The Girls with all the bells and Whistles!

The girls got all dressed up this morning in tutus and even put on press on nails and lipstick! They looked so adorable and were so colorful and girlie about how they looked it made me laugh. I remember being really obsessed with lip stuff and fingernails when I was young. My sister, Kathryn, even told me recently that I told her when we were younger that if her nails were long that she would be popular! That is so ridiculous! Ha Ha!

Christmas update

Christmas was horrible and wonderful this year! I ended up with a nasal infection on Christmas Eve. Same exact feeling I had 11 years ago when Aaron proposed to me. I felt a little better after a chiropractic adjustment, but the day after Christmas I could not get out of bed. It was like I bumped my head and went to bed and couldn't get up in the morning...ha ha! But it was a miracle because Aaron didn't have to work on Friday, so he took care of everything for me. I slept all day long!! I feel much better today. We didn't get very many Christmas pictures eventhough I got a new camera... bummer. Christian's favorite gift was his pokemon cards, Meliah's favorite was everything, and Lizzy's was her My Little Pony (she actually just says whatever she can see). Aaron didn't tell me what he liked most but he says he hasn't gotten it yet since I've been sick (I wonder what he means by that?? : ) ) My favorite gift was a camera and a family home evening awesomely ridiculous time-consuming set that Aaron's sister, Becky made for me. I love it! But now we all realize that one of the most important things we have is our health, and we are grateful to all be healthy now. Christian was actually the worst on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day... the 24 hour flu bug! Yuck! I hear that Aaron was always sick on Christmas too! Not very good timing!

We were able to spend some time on Christmas Eve with Aaron's family. It was a really nice time. We played murder, ate fondue, and watched Kerri take billions of pictures (She got a new camera for Christmas too). On Christmas day, we opened presents and played games as a family and got together with family in the evening. We did a white elephant gift exchange that was a blast... I didn't end up with what I wanted but oh well! The kids all picked names for each other, it was so fun to watch their faces as they gave to each other! The cousins all love each other so much!

Kids say the funniest things!

Elizabeth is right at the perfect height to hit her head on the mirrors that stick out on cars, but expecially our van. The other day, we pulled into the garage and she got out and hit her head on the mirror as she was on her way into the house. Immediately, she became very angry and said, "I don't know why cars have to have ears! I wish I could cut off all the cars' ears!" I laughed so hard at that despite her tears. It later hit me that mirrors and ears sounds very similiar! Just thought it was a great story to share with her when she gets older! Ha Ha!

Our trip to visit Santa!

Last Saturday we went to see Santa and got the kids' pictures taken. Meliah wants a cupcake maker, Elizabeth wants a barbie that has a horse. Christian said Santa didn't ask him what he wanted but he wants pokemon cards. We thought he looked sooo funny (grown up) sitting on Santa's lap and then assumed that Santa figured he was too big to still believe in Santa Claus. Poor Christian, he is kind of at the age when he is pretending that he still believes in Santa so he doesn't miss out on the benefits. The kids have been so wonderful this year, I know that they are on Santa's good list. I loved seeing how thrilled Elizabeth was to be with Santa. Her sweet voice made Santa melt!

Scout project with cousins!

We decided to do a scout project for Christian and his cousin Ivan last Wednesday! It was a fun time but really messy. I considered doing the project outside but decided not to because we were just going to be carving bars of ivory soap into shapes. How messy can soap be? I thought, it'll just make everything cleaner. Well, I was wrong! I wish I had taken a picture of the table and the floor and the house after they were done carving their animals. It was insane to clean up too! But they had such a fun time and really got into it. They somehow got stuck on wanting to do different animals coming out of their egg shells. Christian and Meliah did snakes, Lizzy did a chick and Ivan did a human coming out of it's egg (I'll let his dad explain that one to him)! I don't remember what Ammon did. Very funny kids... Notice Meliah's teeth... she had them pulled at the dentist last week (entire roots attached)!

Fires, puzzles and marbles

Elizabeth was able to go to the fire station with some of her cousins and their playschool group. She sure does enjoy spending time with cousins. She has been practicing her STOP, DROP and ROLL and how she would get out of the house if the fire alarms went off. She was enthralled with the fireman putting on his suit. It was so cute to watch the fear in the kids after he put on his mask and started talking with the oxygen going. Soon, they all warmed back up to him and realized he didn't magically turn into a monster.


Elizabeth has been so into puzzles lately... she concentrates super hard on them. She can sit there and do them for hours! In this picture, I couldn't even get her to look up!



If any of you know Elizabeth, she is so stubborn! I have really struggled this year with the terrible 3's. I felt like I had tried everything (positive attention, negative attention, a reward system, etc. etc.) She was really starting to drive me crazy because I just could not get her to do anything that I wanted her to do! This is really a new thing for me because my other 2 kids just listen to me. Well, I call it inspiration because I didn't think about it until I was on my knees about it one morning. Rewarding her with MARBLES? Silly me, this idea that has been around forever and I've never tried it (In fact Christian's teacher uses it in their classroom). We found this really cute snowman jar and told her that we would let her put in a marble every time she quickly obeyed us or did something nice without being told to. It has been a week and I tell you what, it has been the ticket to better behavior for this stubborn girl. Last night she said, "I'm going to just keep doing good things until the jar is all full!" I then said, "then we'll get another jar!" I have had so much more fun with her! I sure do love my Lizzy Lou!

New Family Pictures!

My brother is married to the photographer in our family. She does a really great job! We needed a family picture bad and really appreciate Lindsay making us look good. We sure do have sweet kids.