Children's Museum

With Ashton having been off for 6 weeks around Christmas, we were able to go to the Children's museum a lot.  At the beginning of the month, I finally took the camera to show Dex and his beloved "Hashbrown" he totes around all over that place.  Hashbrown is the giant dalmation.

Juliette is my super strong girl.  She is always carrying big, bulky, heavy things.  

  Dex loves operating this bulldozer as well.  Surprised?  Nah.

Jules stole hashrown for a minute and she was so excited.

in the police car

driving an ambulance

Juliette also finally got a turn in the semi truck.  She had been trying to get in there all morning.

My cute little firefighters!

Juliette also decided to wear a "pretty".  She is really liking bracelets these days.

 Kinda crazy to think that we will only be enjoying the Children's museum for a few more times.  I can't believe we are at this point already.

First Hair Cut!

I did it!  I cut her hair!!!  She has had quite the mullet for a while, and I finally got sick of it.  I kept it because I could put cute pig tails in, but the front sides finally got long enough that I could even it out.

Before:  

I think I cut a good 1 1/2 to 2 inches off.  It made me a little sad after that first snip, when I saw just how long it was, but it had to go.

After: 

 It turned out to be a cute bob.  This picture doesn't do it justice.  Ashton even commeted on how her hair looked better.

She approves!

Silly kids before a bath and Jules doing her cheeser grin.

Conversation

Dex was talking to me in the car on our way to Target today.  This is how it went:

Dex:  Gramma lives too far away.

Me:  Yes, yes she does.  Maybe one day we'll live closer by them.

Dex:  Oh I know!  We could move our house there!

Me:  Move our house?!  How would we do that?

Dex:  Well, we could put it on our car, and drive it there.

Me:  Would we take RJ's house with us or just our house?

Dex:  Just ours house.  We could saw it, and cut it apart.  I can use my saw!  Or maybe we can go stupi-diving (scuba diving) and get some shark teeth--serrated shark teeth--and cut it apart.  That would work!  Then we can put it by Gramma's house.  That's how!

(Thinking very hard and making sure everything is thought of)

That's everything,  yep that would work!

Christmas

Our Christmas was low-key and fun.  We had to do a little grocery shopping, but otherwise we just hung out.  Dex is a little obsessed with sharks and begged me to make him one.  I kept telling him no and that it would have to wait until after Christmas so I can figure out a pattern.  He looked at me and said, "ugh!...ummm, blue, black, blue, black, blue, black.  There, there's a pattern.  Now can you please make me my shark?"  How can you resist that?  So that is what I did.  2 1/2 hours later he had his shark.

Here is Shark Boy and his shark.

Shark Boy showing off his shark teeth.

Then Santa stopped by and dropped off some goodies for the kids.

Juliette's

She got a cute treehouse with a fairy family.

I finally got her rocking horse finished.  We found it by the dumpster.  It turned out gorgeous!  I'm not sure refinishing stuff is my forte, but I stained it, painted the rockers black, and added the mane. It is pretty cute.  Juliette likes to get on it and snuggle into it's mane.  Totally worth the stress.

Dexter's

He got a construction set with a tower crane that can be a wrecking ball, claw, or hook.  It even knocks down the clock tower.  It's pretty cute and Santa scored an awesome deal on it!

We'll be learning to ride a 2 wheeler possibly this summer. If not, we'll take the pedals off and he'll have a balance bike.  Ashton found that bike beside the dumpster about a year ago and it just needed a new seat.  Easy peasy and practically free.

And last, here is what our advent nativity looked like this year.

We were spoiled for Christmas and may need to not get anything new for about 5+ years.

Playin' in the Snow

We opened up some Christmas presents a little early this year.  We got a snow storm and we just couldn't wait.  Thank Aunt Alissa, Uncle London, Orion, and Apollo for the sled and shovels!  We have had a blast.

Juliette had a little trouble staying/getting up in her snow suit.  She was stuck like this a lot!

 

This picture of Dex is priceless.  And yes, all that snow landed on his head.

Having fun in the sled.

Juliette and Diaper Changes

Juliette is figuring out this diaper changing thing.  She is more frequently telling me when she needs to be changed by either bringing me a diaper and wipes, or coming to me pulling on her diaper.  The other day, I found her surrounded by wipes and diapers all over the floor.  She had one of them and was wiping her belly.  She is so funny.  She stood up before I could get a picture.  I tried to get her to do it again.

 

Dexter's Christmas Tree

I have been working with Dex on some preschool.  We pick a day or two and do a letter of the alphabet, some writing, and a craft.  This was Dexter's Christmas preschool activity.  He did it all.  He put them in order from shortest to longest and glued them down.  He did so well and was so proud of himself.

Trip to the Zoo

During Ashton's 6 week break, we headed to the zoo.  We haven't been for a long time so it was fun.  We stopped in the Jungle to swing on the vine, Dex pretended he was a great octopus wrangler (JJ pretended to be too) outside of the aquarium.  We also spotted one of the coolest fish struttin' his stuff.  

Dexter's Style

Dexter has his own shoe preference.  He always wears one tennis shoe and one rain boot.  We even struggled with him to wear his Sunday shoes at first.  We still work on getting them on the correct feet, but since he puts them on himself, I don't mind a bit.