Lately: brother artists

The boys got this easel for Christmas, and we all love it so much. I am always sort of a downer when it comes to new toys, especially big ones that take up a lot of space in our cozy home... But this one was worth it!

Milestones: 1st wound requiring closure

Warning: one of the photos below is a smidge graphic, especially considering it's a wound on my sweet little baby's forehead.  So, don't look if you don't want to see it!

We have had lots of bumps and bruises and bleeding lips/noses in our house, but nothing that has required stitches... until this week!  Samuel is quite the heavy, clumsy toddler these days, and that combination makes for some hard falls.  And he tends to break his fall with his face, rather than his hands... He will have to learn!

He was toddling through the living room when he lost his balance and went down, catching his forehead on the corner of a toy.  He started to stand back up, and he had almost recovered when he lost his balance and went down again, hitting his head in the same spot.  It resulted in this deep, lovely gash.  Thankfully, after holding pressure for awhile and the bleeding stopped, we were able to evaluate that he hadn't fractured his skull, just a good soft tissue laceration!



Also thankfully, Stuart has a pretty decent home stash of sutures and lidocaine... and Dermabond (skin glue)!  I'm so glad he had some of this, because it was much simpler to use (and easier on Sam) than actually stitching it back up.  Also, I'm thankful because it saved us a $500 visit to the emergency room!





The next morning:  good as new!

Lately: A New Year

It has been really cold around here lately!  But one of our goals for this year is to get outside and play more often than not, even when the weather isn't ideal!  So, we've been walking to the park quite often...

We've balanced out all of the cold, outdoor play with lots of fireplace fires with cozy reading and playing in the living room!





I've cut my work hours back from one shift a week to two or three a month, and just that little change has made me feel like I have tons more time at home with the boys and to take care of our family.  We're experimenting with a more frugal lifestyle, and that includes making a lot more things from scratch (which I love, and now feel like I have time for)... like yogurt!  Definitely a successful experiment, and so easy in the crockpot!















We are (finally) building a gate for our back deck... Here are the little boys helping me price out different types and sizes of wood to come in under budget (another success!).











That's it for now!

Throwback: James' 3rd birthday party

Only several weeks late on this one... The 1st weekend in December, we had some amazing family visit from Arkansas (Nana, Auntie Jenna and Aunt Sandy)!  So, we decided to go ahead and have a little (early) party for the soon-to-be-3-year-old.  We had pizza and donuts and lots of orange balloons, all the favorites.  James' favorite part, of course, was opening all the presents.

(Thanks to Nana, Auntie Jenna and Aunt Sandy for taking most of these great photos!)