The End of the Year!!

After Christmas it was cold and snowy so we stayed in a lot.  One day we went bowling.  

The kids enjoyed that a lot.

We used rails and the rolly thing (crutch?)

We may go back again - it was a lot of fun.

And we got frozen custard after

The kids want to do "screen time" a lot on the new kindle.

Emma spent a lot of time taking care of her babies.

She wanted Scott or I to watch them for her a lot.

Babies are a lot of work.  Especially twins.

On New Year's Eve we made a lot of food and goodies and had a little family party.  We played some Minute to Win It games.  Here's Grant knocking over ten pins with an orange in a stocking over his head.  He got the fastest time on this one.

Moving the M&Ms with a straw

And stacking the cups

Everyone likes that one

Popping balloons

And around 9pm we did a countdown...

Happy New Year!!

We went outside and popped some poppers before the kids went to bed.

It was super cold - supposed to get down to 1 degree tonight.  Brrrr!!!

So we rushed back inside

 Emma slept through all the festivities...with her dolly.  Happy New Year everyone.

Merry Christmas!

We had a great Christmas here.  Scott got to come into town for about two weeks!!  Hooray!!  We got lots of snow so one day we made a little sled run in the yard.  The kids had a great time with it.

The week before Christmas Anna lost her first two teeth.  She lost the second on Christmas Eve so she got to have a tooth fairy and Santa visit on the same night.  Exciting!  She has been so eager to lose some teeth.

On Christmas Eve we had a little nativity program and opened our special Christmas pants from Grandma Guptill.  Here we are just before heading to bed.

Emma in her Christmas jammies

Christmas morning we awoke to a new blanket of deep-ish snow (maybe 5-6 new inches of snow).  Anna wanted a white Christmas and the weather delivered.

Christmas morning we ate breakfast and then opened presents.

The kids were excited, as you can imagine.

Anna made a calendar at school as a present for Scott and I.  It was very cute.

Grant gave us this ornament he made at school.

He said he got glitter in his eyes right before the picture.  Poor Grant.  But the picture made us smile.

Emma got a couple dollies for Christmas and she is pretty attached to them.  She usually wants one of them when she goes to bed and keeps tabs on them all day long.  It was a great Christmas!! Happy holidays everyone!

Ready for Christmas

Christmas time is here.  Shout HOORAY!!  Here are a few pictures from some of our pre-Christmas activities.  Seeing Santa (at Walmart).  Free and no line.  He just happened to be there when we did a little shopping on Saturday.

John was too afraid to be in the picture.

And then there's gingerbread.  I'm not sure I was as successful this year as in years past.  It took me two days to make the gingerbread house pieces for four houses.  Here are some of the pieces.

Making more.

 Phew.  So much work!

And I don't know why I often end up doing the houses when there are no other adults around to help.  My parents were doing other things the night we put these together.  I had to make multiple batches of frosting 'cause I kept running out and the piping bag I was using sprung a leak.  It was making a huge mess and then John leaned on his house and it collapsed/imploded.  I ended up glueing his back together with a glue gun (don't eat that one).  And I put the sides of the houses on upside down so the windows are too high.  It's not that big a deal I guess - but our houses looked a little less classy than other years.  I think the kids still had fun decorating.

And while Scott was in town for the weekend we got our Christmas tree.  Instead of cutting our own we went to Home Depot and got a Noble Fir (from Estacada, Oregon).  (I think that's what it was - is that right, Scott?)  Here are the kids just before picking a tree.

 In the forest of pre-cut trees.  The kids had way to much fun running around and squealing in there.  Yikes!

 Emma was also there, being moderately well behaved.

 Anna and Matthew by our chosen tree!

Anna really wanted to get a tree her own size.

We didn't get this one.

Grant and John had to get a lot of their wiggles out running back and forth at Home Depot.

We made pretzel treats and Emma had her first Hershey's Kiss.

She liked it.

Emma helped decorate by holding this wise man.

Scott got the tree all situated and lit and the kids helped ornament it.  A few ornaments were broken this year (sorry mom and dad) but mostly it was a successful tree trimming.

 And the tree looked great!

Now we just need to keep Emma away from it.

The Santa Run

Matthew, Anna and I participated in a Santa 5K this year.  Each participant gets a Santa suit (plus beard) to run in so its like a bunch of Santas running along.  I thought it sounded fun.  Here is John wearing Matthew's outfit.  John really wanted to participate so he ended up coming along with us and Grandpa stayed with him during the race.

Anna made Grant a small beard with a single cotton ball.  It looks like he needs to grow this beard out a little.

Matthew ready to go on race day.  The smallest suit size was adult small, so my mom hemmed his pants for him.

Anna's registration was free with an adult so she didn't get a full suit.

She looked good though.  We got her a Santa shirt.

The run was at the Riverwoods in Provo up and down the Provo river trail.

Here we are at the starting line ready to go.

Matthew has Santa experience so he knew just what to do.

And here we are ready for the race to begin.

I don't know if I would want to run this event again - there were some logistical issues and I didn't love running in the Santa suit.  I would have preferred a red long sleeve T-shirt.  A lot of people ripped their suits off along the way (or were just wearing tattered shreds by the end).  The hats that came with the suit were really thin and cheap too.  These hats that we're wearing here are the cheapy ones from Walmart which were much better quality.  Anyway, we had fun still.  There was milk and cookies (and water) at a few rest stops along the course and the kids liked that.  Anna blazed through the first mile and a half - leaving Matthew and I in the dust - and then she pooped out and whined/wanted to be carried the last half of the course.  Once she wasn't running anymore she got colder and colder (it was probably in the 50s and dropping as the sun went down).  The race was at 4pm.  So the last mile or so seemed really long!  I walked with the kids (and sometimes carried Anna) but felt eager to run.  At the last half mile of the run there was a cut off you could just head to the finish line without doing the last half mile.  Anna didn't want to run anymore, so she stood at the cut off with some race officials while Matthew and I ran the last half mile quickly.  Then we all walked/ran the last little bit.  I think I got my slowest 5K time ever - 52 minutes - and I'm not sure I want to do another one with kids for a while.  But I'm glad we tried it.

Here are the kids at the finish line.  Anna was pretty upset but managed a smile for the camera.  She told me she never wanted to run again, which of course is not at all the response I was hoping for.  Maybe she'll feel better running in warmer temperatures or a shorter distance. 3 miles is a lot for a 7 year old.  She (and Matthew) actually did very well considering.  So maybe I'll just run by myself for a while.

Emma is Walking

We have a new walker on our hands.  Emma started walking last week in earnest.  Before last week she had taken a step or two here and there, but not much more than that.  Here she is walking while in the foyer at church.  This first video below shows one of her first long walks across the room.

And here's Emma today.  Walking more steadily and quicker than before.  Emma is a lot happier now that she can walk.  She's on her way!