Friday night sleepovers

We have a really small tent and Lucy and Ethan enjoy setting it up in Lucy's room and sleeping in it on Friday nights. It's really cute! They think it's really cool to turn off all the lights and read books with their flashlights until we come in and tell them lights out. They have so much fun together.

Good Bye to Andy's Family table!

We've been very busy doing lots of projects, cleaning out, and de-cluttering. Andy was sad to say goodbye to the table that has been in his family for as long as he can remember. We used it when we were first married. We had to take a picture before getting rid of it. Here's to Andy's table!!

When Andy was a kid he stuck a marble in the table and look - it's still there!

The kids LOVED helping Andy paint our storage room.

Oh what do you do in the winter time when all the world is white?!?!?

Each year I look forward to the winter, the first snow, sledding....but then I hit that point where I can't stand anymore snow. I have already hit that point and unfortunately we still have a LOT more snow in the near future!!! Hard to believe that last year at this time we were out swimming each day in Brazil!!! Where is the sun? So, here is a glimpse of what we do to entertain ourselves in these long Michigan winters!!

Andy has always been a fan of icicles. Once in provo he insisted on keeping a giant icicle in our freezer! Hmmmm. No room this year but nice try!!
Ethan is soooo desperate to play outside he insisted on riding his bike on our icy driveway. He put his snow pants and everything on just to go out and "ride" his bike. He was a bit frustrated because the wheels weren't working right. They just kept spinning!! I wonder why?!?!?

Everyday I smile as i watch Lucy get on the bus. She is so weighed down with her snow pants, boots, gloves, hat, and her giant backpack. She seems so little climbing onto this giant bus!
We do a lot of this during the winter. Amazing how many different cities you can build out of the same blocks and roads. It's different everytime!
The wheat bucket seems to come out a lot in the winter. It's a pretty good mess but keeps EVERYONE occupied for long periods of time. Even Lucas loves it and amazingly doesn't put it in his mouth!!

Our little reader!

Lucy has been going to young 5's this year. It's a pre-K class our school district offers. It has been the best thing for Lucy. She has started reading a lot lately. One day we went to the library. We hadn't had time to read the books yet and she called me over and started reading a book she had never seen before. It was very exciting. Now she checks out books and she reads them to us. She is really good at sounding out words and even attempts to spell her own words. I guess it's really exciting because she is our first child so it's a new experience for us. We have a child who can read!!! Go Lucy!!

I chopped my hair!

Well, I finally got sick of long hair - well long for me - and I chopped my hair. I love it and it only takes a few minutes to do.

Farewell to our prophet

It was last Sunday that I found out President Gordon B. Hinckley passed away. It was a bittersweet time. He was loved by so many. He has lived a GREAT life and influenced so many people. He dedicated his life to the Lord and had endless energy. Although it's sad, it is also so sweet knowing he has been reunited with his wife and continues to serve the Lord even still! I enjoyed his funeral and all of the special clips they had about him following the funeral. He did so much good in his lifetime and touched many lives. I knew he had done a lot in his life but learned a lot about him yesterday during and after his funeral service. It makes me want to be a better person. It was pretty interesting to see how little media coverage he got outside of Utah. It's just so interesting - here is a prophet of God who passed away - a PROPHET of GOD - and yet there was no coverage. They are still talking about Heath Ledger (an actor who died several weeks ago) but hardly any mention of the death of a prophet of God. It is sad to me but not too surprising. What a blessing to have prophets on earth today. I will always be grateful for these great men who serve us. I will always be grateful for the impact President Hinckley had in my life. He will be missed!

It's bee a LONG time!!

I am back!!! It's been a long time since I've blogged. Life has been busy lately but I am back again. I caught up all the way back to where I left off - not that anyone really cares but it is for my own records that I decided to go all the way back to October. Enjoy the pictures!!

I voted!

We live in a great country! I really enjoyed going to vote yesterday. It reminded me how blessed we are to be able to go and vote. I was highly entertained by one woman who was EXTREMELY quick to anger and tore up her ballot because someone got in line in front of her and she began to rant and rave on how disorganized the polling place was (which it wasn't)! Oh my!

