Marble Towers

Jack's new marble tower building set has been the favorite toy so far.  Both Ava and Jack get into building towers as well as Kyle and myself.  It's great fun for the whole family.

Almast a Crawler

Army crawling has it's advantages, you can drag yourself around while holding a toy in one hand, crawling on the other hand doesn't allow this luxury, but it does keep your shirt clean!

Still Dragging

Ben still hasn't mastered the crawl yet, but he sure is good at dragging his body around on the floor.

1st Christmas

Ben didn't get as many presents as the other kids, but that doesn't mean he isn't enjoying all their new toys too.  This Finn McMissile car was one of Jack's new toys.

Christmas Dinner

After presents, Kyle and I started on Christmas dinner.  We didn't want to get too crazy in the kitchen so we could enjoy the kids and not have a huge pile of dishes to do later.   We ended up with some nice old Prime Rib, au jus, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, rolls, cranberry sauce and some bubbly (sparkling cranberry juice).  Dinner was enjoyed by all and even Norah smiled for annual Christmas dinner photo on the first try.

All I Want For Christmas...

This picture of Norah shows just how excited she was about the whole day.  This was the first Christmas she really seemed to enjoy.

Under the Tree

These kids were so cute this morning when they woke up and busted out of their wrapping paper doorways and ran down to see what Santa had brought.  The stockings were all lined up on the couches and filled with candies, toys and oranges.

After our traditional breakfast of Pillsbury cinnamon and orange rolls with sausage, we got took baths and got dressed for church.  Motivated by the thought of opening all gazillion presents, this went especially quickly, giving us plenty of present opening time before we needed to head out the door to church.

The  ward choir put on an amazing musical program Kyle was a part of and the true Spirit of Christmas  was in abundance despite the wrestling I was doing all by myself while Kyle was on the stand singing with the choir.

When we got home, we had some lunch before naps and then commenced gift opening round II.  Jack finished finding his gifts first and then resorted to "helping" Norah and Ben with their prsents.

Everyone seemed to enjoy all their splendor and after all the wrapping paper settled, we had a whopping 77 presents between the six of us.

Brothers

Although this picture screams love, these brothers have all kinds of feelings for each other.  Jack loves his brother, but he also teases him like there's no tomorrow and can be rough in his play.  Ben loves his big brother, but can actually get jealous if he doesn't have all my attention.  I wonder how close they will be later on when Ben can play with Jack?

Christmas Scratch

Last night Norah was getting a little crazy and scratched our sweet Ava's face pretty deeply.  It has left a little gouge and I am hoping with some nightly bandaging and frequent applications of Neosporin, Ava will not have a scar to remember this Christmas by.

Sitter

He finally got it, and thankfully just in time for Christmas-what a great gift.

Chilly Walks

It hasn't been too cold lately, but Ben is always dressed warmly and snug in the Baby Bjorn when we go on our morning walks.

Ugly Sweaters

We were invited to a Christmas party where ugly sweaters were to be worn.  I was against it at first, bitter that I couldn't dress up and actually look cute, but after a little convincing from Kyle I busted out these two home made gems out and we took first place (and a $5 gift card to In n Out).

The total cost was about $30 and the time invested was more than I thought I had, but the tinsel, ornaments, bows and LED lights were all hot-glued into place on our $6 Wal-mart sweatshirts with the greatest of care.  I was proud of my work, and even Ava said they were beautiful!  Kyle's theme was Christmas tree and mine was random-both turned out fabulous, though.

List #3

Jack sat on Santa's lap at the Village of Fairview, preschool and this morning at our ward's Christmas party.  He has asked for different things each time. 

List #1-swords
List #2-a car you can ride on
List #3-legos

I wonder what Santa will bring him!

Almost Sitting

Ben has been army crawling since around 6 months and has yet to really sit up, thus skipping the much beloved only sitting stage where I could just plop a baby down and hand them some toys without them going anywhere.  Ben has always been a mover, but at around 8 months he has finally started to show signs of sitting up.  He's pretty unstable, but Ava is always there to lend a hand.

Goodie Time

We busted out the goodies this weekend and the packaging turned out as delicious as the treats they boxed.

