I like to play in the snow, ho ho!

First, some updates by person.  

Annie, and all her squishiness

Though she's working on toning up those weak baby arms in the jungle gym every day.

And trekking around the house to improve her overall fitness.

 

 

The scowl muscles have definitely seen an increase in usage over the past month as well, which is only to be expected from an almost 18 month old.

 Turkey Tom is still the favorite bedtime companion.  I'm feeling less fond of him after I caught him blatantly watching me get dressed in my closet the other day though.  Dirty little turkey . . .

 Annie's becoming quite an entertaining parrot and is starting to find some favorite words.  "No" is top of the list and applies to every situation.  A plea for "mmmbinky" is a close second, so much so that we've had to restrict use of the binky to the crib to allow her to actually learn other words.  "Daddy" is the word for all members of the family, the sound of the garage, and the actual person.  She will stand at the fridge under the water dispenser and say "drink?" till someone helps her out.  She asked for a "pickle" today at lunch.  And last night when I went to sing in the stake choir for the Saturday evening adult session, I was told she stood at the garage door and very clearly (and woefully) called for "Mama."   

We love her.  Even if she has learned how to open the trash can on her own and keeps trying to throw away everyone's toys when no one's watching.  

Rafe

Rafe and Vivs started classes at the YMCA.  Rafe really wanted to play sports involving balls, but he has to turn 4 first, so I put them both in swimming lessons and a dance class.  Their dance teacher is the Youth Program Director.  His name is Mr. Kyle, and the kids think he is an indescribable wonder. 

    

 He gets their attention by shouting, "Y! M!" and they have to shout, "C! A!" back.  They get to dance with scarves and hula hoops and listen to fun music.  They are having a great time.  And I have discovered through watching them warm up that Rafe is about as flexible as Drew is (read: not very flexible).  He makes up for it in exuberance.

Drew made Rafe some awesome light sabers.  They are required to affix the matching foam covers wrapped in duct tape when they want to fight people.  Safetyyyy!

There have been many battles.  

  

Rafe was sick the other morning.  He woke up at 5:30 when Drew was leaving for work screaming for water, then again an hour later for another drink, then an hour after that he came into my room and threw up all the water onto my bed.  Then he took a 2 hour nap and was fine. He did not want to miss breakfast.

Other recent Rafe funnies . . .

He was freaking out trying to get his feet into his boots the other day when we were walking out the door.  When the histrionics got to the point that I feared he may do a desperate outrage to himself,  I asked him if there was maybe something inside his boots that was making it hard to put them on.  There were two pairs of socks wadded up in each toe.  He was sheepish.

At breakfast the other day, either Rafe or Vivien forgot that they had already eaten half a piece of toast and left it on the table.  When neither of them would claim it, a fierce breakfast battle ensued, involving Rafe hurling the offensive half-toast across the family room and culminating in a slapping fight. It was a proud day at the Forbes home.  Rafe has had to miss meals a couple times lately for getting upset about the color of plate/bowl/cup that has been set for him and throwing them on the floor.  I need to get stuff that's all the same color.  And we also need to get this angry-throwing thing under control.  I'm picturing a table-flipping teenager who gets bumped back to Home during a family game of Sorry! . . .  

Whenever I suggest he wear pants because it's cold outside, he says, "I like cold!" with the same inflection as Anna in Frozen.  Except he doesn't like cold.  He just hates pants.  Drew scored some thigh-high wool socks at Fred Meyer the other day that help the situation some.  

On this latest trip to Utah he kept talking about the plane going down the "runroad."

We had to wake them up early to make our flight to Utah.  I asked him if he could get dressed.  He started to take off his jammies and then said, "Don't take your undies off when you're going on a trip!"  I thought it was sound advice.

He has a new imaginary nemesis.  It is the "front-frilled alien." I don't know where it came from, but I know that Annie sure has to be the front-frilled alien a lot.  

Whenever they do a good job eating their food, Vivi and Rafe both shout, "We're going to be stronger than Papa Mark!"  

