Christmas 2015

We had a pretty quiet Christmas.  In lots of ways it's really sad being away from family.  But I do like the fact that we keep things simple and are able to focus on what's important.

 

Here was our spot for presents - out of TJ's reach.

 

Christmas Eve we acted out the Christmas scriptures.  Hannah was a very excited Mary.  TJ wasn't quite so sure about his part as Joseph....but he managed to sit there long enough to pick his nose.  :D

 

Sofia was really excited to be an angel, but got a little timid about announcing the birth!

 

And our tradition of Christmas Eve pajamas.  They were excited to open a present.

 

Our next tradition (2 years running) is one of my favorites.  We have the girls earn money to buy gifts for each other.  It's fun to see them excited to get something for someone else.  It's also very interesting to go shopping with them.

 

After the kids (TJ really) was in bed we put our presents under the tree. 

 

And Santa knew we were going on a long car ride the next day so he helped out with some car activities and a few snacks to keep them entertained.

 

Grandma and Grandpa sent some fun presents for each kid.  You can't see TJ's cars because he's too busy playing with them to pause and take a picture.

 

The other Grandma and Grandpa sent some awesome gifts as well.  TJ is rather excited!! 

 

Here's TJ playing with his cars.  That was the first gift he opened and he was to busy playing with them to care about opening any other gifts. 

 

It was a simple and enjoyable holiday.

February Little Things

It doesn't feel like February unless we make heart shaped sugar cookies.  The kids are actually old enough to frost and decorate them without too much help.

 

 

We found out the baby is a boy (much to my utter amazement).  I had decided to let the kids pick out a new outfit for him at the store.  But, trying to get them to agree on an outfit is impossible.  And paying full price for something we don't really need is way too painful.  So we took pictures of them with their choices. 

 

 

The kids had their first dental appointments with our new insurance (thank you to a grown up job with benefits)!!!  They were pretty happy about the pediatric dentist here.  And since I had to pay $0 because they had 0 cavities I was quite happy myself!

 

We spent some time at Imagine.  Sofia and I built this train track.  I was probably more proud than she was - mostly because my train tracks always consist of a large oval.  Every single time.  Lame, I know.  She wanted something more elaborate and it worked out (I'm not particularly handy so this made me proud).

 

A Sunday afternoon stroll with the balloon baby in tow (of course)!!

 

Sofia insisting on pushing TJ.

 

This is what the garage looks like when James is working on a project.  For being extremely meticulous when it comes to building things, the garage is utter chaos.  At least that's what it looks like to me.  Luckily it's usually only this way for short periods of time.

 

Sofia opening a birthday gift from someone at James' office......and trying to conceal a mouth full of some sort of treat.

 

The kiddos posing in the matryoshka doll James made.  Helped make.  He bought and cut the wood.  I'm pretty sure someone else was responsible for painting!

 

 

 

This is what TJ's bed looked like at the end of nap time one day.  He decided he didn't need a nap.  He was so quiet I didn't even realize he was awake for a while.

 

Naturally this is what we do with underwear.

 

Killing time at the temple. 

 

Hannah making her dad proud.  I think she built a box for a doll?!

 

Loosing her first top front tooth.

 

Loosing the other one the very next day......and not having the big ones come in for 3 months!  She's right at home here in Arkansas!!

 

 TJ finally falling asleep....on Hannah's bed.

 

The girls are playing 'doctor.'  Hannah's the Dr and Sofia is having a baby.   They were pretty insistent on having a cord.

 

These 2 can have so much fun together.  It usually involves a lot of mess, but I consider it worthwhile so long as the play time is twice as long as clean up time.

 

This was the clean up time the next day.....we got 2 good days out of the polyfil before I couldn't handle it anymore.

 

Fun at the Botanical Gardens on free Saturday mornings.

 

 

Testing out TJ's bed.

 

Sofia's Birthday

She turned 5!!  The poor thing had the flu earlier in the week.  She was feeling well enough to be excited about her big day, but still not great.

She requested a pink rose cake.  It was probably the ugliest cake I have ever made, but she was happy with it!!!  

Here she is covering her eyes for her present.  It was a little too big for any of our wrapping paper.

Ta-da!!  She was pretty excited about the blocks.  I feel a little bit of mom guilt since I bought them used several months ago intending them to be for TJ for Christmas.  Thanks to Grandparents I decided TJ didn't need them for Christmas and hung onto them for Sofia's birthday.  My guilt didn't last too long since she was pretty excited about them.

Signs I'm pregnant

** I wrote this several weeks ago and just never posted.  It's slightly outdated, but still oh soo true.  It makes me laugh to read **

I'm not trying to complain.  It may sound like that, but really I'm just trying to show what life has been like the past few months.  To me it's in more of a humorous tone than a complaining one.


