Blue Tootsie Rolls

It seems like I have only been posting about my girls. Poor neglected Jack. So this post is dedicated to my favorite two year old, Jack. He is everything boy and understands fully what it means to be two. He is difficult, stubborn and at times whiney and I wouldn't change him for anything. Because while he is constantly teaching me how to be a parent to a determined child, he is beautifully kind and sweet. He is by far my best snuggler and giggler. Nothing in this world compares to his stories and his imagination. Jack we love you!

I took these pictures of Jack after he found Ryan's stash of blue tootsie rolls.

Fancy Nancy

Kaitlynn and I checked out a Fancy Nancy book from the library a couple of weeks ago. Ever since then we have kind of been on a Fancy Nancy kick. I think the books are adorable, and Kaitlynn likes all the good advice they provide, like adding glitter to your nail polish for shiny toes. We had a Fancy Nancy day a little while ago. Too much fun! I like having girls around. There is no way Ryan or Jack would play with me like my girls do! I let Kaitlynn play with scraps of material (is there anything better in the world?) while I made her a quick "Fancy Nancy" skirt. She felt that the bacement needed some sprucing up. I couldn't agree more. She was busy all afternoon decorating and making everything sooo pretty with my scraps. She was quite serious about the whole things. That night after dinner we made special Fancy Nancy fruit parfaits just like in her books. The whole day was spectacular (thats fancy for beautiful in a dramatic and eye-catching way).

I also gave her a haircut. It ended up a little on the short side but I kept making mistakes. Overall it looks ok. There are some missed hairs I still need to attend to though. Good thing she is beautiful and can pull off a mediocre haircut.

Busy decorating.

Making everything perfect.

The Fancy Nancy skirt.

She was so happy to twirl.

I never could get a decent picture of her.

I love his face. I think the berries were a little tart for his liking.

Yum

I had fun with my camera this evening. Olivia had fun with her peach. This is the result.

Love the tongue.

She wasn't angry. She was just chewing.

Again with the tongue.

Side view.

Front view.

Want some?

All gone.

That was one good peach.

Snow Day

We finally got snow! Wahoo! We have had a lot of fun playing in it. So has everyone else. School was cancelled. Actually today was the third snow day in a row. Not that it has been snowing for three days, it is just ridiculously cold. I think the high today was 8 degrees. I know that wouldn't mean much back in Utah but the humidity doesn't help matters at all. Everything is ice. The first day of snow everyone was out playing in it, but I only saw a small handful, mostly ten year old boys willing to brave the cold. We have been staying warm with our hot chocolate

inside.

This is how Olivia looked before we went out in the snow.

After. She is not a fan.

Ha! That is my offspring right there!

Russel kept Olivia company while I took pictures.

I think there is a Jack in there. His hands look like snow balls.

She is beautiful.

This was the best I could get of the three of them. Kaitlynn didn't want to hold still and Olivia didn't want to be outside. Still they are pretty cute in all of their snow stuff. I can't decide who is the cutest. Kaitlynn with her hat on all goofy. You can barely see Jack under everything. Or Olivia in Claire's old snowsuit.

Running and sliding. Between the snow and the padding from her snow suit, I don't think she felt a thing.

This is them trying walk up the big hill.

He had just got hit with a snow ball. There are a lot of snow games Jack doesn't like.

Yes she is wearing a sock on her hand. Our gloves from earlier that day were too wet. Don't judge me.

These two went flying down the hill. I really was nervous for them. I am not usually a nervous mother (at least I don't think so) but the hill was really big and the end of the trail kind of ended in the back of someone's house. They were good about bailing out last minute though. No injuries thank goodness. Jack went down with them once. They hit a bump and all flew out. He didn't like it at all. He told me he didn't want to sled anymore, which was more than fine with me.

Then back up the hill for another round. They would have done it for another hour if I had let them. Unfortunately I didn't have the same stamina as them and called it quits early.

Watching the sledders.

Losing his grip. She was completely helpless in that snowsuit.

Home again

I don't know if I am going to blog about Christmas. Pretty much anyone who reads this was around for Christmas. If you weren't I bet you can imagine it, we opened a lot of presents and had a lot of fun. We are back to doing all the same old things we did before the much needed vacation. Well sort of. Ryan and I have got a lovely head cold so that is slowing us down a bit but other than that life is pretty great. Kaitlynn has been making up for lost time with her friends. Jack has sang happy birthday to everyone. He is really into Kaitlynn's christmas present a pretend birthday cake you can decorate and cut up. Olivia is a lean mean crawling machine! That girl sure knows how to get around now. She is also sleeping better too! Which really means mom is sleeping better! Wahoo! Oh, how I love sleep.

This is what she does now when she sees me with the camera. Expect to see a lot more of these kinds of pictures.

Ahh! A two headed baby! Got to love the mirror closets.

Making a necklace. We had to use floss because some of the beads were pretty small. So they made minty fresh necklaces.

It was pretty mild outside so we went out to play. Jack is shooting me while he has his lightsaber attached to his ninja belt.

Sometimes it is more fun to watch.

Or just hang out in a tunnel.

We had some excitement in our neighborhood yesterday. I think someone actually died in the smaller apartments. There was a firetruck, ambulance, 4 cop cars and some very official black SUVs at the end of the street.

The kids didn't have any idea what was going on though. They were just happy to wave and get some stickers.

Cool stickers and tatoos from the firemen.

Even though Olivia can crawl it doesn't stop her helpful older sister from dragging her around. She doesn't seem to mind.

Ryan and Kaitlynn are studying together. She is practicing writing her letters and Ryan is doing... well something. I don't really ever know what he is studying. I think he is getting smarter though.