January according to my phone

Nothing incredibly noteworthy has happened lately.  We've just been hanging out and enjoying normal life.  Here's what normal life usually entails:

Taking trips to the park when the weather is nice. 

Allowing Colton to be independent, therefore, make messes.  

New bow ties for the boys.  Jaxon requested, actually insisted, that I make him a bow tie.  I kid you not.

Walking to church when the weather is nice, now that we have 1 p.m. church.  Yuck.

Boys stealing my accessories at church.  Obviously plastic pearls go great with bow ties.

Bowling on Martin Luther King day weekend.  

Sending random text messages to my sister about funny grammar things on pinterest.  Cause she gets it.

Playing cars everywhere.  At church.  

And even in the back of the shopping cart.  Obsessed much?

Developing my talents as a cosmetologist.  Obviously I'm not going to make big bucks in this business, but it keeps Madi happy!

Finding little chunks of Madison's hair all over the house because she tried to cut out her own hair rubber bands.  She will never do it again.

Turning running on a treadmill into a spectator sport.  Colton thinks it's super fun to watch me run.

Enjoying a picnic dinner on the front lawn.  Mostly because I didn't want to cook!  

Another bow tie for Jaxon.  He wanted one that would go with his "missionary suit".  

Putting up with my crazy 2-year-old, who is really an angel, but sometimes gets overly excited and decides to make huge messes.  I love that his Ravioli landed on top of the lego door.  AHHHHH.  My kids trash the house so much, but I make them clean it all up.  Hopefully someday they will stop making such huge messes every day.  

Like I said, putting up with a crazy 2-year-old.  This time he wanted to apply his own makeup.  I let him.

Admiring Jaxon's awesome wardrobes.  These are Colton's boots.  Jaxon is standing tip-toe in them.  Jaxon REALLY wants cowboy boots.  I think we need to get him some before he breaks his ankle trying to walk in Colton's.

Working on homework.  We had a magical moment the other night when all three of the kids were working intently on their homework.  Madi was practicing her math, Colton was working on coloring his letters, 

and Jaxon was painstakingly coloring his color by number. (excuse our dinner mess in the background, these are pics of real life, and real life means my kitchen is usually a mess until the kids go to bed) Can I just say that the level of focus and concentration in this boy has doubled, maybe tripled, in the last few months.  It's amazing to see him so intent on something that involves holding still.

And poor, poor sick Colton AGAIN!  This could be a post in itself, but let me just say, Colton is on ear infection #6 in the last 12 months.   He gets sick so much more than my other two and when he gets sick it's sudden and it's bad.  Like fine one minute and 103.5 fever the next.  I have so much anxiety over him and his fevers ever since he had meningitis when he was 5 weeks old.  My two big kids don't get fevers.  Ever.  So when Colton gets a fever I kind of flip out.  

And finally, eating lunch with my buddy.  He's such a great little buddy, especially when he's all better.