Happy Valentine's Day!

First Tooth.

It happened all of a sudden...my baby boy, my first born, lost his first tooth. He was super excited about it, as we all were. And he even consoled me by telling me he would always be my baby boy, even if he's a big boy...until he turns 30. The tooth fairy left 2 quarters:)

January.

A quick recap of January at our little nest:

Like mentioned before, half of it was spent out sick. Here's sweet little Addie during her couch time. (there's something about couches that are great when you are sick).

I decided to start my first quilting project. I took a quick picture of all the blocks laid out, just in case it would get destroyed (it's laying on top of a fleece blanket).

Since then I've sewn the entire front together. Confession: I really have no idea how to quilt. I'm looking it up as I go. Hopefully it will be finished before the close of February!

The quilting project instilled a desire in Nathan and Ella to sew. So, I let them try it out with some extra fabric squares I had cut out.


As they were sewing together the squares, it occurred to me that it would be pretty easy to make them into bean bags. So, that's what we did!
Here's Nathan filling his bag with beans.

Bean Bags!

They were very proud of their creations!

It was a good month. Any snow we got early in the month, all melted as we experienced warm temps, even towards the 60's. Of course today as I write it's far below freezing, so the kids are hoping for some more snow soon. Nathan went out every day, even if it was by himself to sled down our ditch. He would go out later in the afternoon and then play for about an hour until it got dark!

I finished Pride & Prejudice, and currently have the BBC movie from the library. The book was fantastic-though I don't know if I'll have time for the entire movie (about 5 hours long). I know what other books I want to read, but don't have them in hand yet-so in the meantime I'm going to read The Hole in the Gospel. Matt read it a few years ago, and gives strong recommendation.

Other highlights were taking a soap making class with my good friend Virginia, a trip to the zoo with church friends, and of course homeschooling. I have enjoyed this semester more so far, as it seems a little more planned out, and Nathan continues to do well-mainly doing first grade work in math and reading.

Sick.

This is what Ella looks like on a typical winter day:

This is what Ella looked like last week of January:

From talking with some other moms, apparently January was the month to be wiped-out sick. Ella came down with something on a Sunday, and was out until Thursday. We rejoiced Friday thinking that everyone was at least well enough to leave the house, then of course Addie got it on Saturday. Everyone else has stayed relatively healthy, as in we only have runny noses and coughs, but can at least still function somewhat normally.