Midway through January

 So, John has been getting up on the top bunk again.  Normally, this delights the kids because he is so excited.  But, not so much when he is waking up his still sleepy brother.  I believe the lines I heard from the room were: "John is on the top bunk.  He's bothering Dom.  And he's poopy."  Poor Dom.  Speaking of the last bit, though, John continues to add words to his vocabulary.  This week I realized he referred to all diapers as "Poopies".  Luckily, this is not the case, just when we discuss them the most in his presence.  He also has started saying: Thank you!, Happy Birthday! (we've celebrated a few in the last few weeks), and will hum the Imperial March.  I'm not joking.  He's done it on a few occasions just out of the blue.   And if I haven't said it before, he will identify all Jayhawks he sees.  Seeing a Jayhawk will even distract him from crying.  Which is really pretty nice in this house where Jayhawks are basically around every corner.

This last week, we hosted a tea party for the neighbors.  It was kind of to celebrate Molly's birthday, but really just an excuse to decorate the dining room and pretend we are on Downton Abbey.  Of course, I was well into it when I realized that I was playing the part of the downstairs staff.  Took a little bit of glow off the whole thing.  But, everyone had a nice time, even the boys who got to take part after some other guests made their regrets due to illness in the house. Our menu was cocoa with marshmallows and peppermint creamer, French Puff Muffins, strawberries and blueberries, and cheese balls.  Super elegant. (The kids got a big kick out of the fact I stood on the table to do the streamers)

 I broke out the mystery mosaics again this week.  Or as I like to call it: My Art.  I love the fact that Molly and Will immediately wanted to help.  With the three of us coloring, we got through one in no time and started a second.  It is a nice cold weather activity.  And we are all so weak so anything under 65 generally means we are inside with warm drinks.

 Which then leads to this:

 John is really embracing his role as the resident 2-year-old (fact check: He is 21 months).  I discovered several of his 'drawings' this week on various surfaces.  None of which consisted of paper.  He also has a tendency to move shoes around the house which can cause quite a problem when it is time to leave.  He actually has a tendency to move everything around the house.

 Fortunately, the weather warmed up the last couple of days and we all took full advantage of it.  Hours were spent outside playing with neighbors either on scooters, in imaginary scenarios (I saw some spell casting today), football, and most recently basketball.  Dom/the family just got a new goal today that will go as high as the one Dom plays on in his league.  Will won our final game of knock out tonight.  And you know in this family, he totally earned it.  Well done, Will!

 And these pictures are a little out of order (our tree is now down), but we did have a delicious cake on Molly's birthday.  We also did crackers (firework type things with paper crowns and in our case little musical horns that we could all play to create a simple melody...Will was really good, the rest of us, not so much).

 And Nana provided our family with a dog so that we didn't feel left out as all of the kids' cousins have pets.  John loves it/him/her.  It is just our kind of pet.

I guess that is about it.  We have started school which has been going well.  We've been watching a lot of football and basketball and soccer when Eric has his way.  The kids are happy and healthy.  Who could ask for anything more?

Perhaps a working camera.  Ours apparently died without warning today.  We'll make due with Eric's phone until we figure out something else.  But, my random daily life pictures will be limited for a while.  Still, life is pretty great!  Rock Chalk!