january and february stuff

Still catching up -- getting closer!

The Saturday after New Year's we went to the park. Evan loves to swing.

Brooklyn loves the teeter-totter.

Brooklyn doesn't love the slides, but she is getting over her fear -- we were impressed she did the twisty slide all by herself!

Evan likes to play Rachmaninov and Bach for us sometimes.

Since Evan has been into cars, Austin dusted off his old Forza game for Xbox and showed the kids -- followed by days of Evan asking "Car game? Car game?"

"Icicles" by Brooklyn Taylor, mixed media, 2016.

Austin on drugs in urgent care for kidney stones.

These kiddos love to play together!

Uh oh.

So one Saturday, Laura got the idea that we should take the kids to Chuck-E-Cheese. Evan wasn't sure what to think about riding in a fake car with a weird rat.

More evidence that Brooklyn is growing up way too fast. And that Dad is going to have to be really strict about curfews.

Brooklyn was really nervous about the robot band. Austin remarked that they were even scarier back in the Showbiz Pizza days.

But pizza makes anything better -- even terrifying furry robots.

We got a few tickets from some of the games -- and Brooklyn got a big lollipop. Was Chuck-E-Cheese a success? "This is just like Disneyland!" Daddy begs to differ, but hey, the kids had a good time, and we didn't have to wait in line 90 minutes for Space Mountain, so there's that.

Austin got the guitar and the mandolin out, and an idea immediately came to Brooklyn's mind: start a band! Ladies and gentlemen, the new folk duo from Redmond Washington that's climbing the charts...  please welcome... The Castles! (Brooklyn picked the name)

Aw.

Aw. This girl doesn't take naps anymore so we knew she was under the weather. :(

Uh oh part 2.

Like we said, these two are just too cute when they play together.

Speaking of too cute, Evan isn't so sure about this whole playing together business right about now.

We said that Evan is into cars, but who's the enabler of this current interest? Hmmm.

Polka dots!

Come for the nice backlit photo, stay for the epic expression on Brooklyn's face.

Q is for queen. Preschool buddies!

The boys in the class were both out of town so Evan got to be a substitute student.

Starting to get warm and dry enough to go outside!

Valentine's packages!

Laura got Austin tickets to see Brian Regan for Christmas. It was a lot of fun and the guy that opened was equally as funny. We don't get to go on dates much anymore so it was a special treat!

Sometimes it's too rainy to play outside. Time to make a tent!

When Valentine's Day is on a Sunday and you have two kids, you have a candlelight dinner for four. :D

Brooklyn and her buddy Jax getting frozen yogurt -- he and his family moved to Florida for his dad's new job and we miss our buddies!

Visiting the ducks again -- usually the geese are mean but this one wasn't.

Class photo! Evan is pretty excited to feel like he's part of the preschool crew.

Our big news for February was that we're adding to the family this year! We told the kids a couple days before Christmas and let Brooklyn share the news to immediate family on Christmas Day. We waited until Valentine's Day to share the news with everyone else just to be on the safe side. We're excited!