Lucas

So, what is our sweet Lucas up to these days? Here is a peek at his life. All of these things happen on a daily basis! He seems to live for the moment the bathroom door is left open, the moment the dishwasher is open, the rare time that all of the plates and cups are actually in the cupboards where they belong (he then does his baby duty of pulling them all out and throwing them all over the floor!), and he welcomes any opportunity to throw toys in the toilet!! You've got to love one year olds!!!
You can imagine where this toilet paper will be in about 30 seconds!!

Notice the giant mess of toys surrounding him. He dumps and moves on!
Where there is a box you will find Lucas sitting in it. Who needs toys when you have a box to climb in and out of!

What happened to table manners??!?! I mop the floor on a daily basis!! Lucas insists in feeding himself. He manages to get half of the food in his mouth and the rest on his clothes, floor, or bib. Oh, and he still refuses to swallow real food. He puts it in his mouth and enjoys chewing it but spits it out. He just won't swallow it unless it's baby food - nice and easy going down! Ughhhh! He goes through about 3 outfits a day!!! The good news is that this stage will pass.

More attempts to feed himself!!

Notice the marks on his forehead. He fell down teh stairs at my parents house. Poor baby!! His mouth was bleeding for many hours. He had cuts all over his head and Andy ended up in the ER with him. However, he was fine!
He loves to destroy whatever he can get his hands on!!! Any order I did have is gone for now!

What a mess!!

Lucas did turn one. We had fun celebrating his birthday and he enjoyed the frosting on his cake. I did have a major memory block and celebrated his birthday 4 days early!!! Yeah, I have problems!! It took Andy and my mom to convince me that his birthday was the 7th not the 4th!!! oops!!!

Happy New Year!!

We had a fun New Year's Eve party. We had two parties - one before the little kids went to bed and then Mark and Janae's family showed up to play games. The little kids had tons of fun with their party hats, noise makers, and dancing!!

Grandpa even sang Peggy Sue for everyone!

Mark and Janae and family!! It was soooo good to see them again.

Yeah!!! Happy New Year!!

Lucy, Lydia, and Emma

Even the twins enjoyed the party!

That's my crazy sister!!

Ethan is bringing in the New Year in style!

I love family

Here I am with my cute twin sisters. I love these girls!!!

All of the sisters and sister-in-laws with Crazy T!!! (mom)

Go Jazz!!!!

My dad had 2 tickets for the Jazz/Celtics game and Andy and I were the lucky winners of the drawing. Not only did we get a night out with free babysitting but we were about 15 rows back from the court. It was sooooo much fun!

Sledding

My parents live on a mountain so we had a great sledding hill right outside the house. The guys really got into it and built up walls and a tunnel along the sledding hill and built a giant igloo at the bottom of the hill.

Yes, Adam was really sledding in shorts!!

Ethan, Lucy, Amy, and Andy

This is the spectator box! There always seemed to be a crowd standing in my parents bathtub looking out the window.

Home for the Holidays

We had a great time with my family over the holidays. After Christmas everyone but Keri's family was at my parent's house. This is the group that was around Christmas Eve and Christmas day. We had a great trip and for the record Andy and I even got to go skiing over the holiday with some of my siblings and dad. We have never been skiing together so it was fun to finally hit the slopes. (Thanks to mom who watched the kids) And, while skiing I got frost bite on my nose!!! It was -5 degrees in the afternoon!!! COLD!!!

Adam dressed for the occasion in his Christmas sweater and turtleneck!! Yeah nice Adam - dressing like this you will have NO problem finding a wife!! Ha! Ha!

There were a lot of stockings to be filled this Christmas!!Here are the cute grandkids in their new PJ's grandma and grandpa gave to all the kids.

Lucy and Ethan were so happy to be Mary and Joseph. Ryan the donkey was the biggest hit and had to give rides to everyone after. What a good sport.

Ethan, Lucy, and Lydia on Christmas morning.

Grandma and grandpa