Raven

Evelyn competed in the National History Day competition this month. She was super not enthused about it, but she did it anyway. Her topic was X-rays and how they changed history. She did not win, which she expected, but she was awarded a “Judge’s Recommendation” award, which she did not expect. It was funny when I told her. Her reaction was pretty clearly one of horror until she was assured that she wouldn’t have to go on to state. She was ready to be done. She knows a lot about x-rays now, though, you should ask her about them sometime.

Ivan went to a board gaming conference called Saltcon. He went with his brother, but had several friends that went too. He hung out mostly at the board games section. Heat was his favorite. Ironically he learned how to play a game he’s owned for over a year, and that was fun. It only took a weekend conference and now we can play it with our friends!

In other news, Avery got to go on a retreat with the youth in her youth group. She got Chick Fil-A (score!), but her stomach hurt most of the time (boo!). Rachel was really involved in teacher appreciation week at the elementary school this year. Who knew teacher appreciation was such a party? Catered lunches, gifts, all sorts of stuff! It was a lot of time, but actually pretty fun. Martin and Hazel have a new hobby as well – catching chickens. They’re quite good at it, and they appear in Grandma’s kitchen with a chicken every so often when we visit. We can’t tell for sure if Grandma is amused, but she doesn’t seem too annoyed and the chicken visitors don’t stay long.

We decided it’s finally time to grow our family again, so we added a little red subaru impreza :) No, we can’t even handle pets, a car is as exciting as we get. We are now a two car family! Avery is pretty excited, and she’s already driven in it. Unfortunately, nearly as soon as we bought it the engine light went on, so we jumped right into car ownership both feet in. We’ve decided the car needs a name. Suggestions welcome. Here’s a list of the current contenders. We’ve decided, I think, that the Sienna will be called Whaleshark, due to a current obsession of Avery’s. She loves whalesharks with a passion at the moment, so the van gets to be a marine animal. We’re also taking bets on how long Avery’s current obsession lasts.

Name contenders for the new car:
– Ladybug
– Ladybird
– Octopus
– Scarlet
– Carlet (you know, because it sounds like Scarlet, but means little car…)

Now that we’re not sick anymore (hallelujah!), we find ourselves dancing.

Hazel’s rehearsals after school rehearsals for the last several months paid off at her play performances. She was fabulous as a water dancer.

Avery asked a boy (!) to her high school’s girls’ choice Sweethearts dance. They did all the things: trampoline park, lunch, pictures, homemade pizzas, dance, and games afterward.

In calmer moments, we made bird feeders with some friends. Bird feeders are one of our favorite things in Winter time.

It’s been a mild Winter, and we’ve survived January, which feels like a major accomplishment every year. Some of us are definitely vocal about being ready for Spring. I’m really enjoying eating all the soups, though, so I’m okay with a couple more weeks of cold.

Random fact of the post: books we’re reading!
Homeless Bird by Gloria Whelan
Geronimo Stilton
Winter by Marissa Meyer
Cinder by Marissa Meyer
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
Blood Meridian by Cormack McCarthy
The Staff Engineer’s Path by Tanya Reilly
Notes from the Underground by Dostoyevsky
Rabid: A Cultural History of the World’s Most Diabolical Virus by Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy

Hi everyone! Here’s what’s going on in our home lately.

Rachel got her braces taken off. They worked! Her teeth don’t wear together anymore and she has eaten so many nuts, now that she can chew them without worrying about breaking any brackets. The retainer situation is not so great, but the orthodontist says we’ll make a new one in a few weeks and maybe that will help

Avery has her learner’s permit and has started driving. It’s so exciting for her and also a little scary. She got a Garmin for Christmas and she gets a few extra intensity moments on days we go driving. She’s already planning how to raise money to buy a car. We’re pretty proud of her.

Ivan cut his hair. Shaved it all off. He gets petted on his head a lot now as it’s growing in all fuzzy and soft.

Evelyn and Hazel had a vaulting show. The theme was the Polar Express, and they were not upset at all that their costumes were pajamas. They both did really well and no one froze. It’s fun to watch them. They work so hard and it pays off at the shows.

We got a 3-D printer for Christmas. We have printed snakes, chopstick holders, an octopus, various mathematical spaces and models, fish, snowflakes, and Ivan’s head. We’re having a good time and would love ideas.

A snowstorm dropped several inches of snow. Our snowman fell over, sad day. Now we’re working on a fort or igloo, we’re not sure which yet.

We’ve played with friends, cousins, had dinner with neighbors and worked on cleaning and projects. On to the new year!

Martin is growing, growing! He now weighs 21 pounds! He’s learned a lot of new tricks lately. His most exciting one is probably learning to crawl up the stairs. He thinks that’s pretty fun. He also knows how to pull himself up to standing now, which means anything on low tables and on the second shelf of the cabinets is within his reach. Hello baby proofing!

One funny thing he does is climb up the cabinet handles. We have one set of drawers in the kitchen cabinets that has four drawers and therefore four pull handles. He grabs one and then the next and just walks his way up the handles with his hands until he’s grabbed onto the top one. The top one is so high, though, that he can barely reach it and he stands there on his tip toes all stretched out holding onto that top drawer pull. One day the drawer started to open while he was standing there holding onto it and he started to slowly slide backward over his feet until his body was at this slant, like a slash mark on a keyboard with his feet up close to the cabinet and his head about 6 inches away from it. Luckily I was standing right there and pushed the drawer back in before he fell back on his head.

Our experiment with dairy was not very successful unfortunately. I started eating dairy on Martin’s 9 month birthday and by about a week in he was having reactions to it. It was a little hard to know for sure if it was the dairy, because our whole family seemed to be sick the three weeks after I started, but he would be sick and still have dairy reaction symptoms between being sick. So no dairy for me for a few more weeks. Which leads me to the little stinker’s next adventure… I left a cabinet open to let him play with the lunchboxes on the bottom shelf. Well, it was really quiet over there, which means trouble, so I looked over at him and he had gotten a valentine cupcake from the second shelf of the cabinet and spread it everywhere! Pink frosting and cupcake crumbs all over him and the floor. And… cupcakes, of course, have both dairy and eggs in them. So he ate I think about a third of a cupcake, dairy, egg and all. The next morning was kind of messy. But, after a week of cleaning out both of our diets, he’s starting to get back to normal, and luckily he doesn’t get cranky when I have dairy anymore, just all weird in his stomach and diapers. We’ll try eggs in a couple weeks I think.

Martin’s a happy little guy. he likes to play with toys, but his favorite thing to play with is paper. Anytime he finds a paper on the floor he tears it to shreds and eats it. He also really likes throwing things. I try to play the game where he gives me a toy and I say “Thank you!” and hand it back, but when I hold out my hand he just throws the toy. It isn’t working so well. He recently started a game where he shakes his head back and forth and then I copy. He thinks that’s really funny and repeats it over and over. He also really likes it when his sisters do silly things. His sisters really like “Pancake Robot” and have Alexa play it at dinner sometimes and then they dance. Martin thinks this is hilarious and laughs and laughs. Last night they were pretending to chomp a carrot in a really exaggerated way and he thought that was hilarious too.