January Blues

 I don't have much to blog about because for the last week we have been stuck at home with sick kids. I took Milo to the doctor about a week ago because he had been coughing at night time for about 3 weeks and it was horrible. But nothing else seemed wrong and so the doctor concluded that it was just the bad air and possibly asthma but we have to just keep watching him. The next day Olive woke up with a fever that lasted for two days.

Then Milo caught it and has had a fever for 4 days now. It hit him a lot harder than Olive. This means that I basically haven't left the house in a week. I wasn't going too crazy until today. Today I actually made plans because I was sure my kids would be healthy again.  I was ready and excited to get out of the house and do some normal routine stuff. 

On top of that we had a sleepless night of Milo waking and Olive not wanting to sleep in her bed, is making today a little bit harder than it already was. I really don't need more reasons to hate January so much. It has been bitter cold, there was a two week stretch where it didn't get above 20 degrees. We have had a lot of snow storms and we haven't been able to keep up with the shoveling so our driveway is ice. And now my kids are sick. Don't get me wrong, I like cold winter days where we stay in jammies and watch movies all day. But we've had enough of those. I just want my kids to be healthy. It's so heartbreaking when they are miserable. Poor loves.

Snow Day

There were some things that I wanted to add that we missed blogging. First was that we have been in our house for 3 year as of last November. That seem so crazy! Here is our annual picture on Nov 7 to remember this anniversary.

Also, during Christmas break we had a snow day. Usually Scott just takes Olive sledding but he kept telling me how much she loved it and how I needed to see her fly down the hill giggling with delight. So, we bundled everyone up and went to the park. 

And boy was Scott right. We have a little snow bunny on our hands. 

Milo on the other hand was not feeling it and just wanted to be help. He didn't like going down the hill although we forced him to a few times. He didn't last very long but it was fun to go as a family. I'm sure he'll grow to love it. It's in his blood.

Our Goals 2013

It is still weird to me that it is 2013. I haven't gotten used to it yet. But I am so sick of January. I want it over! It has been bitter cold. And so much snow. I'm over it. One thing that I do love about January is the new fresh start of a new year. Last week we had a little fhe to go over our goals from 2012 and set some new ones for 2013. This is what we came up with.

Olive: 2012
recognize letters and sound out short vowel families
count to 100
use a happy voice
learn to ski
learn to ride a bike
pick up toys and clean up room

I must say Olive did such a good job with her goals. She knows all of her letter and is sounding out short vowel families. She does recognize all of her numbers to 100 but is still practicing counting, she can make it to about 30. She sometimes needs reminders but I would say uses a happy voice most of the time. She didn't learn to ski yet, but the winter's not over so Scott has plans to take her up a couple Saturdays coming up. She did learn how to ride the bike she got for her 4th birthday. And I must say, possibly most impressive, she has gotten so good at picking up her room in the evenings and can usually do most of the work by herself. 2012 has been such a good year for Olive. She has grown up so much, sometimes it's shocking to me. We are very proud of her.

For 2013:
perform at SLC Dance Project Spring performance and practice her leaps
read books on her own
add and subtract
We are so excited for what this year holds for Olive, namely starting Kindergarten!


Milo 2012:
crawl
walk
sign
talk

Well Milo was a champ and accomplished all of those goals with ease. Although he doesn't say a ton, his vocabulary is growing every day. We maybe should have included climb and run on that list because he also loves to do those things. It is kinda crazy to me that last year at this time Milo wasn't mobile. Boy has he changed so much in one year!

For 2013:
use sentences
ask for things you want
learn to do a somersault in gymnastics
pick up toys
try out balance bike


Now for me 2012:
learn to knit cables -that one was so easy, I don't know what I was afraid of! Love cables!
knit new christmas stockings- yep!
submit a photo to the State Fair- yes I did this and it won 2nd place!
read a novel a month- this one I did not do very well

For 2013:
read a list of 12 books (I will let you know my list when I have compiled it, got any good suggestions?)
skin care- I want to get it all cleared up and where it was before I had kids I'm sick of having the skin of a 14 year old. So, I'm determined to do whatever that takes. I'm planning on getting a few peels, new skin care products, and be better about the routines
submit an original photo to the State Fair- Last time I submitted something that I already had. I want to take a photo with the intent of submitting it to the black and white section of the fair.
read the sunday school lesson before sunday school

I think they are pretty reasonable goals. I'm excited!

Milo's First Hair Cut

I love Milo's long hair. I think he looks so cute. But the other day I was thinking that is was getting a bit straggly at the ends. It was quite the mullet. So after his bath I set him on the counter to trim the end. Somehow, even though it was only about an inch that I cut, he looks so grown up to me after. 

Here are the befores.

And the Afters:

Olive Loves Dance Class

 After our last session at gymnastics Olive was ready to try something new. She knew that one of the girls in her preschool class did a dance class and she specifically asked to be in class with her. Although Olive has done ballet before this class is a combo that does ballet, jazz, and tap. She really does love this class. She is probably the youngest in the class and I am surprised at how focused some of the other girls are. But Olive is just happy to be there.

