January

Ah, what can we really say about January? That disappointing, dreary month that follows Christmas, with no exciting holidays of its own to speak of apart from Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Still, I am not complaining about this one. We had no -25-degree weather as has happened in the past, and we spent our time on projects, organizing, and generally recovering from Christmas.

My favorite project (which actually wasn't mine at all and I didn't participate in a bit other than showing him what I wanted) was this amazing king-size bed that Travis built for me!

I love it. I found the plans on the DIY blog Shanty2Chic, and Travis was like, "Oh yeah, I can build that." It took about three months, because then he decided to hand-carve this detail into every piece:

Oh yes, and these are his tools:

No, there is not a table saw in there, or a miter saw, or a router or chop saw or high-powered sander, or pretty much any tool I can't use with one hand. This bed was hand-made with my dear husband's blood, sweat, and tears, my friends. Mostly sweat.

Seriously, there were days he had to quit because he was physically drained from the heavy lifting.

On that topic, he thought I could help him carry the headboard upstairs when it was finished. That thing is taller than I am, and weighs more too! Let's just say it did not happen, though we did make it up six steps (and back down again) and no one was seriously injured. Then he called a neighbor.

  

Other January activities:

Dinner at my boys' favorite place on earth, train heaven a.k.a. Fritz's, where your sub-par but not overpriced food is delivered by train

Ice skating...

The kids have been dying to go ice skating since before Christmas, even though we reminded them that only one parent can skate with all three of them while the other watches with Nolan, since he is too small to skate. It was furthermore pointed out to them that none of them actually knows how to skate. They insisted they didn't care, so off we went!

Travis, of course, was the designated skating chaperon, since he used to work at a skating rink, and I may or may not actually skate worse than the kids. 

Interesting Travis-Krista-history trivia for you: 

Our first date was actually ice skating. It went like this: Travis is walking away after like our 6th hangout where he still hasn't asked me out. Then he turns around, "Hey Krista! Do you ice skate?"

Why, yes. Yes in fact I do.

He didn't ask, "Have you been ice skating more than once in your life and/or can you manage something like roller blades without breaking a limb?" which I thought were unnecessary qualifiers.

He also probably could have asked whether I enjoy bingo or window shopping and my answer would have been the same.

Besides, if I'm bad at ice skating, it just means I have to hold his hand.

The rest is history.

Pretty much.

 Brooklyn, of course, our intrepid little firecracker, was the first to decide she didn't need help and could skate solo. She took off at a breakneck snail's pace across the ice, scooting along determinedly. She must have fallen at least six dozen times. Sometimes total strangers even picked her up (she couldn't figure out how to stand up again, and Travis was most often occupied with the other two kids.) But her confidence never lagged, and by the end of the night she was feeling quite competent out there on the ice alone.

 Her courage was contagious, and even Kate was mostly independent by the end of the night.

Troy spent the whole evening like this. I tried to hold his hand and help him from the other side of the rail, Nolan in my other arm, but it didn't do much good. Don't feel bad for him, though. He stood there like this all night saying exuberantly, "I LOVE ice skating!" HA HA!

Nolan just loves any occasion to wear that hat.

Also I had a birthday...

My friends surprised me and took me out to brunch, and that evening Travis and I went out to dinner. It was pretty much the perfect day!

Brooklyn made me a very cute and accurate card.

Our little spitfire has given up ballet and decided that she is a gymnast. She is always telling me that gymnastics is her "thing," and always lists gymnastics as one of her interests or hobbies, even when she had never set foot inside a gymnasium before. I don't know about her level of natural talent, but she is courageous and will try anything. It's the confidence that matters, right?

And Nolan just loves to sing, all day long. 

Okay I apologize that you mostly have to listen to me singing, but he's just adorable.

Well, mostly he loves Thomas. Thomas is the first thing he says when he wakes up in the morning and the last thing he says when he goes to bed. Obsessed doesn't even begin to cover it. I love that he's even memorized the order of the trains in the "Thomas and Friends" theme song. (Okay, he did get one wrong.) You have to listen closely, but they go like this:

Thomas, James, Percy, Gordon, Emily, Henry, Edward, Toby

Yeah we get a lot of Thomas-related culture in our house.

If you were to ask, I could give a professional lecture on the history of Toby the steam tram and how he was an antique commuter tram who came to work on the mountains of Sodor because it is unlawful to run a steam engine without sideplates in certain regions of the island. I tell you, obsessed doesn't even begin to cover it.

Thus ends January!