January roundup and statuses

January 1 near Herriman via mobile: What could be better than a pedicure? A pedicure while surfing Pinterest! Love my smartphone!

January 15 near Herriman: Whenever I blog, I have to go through after I write and take out about half of the exclamation points. Even then I probably have too many. I guess life is too exciting to be contained in simple periods! (yes, another exclamation!)

Kevin spent most of New Years Day working on his Christmas present-- a DIY workbench. Looks great, and he had fun doing it too!

Kevin took the big kids to Thanksgiving Point on a Saturday morning to give Evelyn a chance to nap and me an uninterrupted stretch of time

January 21 via iOS

My best bowling score ever... And probably the only time in my life that I'll beat kevin at anything sports/coordination related!

Luke's been loving taking his naps in his closet lately. In the smaller space he can see the stars from his turtle night light even better!

Cora showing off another loose tooth!

Evelyn eats better if she think she is eating our food--for now disguising her bowl fools her. Observant little girl to realize big people and baby dishes, don't you think?

Laundry time peek-a-boo!

January 8 near Riverton via mobile: It's a little hard not to smile when Luke tells me I'm on the naughty list forever when he's mad at me. I guess for him that's the lowest of the low!

January 30 near Herriman: 

Evelyn's two front top teeth popped through this morning.... and then she took an unheard of 2.5 hour nap. It must have been a relief to get them through! Good thing she slept so long-- my house really needed to be cleaned.

Here's a clip of Evelyn making her favorite sounds. 

Grandparent Letter

Dear Grandma and Grandpa,

How are you doing? I hope all is going well for you there! We think of you often and miss you a lot!

The kids didn’t go back to school until January 7^th, so it was fun to have more Christmas vacation time. We went to the dinosaur museum, rode the indoor ferris wheel at the new Scheel’s store, and went to Jungle Jim’s (a little local indoor amusement park). It was fun to relax and play! We’ve had a lot of snow this month, so it’s been great to go out and play, when it’s warm enough—we’ve had some major cold spells too.

We also enjoyed going to cousin Aubriel’s baptism and attending cousin Shenay’s talk in church before leaving on her mission to Hong Kong. It’s so nice to have family nearby who are great examples for my kids.

Evelyn is progressing in leaps and bounds. She has two new top front teeth now, she’s a fast crawler and can pull to standing and is starting to walk while holding onto the couch. She loves ‘big people’ food and is more likely to eat if her food is in one of our bowls. She can kiss, clap, and give high fives. She is adorable! Luckily, she’s only attempted the stairs once—Kevin looked over from cleaning up dinner and she was half-way up them. It scared her enough she hasn’t tried to go that far again, which is just fine with me for now!

Luke is in the middle of potty-training. He is doing a great job! He loves going to his little playschool and looks forward to storytime at the library and Costco trips. He is excited to be 3 now! Violet has been learning about outer space in preschool and is reading 3 and 4 letter words very well. She loves to play games, and we do that often while the little kids are sleeping.

Cora just got her report card for her second term of second grade. She is doing spectacularly and reading well above grade level. She loves her new chapter books— about fairies and the American Girl dolls and the Little House on the Prairie. She has yet another loose tooth that has been hanging by a thread for about 2 weeks now—I can’t wait until it comes out, but she is biding her time.

Happy Valentine’s Day!! We hope you have a day full of love and fun! 

Evelyn at 9 months

A few notes about Evelyn now....

She won't put food in her mouth. She wants to eat, but wants someone to feed her!

She attempted the stairs for the first time. Time for a gate!

She likes to give high fives and kisses.

 

Evelyn likes to open drawers and take things out to bang on the floor.

She can pull to stand, and push to sit up.

 

Evelyn loves paper and crinkle sounds.

She likes to babble, and shrieks when she is done eating. 

She loves peek a boo and the song "The Wheels on the Bus".

 

 

19.84 pounds, 68%, 29.53 inches, 97%

Luke-- three years old!

Happy Birthday to our dear Lukey-Luke! 

Luke chose Apple Jacks and pancakes for breakfast

He got to open presents throughout the day-- including this one before Cora went to school.

After school we went to Jungle Jims-- one of his favorite places! Luke was even lifting his hands off the bar on the rollercoaster ride-- what a brave guy!

He chose make your own mini pizzas for dinner, along with broccoli, carrots, and cuties.

Then it was time to open more presents!

Luke chose donuts for his birthday cake.

And it only took a few tries to blow those candles out!

Here's his birthday picture we used to make thankyou cards-- what a cutie! 

At Luke's 3 year old doctor's appointment he weighs 30 pounds (28th percentile) and is 36 inches tall (16th percentile).

Happy Birthday to you Luke!

Christmas Break

The rest of our Christmas break was fun and relaxing. We went on a few outings, played a lot in the snow, did a few more things off of our Christmas countdown list that we missed before Christmas, and went to cousin Aubriel's baptism. 

We are so lucky to have Thanksgiving Point just 20 minutes away from us, we use our membership pass often!

 Kevin took off early from work one day so we could go to Scheel's (Evelyn is too little to ride the Ferris Wheel and the other kids are too little to ride alone, so it's a two adult outing). 

 We took full advantage of the photo op stops they have there.

 

 Cora and Violet-- my two snow angels

 Seeing the elves at Gardner Village

 We have the best neighbors and my kids love to play with them. They built a snow hill from the porch that was so fun!

 And a cute one of Luke!

We finally took a picture of the kids in their Sunday Christmas outfits. They are adorable!