Wow, where did January go? Once again I am way behind on blogging. We spent most of January laying low and playing catch up after Christmas. We have all been healthy for the most part - Peter had a short lived stomach bug and Olivia has had one ear infection after another with all the teething she is doing. Thankfully the ear tubes are doing their jobs and draining all the junk out, preventing her from any pain, but it is still gross. They did put her back on some oral antibiotics to try to get them completely healed up. She got 4 molars on Christmas day and has been working on eye teeth ever since. She only seems to get the ear infections when she is teething so hopefully her ears will get a break once these last eye teeth come in - which means that hopefully her bottom will also get a break (enough said.)
Abbie had a GREAT 4th birthday and we decided to keep things simple this year. We didn't have a party with friends but were able to have a weekend on each side of her birthday with grandparents - she couldn't have been happier. 4 is already very different than 3 - in good and bad ways! I won't elaborate for now =). Here are pictures from Abbie's very extended birthday celebration - it felt like we celebrated all month long! Happy Birthday sweet girl!
Peter's parents came to visit the weekend before Abbie's birthday (Jan. 16th-17th) and brought a couple of really neat books for the girls.
This book has been a good learning tool and nice challenge for Abbie. She has a United States puzzle but has been able to complete it without a problem for quite a while so this is a nice step up from that (a good challenge for our geography as well.) They also went to the Iowa City Public Library together while they were here - one of Abbie's favorite places!
Olivia thought she should get to go to the library too but it was during nap time so she missed out!
Peggy (Peter's mom) found the version of
Peter and The Wolf that Peter liked when he was little. Abbie has really been into this story lately and it was a fun memory for Peter too.
Trekking their way through downtown IC!
The next day was Abbie's actual birthday! If you look closely you will see that Olivia assisted in the decorating =)!
My dad was working in our area on her birthday and took us all out to Pizza Ranch that night!
Later in the week Abbie celebrated her birthday with her pre-school class.
We I made these fun cupcakes for her to take - have you ever tried this? You just make up some white cake batter and then dye the batter into however many colors you want. I did the first dozen in layers (which took way too long, but looked really cool) and then I did more of the tie-dye thing on the second dozen. The teachers and kids really liked them!
Top with some white fluffy frosting and your finished!
My sweet, goofy birthday girl!
Abbie really wanted to go the Children's Museum for her birthday so this past weekend my parents came down to celebrate her birthday and we all headed to the mall for Family Free Friday. INSANITY at its finest! Can't complain much though since the carousel was free as well as the kids meals and entrance into the museum. We probably won't do this again but it was fun to try it once.
Can you guess where we ate???
Our good friends, the Anderson, joined us for the evening.
Thankfully the food court wasn't as busy as the museum! We even found one of the kids tables that Abbie likes so much!
This was Olivia's second time at the museum but the first time she slept in the stroller and was only a couple of months old. She liked it a lot but it was WAY past her bedtime! She really did do well for how tired she was. It was so crazy that we really couldn't set her down much - she would have either gotten knocked over or lost. She really liked the turtle - his name is Peter =).
This is probably where Olivia spent most of her time. She found the "phone" in the doctors office area and had a grand ol' time!
Maybe a future Pediatrician???
I was going to take a picture of the x-ray room but it was just so embarrassingly out of date. I might have to talk to some folks about that =)
Kids ice cream was even free! Flavor of choice: Bubble Gum!
Olivia was lovin her some of my Strawberry Cheesecake ice cream!
And the next day...
We had a wonderful month celebrating Abbie's birthday! Now onto celebrating February - I find it kind of ironic that the
groundhog didn't see his shadow (which means spring should be near) and yet we also all woke up to a foot and a half of snow today.
We will enjoy the snow as long as it lasts but I can't lie - I hope the groundhog is right!
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