Presidents Day Weekend

We made a quick trip to see the grandparents this weekend. Both of my sisters came too. We had a big dinner where one of my brothers was able to come as well. Overall, it was a good trip. Short, but well worth it. We love grandma's and pa's home that is for sure. 

Buddy loves to jump in these even though he is almost too big for them. He sat in here for almost 30 min. playing. We had to take pictures when he started putting his hands down by his legs so it looked like four legs. It was pretty funny.

Ker (AKA Buddy, this is what he gets called at the babysitters house) loves cars and trains. He absolutely loved grandma pushing a car behind him on the floor. My poor mom wasn't able to do it again because of her knees but Ker loved it!

 MJ likes to play with the photo booth app on the i-pad. I had to post one of them.

Today has been a day of laundry, and relaxation. The girls had a friend over to play and yes I'm still in my Pj's. RB left at five to help a friend move. In this short hour and a half of time we have almost had the house fall apart. One little girl with a fever, and a bumped head; and one little boy with marker all over his hands and the carpet, and almost burned fingers. We are good now though, with dinner cooking and me checking on it every 5 min. I shouldn't burn it! Happy President's Day everyone! Hope it was a great weekend!

Ms M 6 Months/Penguin Fun

 It is hard to believe that Ms M is already 6 months old. She is doing so good. She weighs 16.12 lbs (45%), height is 24.5 in (8%), and head is 16.1 in (9%). She is only 4 lbs less than Buddy Boy and is chunky. I love her fat rolls. She loves to smile, and loves contact. She loves it when I rub my cheek on her cheek. Her sisters can get her to laugh out loud and she loves watching everyone sitting up on her own. She is rolling everywhere and will get up on her hands and knees to rock back and forth before face planting again. She will be crawling soon and then Buddy will be ticked when we put up the gate and he can't go where he wants too. 

It has snowed a ton this year and we have been loving it. MJ more than Lil though. Our sledding hill is back and bigger than ever. The only problem is our wonderful storm drains. The ice keeps pulling them out of the roof. We will have to find a solution to this during the summer for sure. 

 Front yard drain.

Back yard drain. 

 Playing in the snow with friends and family always makes for good memories.

Enjoy!

Raspberries, Snow, Groundhogs Day

Jan has been long and cold. But we are staying happy and enjoying life. Here are two videos of Ms M. She is learning how to do raspberries and is pretty close to crawling even though the video doesn't show it very well.

This last week we got pounded with snow. I did snag some pictures and am finally posting them. We haven't gotten snow like this for a couple of years. MJ is loving it and plays outside as much as we let her. I'm very grateful my parents gave us their old snow blower. It has been very helpful and used!

I need to take a picture of our snow sled hill now. It's even bigger since I last took these pictures. 

This week was crazy. Lots of shoveling, and late nights with Parent Teacher Conferences has made us very tired. However, it has been a great weekend. On Friday RB and I went on a double date with my parents. We went to dinner at a Japanese Sushi place and tried lots of new, and some weird, food. Then we went hot tubing at the Hot Springs. That was sooo relaxing. MJ was so excited to have grandma and pa here this weekend. She told everyone it was to celebrate Groundhogs Day. To her this must be a big holiday because she was irate when I told her to put her clothes away on a holiday. We are not fixing all our goodies so we will be ready for the Super Bowl. My dad came up just so he could watch it on the big screen. It is going to be a blast.

I hope your Sunday is a good one!

January

January began with taking down the Christmas tree. We never did get the top trimmed to put up our Santa Christmas.

 

Once the top was trimmed MJ got a turn putting him up.

To be fair, Lil then got her turn. 

After we admired it up there all by itself for about a min, we took it down and RB finished cutting the tree apart for easy disposal. Christmas was good and it's good to have my front room back too.

I think MJ took these pictures of Ms M and Buddy Boy on the floor. I'm glad she did. It is a perfect showing of what happens every day.

