Yesterday, instead of homework...

We went sledding!

Here's the thing: Utah winters are kind of crummy. Along the Wasatch front we get a thick and disgusting inversion to deal with for like 3 months out of the year. It is so bad, and I am so paranoid about it, that I will not let my kids play outside when the inversion is thick. So during all of Christmas break my kids were stuck inside. All they wanted to do was go sledding and come home and have hot chocolate while they were out of school and every day during Christmas break we woke up to poor air quality. I promised them that as soon as another storm came through to clean out the air, we would go sledding. When I said that though I was hoping that the storm would come on a weekend. Naturally it had to come in the middle of a school week. I made an executive decision last night and put homework on hold so that we could all go sledding. We didn't have much daylight left so we had to just go over to the school (I feel like it's a crime that we live minutes from Flat Iron and have never once gone sledding there...) but the kids still had a blast. And so did Kendrick and I! We even white trashed it up and blew up one of our WATER tubes to use as a snow tube...

Myles and I

Tay and I

Snow tube, water tube-they both work the same basically!

All the kids

Tay attempting to use a sled as a snowboard 

Tay built her own little Olaf (See the movie, Frozen)

I love this picture because Easton is completely enamored with Tay's snow man. Easton even exclaimed later that night, "I miss our Olaf!"

I am hating winter less and less the older I get. I still prefer summer. And I would still LOVE to live at the beach someday. But winter brings with it cute boots and leggings and lot's of soup and warm quilts. Winter can actually be very picturesque and romantic. I even commented to Kendrick that if Utah is the place where we end up living forever, I want to live in the mountains. I would love to have a home in Park City or Heber. I would love to have a mountain right in my backyard. I would love to HAVE to have 4 wheel drive and a huge collection of boots. I would love to have a wood burning fireplace and have to go out and collect wood each evening (like we did when I was a nanny in CT). So far January is being very good to us!

Halloween 2013

As I sit here watching The Birds with the kids and raiding one of Easton's Halloween bags I am slowly coming down off my Halloween high. I LOVE Halloween. Some (my dad) would argue that Halloween is not a holiday. I don't think that is true at all: Halloween is most definitely a holiday. Any day dedicated to fun celebrations and spending time with friends and family is a holiday, in my opinion. It's just an added bonus that you get to dress up and eat candy!

We had a fantastic day! It started off with the kid's school Halloween parade, then Kendrick took Easton to work with him so that I could stay at the school and help in the kid's classes. That evening, after the kid's dinner, we visited Grandma and Grandpa Winter and trick or treated in their neighborhood for a bit. Then we picked up some Chinese food for Kendrick and I and we came back to our neighborhood to trick or treat with Makelle and Dean. The kids scored so much candy it is ridiculous. We were picky and made sure to only revisit the houses that we loved last year. This year all the kids lasted way longer than I expected them to. Even after Easton fell off someone's porch he was still determined to keep going. We even got to trick or treat at our favorite Piano Guy's house! We were so excited. I was completely star struck. The kids and I are HUGE Piano Guys fans. Then, to wrap up a perfect Halloween, Kendrick and I ended up in our recliners, eating Chinese food and watching a scary movie. I am so glad he is my husband, he makes every holiday fun!

Here are the pics from the day. I feel bad that I didn't get more pictures of the big kids. It was just too hectic before school and I didn't take any of them at the school. I have tons of Easton though. He is going to continue growing up believing that he is our favorite child, just based on how many pictures we have him.

No matter how hard I tried, I could not get the ninja "pose" down. I just ended up looking like a dork.

This bad boy is the first of MANY pictures where Kendrick is ripping his shirt open...I am willing to bet money that ripping his shirt open in public has always been a dream of his;)

We got such a kick out of walking into the gym to find our little friend, Tommy dressed up the same as Kendrick. His mom wanted him to get a picture with Kendrick. This picture cracks me up! Look how repelled he is!!

