December

Here is a brief recap of the month that seems to be very busy and goes by very fast....

Temple Lights





Acting out the nativity story with cousins





Christmas-

My dad made this AWESOME kitchen piece for the girls!!!


Christmas morning before the kids went downstairs to see what Santa brought


Lilly LOVES Elmo right now

Afton with Ernie

Afton and Lilly learning about opening presents. Afton loved it and wanted to open anyone's gifts. Lilly, well she didn't really care.



Proof that our plan may be working :)

The new haircut
If you scroll down a little bit more you can see a before shot. They had to basically shave him down and we will start all over because he was so matted and his hair was just in awful shape.

7 day trial

We have a daughter (Lizzie) who is to put it lightly, petrified of dogs. Jim and I have talked about this for quite awhile about what we should do to try and help her. We knew getting a dog might be the best option to help her calm at least some of her fears. Yesterday on quite an impulsive decision we loaded up the kids and headed to the Humane society. We have this dog to keep until Christmas Eve and then decide if it would be a good fit for our family or not.

Lizzie has been as brave as she can. She absolutely freaked out at the Humane Society (kicking, screaming, etc.) Finally agreed that we could take it home for JUST ONE DAY (Lizzie's words). She has spent a majority of time since we brought him home on Ethan's top bunk. I would call that progress though :)

The dog is very cute and is so mellow. He is a two year old cocker spaniel mix (which means no puppy stage and it is already house trained). It is in a desperate need of a haircut but we will see how things go here on the homefront first.

As a extra bonus we have also found out Afton and Lilly (especially Lilly) also seem to not like dogs in close proximity to them.

marshmallows

This is how I found Afton one day recently when I ran upstairs to grab something. I guess she thinks (or would like to think) marshmallows are one of the four food groups. At least she has dinner ready though :)

thoughts

It seems like December is my month to think and ponder things more than usual. Here are some things rotating through my mind. Sorry, no pictures on this post.

- Oh, how I have missed my running and my music. Although it is terribly time consuming it has been so nice to be running again. I have forgotten though how hungry I always am when I am in running mode. I am ALWAYS hungry right now and have been having second dinners around 10 at night lately :)The sad thing is I am not even running long distances yet and am always hungry.

- Two years ago this month (right before Christmas), I was put on bedrest for 15 weeks!! I am forever grateful to all that helped out by coming to our house, taking care of Ethan and Lizzie, dinners, thoughts, prayers, phone calls and so many little things. I have these two precious souls to hold and love. Thank you.

- Christmas- Oh, my gosh... is it already the 7th? We have the kids done ( their yearly dose of pajamas and a Caldecott book) and Santa has told us he has wrapped three gifts for each of the children. Whew!!! Jim and some family and neighbors still need to be crossed off the list though.

- And finally, CAN I JUST SAY I HATE THE COLD!!! I have decided that one of my life goals will to be one of those older people that spend their summers in Logan and winters in Arizona. Yes, that sounds nice.

Okay time to go eat some food and watch Seinfeld or Scrubs.

Our new addition...

We got this a few weeks ago but it is still new and exciting for us. I had put Ethan on a waiting list for piano lessons being told he probably wouldn't get to the top until spring or fall of 2010. Well he got to the top in November of this year! We needed a piano and so here we go.
Like our house wasn't noisy enough before.... let's add a piano into the mix :)
I also am going to be taking piano lessons and should be at the top of the list around Jan. Until then I sneak a peek at Ethan's lesson book when I can. It has been so fun to have piano music in the house. Chances are with four kids at least one of them will really like music so we are excited and curious to watch how each child does with it.

E squared

This picture just reminds me of our e squared duo (Ethan and Elizabeth).
Every once in awhile they will have a "sleepover" which means Ethan lets Lizzie up on the top bunk. They read books together and Jim and I can hear them talking and laughing much later than bedtime.
For the most part, Ethan is so patient with Lizzie and Lizzie in return is usually willing to play Star Wars or Pokemon or Indy with Ethan.

Since the day we found out we were pregnant with Lizzie, Ethan has been very protective of his little sister and takes such good care of her. They certainly still have their sibling moments but for the most part it is so fun to watch them interact with each other.

Carving Pumpkins

I am just going crazy today with updating the blog :)
Here are some pictures when we carved pumpkins together as a family.

