2019 :: 8/52

Tova: she is officially a walker, she'll walk first before crawling everywhere and her balance is getting so good, she can turn now, squat to pick up a toy then stand back up, and go longer distances, Tova got her first molar poking through this week (thank goodness because if we went thru all that for just a little tooth, that other bottom front one is almost thru too, we were in trouble for the molars) I had thought she was working on molars and sure enough one corner of a bottom one is thru, she likes to talk and grunt, she likes to carry a toy in each hand, I started "brushing" her teeth with a real baby tooth brush and then I let her do it and she cries when I take it away,




Monday was a beautiful sunny day although a little windy/cold. Al was off but he didn't get up until 11. then trevor went to school. Monday night we had grandpa peter over for supper and he brought his video game console again which trevor loved until he had to stop playing for bed.

Tuesday morning jenny, kourtlyn, klare, and their black lab Kirby came over for the morning while their house had the inspection done. they're moving to the country in Chippewa and leaving us. :( but the house is beautiful and it's on almost 2 acres with all kinds of different fruit/nut trees and it's right across from the apple orchards up there. it was fun having them over; jenny cut my hair, Kirby was a good boy, and tova had interest in playing with klare (who kept hugging tova :]). then it was time for a little lunch before sending trevor off to school.

Wednesday we got more snow and although trevor wasn't supposed to have school it was a snow day for the rest of the district which meant we didn't get to go to trevor's conference. during tova's first nap, Al, trevor and I went out to shovel. otherwise we had a lazy snow day, watching a movie, having snacks, playing. trevor seemed tired and I had all kinds of sinus pressure and tova was teething/drooling.

Thursday, trevor and I did get outside for a bit, but just stuck inside again.

Friday morning mom, maren, tula and etta drove down for the day. it was lots of fun having them here; the first of my cousin's to come visit us! they got here about 1030am. the kids played while we chatted, we had lunch, played some more and then went on a walk to the park. the kids rode in the sleds and all loved it except Etta. :) we had to walk through a ton of snow to get to the park, but tula and trevor had fun. once home, trevor and tula played outside a bit longer while I put tova down for nap. Al got up and hung out too; he picked up a 6 hour over time shift that night so worked 6-midnight. mom, maren and the girls left about 5ish, so the kids and I had dinner and then a movie night.

Saturday I ran to target but otherwise we just did house stuff and the kids spent time with Al since they'd been missing him. then matt, Jodi, cam, chloe and Carsyn came over for dinner and game night. it was so fun! Al made baked chicken thighs and bacon & brussel sprouts; so good! neither matt nor Jodi had tried brussel sprouts before and they liked them! I played a game of skipbo with the 3 big kids, then all of us but the babies played ninja turtle uno, then 6 of us played partner dog sequence; so fun! then we put a movie on for the kids and the adults played Jodi's new version of cards against humanity; we laughed SO hard!! especially Al! they left about 1030p and we promptly went to bed after that.

Saturday night into sunday morning we got another 8+ inches of snow.... it also got really windy on sunday so we shoveled in shifts. once Al was awake, trevor and I went out and did the driveway down to the sidewalk. we also made a snow fort in the piles where we rested out of the wind for a bit in the middle of shoveling. it got colder and windier throughout the day, so Al did the second shift which was after the plow came by. he got half the end of the driveway done and some of the sidewalk (this snow was much heavier and the piles are SO big along our driveway.) then, while we were eating lunch, some of the neighbors finished the end of our driveway and sidewalk with their snow blower. we played a lot of card games and I got some cleaning done. also, by sunday Tova was full fledged walking everywhere; she's getting so good at it. she can now turn, squat to pick up a toy then stand back up, and go long distances. so crazy that she's a walker already and will be 1 next week!

 trevor try to climb the tree now that you can reach the branches. "I can't, I'm not a squirrel!"

