He played in the snow

Saturday it was warm (in the 60's) so Austin decided it was warm enough to play in the snow. He loved it! Too bad there is no such thing as warm snow.

This is so true! It snowed a few days ago and now it is 75 degrees outside. By the end of the week we have the chance of snow again. It's really a roller coaster. I would love it to stay warm.

This little baby wants to play outside!

Date group

We are part of a babysitting co-op. We babysit the kids once a month and then go out three times a month. Friday was our turn to watch the kids. Two of the families ended up not coming (which is kind of nice, when all the kids are there we have 15 kids in our house!).  

All the kids are a really into Ninjago right now so I planned a Ninja night. We colored ninja pictures, did obstacle courses, tested our stealth, and played sensei says (Jake was sensei). The kids had a great time!

Austin is very particular about his clothes right now. He will only wear certain clothes (which is kind of annoying because he has some cute clothes he will not wear).  This is currently his favorite outfit. He has worn this shirt every day for over a week. I put it in the dirty laundry, he pulls it out and puts it on. He also pretty much will only wear shorts. This is what he wore the day of the snow storm.

He will only wear one outfit to church -his white shirt and red vest. People probably think that is all we own. You have to pick your battles though and this is not one I want to fight, I'm sure someday he'll wear other clothes. In the mean time I really need to wash this shirt! 

Snow!

It snowed about 3 inches on Thursday. We were hoping school was going to be delayed on Thursday morning. I even took the time to make pancakes, but no such luck. School was on normal schedule. Kaylee and Brooke didn't waste any time when they got home from school. They were dressed and outside in no time.

They made a snowman for me. Austin didn't want to play outside. Too cold.

School did get delayed Friday morning because of icy roads. We got to sleep in and watch a movie in the morning. It was nice.

MLK

The girls begged to go to the Science Spectrum on MLK holiday since there was no school. We went to the reptile show and met Hercules the tortoise. Brooke really liked him. She has a thing for turtles and bunnies. 

We were only at the museum for an hour and then the power went out so we had to leave. Luckily it was a beautiful day 70 degrees so we went and played at the park with some friends.

Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam

My big 3 year old is now a Sunbeam! He is one of the very youngest in his class. I'm sure he is going to miss the toys and treats from nursery. He had to sit on my lap for the first little bit of primary until his teacher took him. He was fine after that and did great!

I also forgot to mention he has been potty trained for over a month now!!! I was going to wait to potty train him after we got back from Utah, but he decided he was ready a few weeks before Christmas so we went with it.

10 Months

Emma was 10 months old at the beginning of the month so I am behind, but I still wanted to post these. 

Sweet Emma loves to crawl all over the house exploring. She also loves to walk with help. She is a great eater and eats almost everything we put in front of her. She babbles "dada" constantly but will through a few "mamas" in occasionally to make me feel better. She has only slept through the night twice in her life and finally got her first tooth! 

She went to the doctor to get a shot last week and the guy at the desk gave Austin a bunch of dum dum suckers. Austin was nice enough to share one with Emma. She loved it.

Headed home...

We had a great time visiting family. It's always good to see everyone, but it is also a relief to head home. Emma and Austin were both pretty grumpy and tired the whole time we were in Utah! They didn't sleep well and were sick part of the time.

 I'm sure my parents were happy to see us go so they could have some peace and quiet! :) Because of how grumpy the kids had been I was worried about the trip home. The kids were all AMAZING though. They were SO good! Emma cried for maybe 15 min the whole trip! We were blessed with good travelers and good weather.

Family Pictures and New years Eve

My parent's Christmas present this year was family pictures. We wanted to do them outside but it was just too cold! 

My poor brother and his family were sick with the flu when we got these done! 

We went to Chick fil A after and probably looked a little funny in our coordinating clothes. 

We had a rocking party that night for New Years Eve. The kids got the hats and noise makers and we pretended 7:00 was midnight.

There was even a firework show.

Emma loved the firework. She just stared up at the sky.

We put the littlest 2 to bed and let Kaylee and Brooke stay up until 9:00 playing games. Kaylee was disappointed when we sent her to bed. "I thought we were going to have a party and stay up until midnight."  Maybe someday when she actually sleeps in the next day. They all get up at the same time no matter when they go to bed. The adults only lasted until 10:30 and then went to bed. Some year I'll stay up again... when there aren't small children to wake me early the next morning (or all night long like Emma did.)

Bear Lake

The day after Christmas we headed up to Bear Lake where Jake's parents have a cabin. We got to spend a few days hanging out at the cabin and playing in the snow.

Austin ended up with an ear infection while we were there. He was pretty miserable and refused to come outside. He really is a Texas boy and does not like the cold. The rest of us had a great time outside while Austin stayed inside and watched movies.

Emma got to meet her cousins and aunt and uncles for the first time. She is such a mommy's girl though so she cried if anyone else held her.

Austin and Emma were both terrible sleepers. Poor Austin kept waking up saying his ear hurt and Emma would wake up when he did. Everyone stayed up late playing games and talking after the kids were in bed except me. I tried to go to bed early and get some sleep. I was so exhausted!

It was a lot of fun to play outside with the girls while Emma was napping. (When she was awake she and Austin kept competing and crying for me to hold them. They didn't want anyone else. It was exhausting!)

I brought this cute little snow bunny out for a while to get her first experience with snow. She really liked being outside.

She even got to sled with dad!

We stayed for 3 nights then headed out to beat a storm coming in. It was good to see Jake's family and very nice that his brother is a doctor and got a prescription for Austin to take care of his ear infection!

Christmas

Santa came!

The kids had to wait until 7:00 to get up and then wait even longer since Austin was still asleep. They were so excited we finally had to wake Austin up (he was pretty grumpy all day because he didn't get enough sleep.)

 Jake and I had been awake for a while. I'm not sure we ever really got to sleep. Emma was a terrible sleeper the whole time we were in Utah! Also we got a text message at 3 AM telling us we had a new niece!

Austin got a remote control car... 

Emma is really excited about her giraffe from Santa.

Kaylee got an easy bake oven and Brooke got some legos.

After seeing what Santa brought we had some breakfast and then the kids opened their presents. The adults all waited for Kelli (my little sister) to come home before we opened ours. Kelli went to my brother's house at one in the morning to babysit do they could go to the hospital and have a baby.

We woke up to snow Christmas morning! Kaylee and Brooke were so happy! Once the present opening died down they headed outside to play.

While the kids played I went with my parents to visit the little Christmas baby Marley Noel.

Great present for Grandma!

Christmas Eve

Kaylee built Santa a "Lego museum" for Santa....

On Christmas Eve we went to my aunt's house for dinner. We were able to see family that I hadn't seen in years. I was still fighting off sickness though so once again I kind of avoided people.  

It's tradition to have a program and act out the nativity. We were low on kids (and some wouldn't dress up and participate-that would be Austin) so Jake and I along with some of my cousins had to join in. I was Mary with Emma as baby Jesus. Jake was Joseph and the girls were pink angels.

It wasn't quite as I remembered from my childhood. :) 

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Austin and his cousin Jack.

With Great-Grandma Jensen.

Once we got home the girls made sure we left our milk and cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer. The kids went right to bed. It's the one night a year there is no fighting about bed time!