Beginning of Catching Up: Jan - Feb 2014

 Since we're now half way through the year and I've posted NOTHING, it's time to start catching up.  Starting out with the twins 4th Birthday.  

We were all very impressed with Katie being a good big sister and letting her sisters have their birthday.  

 Sydney wanted a strawberry cake and Cora wanted a cheesecake.  I'm glad we had some people over to help eat it all.  

 We finally bought a few more bath toys for them.  

Poor Cora.  Katie had mollescum contageosum in NH and we were able to get into a derm doctor for her and that got cleared up, but since we got here Cora and Sydney's skin exploded with it.  It finally left Sydney, but Cora still had way too many of those little bumps on her skin.  We called, but couldn't get into a derm doctor for several months, so we tracked down the ointment and did it ourselves.  That poor girl had a lot of little sores from it, but it worked.  She is free and clear now, and really happy her mom doesn't pick at her anymore.  

We did have a couple of warm days in between the -30 degree days and our girls took advantage of every minute of sunshine.  

 Katie loved to build little snow caves for her stuffed animals.  

 Sydney still sucks her fingers.  

 There's Katie reading the valentine she got from our neighbor in the mailbox.  

You have to love how they still take their shoes off in February.  

Other things I can remember from those two months: we all started something new.  Jeremy and Katie started piano lessons.  Katie, Sydney, and Cora started dance lessons, and I started violin lessons.  I thought I'd be able to catch on quick with the little bit of guitar back ground I have, but that was just not the case.  I broke a string the first time I tried to tune it, and couldn't make a sound out of it the first few tries.  I didn't know you could tighten the bow (which makes a huge difference if you want to make a sound out of it), and the hand coordination needed to move the bow is a bit more complicated than strumming the guitar.  So I'm being as patient as I can be with myself and it's good to remember what it's like to start from nothing with learning a new skill.  

Jeremy did go through another round of pneumonia in January, but after a hefty round of antibiotics, he recovered.  No one else seemed to have a serious health setback, which was a huge relief after how the beginning of winter went.    

Holidays at school always seem to shock me.  Making valentines and treats for 3 little girls and their classmates seems to make smoke come out of my ears.  They had a good time with it, at least, and we did give them each a new little animal.  The bear Cora got became her new favorite thing to suck her thumb with.  It was an awfully cold winter, but we were so happy about the constant sunshine.