He was wearing the Mickey Mouse costume around the house the other day.  I was kneeling in the laundry room sorting clothes into piles and he came up behind me to give me a hug (he balances out all those angry fits with moments of incredible sweetness).  I am too big around the middle right now for him to give a proper hug, so he slid his arms up to where he could actually wrap them around me and ended up in a rather uncomfortable spot for me.  The awkwardness was only magnified by the Mickey Mouse hands of the costume.  I had him come around to the front for a hug that was a little less groping in nature.  

 Vivien

First, a story.  I made tacos with tofu instead of ground beef for dinner the other night.  It looked very similar to our normal taco fare, so Vivien didn't shun it initially.  She was halfway through her first taco when she said, "There's something else in here.  It tastes different, but I don't see it on the table."  I said, "Is it a pinch of salt?  Or lots of love?"  She ate a few more bites then said, "It's this!  It's the meat."  She went without the tofu for her next one.  The next week I made her "green noodles," which are usually just noodles with pesto sauce, but this time I had spiralized zucchini into noodles.  She took one bite, then looked at me mournfully and said, "Mom.  You tricked me again."

"You can't even taaaste iiiiiit!"

Vivi's favorite game for awhile was throwing the mattress off her bunk bed to the floor and drawing on the support planks with a pencil to make a "farm" for her little toys.  

 Each toy had a house.  It was a fun game, but definitely not the safest since Annie could easily climb up to the planks using the bed's stairs.  Our resident Safety Officer put a stop to it.

  

Some recent drawings.  Moana . . .

 . . . and Saoirse with seals and ancient shell.

 Vivi and Rafe got to go on an outing with their Daddy to see Living Legends perform in Port Angeles.  They loved it, but the drive was about an hour and a half, so it was a late night for them.

 I enjoyed the evening with Annie to myself, but I forgot how hard (and kind of boring . . .) it is to spend all your time with one nonverbal child.  They are far more entertaining as a group.

I have been chipping away at stuff around the house.  I got around to unpacking and displaying the kids' nature collection.  It is in the bathroom downstairs, so we get to look at it every day.  

 I got a vintage printer's tray from Overstock.com that is perfect for all the little shells and rocks and sea glass.  I love their nature collection.

 I also went to PetCo to buy a new dog brush for my sheepskin.  It needed some attention. But I can't get too involved in projects.  One morning I woke up and tried to whip up some fabric covers for our art shelves and in the half hour I worked on it, Annie got into the puzzles, dumped them all out and stirred until thoroughly mixed, the crayon bucket got dumped out onto the floor and Annie started eating her favorite colors, the bigger kids pulled out all the craft paper we have and spread it around the ground floor, Vivien fell off a stool and smacked her head on the entertainment center, and Annie had a massive poopy diaper that needed to be changed.  All of this was accompanied by the blaring of the Philadelphia Chickens soundtrack (I bought them a simple CD player a week or so ago so I wouldn't have to keep listening to the electric piano play The Entertainer all day long).  It was not a peaceful crafting experience.  

We went on a "hike" on a sunny day this week to get out of the house.  We did the Hall of Cedars loop in the Illahee Preserve.  I finally dressed my children appropriately for a winter hike, so no one was cold the whole time.  Win!

They are giving this tree "a pointment."  Puns . . .

 

 They had fun for 80% of the hike.  Then they all three hit a wall at once and there was much exclaiming along the lines of, "We should never have come on this hike!" and, "I never want to go hiking again!"  It's exactly why I don't want to be a pediatric nurse--children can take a turn for the worse so fast.  Oh well.  It was worth the 80% of fun.

  

We had a three day weekend for MLK Jr. Day, so we drove out to Leavenworth for a family getaway.  It was nice to see Rainier on our way out.

 I knitted Vivien a new hat in the car on the way.  It is double knit and wonderfully warm, and it is made from the last of the yarn in my stash that I bought at Tokai Craft Heart in Iwakuni.  

