I know, I know...

 it's been a while.  Between being busy, lazy, or so sick I wanted to die I just haven't done anything with the blog.  It's been so long I don't really even know what to say.  Here is a plethora of pictures from the last two and a half months.  Most of the pictures are taken with my phone, because I was terrible about remembering my camera.

Preschool field trip to the fire station.

Santa singing at the library.  His guitar had Felix the Cat on it.  His costume was dirty.  Also he smelt a little funny.  I don't think the library had much in their budget by the end of the year.

The kid were still happy to tell Santa they both wanted computers for Christmas.  Yeah that didn't happen.

We went ice skating.  I brought my big fancy camera hoping for some great shots of the night, but I didn't take into account that there were only two adults and three children.  There just wasn't enough hands for the camera.  (Sigh)

We went and had ice cream afterwards.

 Kaitlynn and her teacher Mrs. Kimball

Christmas Eve, wrapping up the presents.  I really don't have ton of pictures from Christmas morning, mostly video.

First lost tooth!

Ray and Ann came to visit at the end of January.  Ray was absolutely wonderful and built new shelves  for us.  It was much needed.  The shelve before were not of the best quality.  I feel like I have so much more room now!  I should have taken a before and after picture so you could see how bad they were.

Kaitlynn was sick on the 100th day of school.  It was quite sad.  But we made up for it.  We had our own 100th day celebration.  Hard to see but they made a sign and are wearing 100 cheerio necklaces.

Ann had to do this quite a bit while visiting.  That little girl loves a good story.

I love our neighborhood!  This was an impromptu smore party.  Living so close to your neighbors can have its draw backs but it also has some wonderful rewards like this.

Working on Valentine cards.

This was Olivia's turn to be sick.

This is how I found Kaitlynn one morning.  She was making her own lunch.  I was quite proud of her; peanut butter sandwich, blueberries and carrot sticks.  Lately she has been waking up before us and getting herself and Jack breakfast then gets herself ready for the day.  I do have to roll my lazy bones out of bed to do her hair. 

This was from today we went to HyVee bakery for Jacks preschool.  He is on the right without a hat.  He thought they looked too silly.

After the tour the kids got to decorate sugar cookies.  It was a lot fun.

Also we did get family pictures taken.  Our neighbors took ours and we took theirs.

It takes this.

To get this.

She didn't want to have her picture taken.

She was kind of a sad about the whole thing.

All the kids wanted to do was play in the dirt in their nice clothes.

This is my favorite picture of me and Ryan.  Our neighbors were trying to pose us and be all loving for the picture but it was just getting awkward!  Finally we had to tell them to stop posing us because it wasn't going to get any better.  We are not photogenic.

PRIVATE

Hey people. Not that a bunch of people read this thing, but we will be making this a private blog within a few days for the security of the childrens. It seems this site gets some traffic in germany, russia, mexico, etc., etc. If you would like to be on the list of authorized readers for the blog, let us know.

Thanks!

Swimming

The kids needed a bath, but didn't want one.  I wanted them clean, but didn't want a battle.  We went swimming instead, and everyone was happy.

They swam for over an hour!

I have made the water this deep a few times before but Olivia refused to sit down.  I think she was nervous.

Somehow putting a swimsuit on made all the difference.  She sat right down and started to play!

I think there will be more swimming to come, this winter!

Ginger Bread Houses and Traditions

Last night our original plan was to go ice skating for Family Night but none of us wanted to brave the cold.  Besides Olivia didn't take a nap so she was sent to bed promptly at 6:30!  We did what I never thought I would do, buy ginger bread kits!   Ahhh! Oh the shame of it all.  While we could have bought way more supplies for our money I do have to say I was a fan of the kits.  Zero planning ahead of time (this is usually my downfall to most things), easy clean up (ie no dishes) and no left over candy (I hate it when there is candy in the house, it turns the kids into begging monsters!)

Ryan and Jack were a "team".

Kaitlynn and I were a team.  Since I was documenting, she went kind of solo for most of the event.

Working on their ginger bread man.

 I saw him stick his fingers in his mouth often.

House put together, time to decorate.

Jack spent most of his time sampling rather than working.

Oh Christmas Tree, oh Christmas Tree.

Ryan was going for an icicle look but it looked more haunted and halloweeny to me.  The sliding roof and half eaten ginger bread man didn't help.

I think he was trading out a piece of candy, he wanted to eat the one on the house.

Kaitlynns master piece!  The ginger bread girl has a pony tail.

Left over frosting.  This may be why at nine that night she came out of her room saying she had a tummy ache.

The pretty girls with the pretty house.

The crazy boys with the crazy house.  The roof slid completely off of theirs.

Jack wanted to lay down for the pictures.

Then the tornado hit.

The house was flattened.  I guess thats what happens when you live out here!  Really it was quite funny they were sitting there posing for pictures when it just fell apart.

We started a new family tradition.  I saw some other people do this and then saw it on one of the blogs I love to look at thedillspiel.blogspot.com and loved the idea.  For our advent count down to Christmas we open a new book every day.  

Then predictably Christmas Eve we will open the scriptures and read the Christmas story.  We are pretty excited about this tradition and hope it is one the kids will love too.  Some just get books from the library so it wouldn't have to be another expense for the season.  We personally liked the idea of investing in the books because we love the idea of a home full of books.  Not all of the books are Christmasy either. 

Last night was a Christmas I Spy book.  We could only do two pages as a family before it was time for bed.  Jack has been working hard on the book all day waiting for his sister to get home from school to show her all the things he has found.