Way Behind

There is a huge dirt pile on the empty lot next to us and it is the kids favorite place to play. It is fun, but they track so much dirt into the house. It always falls out of their pockets and makes such a mess! I feel like there is always dirt hiding somewhere in our laundry room, at least it isn't mud!

Why do I find it so hard to post regularly? I promise I will do better! Just a few updates... Adam is the new Elder's Quorum President in our ward! We hadn't even been here a month and a half and we both had callings and spoke in Sacrament. Boy is our ward on top of things. I am the Cub Scout Committee Chair. Scouts is a lot of fun. Ammon can't wait until he is a Cub Scout! Our ward is super-friendly and we are enjoying it so far. Ammon is on year-round school and is off for February! Hooray! I love having him home. He loves it too! Lily is getting so excited for her birthday next week, it will be lots of fun! Anna is trying to talk. She only says a few words, signs a few but babbles a ton. She will have a mouthful to say soon! We are all happy and healthy and doing well. I can't wait for Summer! I have felt so cold, even though it has been really warm here, and I can't wait to have nice warm sunny days! At least it is sunny here most of the time. I love the sun!

The Incredible Edible Anything!

Anna eats just about anything, unless it is food and then she gets a little picky. She continues to try the bath soap even though she knows it is gross every time she tries it. Anything left around that she can get her hands on is fair game. Her favorite though, markers! She is always eating the markers and you can tell by her extremely colorful mouth. It seems like the kids always forget to pick one up and she finds it and we have a mess. Currently her face is stained red around her mouth because last night she got a hold of a red non-washable marker. I don't have a picture of it, but the ones I have should suffice to let you know how much she enjoys them! Why not food? At least they are non-toxic!

No more training wheels!

Sorry the picture is sideways. It isn't in my computer so I don't know what is wrong.

So one of Lily's goals for the year was to learn to ride without training wheels. About two weeks ago Adam took them off and helped her a few times and Ta Da! She caught on so fast! She is a cutie and is having fun. She still needs help getting started unless she is on a slight down hill. She is a trooper and thankfully has had only one crash! Way to go Lily!

good bye teeth!

Ammon lost his second front tooth on Monday. It has been hanging there for a few days but he would not let us pull it out. He wanted to let it come out all on it's own. It fell out when Adam was helping Ammon brush his teeth. Sweet boy! He looks so cute! For the record, he lost his other front tooth a few months ago when he and Lily were playing around and her foot connected with his face. Oops! Lucky catch for Ammon, his tooth fell right into his hand.

Christmas

Dead Luminaries!

Kid's in their new pj's!

Ammon working on his puzzle from Lily.

Anna getting her doll from Lily.

Lily made daddy bookmarks.

Ammon made dad a can to put on his desk at work to hold his pens and pencils.

So much snow!

This is what we drove through! Yikes!

We had a great Christmas! It is so fun to watch the kids get so excited. Thankfully they didn't wake up early because we were up late putting Lily's present together. They were excited about the little things in their stockings as well as their presents from Santa. I loved the gifts they gave each other. Ammon made Lily a bracelet and necklace and gave Anna two of his toys, a train and a truck. Lily made Ammon a puzzle and gave Anna one of her dolls. It was awesome to see the kids think of what they wanted to give each other. Kids are great! Lily painted a picture of her and Ammon playing in the snow on a thin piece of wood and Adam helped her cut it into pieces. It turned out great! Anna had a blast opening presents and wanted more after we were finished. She thought it was so fun tearing the paper. Babies are so fun with wrapping paper! Santa gave Ammon a BB Gun with the soft air pellets, Lily got a kitchen and Anna got a bike/rocker. Santa also visited me, surprise! He wasn't supposed to come for me and Adam. I got spoiled! I got some awesome new running clothes, sheets, a towel and a HUGE jar of chocolate covered raisins! Santa is always so nice to me. Adam always gets me to agree that we will only get things for the kids and not each other and then he never sticks to it. I get spoiled and he gets slim pickings, this year, a box of orange sticks and a can of mandarin oranges. Next year...!

The kids also got gifts from all their grandparents, can we say spoiled?! They are so lucky to have such awesome grandparents! They help make Christmas so much fun! Lily got some pet shop animals and I think it may have been her favorite gift! Grandma Christy also provided them with their new pj's, which they all love! Who doesn't love opening a new pair of pj's on Christmas Eve? Lily got a night gown with Ariel on it and she absolutely loves it! Ammon wanted to wear one of daddy's shirts to bed with his new fleece bottoms. He looked so cute! Do you remember wearing your parents clothes and feeling so special? I used to love to do that!