 Trevor, Tula, Etta, Tova

 Etta leaning back :)

 "dad's little deputy"

 game night

Jodi, Al, tova, trevor, camdyn

 matt, Carsyn, chloe, me

 wanted her hat on

2019 :: 7/52

I can't believe it is just 2 weeks and Tova will be one!!! that year went by insanely fast!! she is taking 4-9 steps on her own, if possible she will pull herself up and walk along anything to get places instead of crawling, she slept through the night again this week, she will point to her nose when asked and also will pat her hair when asked, she's a button pusher: she loves remotes and phones, she got her 7th tooth finally another bottom one,


Monday we just lounged in the morning and then sent trevor to school even though he was still a bit tired from having the stomach bug. but we got a big snow storm on Tuesday and I knew they weren't going to have school, so I wanted him to get to go on Monday. he did great at school and we just relaxed that night. Tova was crying/whining most of the night if I wasn't holding her. in fact, she did that Tuesday and most of Wednesday too.

we got another 9 inches of snow on Tuesday and there was no school. trevor and I went out during tova's first nap to shovel and it was hard work. there was already at least 6 inches on the ground and it was a bit heavier snow than the previous ones. also the mountains of snow on the sides of our driveways are so tall that it was a lot of work to get the shovel-fulls of snow up on top or over them. it did the driveway to the sidewalk and the sidewalk but then was beat. thank goodness Al had brought his ford explorer squad home that morning so he didn't have to drive the Volkswagen in that snow to work.

Wednesday was a 2 hour delay for the school district which meant no 4k so another snow day for trevor. Al got off work at 3am, drove the Volkswagen home but our road wasn't plowed yet and he didn't want to chance getting it stuck at 4am in the morning. so he parked it at the gas station 2 blocks away and walked home in the snow in uniform at 4 am. :( I don't like that but it's not like I could have gone to get him or that I faulted his decision to not get the vw stuck. Once he was awake, we'd been plowed and our awesome neighbor, mark, snowblowed the end of our driveway, we all packed up in the car and drove him to get the vw. trevor and I also went to aldi for a few things but mostly to get out of the house; cabin fever!! trevor and I also played out back in the snow in the afternoon; it was fun! but it was so deep!

Thursday was valentine's day! the kids and I went to Jodi's in the morning for a little valentine's day party and we had fun! both kids slept all night and slept in until 8 am!! therefore, Tova didn't nap until we got home and had some lunch, so she went down at noonish. trevor finally had school, so Al and I got our workouts in and some stuff done. then I went to pick up trevor from school. we had heart shaped pizza for supper, had bath/shower night, and then watched a bit of a movie before bed.

Friday morning we just played and then after lunch the kids and I drove up to the cities. we didn't have any actual plans but it was just so nice to get out of the house. during tova's nap, trevor and I ran over to kohl's to exchange one of his birthday presents that we already had and he got to pick out a different toy, which went a lot easier and smoother than I expected. mom made meatballs for supper and unc-o came home in time to eat and hang out until bedtime.

Saturday morning we played (we didn't sleep real well so we were all pretty tired), we had lunch, and then trevor got to play Mario Olympics on the wii with unc-o which he loved! then we headed home. Al was already at work when we got home. we played lots of trouble, some soccer, had supper, took baths, read books and then bedtime.

we came home on Saturday because we got more snow sunday. so sunday was another day inside although trevor and I did go out and shovel. we saw Al for about a half hour before he went in to work.

 so much snow!!

 Tova got her birthday present a little early

(it's used and was a good deal on facebook!)

 finished up his big police legos from unc-o

 we made snickerdoodles for the neighbors for watching tova and for snow blowing the end of our driveway

 trevor and easton

 valentine crew at jodi's

trevor, Easton, graham, evrett, Kinsley, tova

 playing throw the ball through the heart game

 he did it!

 passing out valentines

 little girls: tova, Carsyn, kinsley

playing Mario Olympics on wii

2019 :: 6/52

Tova: started taking steps without holding on to anything usually 2-4 steps,


Monday night, Jackie came over to play with tova while al and I took trevor to a movie at the budget theater for his birthday! we saw wreck it ralph 2 and we loved it! it's so cheap so we got popcorn, drinks, candy and nachos! it was a good movie although trevor got scared at one part (it wasn't even a scary part) but we had fun.

Tuesday Trevor finally had school and he got to pass out his pencils to his classmates (they can't do treats for birthdays so we did pencils.) it started to snow while trevor was at school and it came down fast. the drive to get trevor and Easton and the drive back was awful! there was so much snow on the roads, so much coming down, so windy and so cold. you couldn't see much including where the roads were, and the snow would freeze on your windshield and windshield wipers very quickly. there were people pulling over (except we couldn't see where the shoulders were so they were just kind of stopping in the road) to clear the ice off their wipers. it was stressful and difficult but we made it (they closed down some of the major highways and roads because there were so many accidents.) luckily Al was off so I didn't have to take tova with me.

once trevor and I were home, we shoveled the driveway and we had over 6 inches and it was still coming down. while we were doing that, Al and tova went to get grandpa peter so he didn't have to park out in the snow or walk on our ice rink of a driveway. grandpa peter came for birthday dinner; he brought trevor a fishing net and some new, cool coins. we had supper, then trevor got to play grandpa peter's mini super Nintendo console for a bit and he loved it. he's gotten good, but he makes a loud grunting noise when he wants Mario to jump; it's so funny! after the kids were in bed, and Al ran grandpa peter home, we both went out and finished shoveling; uffda!! it was a lot of snow!