So his mom finally forced him to get a picture with Kendrick. I hope he doesn't stick us with his therapy bill when he is older...

Easton and Zack

I can't get over how much I adore this little ninja.

Clark Kent, his ninja girl and a ninja boy

I love Easton's faker than fake smile in this

Kendrick and Easton at the Keller William's Orem Halloween lunch

Taylor

Myles (red) Jack (white) Easton (black)

The whole ninja crew

I was super uncomfortable in my ninja costume at school so I opted to be a witch for the evening. Kendrick was not about to spend more time than necessary in a shirt and tie so he opted to be a baseball player. Sport uniforms do make the best costumes!

The kids trick or treating at Grandma & Grandpa's house. We had to go their twice since they were passing out full size Snickers bars.

A photo of the WHOLE family-including the pups.

At Kendrick's favorite house, he made sure to take a video. Each year they change up the scenes they play in their window and each year they are awesome! Between the fog and the lights and the music, these people kill it! We loved going to their house!

Meet Cha Cha

Remember how I wanted a puppy for my Birthday? Yeah, I didn't get one and I was bummed. And I made sure to let everyone in my life know I was bummed. And most everyone in my life forgot about the fact that I wanted a puppy. More specifically, a little dog that stayed puppy sized forever. Except my friend, Stacie. She remembered that I wanted a puppy and she was all for me getting one. So last Friday she was driving by and came to a screeching halt and backed up to ask me, "How bad do you want a little dog?" To which I replied, "Pretty dang bad. I'm just not willing to shell out big bucks for one, why?" Then she proceeded to tell me about a friend of hers who's baby was just diagnosed with a whole plethora of allergies (wheat, eggs, soy, and fur) and they needed to find a new home for their 7 year old little pug.

I said I'd think about it and she said she'd send me pictures, and I didn't think anything else about it because I once had a roommate that had a pug (Bubba) and that little dog snored so loud I could hear it in the basement and had to sleep with a pillow over my head (and it had to wear a diaper because it had potty training issues-not kidding). So the thought of owning a pug was not something I was even a little bit excited about... until I saw these pictures:

She's a cutie right!?
So I talked to Kendrick about it and we decided that if we took Zoey to meet her, and Zoey approved then we would get her and call her Jack and Myles early Birthday present. They turn 7 on the 30th. We left the kids at a neighbor's house on Saturday and took Zoey up to Bountiful to meet her. She was a funny little thing and we felt bad that such a cute, well behaved, potty trained dog might end up at the pound because her owner's kid was allergic. So we brought her home that day.

We surprised the kids with her and they fell in love with her right away. Honestly, it's a win win situation for us. She was free. She is full grown at just under 20 pounds. And she came with a kennel and a huge bag of food, some dishes, toys. a blanket, a towel, a harness and leash. She's up to date on her shots, fixed, licensed, potty trained, crate trained, likes the car, tolerates baths and is good with kids. I call her our little piggy because she walks around snorting and she has a little pig tail. The ONLY drawback to her is that she has super sensitive skin so she has to take Benadryl nearly every day and she's always scratching herself. Apparently that is a normal thing for pugs and apparently it is next to impossible to overdose a dog on Benadryl.

Her and Zoey mostly ignore each other. Occasionally they will try to taste each others food, but that's about it. They sleep in the same room at night, go potty at the same times and share the same water bowl just fine. When Cha Cha is feeling feisty she might bark at Zoey from across the room, but Zoey knows she can kick Cha Cha's trash so she just looks at us like, "This dog you brought home is an idiot" and then goes about her business.

So far we love her and we feel blessed to have hit the doggie jackpot twice. We now have two of the best behaved dogs around!

First days of school (2013)

Summer flies by. At the beginning of June when school got out I thought to myself, "I have 2 1/2 glorious months ahead of me." Where did those 2 1/2 months go!?! Don't get me wrong, we did a ton of fun stuff this summer and I still feel like there is time to cross things off my summer bucket list. But man, I sure wish summer vacation lasted longer...