I don't care about anything.
I don't care what anyone wears - I'm just glad if everyone has clothing on
Baked goods sound disgusting (make me want to loose what's in my stomach when I think about baking)!
Food in general still sounds awful
I'm thrilled if kids have 1 serving of veggies each day - because as mentioned above, I don't care about anything.
I eat about 3 snacks during the night to make it through the night
The minute TJ is in bed for his nap I'm in bed for my nap
I've actually asked TJ if he wants to play with water/bubbles in the sink (usually a major no-no) to keep him busy
TJ spends half of the day in his underwear
Our disaster of a garage hasn't been bothering me - it takes too much energy to care about.  :D


 I wrote that list a few weeks ago.  Now I'm feeling better.  Still not 100% but I feel human again and as normal as I'm going to feel before I turn into a balloon!!

* I care more about my kids appearance.  I made Hannah change out of her leggings with a hole in them before school the other day.

* I make Sofia turn her clothes right side out before we leave the house.  I still let he wear her shirts backwards most days - some battles just aren't worth it!

* Baking sounds good in the morning or when I'm planning food on the calendar - but by afternoon it sounds like too much work and makes my stomach queezy.

* A lot of foods actually sound good.

* Salads and vegetables have been re-entered into our diet on a more regular basis.....still not as much as they used to be, but we're heading in the right direction.

* Our garage has now been straightened out - not thoroughly cleaned, but straightened out.

* At least half of the time I make it through the night without any food.

* TJ is usually dressed before lunch.

I still don't feel absolutely great.  Mostly my energy level is so low.  In past pregnancies I've completely had my energy back by this point.  But not with this one.  I'm wondering if that's just my bodies way of preparing me for life with 4 kids.  :D

December and January Little Things

I think I'm officially the worst person ever at taking pictures.  We have a whopping 5 photos on my phone to show what we did for the entire month of December.  I'm hoping I got a few more on my 'real' camera, but here are the cell phone pics for December and January.

DECEMBER:

Seeing the lights in downtown Fayetteville!  It's not quite temple square, but it's still lots of fun.  We were all bundled up to keep warm in the 50 degree weather!

Christmas morning we drove to Houston to visit my brother and his family...The only time I pulled out my camera was when TJ and another cousin were jumping on the tramp.  Man oh man, do our kids like the tramp.

JANUARY

Grandma and Grandpa came for a quick visit.  With them came lots of surprises including hair chalk and accessories for the girls (compliments of an aunt that likes to spoil).  Hannah opted for pink. Sofia blue.

We finally made it up to Crystal Bridges Museum (my first official trip to Benntonville!!) and spent most of our time in the kids room.  They had fun.

James had orientation for 150ish international students.  We went to a social one night and visited the photo booth.  The picture wasn't too successful, but the girls sure thought the mustache was pretty funny.

James was working on a project (a gate for the business) and it was around 12 degrees outside....so this is what our kitchen looked like for the day.

Just some wrestling with the kids.  Not sure who's winning.  Sofia, maybe?

Sofia taking my fitbit and trying to get in a few extra steps for me.

We made a very quick trip to the Kansas City temple.  This is what it looked like as we were leaving that night to head back home.

Sofia just wanted to do something nice and so she helped me by cleaning a few dishes and the sink....the amount of suds may have added to the fun!

We spent a couple of hours at Lowes picking out a ton of wood.  After a while the kids started playing.  Hannah was serving us up some ice cream from her shop.

This is what $600 of wood looks like.  Not as much as you'd think, right?!  But, it should be enough to build our Queen bed with drawers underneath, TJ's twin bed with drawers, and a coffee table trunk with storage inside.  Here's hoping!!!

Oh BOY

We found out today that baby #4 is going to be a boy!!  And my due date stays at July 1st!

After my Dr appointment I took TJ and Sofia to do a little baby brother shopping.  They each picked out their favorite item.

This morning all 3 of them voted for a baby girl, but none of them seemed too disappointed when they found out it was a boy.  TJ was pretty pleased, although he did inform us he's not going to share with a boy!

2015 Year in Review

We rang in the new year with some sparking cider at about 7 pm on New Year's Eve. (Yeah - we're exciting like that!!!)  We also talked about some of our memories of the past year.  It was really interesting to see what stuck out to the kids.

* an awesome kindergarten teacher for Hannah

* Packing up to move back to Utah

* Unloading all of our stuff and visiting Utah for the summer instead
* the battery dying in our car along with a flat tire in James' bike followed by jump starting the car with a sick Hannah to take James to work on Sofia's birthday

* James rollerblading the 6 miles home with a very heavy battery in his backpack.

* a stolen bike (the day before moving)

* both girls learning to ride their bikes without training wheels

* Moving back to Arkansas

* opening the business

* James getting his first 'real' and permanent (or at least long term) job

* Hannah starting at 2 new schools for 1st grade

* Joy School for Sofia

* Baby # 4 coming

* Mini van!!!

* Going to Houston to visit family

* Hannah loosing lots more teeth

* Hannah's 1st birthday party at age 6

* House shopping