Emmy's Birthday

For Emmy's birthday Derek and I got a babysitter for the other kids and took her out lunch and then to Build-a-Bear. She had so much fun picking out what animal to get. There were probably 30 choices and she had to change her mind a few dozen times before she picked the monkey. After she picked him she got to put the heart in, stuff him, dry him off and brush him. Then you get to make him official - a birth certificate for Banana. She had a great time and takes Banana with us everywhere.

It's hard to believe that she's already 5 - but it's so fun to see her grow up. She's such a fun girl -always happy and such a peacemaker in our family. She's always easy going and gets along great with everyone. She's such a helper with Logan - she loves to pick out his clothes and is so great to be my little gopher for passeys, burp cloths, and all the rest. She continually cracks us up with her obsessions (right now dogs in a major way!) and her sense of humor. She's got her own personality and quirks - like how she wants to wear shorts and short sleeve shirts every day - to the point that she rolls up her pants and sleeves EVERY DAY - she's done it for so long I don't even notice anymore until she gets a comment. We're so blessed to have little Emmy in our family.

Snow Day

Tyler had his first snow day today. It's actually the first snow day we've had in our distric for many years - I had to explain to him what it even was. At first I had grand plans for our free day - this because I know what my sister does. Jen's kids had their first snow day a few weeks ago. Jen pulled out all the stops to make her kids day a fun one - they sledded, played in the snow and then warmed up by making homemade doughnuts - that's a fun snow day. Then today her kids got out again - what did they do with their fun day - they went out and bought a snowballer - think giant salad tongs that make cup-size snowballs. Then they were going to use their recycling bin (I think this falls under the 'reuse' part of recycling) to form giant blocks to make a fort! Then they were going to come in and watch a movie - get all warm - and then head back out for more fun. This is the vision I had this morning - this is not what happened.

It all took a turn for the worse when Tyler realized that he'd left his gloves and hat at school - I could fix the hat problem but I don't have any extra gloves for him. This pretty much eliminated all outside options. That left us with inside options - these aren't as fun. I started out by saying lets get our work done and then play - so we did a spelling test, math problems, and read. Then the day just got away from us - you know those days where after you put the kids to bed you think, "where did my day go? what do I have to show for it?" Well this picture is what we have to show for our free day - Tyler and Emily colored all day and hung all their dog pictures up on the wall. A giant dog family picture - that's what I have to show for my day. Who knows - there's more snow coming, maybe I'll get another chance.

Blessing Day

Photobucket Album

We blessed our little Logan this past Sunday. Doing it in January with the all of the snow we've gotten lately made me think we might not have a big turn out for the weekend - but we couldn't have been more wrong. We had so much family come it left us amazed. We had lots come in from out of town - John and Sandy, Angey's family, Allyson's family, Robb's family, and even Rainie all the way from Texas came to support us! It really meant a lot to me that people would go to such effort and expense to share our special day with us.

The whole weekend was great. All of Derek's family was here by Saturday morning and we were able to spend most of the day with Derek's family. Saturday night I spent it with my family because Allyson and Paul had come in earlier that day. On Sunday we got to spend the morning with Rainie and Allyson. The blessing itself was great (despite having church at 3:00!). All of my siblings were there and Derek was only missing one sibling - that's pretty amazing. Afterwards Allyson and Angey both got on the road to get home before it got too late and roads got bad. The rest of us went back to our house for dinner. We had such a fun evening and then John and Sandy said their goodbyes as they left for their mission. It was great timing to be able do both the same weekend.

All in all, it was wonderful.

Christmas at the Cabin

Our family had a great Christmas at my parents cabin. Robb and his family were there for Christmas Eve dinner. After dinner we did the whole Santa ritual - cookies for Santa (with a letter that asked him to save one cookie for Mr. Peeps) and the magic reindeer dust so they could find us since we weren't at home. The kids got their traditional pj's (picked out exclusively by Derek) on Christmas Eve and were bouncing off the walls. Tyler was just staring out the window looking for the sleigh. It was so fun to have all the magic of Christmas. The next morning was fun as Santa certainly delievered. Robb and family came back in the afternoon and spent Christmas night there. We had a great time with them. It was fun to spend Chirstmas there because of all the snow. It was also really fun to have Logan with us for Christmas.

Wish Bone Wishes

I cooked my first turkey this week -ok, so it wasn't technically a full turkey - but a 15 pound turkey breast counts in my book! So I pull out the wish bone and let Tyler and Emmy do it. Tyler wished that he could wear shorts and short sleeve shirts every day and Emmy wished for a dog. When I told her that dogs are a lot of work she said that was fine. I asked her who would feed the dog and she answered "you can", to the question who will walk the dog she said, 'I'll hold the leash!' (not a big surprise since every stuffed animal in our house currently has a yarn leash), and then I asked her who would clean up after the dog, "oh, you can" - needless to say I'm not rushing out to buy a dog any time soon! I'm happy to report that Tyler won the wish bone - I prefer short sleeve shirts too!