Wednesday was another snow day as they we still trying to get the roads cleaned up from the 11ish inches we got on Tuesday night. Al worked 6p-6a so we saw him for a bit before that.

late Wednesday night we found out school was cancelled for Thursday again! so in 2 weeks trevor should have had school 8 days and he had school 1 day (and that one day was awful driving!) so crazy!

Thursday morning we went over to Jodi's to play for a bit before the snow started. we got there and went outside to sled in her driveway since it's a hill. it had started to snow and it was so much fun! then we played inside while tova napped, trevor had lunch there before we headed back home. I found trevor's excavating kit i'd gotten him last Christmas so he had fun doing that (he found a dinosaur, gems, and "gold") and I brought a bit of snow inside for tova to play so she could feel it. Al ended up bringing his squad home for the night which was good so he'd get some extra sleep in his quick turnaround of shifts and so he didn't have to drive the Volkswagen to work in all the snow we got Thursday. then when tova went down for nap, trevor and I went out to shovel the 5 or so inches we'd gotten; we're running out of room on the sides of the driveway to put snow. the mountains are so high!

thursday night after i put the kids to bed, tova ended up puking in her crib. i got her cleaned up & bathed, and her bed cleaned up and in the wash, and put her back to bed. she was still kind of moany and ended up puking again. so another quick bath, change of bedding (i had to use changing pad mats as the waterproof layer since we only have 2 mattress pads.) then got her back to bed and i finally got to bed at 11p. tova didn't puke again but made lots of noises so we didn't get a whole lot of sleep.

Friday Al didn't get home from work until 5a (he was supposed to get home at 3) and he had to shovel the end of the driveway from the plow in uniform before he could get the Volkswagen in. the plow had come in the middle of the night and I couldn't have gone out to shovel anyway with a pukie baby. so the kids and I just played Friday morning, tova took a long nap, and we had to wake al up after lunch to go to trevor's 5 year checkup. we met the new pediatrician who is better than the ones we've been seeing but still is no Sarumi. and she's got an accent from Cameron so it was hard for trevor to understand her. but trevor checked out well and his height is now leaps above the chart; not even in a percentile. he's so tall! his weight is 97%! and I had her check his ears extra since he's been more sensitive to loud-ish noises and talks louder now. Friday was pretty cold out but trevor and I ran to the library quick after his appointment. then we had a night at home with all of us and I got to take a lavender bath bomb (made by Al's cousin jenny who grows the lavender) bath and it was awesome!

Saturday morning, once Al was awake I ran to joann fabrics because they were having a great sale on fabric. once home, trevor and Al went outside for a bit to shovel the dusting we'd gotten and clean up the end of the driveway that Al didn't get to. after lunch, I ran to the shed with Jodi, and while there Tova puked 2 more times. she'd had diarrhea all day Friday and Saturday but weird that it was so long between pukes. so we just stayed in Saturday night.

at 1230am trevor was whining and when I went in there said his tummy hurt. I quickly convinced him to go to the bathroom and once in the bathroom he puked. Al heard him and came to help. At 630am he wanted water so I gave him a little bit and 5 minutes later he puked it up in bed. so I changed his bedding and tried to get him to go back to sleep but he didn't. Al ended up puking in the morning too and my stomach was uneasy all day. so Al and trevor laid in our bed and watched a movie until tova went down for nap; trevor did end up puking one more time during that time. then trevor came out to watch tv with me while Al took a 5 hour nap. once up from his nap, Al made himself puke again (don't ask me why), laid on the couch for a bit then went downstairs to sleep for the rest of the day/night. trevor took a 3.5 hour nap, but tova only took a short afternoon nap so I didn't get a nap in. none of us ate much all day. :( trevor had a fever midday and tova cried a bunch at bedtime so I gave her motrin. it was a rough day! Also our 3rd stomach bug in 3.5 months... ugh!!

trevor loves to pick up tova and carry her

off the charts

always wants to be near her brother!