January....here and gone!

Spoiler alert: I hate winter. Which makes January and February my least favorite months. So the Gailans do whatever they can to muscle through the dark and cold which sometimes means crazy antics and bitterly cold walks when the sun decides to show. What a doozy January 2016 was. We had blizzards and massive piles of snow. We had several nights where the AMR got to sleep outside because it couldn't make it up our driveway. Wimp.

But, as always, we had good times too, starting with New Years. Just a quiet night in with me and my boys. Clark wasn't sure what to make of the noise makers or the sparkly hats but Dana was happy to oblige.

Which made Clark want his own hat. And yes, I know it makes him look like a little beauty queen and he'll hate me for this later but man do I have one pretty/handsome little man:)

We spent the last Saturday of the vacation with the Gailan clan, telling stories and just laughing it up with the brothers. Clark was zonked by the end. He even slept in the car while Dana had to run into church and print some reports. P.S. how cute is his George McFly vest?

The other fun this month is playing switcheroo with Clark while Dana is at school. Basically I take an 1 1/2 lunch each day and go down to YVCC to pick up Clark while Dana has his class and then we switch back. It makes for an exhausting schedule and I've very grateful to Kristen for offering to take him some days. It also means I've had to get creative to entertain a 20 month old when we can't play outside. We tried out the Yakima Children's Museum. Verdict: super creepy. Seriously. Super. Duper. Creepy. Maybe if you had a group of kids it would be okay but it was ghostly quiet and smelled like turtle. We will not be returning anytime soon. The only bright spot was the actual museum above which had a neon lights section that Clark was mesmerized with.

Our next try was Fred Meyers which was actually kind of fun for him to run up and down the aisles....until he ran smack into a lady pushing her cart and I got one of those "what a bad mother you are" looks. So no more Fred Meyer.

We then tried the Kids Castle which I think would have been fun if 1) there were other kids or 2) Clark had a mother who was willing to crawl up in the slides in her work pants. Sadly, neither of those things was a reality so we literally spent a full hour with him standing in this ball pit just violently throwing the balls at the wall. I think he was working out some inner angst.

Ahh well. So I'm canning all the kid things. He's too young. Thankfully the weather has warmed up to a balmy 35 so we just bundle up and walk around campus. He's becoming a pro at climbing the stairs in Dana's building and moving the chairs around. Oh and we go to Costco. More than I'd like to admit:)





But when it's time to relax at home, we do it up right. He's becoming a funny little person. His personality is really coming out and what we've realized is he's super weird. And awesome. He loves watching TV like this....

Sleeping like this...

And checking out his shadow like this...

Last weekend he had an exciting day when we went to Kristen's baby shower. Her baby, Stella, will be born any day and we could NOT be more excited! We picked up some balloons at Safeway (which terrified Clark) for the party. Once he touched the balloons though he was in heaven. He ran around all night squealing, his little bouquet trailing behind him. More than once he got completely tangled up and looked like a dog chasing it's own tail twirling round and round. The baby shower was amazing. Kristen got some great stuff and I think they are feeling almost ready to be parents. Almost:) We can't wait for little girl.

What else? Dana is now spending every Saturday volunteering at the hospital to get his hours in for the program. It's fluctuates between totally boring with nothing to do and lots of running around. Oh and he had his first person die the other day. It's weird to think that will be a normal part of our conversations from now on. We are on a wild adventure people. As for me, I've been spending most Sundays at different Ward conferences so Clark and Dana have been having 'man' Sundays. They've used the time wisely.

Pretending it's summer...

Mastering puppeteering....

And pretending to sleep on the floor...

I think they missed me. Well, that was our January.  Just a blah month really while we begged for the snow to stop and the sun to shine. School keeps on chugging and we keep on plugging. See you in February.