Slim Pickin's: A January Grab-Bag

Any castle worth its salt needs to have ducky beds inside. 

And to round it all off, a sprightly Grandma Purdy humoring a Tadhg who loves to play chase (with or without noisemaking toys). 

A No-Horse Open Sleigh

The boys were introduced to sledding for the first time this winter, and it was a hit. Nothing like having a big ol' hill right in your backyard.

Rewind to Christmas

Celebrating Christmas with an almost 2-year old who's now old enough to be excited was sheer delight. I only recorded a few snippets of our day, but it was full of time with our little family, with Grandma and Grandpa and aunts and uncles on Rundy's side, and with Grandma and Uncle Joel and the Owen cousins on my side. What a full, bustle-y day. What a good day. There is such deep-settling pleasure in simply being together.

'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house not a creature was stirring and-all-that-good-stuff...

Christmas morning we all woke happy and ready for the festivities to begin.

No joke. Our deprived little Sugar Tooth--before opening nearly every present, no matter what shape or size--grinned and said, "Candy? Chocolate?" He takes after his Mama, who takes after his Grandpa Johnson. The genes run strong...

Gotta take a couple of your favorite presents along for the ride.

Horrible quality picture, but it's one of the only pictures I have of this little Christmas elf in his elf get-up so it'll have to do.

I can't wait to keep creating new traditions together as the boys get older. Christmas was always my very favorite time of year growing up, and it makes me feel young again to have little people to enjoy it with me now.

The Mopsiest Mopsy...

...turned 73 today, just as Little Pip turned eight months.

She is sparky and sweet and stubborn and kind and lively and loving. And we all love her dearly.

(Despite heavy snowfall, we still managed to snag her for a birthday meal at our place.)

Dessert beard.

We are grateful for her life and health and for God's faithful hand upon her in these years of her widowhood.

Eight Months of Pippin

This was the month of sitting up, trying to explore the Whole World, figuring out the cat, trying to eat wood chips, surviving the flu, finding Tadhg insufferable, finding Tadhg wonderful, talking himself awake happily nearly every morning, continuing to reject solid food pretty much wholesale, adopting a new tongue-out trademark expression, taking his first bath in the big tub with his brother, going on his first sled ride, and learning not to play in the cat water. It was also the month of growing a third tooth, with numbers 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 coming along nicely.

He is still our sweet sugar baby, and we love him so.

(Right there. ⬆ That's the new tongue trademark.)

And the rest are some slices of everyday life.

Little elf.

Snuggly little elf.

Proud sitter. 

Peregrine learning to harness his Gift. (The force is strong with this one.)

Poor sick flu baby. A week of hardly any smiles from our little smiler.

But he bounced back.