We got there Friday night, unloaded, then walked across the street to honor Pizza Friday at Rudloof's Pizza.  I think it was the best pepperoni pizza I have ever eaten, and I don't usually like pepperoni.  We also had an interesting Bavarian pizza with mustard sauce topped with sauerkraut and bratwurst slices.  Because we were in Leavenworth!  

The next morning we got up, got bundled, and walked carefully to breakfast.  It was very icy.

We stayed at Der Ritterhof.  There was an enormous knight in front.  Take a moment to admire Drew's winter hat and my pregnant . . . radiance.

 After breakfast we bundled up even more . . .

 . . . to play in the snow outside our room until the Icefest events started.

 It was beautiful.

 But very cold.  We had to warm up the kids a bit after their morning romp before they would even consider going outside again.

 Leavenworth is the kind of place in the winter where I feel like you'd learn not to walk too close to the edges of buildings for two reasons.  The first is the icicles of death.

  

 The second is the huge snow drifts on the roofs that could come avalanching down at any moment and bury you.  Luckily (?) it was so cold (20 degrees) while we were there that I wasn't too worried about anything coming loose.  Here we are at the main gazebo.  Notice the nod to the 12th man in the ice sculpture.

 So much Seahawks love . . .

Despite the cold, it was fun to walk around the city.  All the buildings were decked in fresh greenery.

 And the snow felt very festive.

 We got an assortment of hot soups for lunch at München Haus.  Also a warm pretzel with glorious cheese for dipping that we had to eat very fast before the cheese froze solid.  Annie was a surprisingly good sport after not sleeping all night, missing her nap, and spending all day stuffed in her bulky suit.  She's a sweetheart.

 After lunch, the kids sledded with their Daddy for awhile in the main square.

Vivi doing snow angels while waiting her turn.

Then everyone was very tired, so we went home.

And the last thing for this post.  Poor Tia Kate broke her leg while playing ice hockey on figure skates on a homemade hockey rink at Highland Glen Park.  

It required extensive surgery.  The recovery process is going to be long and involves crutches and wheelchairs.

Throw this darling 2 month old into the mix and Justin's freak kidney stone, and you have a recipe for a pretty crappy January at the Alworth household.

So we thought we'd take one last trip before I get too pregnant to fly and be moral support.

 I got the cheapest tickets possible, which meant we had a 5 hour layover in Denver.  Guess which airport doesn't have a children's play area?  At least they have an underground train.

And one of the nice information guys tipped me off that the upper level of Concourse C is empty and we would have plenty of space to run free up there.

 We stayed at Grandma Paula and Papa Mark's house, which is always a fun time.  They were very helpful with my kids so that I could be more helpful for my sister.

And also so I could have some fun, like going to see La La Land with Haley and Sarah one night.  Or so Annie and I could go eat dinner with the Findeis family.  My mom ran into Brad at Costco (she sent me the picture below with his phone number), but there was too much catching up to do for texting, so we had to get together.  Eliesa makes an incredible beef stew, just for the record.  

 Other than that, we spent a lot of time hanging out at the Alworth's, being as helpful as possible.  Not that Kaitlyn needed much help.  Once she got her wheelchair she was all over it, making food and changing diapers and putting kids down for naps . . . She is impressive.

  

 And way more fun than me.  She put Vivi's hair in foam rollers one night.

 We managed to get Kaitlyn out of the house a couple times.  I'm still pretty impressed with myself that I got everyone in the car.  34 weeks pregnant, 5 children all in car seats, and a wheelchair.  Thank heaven for minivans!  Usually we just hung out at Nana and Papi's.

 But one day we were very brave and met Sarah and cousins for story time at the Orem Library and then visited Justin at work for a tour of Qualtrics.  We were maybe a little too brave.  It was a lot for one day.

 I love to go Utah-home.  I am looking forward to summer time already.  Though, maybe not to doing the journey with 4 kids.  We'll just have to take it as it comes.