Well after presents we had waffles with pear syrup, orange juice and Ammon's favorite, sausage for breakfast. It was yummy.

We also had our Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve and that was tasty as well. After we went out in to the cold to set up our luminaries. The kids were so helpful, even Anna, and they all had fun. The disappointing thing is they didn't stay lit. Don't buy tea light candles form Wal-Mart! They didn't work. All that work setting them and freezing and they didn't even glow! So sad! At least we did have fun doing it though!

We got everything ready and hit the road to head to Grandma Margie's for the rest of the weekend. We stopped in the mountains to play in the snow. It took us a while to find a nice spot, but when we did it was great. I love being in the mountains with tons of snow and especially while it snowing! It was beautiful and the kids had a great time. They were like puppies in the snow. They were jumping and rolling all over the blast and thought it was so cool, and so did I! I will admit that driving over the Sierra's in the snow is really scary to me, but it sure is beautiful! Thank goodness for a truck with 4-wheel drive! The drive was slow and thankfully uneventful.

We met up with the Peterson's at Margie's for Christmas dinner and visited with them that night. They left early the next day to go to Salt Lake and we are enjoying the beautiful Sacramento weather here! It is so pretty here in the winter! Everything is green and gorgeous. I do love the snow though! I am glad we have some in Reno. I wish we would get more, but what we have is great. We love the weather.

All in all it was a great Christmas! I feel so blessed to have everything that I do. The Lord has provided so much for me. i am so thankful for my kids and for Adam. What is more special than family? I couldn't ask for anything more. I hope you all had a Merry Christmas as well!

Santa Clause

We saw Santa a week and a half ago but I am a little behind. You can tell it wasn't this weekend because Lily's hair is still long. Anna was not happy and didn't want to get near Santa. It's what we expected. As I thought about it, Lily was scared too, but I don't think Ammon was ever afraid of him. I don't think I have any pictures of him crying on Santa's lap. Cute boy! Lily was very shy and it took her awhile to work up the courage to sit on his lap. Ammon is counting his fingers in the last picture. Santa asked him how old he was and he counted his fingers to tell him he was six! How cute is that! He also was very excited to show Santa his cast, which isn't on anymore, yeah! This Santa was awesome. He was so sweet and gentle. He was arranged by our hoa. We submitted a form that told Santa what the kids wanted and anything about them we wanted to know. Santa had a little elf next to him with a book so he could read what we said about our kids as he visited with them. Santa read that Ammon didn't believe in Santa and asked him why. Ammon was shocked and embarrassed that he knew. Ammon believes now! This Santa had a real beard and made a point to let Ammon know it was real. He let Ammon pull on it to see for himself. It was fun to go see him and I think helped the kids a little too. Ammon had been telling Lily, and Mitchell too(sorry Emily!) there was no such thing as Santa any time she mentioned him and I was starting to get mad at him. I told him Santa doesn't visit children who don't believe in him. Between that and finally seeing him, I haven't heard him say a word about Santa not being real!

All That Hair!

Lily has been asking me off and on for the past several months to cut her hair. I've usually been able to talk her out of it by saying,"We won't be able to do twists, or braids, or buns..." She has agreed that she wanted to keep her hair long to do it in fun ways. Well, Tuesday she mentioned it again and we looked up some info on Locks of Love. She didn't want to give her hair away though. Yesterday she wanted it cut right then, just like Mikaela's, no more waiting! So we took some pictures and chopped it! I think she looks so cute with it short. It fits her face well. When we got Ammon from school he said, "Wow, Lily I really like your hair. Mom I like Lily's hair better short how about you?" I love it long or short, but I do think she looks darling with it how it is. The scissors I used were awful and dull and I cut it crooked. It took me a long time to fix it. Well, I don't know that I really fixed it, but it will do. Sabrina I wish you were closer! With three kids in the bathroom and hair everywhere, things were an absolute mess by the time I was finished. Anna had cleared out several things from under the cabinets and they were all over the floor along with the hair. Ammon was bouncing all over my room on the air mattress, and Lily would not hold still. It was a long crazy afternoon, but with great results. Lily loves her new hair and so do we.

Ammon and Lily were putting makeup on Lily while I was cutting her hair. Ammon put the lipstick on Lily and she did the blush. They were having so much fun! You can see what a mess they made in my bathroom. Lily was so itchy from the hair on her neck and back. She didn't want to wear the cape because it made her too hot. So, her face in the pictures of her on the floor are not mad that her hair is short, just crazy itchy and wanting to get in the shower! The one below is of Lily this morning, so cute! She is a brave little girl. I never would have chopped my hair when I was that young, but I am thinking of it now...