Buddy will take Ms M's pacifier and think he is just so clever for getting it.

After the girls and Buddy were washed in their baths I gave one to Ms M. Buddy said he wanted to help me. I put him in the big tub so he would be closer to Ms M. I gave him some soap to wash Ms M's hair and instead he rubbed it all over his hair and body. Then he climbed in the baby tub and tried pushing Ms M out. I guess helping is really just a second bath.

He is so proud of himself.

Buddy came upstairs and was ridding the Barbie car around in the kitchen. I'm glad I got it on camera. I love it.

Jan. has been cold, and full of sickness. Once we got over one kind another comes. First the 24 hour bug that hit the whole family, and now a fever with a nasty cold is making it rounds. It's been a long month but a good one too. RB and I have started working out again, school is going good, and heater time with the family is the best. Hope you are all surviving this inversion and blasted cold weather. :)

Christmas

Christmas is such a wonderful holiday. RB and I agree that this was one of our best Christmases. We both felt the true meaning of Christmas and enjoyed all the festivities without feeling pressured to have to do it all. We loved listening to the music and light show at the city office, and reading Christmas books every night before bed. The girls had a harder time realizing that Christmas is not all about them. Yes, they know why we celebrate Christmas and we talked about that and watched movies too, but they are still in the egocentric stage of their lives. Hopefully as they grow older they too can feel the true meaning of Christmas.

Christmas Eve we woke up to snow. Yea for a white Christmas. The kids loved playing in it. In one snow fall they had enough to make a little snow hill and MJ carved a tunnel through it too this year. We never had enough snow last year to make a snow hill. The kids loved it.

 Fun in the snow videos.

That night we watched the city light show while eating McDonalds. After a bath and opening their Christmas PJ's we watched Joy to the World. It was a great day!
MJ put notes on the stockings for Santa. It was cute. 


Christmas Eve PJ's for everyone.


Christmas morning was spent opening and playing with presents. MJ and Lil both loved their Dream Light Pillow Pets. Buddy Boy loved his rocking horse that plays music when you push the ear. Ms M loved chewing on whatever she could get her hands on. RB loved his Aggies coat that he wasn't sure he was going to get. Lastly, I loved my new i-pod dock that I can use in my classroom.

Buddy was ornery and wanted to open any gift that was not his. 

MJ reading the thank you not from Santa for the milk and cookies. (Do you like our new table? We love it. it came with four chairs and a bench too. A co-worker sold it to us.)

The mess afterwards. 

After all the gifts were cleaned up we got ready for Christmas dinner at our house. We had all of RB's family over and it was a good time. Great food, good laughs, and once again more presents from each other. It was a great time. 

Buddy loves to play with his trains and cars. He will play be himself with them too. It's really cute.

(Thanks Amber for the great picture!)

 I love the concerned look on Buddy's face as MJ plays with his and Ms M's toys.

After everybody had left and we got the house cleaned up again we headed to my parents home. We weren't going to leave until the day after Christmas but the weather was forecasting a snow storm for that morning, so we left the night before to miss it. My parents home was great. My oldest brother, his family, and my sister-in-law were able to come over a couple of days. We had a great time playing games, eating a ton of junk food, and laughing. My oldest sister was supposed to come but she got sick and it's a good think she didn't come. My other brother and sister had to work, bummer, maybe next time.

MJ got a hair band stuck. 




This game was called look at mommy...

Now look away. Then repeat. 


My nephew put this pot on his head and got it stuck. With a little help from his mom they finally got it off. He was so cute running around with it and a cape. 




One game we played was called Fibber. It is like BS but if you are caught lying you have to make your nose grow. We also played Headbands or something like that. That is an awesome game. Here are some pictures of some games we played. (Thanks mom for the great pictures.)


Fibber

I love this picture!

Hedbanz

Over all it was a great Christmas and Christmas season. My goal right now is to stay awake on New Year's til midnight. Here's to a great new year!