The goods were as follows:
Candy Coated Pretzels
Peanut Butter Cup Blossoms
Chocolate Mint Brownie Cookies
Fudge
Red Velvet Cake Ball
Chocolate Cake Ball

Through the Night

 

It's official, this guy is sleeping through the night and around 12 hours at that!  Way to go Ben, it only took you longer than any other child in our family!  HURRAY!

Robot Tooth

Today was Jack's first appointment at the dentist.  I had been noticing a black spot on one of his molars recently and decided to have a professional take a look even though he said it didn't hurt when I brushed his teeth.

Well, despite the lack of pain Jack has been having, part of his tooth has indeed rotted away along with 5 other parts of his teeth.  The kid has some weak old teeth (like his daddy), nasty bacteria and is in need of some more intense brushing as well as daily flossing.

Taking him to the dentist before now could quite possibly have saved him from the extent of the decay, but this guy doesn't seem to mind his robot tooth!

The entire ordeal took about 2 hours from start to finish and that even included some video game time in the kid lounge area of the dentist office. 

The craziest part of the whole thing was how awesome Jack did with the length of the visit, the unfamiliarity of the place and the people and the intense mouth work he had done.  He never made a peep about anything until we were walking out and he noticed he couldn't feel his tongue.  He cried bloody murder from then on and had to practically be carried to the car.  Poor guy!

We love you AND your robot tooth!

Sleeping Better

When Matt and Kenzi visited us during Thanksgiving, Ben had started to stop going back to sleep after his 5:30AM feeding, which was rough!  This week he has been up at 5:30AM for good, making life a little crazier, but with one less "bedtime routine" to do each day, I feel like some progress has been made!

Sweetest Aunt

The kids haven't ever really interacted with Kenzi, neither have I for that matter, but this Aunt is high class and couldn't be sweeter.  She is the picture of kindness and joy at all times.  I lost count of how many times she offered to either watch the kids for me or clean up a mess she didn't make.  She could even be caught randomly cleaning things whenever no one was around.  I loved getting to know her better and the kids became quite smitten with her, even Norah liked her (I think it was her "princess-y vibe")!

Christmas Time

Thank goodness Matt was around to help Kyle with the Christmas tree.  It is already a health hazard to get it down from the attic on the precarious pull down ladder and Kyle's injury made Matt's help even more worthwhile.  The tree was up the day after Thanksgiving thanks to Matt and the excited bunch of ornament-ers the kids have become.  I think the house was completely decorated before Norah woke up from her nap and we started after she went to bed.  Too bad this couldn't be a worse picture of the majority of our family!

Turkey Day

The help in the kitchen wasn't the only thing Matt and Kenzi brought from Utah, they added some amazing garlic mashed potatoes to our brined turkey, homemade pumpkin and pecan pie, sweet potato casserole and store bought rolls.  The dinner was delish and despite Kyle's ankle injury during the ward Turkey Bowl, the day was absolutely perfect.

Matt & Kenzi

After three weeks of no family and no family visits in sight, we were surprisingly blessed with a spur of the moment visit from Matt and Kenzi after over two years!  We went to their August 2009 wedding and haven't seen this happy couple since.  Kyle is super close to Matt and has been trying to meet up with him for awhile, so when they mentioned a visit, we got more than excited.  When the visit became a reality, neither of us could contain ourselves from being thrilled to see these guys again.

Stay Awhile

Finally, after extending her trip by over 24 hours, Aunt Cassie had to go and as she left she gave this little guy one more hug and he gave her one more smile-we'll miss you Aunt Cassie, come back again REAL soon.

Big Wheelin'

Lately Jack has been all about this purple and pink big wheel.  So much so he has worn the front tire flat as a pancake in one spot from all the power braking he is doing.  Like father, like son, Kyle says he was attached to his big wheel as well from ages 4-6.

Love/Hate

Here is more proof of Norah's pretend disgust for Aunt Cassie.   We keep waiting for her to wake up and smell the "Aunt Cassie is awesome" coffee.

Key Thief

Norah is notorious for taking stuff and doing who knows what with it, and until today even the credit card she stole from Kyle didn't seem that big of deal.  But when she took Cassie's only set of keys to the car she drove from Illinois and we couldn't find them for over an hour, it was panic time, especially since she was originally supposed to leave today!  It's a good thing we convinced her to stay until tomorrow.

