the blur that was january

January flew by so fast for us. I suppose that's how it goes when you have something going on every weekend. We took advantage of the holiday on the first to hit the ski hill. Jason got pretty good, but took a pretty bad fall and hurt his arm. Ethan loved his new face mask, the wind gets pretty cold up on the mountain, but he didn't even notice.

The next day we were back at hockey practice.

Because Ethan is about the most ridiculously spoiled 9 year old I know, his dad decided that even though we just had Christmas and Ethan's birthday, that he needed a mountain bike. You know, in January, in Montana. Makes perfect sense right. Haha. We surprised him with it after school. Gave him the manual and said guess what your surprise is.  

Then he had to find it hidden in his room. He looked just about everywhere else first though. That smile says it all.

I have to admit, it's a pretty awesome bike. 

And of course it needed a test run (notice all that snow).

This is just one of my favorite pictures from January. Elliott is forever making us laugh. 

The cold days mean that Elliott and I spend a lot of days inside after he gets home from school. He made a paper snowglobe at school, and wanted to make another at home. I opted for the real thing though. He loved it. 

Thanks to my friend Erica, I have taken up knitting. I am still getting the hang of it, but I have made an ear warmer, a couple pairs of baby shoes, some scarves, and a pair of fingerless gloves. It's fun, but I have a lot to learn. 

Ethan had hockey games the first 3 weekends of January. I love hockey weekends. This line was one of the VERY few times you'll see Ethan as a wing. 

And this could be the first of many times you find his jersey number in the penalty box on a score sheet. 

I still cannot believe how far he's come from that 3 year old that wouldn't even get on the ice that first day. 

Poor kid got run down though, and ended up with the flu. Lucky for me, he was nice enough to share with everyone in our house. YUCK. 

This was the next weekend, and he was right back at it. I had some training in Missoula, and for the first time in 6 seasons, I had to miss his games. I was crushed, but luck that Jason was home to be there for me. 

I missed some good games. 

When I did get home, Elliott and I worked on Valentine's Day gifts for school.

Simple, but handmade is always the cutest. 

Elliott has either been growing or something, and when he starts getting in trouble, it's usually because he's tired. There were several occasions in January where he would be told to go rest, and we'd find this. For a kid that hasn't had to nap since 2 years old, he did a lot of it last month. 

He's also become quite the artist and he loves watercolor. This is my favorite piece. It's a hockey player if you couldn't tell.

He's also always wanting to play games. Go Fish, Memory, Angry Birds, and just about anything else to challenge him. Looks like he's growing up on us. 

Whew. Like I said, January went by in a flash, but it really was a great start to the year.