Here is a small smattering of what we have been doing. 

Hannah has been perfecting the art of blowing kisses.  She only does it at bedtime when we say goodnight.  Last night I could tell she was tired.  When I picked her up she started blowing kisses.  No one was around to blow them too.  I am pretty sure she was trying to tell me she wanted to go to bed.  Funny, clever girl.

My absence in blogging for a week or two; the flu hit our home.

Olivia handled it the best.  She pretty much slept for two days and made a full recovery.

Hannah and I did NOT do so well.  She had a hard time sleeping through the night, so I had a hard time sleeping through the night.  Ryan got home one morning after working a call shift and took one look at me and said I looked terrible and then snapped this picture.  Lovely husband.  

Still working on getting better.  Ryan is so great at sitting down with our kids and snuggling with them while enduring some kid show. 

The highlight for the month for the Kaitlynn and Jack was the Harlem Globetrotters. Ryan got tickets for the three of them and they had a fun night out.  Originally I thought about going and getting a sitter for the younger kids but decided against in the end.  I am glad I did since Hannah still wasn't feeling well.

Ryan took some funny videos of the kids laughing.  Well mostly it was of Jack laughing.  They thought it was the ultimate!  Jack didn't realize it was a fixed game so he was quite concerned about the score the whole time.

One morning Ryan was really frustrated because he couldn't find his face wash.  He may have ranted a little bit about needing a bigger house with a bathroom with a drawer just for his stuff.  Currently his things are in a travel bag under the sink.  Things get a little tight when you have six people and two small drawers.  Anyway I digress, later that morning I found his face wash in Hannah's toy elephant.  It made me smile.  I can see how it was a perfectly logical place for a toddler to put it. 

Happy little girl.

The last remains of the box Ryan's fancy saw came in.  His box was the kids favorite christmas present.  They loved that thing to pieces, literally.

Olivia was being daddy's little helper.

He added another light in back half of our basement.  

I LOVE our Little People playhouse.  Nanny got this for Kaitlynn years ago and all of the kids have had their turn to play with it.  Hannah is at the age where she is discovering how fun it can be.  It may be one of those toys I wont be able to get rid of just because of the hours my children have loved it.

Sometimes I like to take pictures of things I cook that actually work out.  Pizza Poppers are a favorite in our home.

A family in our ward owns a gymnastic gym.  For a primary activity they let the kids come play one evening.

Ryan showing off his skills.  I tried to do this and ended up with a massive headache!

This girl loves to hang. Its kind of impressive how long she can hold on.  At least we think it is impressive, though we may be a little biased!

Nine Years

Nine years ago I married this handsome boy.  We have squished a lot of life in those nine years, four  kids, three moves, two degrees and one life together (cheesy I know, but true!). 

I found and watched our wedding video today.  It made me smile.  I loved seeing how happy we were.  I wouldn't want to go back to that point in our lives again however, because I love how happy we are now.

About a year and a half later we welcomed Kaitlynn to the family.

Two after that we were blessed with a boy, Jack.

Not long after Jacks birth Ryan graduated from BYU with a bachelors in nursing.

Another two years later almost to the day Olivia arrived.  We went bowling for Jacks 2nd birthday and Olivia was born bright and early the next morning.  

When Olivia was a little over two months old we packed up everything we owned.

Moved across the country.

Riverside Missouri has been our home ever since.

We had two weeks to get adjusted to things before Ryan started school again.  Here he is on his first day.  He did not want me to take his picture.  Glad he smiled though!

After a year of living here Kaitlynn had her first day of school.

The next year tiny Hannah was born.  Unlike Olivia who was a week late Hannah came ten days early making her our smallest baby.  Even though she is our tiniest baby she has the biggest smile.  

 Ten months later we celebrated another degree for Ryan, this time with his masters.  Smart boy.

Lastly on our timeline, Jack started kindergarten in the fall and is loving it.

I am so grateful for the past nine years.

I hope the next nine years are just as full.  

MaryLynn's Bed

After Kaitlynn got her doll for christmas Ryan said something about making MaryLynn a bed.  Kaitlynn was all over that project.  Between her enthusiasm and Ryan's need to try out his new saw, they had a bed built in couple of days.  Next step was to paint it.  I now have a few small spatters on my new carpet downstairs.  Sigh.  

After the building and painting were done then I stepped in to finish off the job.  Kaitlynn measured, cut, pinned and sewed.  She really did a wonderful job.  

We used some old fabric I had.  I was really pleased to see how well it went with her bed.  

This is one happy doll in her custom homemade bed.  Kaitlynn is working on embroidering MaryLynn's name.  She wanted to make a pillow with her name on it.  We have one more pillow to make for the last finishing touches.  

It was fun to share our hobbies with Kaitlynn and it didn't hurt that it cost us a fraction of the price of a real doll bed.  

Zoo

Saturday we used our christmas zoo pass.  The weather was chilly but the sun was out so we made the most of it.  We layered up with sweaters and coats and enjoyed the animals.  The polar bear is one of their main attractions and he is always entertaining but he was really enjoying the cooler weather.  He was in a very playful mood jumping off the shallow end of the pool to flip over in the water then he would push off the glass to swim around a rock to do it all over again.  So fun to watch.  We even got splashed on.  

Hanging out by the polar bear tank.

Ahh, the sun is too bright!

The penguin exhibit is new and it pretty fun too.  The let you get pretty close to the penguins.  Hannah liked looking at them at a distance though.

Watching the penguins fly underwater.  

The have a sky coaster that goes over the African animals.  The weather too cold for them but we took the ride any way just for the fun of it.  Kaitlynn and Jack felt so grown up riding on their own seat. 

Again they were demonstrating their independence by riding in the back of the tram rather than with the family.  Funny kids.  It was nice not to have any crowds.

Looking at the Kangaroos.  They don't even fence them in.  I guess they just know not to wander away. 

Kaitlynn is always a great helper.  She and Hannah are checking out some Monkeys I think.

Waiting for the Sea Lion show. 

Worst treat on a cold day. They are eating ice cream.  I refused. 

Terrible picture of Hannah but its all I took with them together on the marry-go-round. 

The one picture of me just to prove I was there.  

Staying bundled up and warm.

You know an event was a success when the return trip looks like this.

Even though not all of the animals were out we had a lot of fun.  I am sure we will spend many more day at the zoo this year.