january: combatting cabin fever

So last January's crazy snow in Nampa left us all home together a lot during the month... which had the potential for disastrous results... but luckily we devised many a way to entertain ourselves against the cabin fever that threatened to settle in and upon us on a daily basis!

Starting with snuggling for warmth as the temperature dropped outside, aka Jack's favorite pastime hahahaha. Please enjoy the picture of Chuck and Jack and Carma in the top left... and then realize that I'm in there too. Chuck and I were cuddled on the chair together when those two buttmunches piled on as well. 

By the third snow day or so, Chuck and I came up with the Snow Day Fairy. We made the kids do a crazy Snow Day dance and then surprised them with something to do that day - this time it was Pokemon legos. It helped immmmmmmensely.

We played games. Lots of games. Board games. Card games. Computer games. 

There's a chance our kids had never played Monopoly, whoops! This was a gift from the Snow Day Fairy (aka I had grabbed it for like $3 a few years ago on clearance and it had stayed in our closet every since, just waiting for the perfect moment!).

We sneaked out one day for dinner and fun at Grandma Pam's with Uncle Cody - and discovered that Will LOVES Who What Where. Like, a lot. And he's good at it - that's his picture:

 

Clyde and Will handled the time home pretty well, considering how much they love school and their friends. Legos, piano practice, time at the library, and some pretty intense games of Hide and Seek helped, like this one where Chuck put my baby boy Clyde ON THE PLANT SHELF and it took me like twenty panicked minutes to find him. Grrrrr. 

Carma and Jack did a lot of coloring, like in Carma's room and at the library

AND ON THE WALL AND BASEBOARDS IN THE LIVING ROOM. She is lucky that came off pretty easy, grrrr again.

There were also lots of opportunities to take a quick cat nap, often with a buddy:

So vain, but I love this picture. Carma was asleep, I was clearly faking but whatev. Look at how snuggly she is! Her hand on my neck! Even though I often feel like she's slowly suffocating me I know Imma miss this.

More Carma adventures: learning to drive (JK!!!), changing clothes a million times a day, working on her selfie smile:

We were pretty committed to eating our way through January: breakfast for dinner (including green pancakes apparently...), Jack is obsessed with banana bread, Jack is the cutest little sandwich maker ever, I made brownies the day that they warned we might lose power hahaha, and Carma's Nutella face/Hanson hair. Doesn't she look like a wee MMMbopper?! No?

Blessedly we did escape the house a few times throughout the month. I literally have no idea where we were going this day, although that looks delightfully like a fast food bag next to Clyde...

 Alllll the Costco trips! Don't think I could love that place more. Also Carma can find every mirror in Target to twirl in front of. It's a gift.

GIRLS NIGHT. Our first one without Nicole Daniels, who moved to Utah the first week of January which I honestly can't talk (or type!) about without getting emotional. I love Nicole. Like, a lot. She is as generous and loving and fun as she is blunt and take charge - so very ;). Some friends in her ward held a going away party for her and another gal who was moving and at one point they went around sharing memories about Nicole. I told Nicole I could have shared a million emotional thoughts but instead I went for my favorite funny memory with Nic - the time I thought she asked me to nurse Beckam and I was like, "Suuuuure?" Turns out, when she said, "Will you feed Beckam for me?" she meant like baby food hahahahahaha. Oh it still kills me (especially since a couple years later I did nurse a baby for a friend!)

 The group def won't be the same without Nicole (Melinda also had to miss this night..) but luckily she's still committed to our retreats and manages to come back every now and then for girls nights when she's in town. 

 Our final effort at combatting the delirium of cabin fever in January was delirious laughter instead! Like this Clyde classic that I promptly texted Chuck:

Or this twitter find! Let's face it, I just went along with the delirium during the whole ridiculous of the inauguration. It helped me pretend it wasn't real ;). 

Okay, this one still makes me laugh sosososososososososo hard. I don't even know why. It just kills me:

And this is the most Clyde thing ever: 

Okay, so that's how we dealt with the snow insanity of January... which will be chronicled for everyone's enjoyment/boredom in the next post. I might have 100+ pictures! It will be great! And then onto February so Chuck can stop saying I'm "a year behind" GRRRRRR.