snow day and ornaments

We decided to follow last years ornament tradition and make them at home.  We made paper stars and they really turned out cute.   The kids had a great time tearing up the construction paper and watching it get turned to pulp in the blender.  I found the idea in this month's family fun magazine here http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/homemade-paper-stars-954207/

we couldn't get a family shot to turn out, they were all blurry whenever we used the timer.  The kids were more than happy to help austin & i get a quick pick

with lydia we had to make sure we put our faces in the way of the lens

wesley decided to cut out daddy

ian finally got one that looked pretty good, all of fiona's turned out blurry.

i just wanted to throw this one in for fun.  she did 'fish lips' for the camera and i always laugh when she makes this face.

Today we actually had a snow day. this is the first one i have EVER experienced in Utah. I think we got over 3 feet in one day. austin spent 2 days snowblowing and it just kept coming down. the kids weren't as disappointed about missing their class parties as i feared they would and we had a great time playing in all that snow.

ian sitting on the giant rock in our front yard

beautiful fiona, that face is to die for

lydia helping daddy make a trail to our chickens

we found a great hiding place under one of our giant pine trees out front.

santa claus is coming to town, aaaah! cry!!

 
we took the kids to see Santa. the boys have always liked this tradition and start listing all the things they're going to tell him as soon as we're in the car. the girls not so much. the past years have always produced a crying fiona or lydia and making mom & dad laugh (we are such rotten, mean parents). but this year we've had a break through. the girls actually stayed long enough for not only one, but actually three pictures. there were no tears, no screaming and when Santa asked Fiona if she wanted a unicorn we even got a nod! 
 

these were last year's pics, even with an m&m peace offering it was a disaster.

poor Santa

a christmas greeting

the girls looked so cute i had to get a pick. we went to our last kindermusic class till after the new year. this week has seemed like it's been more than 7 days. monday i got calls telling me about 2 deaths in the family. one of the cousins lost their 2 month old baby that morning. it was a horrible and unexpected tragedy, one that any mother fears. i know the only way i could cope is to remember that families are eternal. the other call monday afternoon came after our beloved grandma davis finally got to rejoin her sweetheart on the other side. since august she's been in pain and suffering, it was a relief to hear that she wasn't having to endure any more, but still sad to think she's gone and now our christmas and other family traditions are going to be very different. her funeral was wonderful, probably the only one i've ever enjoyed attending. the thing i like most about the davis family is their ability to laugh at themselves. grandma davis was a wonderful lady, one i'd like to be more like.

 

i also wanted to share these pics from our FHE building a gingerbread house.  it was a lot of fun, my mom had bought a kit so it was really a no brainer.  the kids had a lot of fun building it and even more fun taking it apart and eating the candy.  lydia was upset when we first started taking it apart, she was still in building mode.  but after eating a few m&m's she quickly changed her mind.

snowman and cookie race

The children are always making me laugh.  With the first snow Ian ran out to make a snowman all by himself.  He rolled the balls so big he couldn't lift them onto one another.  So instead of letting that discourage him he smashed 2 of them and used the other for his 'sinking' snowman.  I think I may have a Calvin in the making.


I love Wesley's face in this picture.

Last night we watched America's Funniest Videos.  The kids just love it and laugh so hard.  Ian & Wesley decided they wanted to try the cookie race that was featured.  I think they deserve the $10,000 just for effort.

I almost lizzed (again, if you haven't watched 30rock you are missing out).

tangled no more

this is our beautiful fiona.  she's not one to keep things in her hair.  we've been talking about it for a while, her & I.  I hated putting in all the time to braid or create designs in her hair which was down her back and she hated keeping elastics in for very long.  so when I asked if she'd rather cut her hair short like her sister's she said yes.  I'm not feeling much regret, it grows back fast (this is how long it was just last November) and maybe by that time she'll have a better relationship with elastics.  plus she pulls it off so well, what a cutie!

terrific, tremendously funny, at times tipsy TWO!

Aaagh! our baby just turned 2. Everyone has been telling me that it must be time for another, but that just doesn't feel like the way our family should be going right now and our little lady lyds might possibly be our last. I'm just not sure if I'm ready to accept growing out of the baby stage yet. There are definite perks, like leaving the nightlights in all day instead of rounding them up before little hands can yank them out. Or putting crayons in reach of everyone and most of the time they're only used on paper and usually not getting eaten (note the usually and it's not usually the 2 year old either). Lydia is such a joy and has been so much fun, she's the best little sister I've ever met.

We celebrated her birthday with family this weekend and we had a great time. She picked out the biggest balloon star I've ever seen (she has a thing for twinkle, twinkles), it was honestly as big as she is. So here are some picks to celebrate our girl.

can you believe how much both Lydia & Fiona have changed in 2 short years.  That outfit Fiona is wearing is now hanging in Lydia's closet for this winter!!!!

A year ago.  Sorry the pic wouldn't cooperate with me and I decided it was a battle I didn't want to engage in any longer (I'm learning as a mother the all important 'pick your battle' mantra really puts things into perspective, just not this picture) 

my fifteen minutes...

Well, I thought I better let everyone know. I've gotten quite a few calls about it and yes, that picture in the Ensign on page 121 is me and my sister Katie. I saw the guy setting up his camera while we were singing and I just kept thinking 'please don't take my picture!' I was so worried that I'd be making some crazy face or something. I was so relieved to see that it turned out okay.

Now I just keep thinking of how that magazine is worldwide, that's a lot of people, but I'd be happy to autograph your copy and I promise not to let the fame change me.

run for your lives!!!

One of the things we did at Ian's party was take pictures of each of the children running from a dinosaur.  They really turned out fun.  The kids were great.

6 exciting years

Ian just turned six!  So for the next 2 months I have 2 six year olds, so fun.

little paleontologists making their best dinosaur faces

We had a great time throwing Ian a friend dinosaur party.  We played games like egg, egg, T-rex; dino egg relay races; and dino dig.  The weather was wonderful for us and having 12 little people running around the yard was lots of fun. I have more pics for later when photoshop stops throwing a tantrum.

halloween

I thought I'd hurry and just stick these pics up for those of you who'd like to see our costumes this year.  Austin & I had a hard time with costumes and didn't get very creative.  Austin redid a previous costume and I threw together a generic princess outfit (I was going for one of the twelve dancing princesses, my favorite fairytale, but who really looks at your shoes?)
Wesley was a snake, Ian aka Ironman, Fiona also redid a costume from a few years ago she just loves being a lamb, Lydia was a lydibug.
And sorry about the red eye in some of these, my photoshop was being fickle and I don't have time to play it's silly little games right now.

I just love this pose

The nice thing about trick or treating on Saturday was that we were able to visit all the greatgrandparents

Grandma Swenson (Grandpa was sick that morning)

Grandma Cope

Grandma Davis

This is Austin's imitation of 'my name is earl'

Hope you all had a great Halloween.