February 2024

This February we entertained ourselves with all sorts of activities inside to make it through the last bit of winter. Thankfully, though lots of people are done with winter and by extension February, its always a fun month for us because it my b-day month. And this time I had a shirt to remind everyone (thanks Kenzer). We made dragon puppets, tasted dragon fruit, and dined at our favorite Asian restaurant to celebrate Chinese New Year. Everyone in our fam got to choose a favorite food for our super bowl menu and we cheered on "Taylor Swift's boyfriends team." Brad and I took a day trip (without kids or pup) to Logan for a ski date and got some delicious Salvadorian food. Jefferson made his first Valentines day box - a quidditch game where people could choose their Hogwarts house. We made snickerdoodles and delivered them to our friends for valentines. This year we gave the boys fidgets and chocolate frogs so now they have 5 HP cards in total they treasure, and Bella wore her pretty pink sweater, that is still too big, to celebrate. The stars aligned and Brad and I miraculously made 1 more ski date happen- this time Solitude- it was beautiful. We had family dinner with our Dennis family and Grandma Dennis snuggled with Bella. We had a family bowling day on Presidents day and Brad almost got a turkey (2 strikes, but then a spare). The boys got a taste of playing hockey and ice skating at a hockey clinic- Jefferson did exceptionally well shooting the puck, Brad said its because of all the hockey they play in the basement. Miss Bella went on her first bike ride and loved it. She also decided her favorite backyard game is fetching the wiffle ball we hit, even though the ball is almost as big as her head. Brad and the boys spoiled me for my birthday with a scavenger hunt to find my gift, and the mom and dad J took us to The Old Spaghetti Factory- my traditional bday dinner. We toasted Leap Day and made our 4 year predictions and plans. And the boys got 1 last sledding day in- that is our prediction that we are done with snow in the valley this year. At the end of February Bella graduated from her puppy vaccines and is now starting to meet other dogs and go for walks. Carter keeps impressing up with his creative buildings and creative places to sleep. In fact we could not find him in the house for quite awhile and then found him scrunched in the bottom shelf by his bed. He rejected all the other possible spots for a nap because he wanted to be hidden. We've started a new tradition at dinner- instead of saying our favorite moment, we say our high, low, and ha ha (thanks Becca for the idea). It brings a bit more entertainment to dinner. Our favorite recently was when Brad was saying his low was not being able to sleep and Carter said "have a dream, that helps me sleep." And when he said "my high was church because it was boring" Obviously some confusion between high and low, which then became our ha ha. 

January 2024

 

January was highs and lows for this Dennis family. We had lots of highs playing with our Bella. It's amazing how fast she grows. She was 2 lbs when we got her and is now 4 lbs. Her favorite toy is the "always going to be too big for her" duck. The boys came up with a racing game with her that she loves and always wants to play. She also loves playing queen of the stairs and watching mama puzzle. The boys quickly realized Bella did not have a middle name so gave her the middle name Rina, so she is Bella Rina Dennis. We spent most of January with someone sick in our household- when someone would get better someone else would get sick. Jefferson and Carter also had cavities that needed to be filled, so we spent a few hours at the dentist office, Carter fell asleep in my arms and I had to get a pic, because how many more times will that happen with my five year old. The boys kept busy with their Christmas gifts- Jefferson with science experiments and Carter with his boxing guys and lego world. We had a few days where all of us were healthy and we tried to enjoy cozying in. We had fun with mama school activities for Carter. Snow week where we decorated snowflakes, painted snow, and went sledding with cousins. Eric Carl books week where Carter made a fire fly puppet and then the boys put on a puppet show for us. And Brad took the boys to the school math night. We had a few game nights with family and introduced Bella to everyone and got to spend time with our new cousin/niece Clara. Looking forward to a healthier 2024!