Halloween

This year for Halloween we would like to introduce Dorothy (played by Lizzie), The cowardly lion (played by the girl who doesn't like to try new things aka Lilly), the scarecrow (played by the girl who does a lot of things without thinking them through aka Afton) and of course Indiana Jones in Army disguise (played by Ethan)

Time Capsule

The other night we made a family time capsule to be opened in five years. We did foot and hand prints, pictures, certain lists of likes/ dislikes and what we want to be doing in 5 years and of course an impromptu family picture.

Two weeks

Well today Jim put in his two weeks notice at his job. Seems kinda weird that at a time when most people are worried about getting laid off here is Jim putting in his two weeks. All for the cause of doing what you love.....

This has been a year or so in the making. As I sat down today and worked on what our new budget will be with us paying an absolutely ridiculous cost for our health insurance .... I got a little nervous.

BUT

I know everything will work out how it is supposed to and that in a few months things will be fine. Between now and then though we will live by an opening line from a Harry Potter movie, "Fasten your seat belt. It is going to be a bumpy ride:)" In a Jamacain accent of course by a shrunken head.

I am very proud of you Jim.

Pumpkins

Well it is October so I better put some pumpkin pictures up. Me and the kids and my parents went over to Engh Gardens. My nice parents let the kids pick out their own pumpkin (within reason of course.) Ethan wanted the biggest one he could find but had to settle for one $10 or less :) Lizzie really didn't care about picking out her pumpkin and just wanted to play. Afton and Lilly were happy to hold their little pumpkins and I think they were just excited to go on an adventure that was not taking the kids to and from school, hanging out in the back or front yard or going to the grocery store.
Thank you Mom and Dad!!!!




I like how Ethan is pointing to his huge pumpkin


At home with everyone's pumpkin treasures

coming attraction....

In a few weeks or so......



Jim took this picture a few weeks ago when the weather was teasing us with a little winter. Ironic that it is 70 degrees outside today.

life as a seven year old

A boy, a book, and a flashlight!

18 months

Afton and Lilly are 18 months old!!!!!! That has gone by way too fast! I absolutely love this age!!! Two 18 month olds is a lot of work but I love how they learn something new everday and are so cute!!!
They are now ready to officially be in nursery in church. They went in last week for a trial run and did amazing!!!! They have their 18 month dr. appt. on Monday. Lilly is STILL NOT walking and I am thinking our pediatirician will probably say she needs to see a physical therapist :)

Anyways, when each of our kids turn 18 months old we take some special pictures to celebrate them being in nursery and primary. Enjoy!!!

Afton




Lilly


Just to go down memory lane- here are Ethan and Lizzie's 18 month photos....
Our scanner is broken so I had to take pictures of a picture (pre-digital photo days!)

Ethan


Lizzie

Grey's River

Here are some pictures of our trip to Star Valley/ Grey's River. Jim came home about a week ago and said let's go next weekend for a long weekend..... so we went. We took way too many pictures but here are a few highlights


A familiar site if you grew up in Jim's family



Lizzie enjoying the river



I still can't believe I have these three beautiful girls.



I like to call this one - THE APPRENCTICE


The Fisherman





Ethan with his first fish he caught all by himself! I would like to add that he caught two right in a row!





Afton Wyoming meeting Afton Harrison



Yes, we did see this bear about 20 to 30 feet away from us. We were glad we were on the other side of the river.

2 down 2 to go

As of today I now have two kids in school!!!! The night before they each started school we had a BACK TO SCHOOL FEAST for dinner. I think they liked it.

Ethan is gone every day from 8:15 to 2:55 as he learns the ropes of 2nd grade. He started a week ago. Oh, how I miss that boy. He loves math but does not like to work on his handwriting.




Lizzie just started kindergarten today and will go from 12:15 to 2:55. She is excited to do art in a new place and has been practicing wearing her backpack. Although she tests my patience every day I know I am gong to miss that cute girl so much and her quirky answers and sayings for everything.





This is how school shopping for shoes went with Ethan and Liz.

Mom- "Ethan do you like these?"
Ethan- "Yeah, sure."

This is how it went for everything. I could have shown him shiny purple shoes and he probably would have said sure.

Now for Lizzie,

Mom- "Lizzie do you like these shoes?"
Lizzie- "No"
Mom- "What about these?" repeated about six times with six different options.
Lizzie- "No" repeated about six times.
Mom- starting to lose patience "Why don't you just show me which ones you like?"
Lizzie- of course finds something for more money than what mom has been showing her.
Mom- "Fine, let's just get them and go."

What a smart girl I have.... :)


This is what will be waiting for them when they get home from school today. I rarely make chocolate chip cookies (Jim does this) so it really is a treat!