Here she is tapping her little heart out

I know next to nothing about dancing but here is her class doing their stretches on the wall. Look pretty grown up to me! 

New Years Eve

New Years Eve is the best! We love any reason to get together and party! So, here are some highlights. It's become tradition to meet at Chuck-a-rama for dinner and stuff ourselves silly. If you are like me and call it UpChuck-a-rama you know it's not my favorite but the kids sure love it. 

Here is Olive making an awesome face after eating soooo much dessert. 

We also celebrated Veronika's birthday as part of our party. The kids love the doubles game. Olive was rather disappointed that she didn't ever roll doubles and thus never got a chance to unwrap the prize. Sweet Hannah, who won the game, gave Olive her whole candy bar to make her feel better. No wonder Olive loves these girls, they spoil her!

Then we danced along to this amazing YouTube video of the proper way to do jazz hands.

Everyone got super into it. It was hilarious. I was crying laughing.  

Olive and Lizzie took this video very seriously and they followed every move. It was awesome. 

We had fun playing games. We totally rocked trivial pursuit and got like 3 pegs in a row on one turn. It was legendary. Because of that we won the game! Go us! 

2013! Oh yeah!

We let Olive stay all the way up until midnight and that may have been a terrible mistake. As soon as it was time to start dancing and having fun she was just a grumpy girl and we were having a hard time cheering her up. She didn't want to dance or be silly. She just wanted to try on hats. 

Don't worry though, Scott's fantastic dance moves got her in the mood to get her groove on. 

That's more like it! 

Gotta do the limbo! 

Matching New Years girls! 

We had so much fun dancing and partying. It's definitely one of my favorite Patterson traditions. 

Then at the strike of midnight we gave kisses and ran outside to the freezing cold and snow to ring our noise makers. It was quite the success. Since we were staying over it was right to bed at 12:05 for our tired girl. 

We are excited for 2013. It is always fun to start a new year and think of all the new things (like Kindergarten!) that will be happening this year! 2012 was a great one, but I think 2013 has a lot of good in store for us! 

Christmas 2012

Because of the snow storm we woke up to a beautiful, picture book white Christmas. The whole morning seemed right out of a movie. 

Scott saw this giant teddy bear and was instantly convinced to get it for Olive. I have to say it was pretty cool to watch her come in and see this huge bear waiting for her. She loved it and cozied right up first thing. Good job Scott. 

Scott also found a home run gift for Milo. His own cell phone! It has buttons and holes and Milo was in heaven!

One funny gift was this police car we got Milo. I also had buttons and lights and he absolutely loved it in the store. But out of the packaging the buttons make it drive. 

It scared Milo so much he doesn't even like to see that car right now and runs away crying! 

Olive got a princess sleeping bag which I think she has slept in every night since Christmas. 

Scott and I both got each other shoes with Olive's help. How funny!

Milo played with this present for a good 20 minutes. He didn't even want to open anything else. It is a train station that uses keys to open the different sections. Right up Milo's alley. 

I love this picture of Olive making the same face as Brave. 

We tried out something new for breakfast this year but unfortunately got so caught up in presents that we let it cook a little too long. Oh well. 

Here is the post presents glory. And it basically looked like that for two more days. To me it is such a good memory though. All their gifts out and scattered around because they were so excited to play with them. They would just walk around from one toy to the next. 

After we opened presents at home we went to the Sanders to do gifts with them. Fortunately we remembered to snap one picture of all of us! 

Everyone ready and waiting to open presents. We did a sibling gift exchange for the first time ever and I thought it was really super fun. 

Olive got Tinker Bell fairies from grandma and grandpa and they were such a hit. 

My cute girl.

All of us kids got together and decided to get my parents a brand new tv as a group gift. Scott and Kellen put so much time into finding the right tv and the best deal. We couldn't have gotten what we wanted without their help. It turned out so perfectly. My parents weren't expecting it at all. Definitely a good Christmas memory. 

After all that fun it was time to head to even more fun awaiting us in Provo.

Olive and her cousin Lizzie both got these life sized Cinderella dolls from grandma and grandpa. This was the one and only thing that Olive specifically asked for. We knew that them opening it together would be amazing.  

And it totally was because this is what they did for the rest of the day. 

Months ago we bought Scott's mom a pillow pet. Not just any pillow pet. A BYU cougar pillow pet. We knew it'd be a hit and she was so excited about it! 

These two boys got matching ride on tractors and you know this is what they did the rest of the day! 

After dinner we turned on Polar Express for the kids. It really was one of the best Christmas ever. 

Even though Christmas day is always lovely and wonderful, I hold a special place in my heart for the day after Christmas. That is really the day that the kids just hang out and play and enjoy everything. Olive was having so much fun reading all her new books and playing with her new toys she didn't even want to get dressed and that was perfect because we had no where to be. 

That night Olive begged to read books on her new giant bear. This is how we found her. It is one of her favorite spots in her room now. Love when you find the perfect gift!!