Clothes are the WORST

Grant is one of those toddlers who likes going without his clothes.  If he could, he would just be in his skin everyday.  When he does have his clothes off he goes a little crazy, running around squealing with delight.  Here he is bouncing around in his skin clothes.  He's so happy.

 

He rolled on the ground and kicked his feet in the air

So free!  So happy!

But usually, I make him put on clothes.  He hates it and is quite upset about it every time I make him put on clothes.  Here he is just after I dressed him.  Be glad there is no audio to go along with this picture.  He was trying to take his pants off in this picture.

 Life is so unfair!

What a sad face!  Poor Grant!  I figure its best for him to learn to wear clothes, even though he hates them so much.  He might want to be a functioning member of society some day.

I like to ride my bike

We had a few warm days recently.  Warm enough to go practice some bike riding.

Anna got a new two wheel bike for Christmas and she did a really good job riding it.

Way to go Anna!

 

Matthew got a balance bike.  I can't always help him ride his regular two wheel bike and I was hoping the balance bike would help him practice balancing on two wheels when I can't practice with him.  The bike was a little small for him, but he still had a lot of fun with it.  On the warm days I was also able to help him ride his two wheeler up and down the block a few times, but I couldn't take any pictures of that.

 See those long legs?  He's getting tall

 Grant got a big wheel, but his legs are just a little too small to really pedal

 

Here's Anna again.  She did a good job pedaling down the street and had slightly more trouble pedaling back up the street.  There is a slight incline.  She practiced and practiced and is getting better.

 Grant on his big bike

Go Grant!

 It was warmer, but not that warm.  Check out our ice there at the bottom of the driveway

Anna wiped out on some ice when she was riding her bike a week or so ago

She got a big scrape on her leg, but she got back on.  Good girl.

So we had a nice few days of bike riding fun.  Then it got REALLY cold again.  No more outside play for a while.  Yesterday it was -1 when we got up.  Too cold for bikes.  But I'm sure there will be more warm days on the horizon.

Snow Painting

Although it hasn't snowed in a while, there is still quite a bit of snow around on the ground.  Especially in shady places.  We decided to have some fun with the remaining snow and "paint" it with water and food coloring and a few squirt bottles.  Everyone was very excited to give this a try.

 

 

 Grant had fun running around out there.

 And trying all the different colors

 Anna liked painting the big pile of snow

 It's just like making a snow cone

It was cold out there and Grant kept looking up at me and saying, "Hot?"  Hot is his word for hot and cold things.  I got him some gloves after that, but he kept dropping the bottles with the gloves on.  He finally asked for "No on" which is his way of telling me he wants the gloves off (not "on").  I speak Grant pretty well.
 

 And a few more pictures

Sno-Cone!

It was fun and I definitely think we'll be doing it again on anther snowy day.

I Have Read the Book of Mormon

Our family read the Book of Mormon together as a family this past year, and it went much better than I thought.  This is the first time I've really included the kids in an ongoing scripture study effort.  We started a little later in the year and read a chapter a day (with a few vacation breaks).  It worked out that we finished on December 29th, just in time for the end of the year, so that was fun.

We would usually listen to the audio version of each chapter and follow along in our own Book of Mormons.  Then at the end of each chapter we would discuss it a little bit.  Sometimes the kids would get jelly beans or M&Ms for answering quiz questions about the chapter we just read (made up on the spot by me) and they liked filling in their Book of Mormon reading logs.  We also did journals sometimes, where they would write something they heard while we were listening and then talk about it after.  We looked at pictures from the Book of Mormon stories book when appropriate and watched the corresponding videos after we read about them.  Scott has been gone a lot this year, but he followed along with us from wherever he was.

I learned a lot by preparing things for them and trying to explain in 4 and 5 year old terms what was happening in each chapter.  It worked out very well and we are continuing this year with the Doctrine and Covenants.  My mom, after observing our scripture study ritual called it "seminary for five year olds," which I liked.

After we finished we talked about having a party to celebrate.  The party never happened 'cause of holiday chaos...maybe we'll still have it later on.  We asked the kids which stories they liked best and Matthew's favorite was the one where Zerahemnah gets scalped (Alma 43-44).  He had some other stories that he liked, but that one seemed to be a favorite.  He even made a puppet of Zerahemnah, complete with removable scalp.  I don't know whether to smile or be horrified.

In any case, I think it has been a good thing.  Removable scalp puppet notwithstanding.

Lego Love

Matthew likes Legos and I have found, only recently, that I also like them.  I wasn't interested in them as a kid, maybe because I thought they were a boy toy, but I like them now.  The part of my brain that likes working math problems, making lists, following procedures, having things be orderly and work out nice and clean at the end also likes Legos.  Matthew got some Lego sets for Christmas and we also got this Harry Potter Legos game.  Step one: build Hogwarts. 

Matthew and Anna worked together on building Hogwarts for several hours.  

Without fighting.  That much.

 Some Minifigures stood watch while they built

Sometimes we put each figure in one compartment (my preferred method) sometimes we put all the heads in one place, all the legs in one place etc.  And sometimes we get crazy and mix and match.