Buds

Jack loves Aunt Cassie.

Ava loves Aunt Cassie.

Ben loves Aunt Cassie.
Norah still doesn't appear to love Aunt Cassie, but I'm sure that's just a facade.

Missing Cassie

Cass and I haven't always seen eye to eye and still don't on everything, but I sure like when she is around and sure miss her when she is gone-I'm so glad she visits us more than anyone else!

Lookin' Good

Cass and I have always been told we look so much alike, and now that she looks this good, it is so much more of a compliment!

For Sale

We found a lot in a neighborhood we love in a school district unparalleled, now all we have to do is sell our house!  At least we have it on the market in a bad real estate market during the slowest time of the year!  Someone, please buy our beautiful house, soon!

Crash Test Dummy

Norah loves her little Flintstones-style car we were given by our neighbors, but the bike helmet is a new, picture-worthy addition.

Haunted House

 

Even with Jack's tough looking cowboy costume with last minute handkerchief from Aunt Cassie, he was still afraid of this house in our neighborhood.  It was the most decorated house we encountered and we weren't the only ones taking pictures, look at that crowd!

Trick R Treat

These girls were power trick or treaters despite their delicate Aurora and Indian Princess attire.  They both looked great and very unique/authentic even with all the running they were doing.

Aunt Cassie Tradition

Cass has made it out here for the past few years to celebrate Halloween with us and now I can't even imagine the holiday without her being there.  I love that she is so willing to hang with our crazy crew.

1st Halloween

Ben was not really into his costume or anything Halloweeny, but for such a little guy he did great and didn't really need to be held until the very end of our planned trick or treating excursion.  It couldn't have been a better night.

Wait For Me

This was pretty much the whole night-Ava and Jack racing from house and Norah trailing quite far behind wailing, "Wait for me!"

Hand Me Down

Ben was originally slated to wear a $7 skeleton costume I had picked up, but when we saw Jack's old Alex the lion costume from when he was a babe, I returned the skeleton and went with the hand-me-down.  I think I made the right decision.  Look at those ears!

Spooky Family

Dinner wouldn't have seemed like such a daunting task if Cass and I hadn't decided to decorate the porch with lights and spider webs on last minute whim.  It turned out looking great, though, and really added to our something to our family picture.

Halloween Food

We had our neighbors over for some Halloween dinner before venturing out for some trick or treating.  I'm not sure why I thought I was up to hosting all of a sudden, but with Cassie there to help and the crescent roll wrapped hot dogs screaming "easy" I decided to give it a whirl.

Our dish was a hit and was complimented by our neighboring pumpkin barfing up mac n cheese!  The kids loved the food and so did the adults.  Our low-key first time celebration post-Ben was a success.

Booty & Bronzer

Considering my booty was stuffed so much with fluff it was mildly offensive to me that people thought it was actually mine-but I have to admit Kyle did a really realistic job with that pillow stuffing.  I thought the Bronte added an equally realistic touch to almost perfectly authentic costume.

It's Kim

Happy Halloween, hello!  I used my newly acquired clip-in hair extensions to enhance myself for an awesome costume concept thought of by Kyle.  He dressed up as Bruce Jenner and I was Kim Kardashian.  It was fun to get all crazy with the pillow stuffing in the chest and bum area and even more fun to go to a party and have people as me if that was my real rear end!

After

It curled both their hair beautifully.  The curls wer amazing, although they didn't last.

After some research I happened upon some thermal heat setting spray that has kept the curl in my hair but still not the girls.  I was tempted to return it, but since it curls my hair and the spray keeps it in all day, I decided not to and have since purchased a curling wand for Ava.

Before

One night while feeding Ben quite late, and alone, I watched an infomercial about hair curlers.  I was appalled at how interested in the product I was, but couldn't shake the intense belief that I needed this tool to curl not only my own hair, but the girls' hair as well.

After convincing myself and then selling Kyle on the idea, I ordered the topstyler by instyler and got it about 8 weeks later.  The long wait was rewarded with what seemed to be a great product.  I tried it on Ava's hair almost immediately and later on Norah.