We lucked out this year as far as getting ready for school goes. The Grandma's in our life hooked us up by buying all the big kids their new school clothes, underwear and socks. All I had to buy was lunch bags for the boys, a new backpack for Tay and shoes for all the kids. I am so blessed to have people who care about helping our kids get the things they need and who enjoy spoiling them to pieces.

Taylor started school on Monday. She was beyond excited about it all weekend. If she felt any anxiety about starting school at all it didn't show until we walked up to the door she had to line up at. When the anxiety hit her she told me, "I'm so nervous I feel like I have to pee!" It looked like she had a lot of friends from last year in her class but she was too nervous to talk to any of them. She just sort of stood there and smiled. Her Dad embarrassed her right before she walked inside so I felt kind of bad for her and hoped that didn't ruin her morning. Dad's can be clueless sometimes;) It was very hard for me to let Tay take the reigns on her first day of school look this year. SHE picked out her clothes and SHE chose her hair style. I had to bite my tongue. I would probably keep doing her hair and picking out what she wears until she goes to college, if she would let me. Unfortunately I think those days are over and she is now starting to have more and more of an opinion about how she wants to look. No matter how she dresses, she always looks cute...even if she does refuse to wear girly colors or let me curl her hair!

The sign says, First Day of 4th Grade "I want to be a wildlife biologist" August 19, 2013

Interesting outfit choice. Not the look I thought she would go with when she brought home all her back to school clothes...

Tay and I

K and Tay

Tay and Samuel

Walking to school

Looking so cute and not the least bit nervous as she stood in line and waited.

The twins started school on Tuesday. They had a mixture of feelings going on: excitement because now they are big tough 1st graders and they get to play on the big playground and eat lunch at school, but nervousness because it is ALL day school and not a lot of kids from their Kindergarten class ended up in their 1st Grade class. They won't admit it but I think they are excited to get away from me and all the chores I make them do but they also have anxiety over 1st Grade homework. Their teacher seems like a doll. She is young looking and thin and pretty and seems very sweet and patient. I hope the boys do well with her.

The boys also picked out their back to school outfits. I think they did a great job, although it's hard to really mess up boy outfits isn't it? I get a kick out of the fact that they have the same outfits but that they choose to wear them differently and on different days. Having twins is such a hoot!

Myles' sign reads, Fist Day of 1st Grade "I want to be a teacher" August 20, 2013

Jack's sign reads, First Day of 1st Grade, "I want to be a fireman", August 20, 2013

Myles and Jack

The boys and I

The boys and K

Such big kids

Walking to school with Samuel

Waiting in line-first ones there!! I love it.

Waving goodbye. I didn't even cry. It really didn't hit me, or maybe it just wasn't that big of a deal? They fought so much the day before that I was perfectly happy to send them off to school, I was looking forward to some peace and quiet!

Easton started at home Pre School today. I had such a good time and was so successful at teaching the boys Pre School that I decided to do it with Easton too. I can't believe I used to shell out money for Tay to go to Preschool each month! What a waste. We are still on the fence about whether or not Easton will start Kindergarten next year. He will be turning 5 a week before school starts and we don't love the thought of him being the youngest in his class. On the other hand, he is ready and wanting that experience. He wants to learn, he wants to join his siblings at school and he needs to be around other kids his age. But I don't know if he will be mature enough...we'll see what happens.

He has a special Pre School cupboard that we keep his stuff in and we decided to put his workbooks and crayons, scissors and pencils in his backpack so he can feel like one of the big kids. I have a hard time being disciplined with Easton because he is my baby and I just want to cuddle him and let him have his way all the time. So it will be a challenge for me to buckle down and MAKE him work this year. Wish me luck...

We are excited for a new school year and are so hopeful that it will go smoothly. I can't believe I have 3 kids in all day school now...