Winter Sports

We spent a fair chunk of time this winter in the gym which is just how we like it.  There were plenty of moments like this with Hayes asleep in my lap.  I love that he fell asleep with a sucker in his mouth.

Both Kallie and Cole did basketball and they both enjoyed it.  Kallie has improved a lot and is getting more aggressive and understanding the game better.  Cole's age still does clinic style basketball but he does great as well.  

Cole also did wrestling for the first time and really fell in love with that.  The coaches like him and say he works hard and is strong.  (That feeds his ego a bit which is great!)

Cole's first ever tournament he won the first match but lost the other two.  He is just learning the moves, but was disappointed anyway.  

Even though wrestling is not Weston's sport, he was so supportive anyway.  He went down to the mat during his match but told me "I don't even know what to yell"  I thought it was pretty funny.  

My dad on the other hand was pretty excited to have a couple wrestlers in the family.  That is his sport of choice for sure!

A Trip to the Pig Farm

My dad's friend has a pig farm, he has been dying to take us there and it did not disappoint! We loved it despite the smell.  There were about 100 piglets of all different sizes and the kids had a blast.  I think Hayes loved it the most.  Weston was out of town which was a bummer because he would've loved it too.  

January Little Things

After Hagen's eye appointment in December and finding out the his prescription was all wrong, we got the boy some new glasses.  We were all pretty happy about that.

Hagen mastered driving the snowmobile this year.  We made a track for him, which packed down to ice and around and around he went.  The kids fight over who has to drive so they were excited to have a designated driver this year.  Hagen was happy and it was a win win.  I witnessed some wild crashes and one nose dive into the ditch (Hagen doesn't always watch where he is going) Even Hayes joined in the fun a few times and loved it.  

Speaking of Hayes; there is the binky loving goober himself.  I can't seem to bring myself to pull that plug!

Just after the holidays we had a few not so great test scores come home from the kids.  We had a family meeting about the importance of good grades and informed the kids that we expected them to do their very best.  We knew they were capable of better and the "talk" seemed to work.  That very next week they each came home with a few perfect test scores!

Sometimes Hayes just gets too tired to wait for me to rock him to sleep....

Kallie got this hair mannequin for Christmas. It has real hair that can be washed, dried, curled, sprayed or whatever.  It has been a huge hit and she spends hours learning new hair dos.  She was especially proud of this one and I have to say I was impressed! That girl has talent I tell ya!

Holiday Break

Our holiday break was lots of fun and packed with cousins and grandparents.  

I love this picture of Hayes, he is looking at Grandpa and so proud of himself for stealing his treats.

We had a sledding day with Coy's kids, the Christmas eve blizzard came just in time.  The kids can't get enough sledding!

We spent time with the Angell cousins as well.  After all the Christmas gifts they got; the giant box was a fan favorite and the kids spent hours in that thing.

We went to a cabin in Island Park for New Years with the Crapo's.  Despite the frigid temperatures we still had a great time sledding and playing with cousins.  We ate way too much food and played lots of games and only fought a little, which is a success for us!

December 2014

Still playing catch up here but with good reason.  You see we have this problem with our toddler son, Hayes.  He is a total techno nerd and is obsessed with anything electronic.  Honestly it is to the point of concern for Wes and I.  We have to keep the office door shut and all devices inside, remote controls are kept on a high shelf and he will climb to flip light switches. If he gets his hands on a remote control he will follow us around whining for mickey mouse.  He is fluid with any iPad or phone he touches and maneuvers his way to get where he wants.  We can hardly use our cell phones in his presence because he literally freaks out and wants to have them.  Hence the reason I am so far behind on my blogging, it is a nap time only activity and lets face it there are way too many "nap time only" activities for me to keep up on.  Therefore we will keep this short and sweet....

This rarely happens, but is a welcome sight when it does.  I love this boys and the fun age he is in.

We went on a "date" one night when Weston happened to be home and bought some groceries while Kallie was at clogging.  After spoiling him with a candy bar he wants to go on dates with me all the time now! Ha!

Cole is excelling in school and I count my blessings every day that we sent him to school when we did.  He does great and has so many good friends.  He of course loves Mrs. Brown's class and has had a great time with all the fun projects.

At the first of December Weston had meetings in Salt Lake so I went with him and got all the Christmas shopping done, in one day! We left the kids with my mom who also had my brothers kids that weekend.  I felt so bad leaving her with so many kids and such chaos, but she deals with that way better than me anyway.  Well when we got back she tearfully told me that Hayes had grabbed the flat iron and burned his fingers.  Of course Grammy felt terrible! Hayes's fingers looked pretty nasty for a few days but healed quickly.  I tried to bandage them up and he sat so still while I did this and then pulled it off seconds later! 

My sisters and I got together to make caramel for neighbor gifts, Misti is always trying to be the favorite aunt and gave Hagen this killer spiderman mask as we were leaving.  He fell asleep with it on and took a two hour nap with it on.  I tried taking it off but he freaked out. 

Christmas 2014

How sad that it is March and I am barely posting Christmas.  Seeing as it is not my favorite holiday I was reluctant to post my pathetic documentation of the day(s).  

We had Christmas Eve with my family and to say it was the single most chaotic night of my life would still be correct three months later.  I don't know why the kids in my side of the family find the need to yell and scream and fight over who is the center of attention all the time but they do.  All of them.  I feel like whenever we are there I am constantly telling my kids to quit this or stop that and to please stop yelling.  They don't act like that at home or really anywhere else but at my mom's house, it is bad.  Needless to say my mom was nearly in tears after she had worked all day long to have a nice dinner ready, and create the perfect stage to act out the nativity.  The kids didn't cooperate at all, actually the little kids were great it was the older four or five that were horrid.  I think my parents probably had a long discussion that night about how their children were failing in our parenting.  (And with good reason)

After acting out the nativity, Grammy gave all the kids their pajamas and sent us out the door.  She later admitted that after the last person left she let out a huge sigh of relief.  (And then probably spent the next five hours trying to put her house back together) 

We told the kids that they couldn't get up before 6:30 and Cole was in my bed at six, he tossed and turned until 6:30 when we finally let him wake up the other kids.  It was a great morning and the kids were so excited.  As far as gifts, we did a lot less this year and it felt really good.  The kids each got one fun thing and then a few things they needed.  I was worried they would be disappointed but they didn't seem to be. For the first time since I have had kids I didn't feel sick to my stomach that I had done too much after all the gifts were opened.  I really hope to repeat that every year from here on out. 

After taking our time doing our own thing Christmas morning we ventured over to G&G Crapo's where everyone was having a great breakfast.  That whole family was headed skiing for the day but we stole Libbie and headed out to my mom's for some more chaos! Just kidding it was so bad Christmas day.  The kids were so cute together and we just hung out.