bye January

It is already the end of January. How crazy that it is almost February. Before you know it, it will be Spring and daylight savings and the end of school and summer and 105 degrees. But for now, I'll just keep documenting one week at a time. 

We are still potty training and just living our lives free of sickness yay! (knock on wood) That's always my main goal during flu season. 

So, here's what's going on this week:

Crying over spilled milk.

Three beanies are better than one. 

Dan took Otter hunting. Twitch used to be his favorite hunting buddy but he's just too old now. He doesn't even want to retrieve dead birds anymore. It used to be the highlight of his year. Things change. So Otter went with Dan and Twitch stayed home with us. Angus was the first to notice. He kept saying, "Two doggies?" and I had to reassure him a few times that we still had two dogs and Otter would come back. Winter didn't notice all day until she asked if she could walk Otter. To which I replied, "Ummm Otter is hunting with Daddy remember?" Then she started crying and yelled, "What?!! THAT'S NOT FAIR!" 

Feeding Twitch fake food. He's not really interested. He's asleep.

"I'm so sorry that you're old Twitchy."

Addie thought Dan was bringing home a pet duck. She wasn't too upset when he told her the duck was dead and he was planning on cooking it. She even wanted to see it. And he showed it to her and she smiled. Not sure if that is a good thing or not.

Addie calls our minivan Vanny. I know, it's not super original but she's four. 

Vanny rarely gets washed. Dan wants me to keep it nice for some reason. It used to be because it was a new car. But now it's five years old so I'm not really sure what the clean car obsession is. But I do clean it out frequently and take it to the car wash when I get a chance to keep the man happy. I waited a long time this time. Not sure why. It rained the one day I wanted to take it in. Other than that, I just blame kids and a busy life. I finally got around to taking it to the car wash last week and when it was done, the guy told me in broken English as he handed me my keys, "I clean two times the windows!" I'm not sure if he wanted a bigger tip or if he was just commenting on how filthy poor Vanny was. But now she shines and Dan's happy. And for the record, I love this car. She is my dream car. I don't think I'll ever want another vehicle besides a newer version of Vanny. Well... maybe when the kids are teenagers I would be okay with an escalade. An off white one. Not that I've thought about it.

We rarely take our whole family out to eat. And when we do, it is usually Max's down the street or Mauricio's local Mexican restaurant. That is because we are loud and messy. And Mexican restaurants welcome that. This is us two nights ago at Max's. Winter ordered a grownup burrito and did a good job eating most of it. She amazes me with the amount of food she can put down for such a little person.

Angus does whatever he wants. He's eating a lollipop standing up in the booth like a boss while I finish my fish taco.

Addie is also enjoying a lollipop because they are free and they buy us about 5 more minutes. And it's how we bribe the kids to behave before the food comes. 

We took our annual trip to Knott's Berry Farm yesterday. We get discount tickets because Dan is a firefighter so we take the kids out of school and go on a weekday when it is super empty because we hate crowds. We invited a couple of good friends because we love them and we need help with our tiny circus. And I like to ride the grown up roller coasters and Dan doesn't. Angus is getting older and that means less naps and less meltdowns. We actually stayed the whole day for the first time ever. And we enjoyed it.

Mya is totally conquering her fear of people dressed as characters. Look at her like 3 feet away from Linus. So brave.

Winter wore her birthday pin from Disneyland and pretended we were still celebrating her birthday. 

Angus loved anything having to do with horses, trucks, cars and trains. 

We have yet to master our 6 person photo booth shot. We forgot that it takes four pictures so we only attempted 3. But technically all 6 of us are in the bottom two. And Angus was the only one who cried so i think this could be counted as a success. 

Addie wanted to go on everything but was only tall enough for a few rides. I love her laugh here.