossed EVERY DAY and that really, you shouldn't let your 6 year old have snacks.  grrrreat.

she did great until the last five minutes.  she really had to use the bathroom and when they finally let me take her, she fell apart as soon as we got behind close doors. "she was pinching my cheek, mommy! why was she pinching my cheek?  this is was NOT fun!"  poor thing.

she fell asleep reading on the couch that afternoon, which is very unlike her.

sweet baby girl. 

oh my this boy.

i just adore him. 

we've had some warm days this week.  the sunshine and fresh air has worked wonders for all of us. 

i think this picture was taken the day that it snowed.

i sent them all outside and when i came to check on them both ash and ian had their shirts off.

"our backs were hot from the sun."

colorado babies. 

we had a jolly good time with danielle and her kids at whit's end last week.

i love danielle. she is such a blessing in my life.  it's so easy to do life with her and have all of our kiddos around. that's sort of hard to find.

any way, at whit's end we discovered that ashton was finally tall enough for the big slide!  she was pumped, i was actually kind of shocked that she marched right up there and did it without looking back, wasn't scared at all.   it made me think of this.  it was almost exactly a year ago that we took the kids to whit's end and avery was able to go down the slide for the first time!  and in that post there is a picture of ashton pouting because she wasn't tall enough. wow.  time is just crazy. 

i am pretty sure this is ian's first official art work.  he did his little hand all on his own. :)

i kind of have an obsession with building tracks for ian. 

i made him this big track and then he told me he wanted me to go upstairs so he could be "on his own".

and i used ALL of his tracks for this one.  we needed ONE more curvy track to complete it.  i kept trying to work and rework that place where it's not connected and ian kept saying "leave it, mommy.  it's okay, i want to play with it like that...stop working on it mommy, go upstairs."  ha!  it's kind of driving me nuts even in this picture. ;)

it's a lazy sunday afternoon here.  dave did a quick walmart run, avery's sitting next to me reading about clementine, ash and ian are STILL snoozing.  i really should go wake them up.

here's to a healthy week! and it's the LAST week of february.