 Dana and Ruth sent us this guy

The part of my brain that likes Legos especially likes this guy

 And look...Hogwarts completed

I think it's awesome they were able to build it correctly with minimal adult help

Another Lego project Matthew did on his own
I think I see a lot of Legos in our future.

Goodbye Grandma

My mom has been staying with us for several months helping with the kids and keeping me from going crazy while Scott has been gone.  We took her to the airport this week so she could head back to her normal life.  It was so nice having her stay with us.  Everyone was a little depressed after she left.  Here we are about to take her to the airport.

Grant took it the hardest.  We had been prepping him for it by telling him "Grandma is going to go away on an airplane back to her house and we won't see her for a while..." etc.  I think he did kind of understand.  But later in the day he went to the door and cried for "gammaw" for about 30 minutes.  He was clearly mad at me and kept pushing my arms away if I tried to hug him.  Poor Grant.

 He was not having any of my attempts to "nuggle" him
(his term for snuggle)

Here he is the next day after talking to "gammaw" on the phone...and about to take a nap.  He was starting to feel better about the whole thing I think.  And I think he might be done being mad at me about Grandma leaving.  I think the chocolate helped too.  I did wipe his face off after this...but had to take a picture first.  :)

This One's For You, Scott

The first Christmas Scott and I were married we lived in Florida and got a tree at a local lot the day after Thanksgiving.  We went out of town for about ten days around Christmas time and when we got back that tree was very dry.  When we tried to take the tree out of the house and pushed it through the doorway, needles got shaved off the tree (by the door jam) in huge waves.  Needles fell everywhere, covering the carpet and the ground outside the door and leaving an incriminating carpet trail of dry needles to the trees final resting place by the trash.  Not many needles were left on the tree.  It was like in the cartoons when the cat eats a fish and pulls out all the bones, intact from his mouth.  It was a huge mess but we laughed and laughed about it.   Even now I can't think about that tree without laughing.

This year our tree fared a lot better and I had to show Scott just how well it did.  I feel like this should earn me tree points.

We vacuumed the day we got the tree but didn't vacuum at all after that, and these were the only pine needles that fell off.  Amazing! 

 Here is the front step after squeezing the tree through it.  Not many pine needles.

No carpet of pine needles here.  Do I get tree points yet?

 

And here is our tree's temporary resting place on the side of the house.

On Saturday the boy scouts are going to come take it for us.

I felt kind of sad bringing the tree out to lay in the snow after I saw how robust it still was.

I think he wanted to say, "I'm still alive!"

Oh well,  rest in peace tree.

And as an added bonus, here is a picture of our Florida Christmas tree

This was when the needles were all still on the branches...and not on my carpet.  :)

It's the End of the Year As We Know It

and I feel fine

Here are a few pictures from our last bit of 2012...and a little from the beginning of 2013

We had a small New Year's Eve party.  I should have made our 2012/3 sign pop a little more.  ;)

 Everyone liked the noise makers...except the neighborhood dogs.  I don't feel I owe the neighborhood dogs anything since they like to break into our yard and go to the bathroom...just sayin'

 

We went to my 2nd cousin's (ok not sure...my mom's cousins son's) baptism just before Christmas.  They live in Denver so we stopped at the Denver temple.  The kids liked this nativity scene outside the temple.

My dad visited us and did a lot of odd jobs for us.  He is so industrious.  Thanks dad.  While he was examining some of the baseboards/moulding by the stairs someone came and sat on him.  I'm not sure she made it any easier to get things done, but Grandpa was a good sport.

We had several days of light snow on and off and colder temps.  Winter is really here now.

John got a chance to talk to Scott on the phone.  He was mystified.

And here's John doing some tummy time

He sort of likes it.

I cleaned out some of my kitchen cabinets one day and found some old food coloring markers.  Anna used them to decorate some of our leftover gingerbread men.

Sadly, when I clean out the kitchen cupboards, things have to get worse before they get better.  It's a work in progress.

Grant has been laying down by some of John's baby toys and saying things like, "I baby!"  He seems to be doing it in good humor though.  And John doesn't mind.

Is it just me or are these two getting close to the same size?

Buddies

And we got a very large gift basket from Scott's co-workers.  It was full of gifts and surprises for the kids and me.  Normally they would have sent Scott a gift basket, but Scott told them to send something to us instead.  He is like that.  :)  The kids were beyond excited about the gifts.

2012...One Day at a Time

This was originally posted on my personal blog, along with all the picture a day pictures.  Here is our picture-a-day video for 2012.  This video is dedicated to Scott and his many many travels over the past two years (he's been everywhere)...and to those of us who stayed behind.

While reviewing this video - a moment from each day of our lives for the past year - I was reminded that these pictures probably aren't very meaningful to most people, if for no other reason than other people won't know what each little picture represents, or what was happening that day, or what that moment or that day meant in our lives.  So this year I added a few subtitles to some of the days, to guide you through our year.  Of course, I didn't subtitle every meaningful picture, just some of them.