How is it January 21st ALREADY?!

I cannot believe this month is already nearing an end.  We still haven't taken down our Christmas lights outside!  But, our Valentine's Day decorations have been up for over a week!
January has been a blur and I feel so out of it because my new 2014 planner has not come in the mail yet.  My calendar is still on Dec. 2013 and I feel lost and unorganized!

We have had a few cold spells but every few days the weather turns absolutely beautiful and we just have to go outside!  Yesterday and today were particularly awesome!  We haven't neede jackets or shoes, at least in the sun, the shade was pretty chilly.  We have filled this week with play dates and today I didn't even put on make-up.

It so hard to get good pictures of these two these days.  They are either moving around too much or not looking at the camera at all.  Drew is particularly difficult because he is going through a little defiant stage.  I choose not to fight him on it though because if I did, I'd be fussing at him all time.  Trust me, there is much more he gets in trouble for these days.  Like spitting out his last bite of dinner  all over the table JUST because he knows if he swallows it, it means he's done what he's been told.  He still has many sweet moments but we are definitely coming to the realization that he is grasping for control of his own world and testing us, big time!

Susanna's range in vocabulary has exploded over the last few months.  She has been cracking me up with the things she says and I really need to write them down so I don't forget!  She knows all of her letters and numbers 1-10, she is adamant about what she wears which drives me a little crazy on days like Sunday when I want her to wear certain dresses but she insists on wearing her pink rubber boots with them.  To keep myself from going crazy I just try to put together outfits that the boots won't clash too terribly with.  I have to be careful about which pjs I put her in at night too because if she has on her butterfly jammies or princess nightgown she will throw a fit when it is time to get dressed the next day.  And she can scream FOREVER!  But...she picked her Sunday dress out on this particular day and was quite the cutie, if I may say so!

 Here she is while we were skyping Aunt Ashley, she was giving her smooches!  Love those kisses!

 We went to the mall on a particularly cold day while running errands.  Drew was at school so we rode the carousel and played in the play-place over by Dillards.  She kept climbing in this tree slide, sticking her head out and singing like Giselle on Enchanted.  It was pretty much the sweetest thing.  She LOVES disney princesses these days!

 We have taken down her crib and now she sleeps in her big girl bed.  This has messed up our nap time and bed time routines a bit and while I think we have a good grasp on bed time now, some days she goes without a nap, which I know she still really needs.  Today at about 4:00 pm she crawled up in the recliner with me and before I knew what was happening, she was asleep.  I tried to wake her up at 5:00 but she just crawled up onto our bed and now looks like this!  I need to get her nap time routine down before March...or I might lose my sanity!

Needless to say we have been working on attitudes, new routines and playing a lot over these first few weeks of the new year!  Tiring most of the time but so sweet the rest of the time!  Drew had a particularly rough evening last week and was sent to his room, missing a show and bath time.  We were able to reason with him that if he didn't behave he would miss book and scripture time so he came out for the last 20 minutes before bed.  The next morning he came into the kitchen and said, "mom, last night was hard.  I'm sorry I made those bad choices" and gave me huge hug.  All of it was unprompted!  My heart just swelled with pride and awe that he was so thoughtful of what had happened.  It made me think that maybe we are doing something right when it comes to this parenting thing we are only 4 years in to!  And I'm taking notes on what works and what doesn't because we have 10 weeks left, at the most, until our new sweet girl gets here...

...and I hope it doesn't go by too slowly!  I won't go into the pregnancy woes of a 3rd child but I'm feeling it all 10 times as much as I did with the others!  Come on March 31st (or sooner!  Drew & Susanna were both early so I can hope, right?)!