January

We started out 2011 on a sad note. My Grandpa Sandoval passed away and then 2 weeks later, my Aunt Ginny Sandoval passed away. We had just returned from celebrating Christmas in Michigan when Grandpa died. So we unpacked, did laundry, packed back up, and headed back to Michigan. The funeral was nice and I'm glad we were able to be there. Unfortunately, we didn't make it back to Michigan for Aunt Ginny's funeral. Instead, we were praying for her and my family from here in Wisconsin. Please keep my Grandma and my family in your prayers!

We got hit with the stomach/intestinal flu in mid-January. Lydia and Chad started out getting sick on a Friday and I got sick early Sunday morning. Luckily, Chad and I weren't sick at the same time an somehow, Makayla didn't get sick! The girls have been fighting colds off and on all month and Chad got hit hard with a cold the last week of January. He's finally starting to feel better!

We did have a few fun days in January! Here's a photo of the girls just hanging out and eating goldfish crackers! Lydia gets jealous when Makayla has a snack cup with goldfish and she gets mad until she gets her own! We took Makayla and Lydia to Wild Air (http://www.wild-air.com/) and Makayla had a blast! She even climbed up the biggest slide, all by herself! One Friday, the girls and I visited my friend Louise and her daughter, Ella, and son, Jayden! Our kids are very close in age, so we like to get together for play dates every few months! Unfortunately, we forgot to snap a photo this time around! We also watched the Packer's win the NFC Championship with some good friends, Tracy & Andy, and Scott & Lynne and their 2 children, Andrew and Evan! Makayla had a great time playing with Andrew! We enjoyed a yummy Italian dinner together after the game!

Speaking of the Packers, one day Makayla excitedly commented on Chad wearing a Packer shirt, so we realized she recognized the Packer logo! It must be from all the "Packer shirt" days that she had at daycare and that I always ignored because Makayla doesn't have a Packer shirt! So I dug out this outfit that I bought a while back on clearance and that Makayla spotted in her closet and she had fun dressing up and cheering on the Packers! She'll have to get all dressed up for the Super Bowl! And in the meantime, perhaps I'll buy her a Packer shirt so she can participate in the "Packer shirt" days at school!And while Makayla was having fun cheering on the Packers, Lydia and I were having fun trying on some yellow hair!

Makayla got outside to play a few times, although the many days of single-digit temperatures limited her outside play! Makayla likes to help Dad plow the driveway when it snows! She rides in the truck with him and must enjoy the ride! She's also learned how to pedal her trike in the garage and is eagerly awaiting some spring days to get outside with her new-found skill! Makayla continues to be quite the chatterbox! She listens to everything that we say and picks up on things so quickly! She likes to ask me if I have any patience! When I say that I don't have much patience left, she tells me to go get some more! She also came running into the kitchen one day and said, "Lydia's bothering me! She's testing me!" Makayla loves to sing songs and lately, she's started to enjoy watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse! She sat and watched it all by herself for 30 minutes last weekend! Prior to that, she would never watch TV for longer than about 5 minutes before she lost interest! So I'm glad to know that if I need to keep her occupied, at least she'll watch a little TV now! She also loves doing puzzles and can do most of her 24 piece floor puzzle by herself! We're still working on Makayla's potty training...she did great over Christmas, but has been hit-or-miss the last few weeks! She gets some chocolate (usually M&M's) every time she poops in the potty! Lydia now recognizes the M&M bag and comes running from across the room to get herself a bowl of M&M's too! She'll eat hers up and then try to steal Makayla's!

Lydia is walking/running/climbing and getting into everything these days! She can crawl up the entire stairway from the basement and she can climb into the bathtub on her own! I turned around one day and found her standing on Makayla's little picnic table in the basement! The table is now folded up and put away! She loves to crawl up into Makayla's toddler bed and then tries to jump on the bed (hmm...she must have learned that from her big sister!). Lydia loves music and will bop up and down trying to dance to the music! We also think she said her first word, "Dad" a few nights ago! She pointed up at a photo of Chad on Makayla's shelves and said "Da". She did it several times, so we believe she was trying to say "Dad!" Lydia also loves to get into the crayons when Makayla is coloring! She will sit and color for a few minutes, but pretty soon she starts to chew on the crayons! (If you look closely, you can probably see the bit of blue crayon in her mouth in this photo!)

Well, this blog post is ending up being way more writing than my normal posts! I'll have to be a little better about taking photos in February!

Winter Fun

We took Makayla tobogganing, but she was a little scared, so we decided to try the little sledding hill that I used to use as a child! After a few tries, Makayla enjoyed it! The morning after we had gone sledding, she woke up and said, "I go up a hill?" She wanted to do some more sledding! We got over to the hill/park several times while we were in Michigan!