March

Spring is starting to settle in, finally! We are seeing more sun and warmer temperatures. We decided to try our hand at a little yard sale- its a bit early in the season but we had some things to clear out and we are in a pretty good location with some major roads on either side of our subdivision. The morning started out a bit chilly but it warmed up and we sold quite a few things! I love a good clean out and! Now to get our little kitchen redo underway... hopefully by the end of spring we will be sporting new counter tops, painted cupboards, and dreams of a new stove and microwave to finish out our appliance update.

Thatcher is getting closer and closer to walking by himself, he is pretty talented at pushing just about any movable object across the room. He is also tall enough to look out the back windows into the yard. We are so excited to get the grass greened up so we can go out and play! With more sunshine we are trying to get outside more and take walks and play at the park. We took a little road trip to Payette to pick up a bike trailer/jogger stroller we found on craigslist so hopefully we can get some road time. With the new park open not too far from us Thatcher and I have grand plans to ride over on Fridays and play.

Easter weekend our neighborhood had a little egg hunt at the park. We met up with some friends and their kiddos. Their youngest is about a month older than Thatcher so it was fun to watch both boys figure out what to do with the eggs.

Thatcher and Daddy watching the eggs

Thatcher was pretty excited to put the eggs in his little bucket and he figured out that some of the eggs made noise when he was shaking them.

Trying some yummy candy

The Easter Bunny brought all kinds of fun things for us this year. Thatcher got his very own patio chair, a water bottle, some bubbles, goldfish snacks and a new book.

 Sunday we all met up for dinner with Grandma Campbell, Aunt Lara, Uncle Mike, Carter, Uncle Justin and Uncle Larry. We had yummy food and the little boys had fun playing. I love having family so close to spend time with. After dinner we loaded the boys in their strollers and went for a walk. We were quite the group wandering through the neighborhood... two strollers, 6 adults.

 Thatcher had so much fun at the egg hunt on Saturday we decided to do another one at Grandma's. We filled his eggs with goldfish and puffs. He was so fun to watch carrying his little bucket and picking up the eggs to put in it.

Happy Easter and Happy Spring! We are so blessed to live at this time and enjoy the blessings we have. We are excited for Spring and the changes to our yard and welcoming home our Missionary Grandparents next month!!

February

The biggest event in February was the little man turning ONE! I can't believe how quickly this past year has flown by! It seems like just last week we were bringing him home from the hospital and waking up every two hours for feedings... oh those were the days! 

 We had a fun little party for him, we invited Grandma Campbell, Uncle Justin, Uncle Mike, Aunt Lara, Cousin Carter, Great Grandpa and Great Grandma Campbell and even Skyped in Great Grandpa and Great Grandma Beal who are in New York on a mission.

 I had fun putting together some little decorations. I pulled out some photos from the past year and put them in some extra little frames. It is crazy to see how much he has grown!

 Thatcher wasn't sure what to do with all of the extra things to touch and look at. He pretty much left them alone after inspecting everything.

 I made him his own little cake to eat- I didn't even have a chance to get the candle lit before he was swiping the frosting off. It is amazing that he knows what to do with frosting- he hasn't had any kind of cake/cupcake before but he was right to business. He wasn't a "cake smasher" he just took a few finger licks of frosting and a couple of bites and decided that was enough.

 He loved opening all of his little gifts and cards. Aunt Lara made him some little bath tub paints- he wasn't too sure what to do with them but we figured it out after a few tries. He also got some new snacks, blocks, and a few toys to push around and walk with.

 After his little party and a nap we ventured out to the aquarium to visit the fish. He loved being able to stand up at the big tanks and look at all the fish swimming around.

 I was a little nervous with the small touch pools- more than once he tried to climb right in! I think it was just a little too inviting to see all the little fish swimming and playing in the sand.

 We left Thatchers birthday decorations up for the weekend and then Jack and Thatcher helped us take them down. They thought playing with the balloons was pretty fun and entertained themselves for most of the morning chasing each other.

 We also took Thatcher for his first haircut- back in November we did a little trim around the ears but it was getting pretty shaggy and I could almost work out some pigtails in the back. We went to a cute little kid salon in Meridian. They did a great job and the price was less than the walk in places.

 I wasn't sure how he would do so we just went for it. He was kind of tired so by the end he was pretty much just snuggled up in my lap while she finished up. I was so proud of him and how well he did!

 Such a handsome little boy! He is starting to walk while we hold his hand and he loves pushing his toys around so he can move other places.

Oh how we love this sweet little boy! We love watching him grow and learn new things and see his little personality coming through! 

January

We started off the New Year with a lovely few days of just hanging out with the family. Two kiddos under age one (I guess I won't be able to say that much longer...) kinda put a kink in any wild all night party plans. January was also the month of SNOW and single digit temperatures. There were a few ski patrol rescues of a certain weenie dog that got stuck in the back yard snow drifts.

Projects this month included a little reno of our laundry room. We used to have a little counter in there that pretty much just collected piles of junk. So we decided to take that down and make it more of a mud room.

Lucky for me- the Mazda is just long enough to slide 2x4's up the middle :) Shopping for lumber with a  munchkin in tow is a bit of an adventure. Lumber cart + stroller makes for some treacherous aisle navigation at the orange store. 

This is after a quick tidy... still quite the collection of clutter no? 

After removing the counter top

Starting the bench

The finished bench (pictures are a bit creative in here due to the room being tiny... it also made for interesting construction  namely me laying on the floor under the bench to screw in the supports (no pictures were allowed during that process). 

We added a foam cushion and peg board across the back to help add a little functionality and a place to hang jackets. We just need to finish up a little paint in here and possibly move the cabinets closer to the ceiling. Right now they are about a foot lower than the ceiling- which is great for getting things in and out but we don't use the things we store in the cupboards very often so to move them up a bit wouldn't be a big deal and it would give us more headroom when sitting on the bench to put on shoes. Hopefully this will help cut down on the amount of yucky outside things that get tracked into our house! :) 

We also added a little walk-through gate to the kitchen. Baby Houdini has figured out how to pop open the cabinet locks we installed and gets into all kinds of things. So out comes mommy with the drill- problem solved! 

Tah-dah! Baby proof kitchen! Cleo can wiggle herself under if she needs to. Jack hasn't quite figured it out but I have a feeling he will. 

Thatcher also tried his hand at a little finger painting. He wasn't too sure about it at first but he had fun playing with the blue and yellow colors. 

We promptly jumped in the tub to scrub off his little blue and yellow fingers before he was semi-permanently "finger painted".