Saturday

Fortunately Saturday was a beautiful day.  Mama & Denbigh were feeling better and Joseph hadn't yet gotten sick. 

Thanks to a generous Christmas gift and an insistent husband, Mama was able to spend the morning at her favorite spa.  

When I got home we packed up the kids (who daddy had bathed and gotten ready) and headed to Chick-fil-A for lunch.  After Joseph got done eating I noticed something missing in his smile!  This is the 3rd tooth he's swallowed.

Then we had a special treat!  Cousin Sarah Rae was in town for a conference and she had some free time that afternoon.  We picked her up at her hotel and headed to La Jolla for a little scenic drive, a walk around town and a lot of sitting outside on a patio with bevvies doing some great catching up.  Much too soon we had to load up and swing by her hotel for her bags before dropping her off at the airport.  Jacob's parting words were "I will miss you so much! Please come see us again!" (Ditto from the rest of us!)

More sickies. . . .

After I was sure we had all escaped Denbigh's tummy bug Jacob got sick .. . . . 

 and then baby girl and Mama got colds. . .  

 . . and then finally Joseph caught the tummy bug.

Today we are doing tons of laundry, wiping everything down with Lysol wipes and spraying Lysol everywhere.  We will get rid of these germs!!!!

19 months old!

I actually remember to take pictures this month on her actual birthday.  :)  This girl is so silly and her vocabulary is exploding. Her latest favorite words are "more banana" and "teeth."  Denbigh loves having her teeth brushed and runs for the bathroom every time she is upstairs.  We are still using the baby gate to keep her corralled but she is getting very good at going up and down the stairs. She still crumbles if Daddy tells her no but mostly meets Mama's eye with a challenging look.  It's easy to see that we will have our challenging moments.  But she is also incredibly loving and, while she's great at playing independently, she still loves to snuggle. We also took advantage of the few days she was sick to hide her bottles and transition full-time to sippie cups.  She was pretty resistant at first but eventually gave in to the cute Minnie Mouse cups we found.  

Super Bowl Party

We hosted a Super Bowl party at our house and had such a great time.  Several bonuses about living in California: 1) the game started in the afternoon and was over in time to put the kids to bed at their regular time. 2) we were able to open the living room windows and use our outdoor space as an extended party area without missing any of the action.

Projects & Guests

A couple weekends ago some of neighbors had a group garage sale.  I found this precious doll bed for $5 and my helpers carried it home.  With a little magic eraser action it looks almost as good as new.

 I made a little mattress and blanket for it all with stuff I already had.

 And Denbigh's dolly has a resting place.

 A few days after completing that project we had some overnight guests.  We used to share a duplex with these friends when we lived in Charleston.  Back then it was just the four adults and then Joseph.  They moved on to upstate South Carolina and we moved to Little Rock.  Then they moved to Burbank, CA and we moved to San Diego.  So crazy.  They came down to attend a conference at our church and we got to introduce each other to the 5 kiddos born since we last saw each other.  The youngest of theirs is this precious boy born just a couple months ago.

 Their daughter is about 7 months older than Denbigh and they were so sweet together.

 And Jacob and Judah hit it off as well.

 Naomi stole my heart as she often would ask to "hold me."

Dance Party

The other evening we were enjoying our outdoor room and the boys started dancing.  Jacob especially has some awesome moves.

sick girl

In the wee hours of Friday morning we woke up to a sick baby girl.  This was her first bout with a tummy bug and those are never fun.  The upside was that Mama got to snuggle on the couch with this sweet baby for day.

It didn't last long and she was feeling much better the next day.

 We were even able to go to church on Sunday although she still needed some extra snuggles.