Girls Day

We just had a 4 day weekend and with dad out of the country we decided to have a girls day - Mia and Lily invited a few friends each and we had a No School Pajama Party on Monday morning. The girls all came in their pjs and we had breakfast, played games and did some crafts. It was a great morning! I couldn't believe how much they ate - pancakes, cinnamon rolls, sausage, popcorn and lots of candy. The girls all had fun and I love watching them all interact and listening to their conversations. :)

After a fun girls day we now have added 2 boys to our household - my sister's youngest sons (ages 14 and 9) are with us for a week while they are on vacation. The whole dynamic changes with boys in the mix. I am grateful for my 3 girls, but so glad to have such sweet nephews close by that give me a taste of life as a mom with boys (and a glimpse into life with teenagers).

SNOW DAY!

Well, it doesn't happen often here in Utah, but with the big snow storm we just got they actually canceled school on Friday. Bountiful got over 3 feet of snow in 2 days!! It is beautiful, white and super fluffy. But a real pain to try and drive or go anywhere in. The storm moved in late Thursday afternoon. I had dropped the girls off at dance and gymnastics and realized driving home just how bad the roads were getting. I asked Jason to pick both of them up on his way home so I didn't have to leave the house again - he left his office about 5 and didn't get to Lily's dance until after 6:30 (its usually only a 20 min drive) and then he headed over to get Mia and they didn't walk in the door until 7:20. I was a nervous wreck waiting for them and was so happy to have everyone home and safe that night! The next morning we awoke to more snow then I have seen in a long time. Jason took several hours snow blowing the driveway and then made his way to work. When he got home later that night he got to do it all over again. I am so grateful he was in town for this storm. I never would have been able to clear all of the snow by myself. I love my husband! The girls had a play day - Lily went sledding with some friends and Mia had a friend over and danced like crazy to Just Dance 4 for the afternoon. They loved a day of no school and lots of snow. Piper and I bundled up by the fire and watched lots of shows (Max and Ruby, Backyardigans, Oliva - just to name a few.)

The snow has now stopped but the temperatures have dropped - it has been below zero at night. We attempted skiing on Saturday and the powder was great, but it was so cold our toes and fingers were numb. We took an extra long lunch to warm up! The girls were real troopers but we have decided we are more fair-weather skiers and are going to wait for the temperatures to increase a bit before we head out again. Oh, these are the times I long for the mild winters of Texas!!

2013 - It's a New Year!!

Where did December go? I still haven't posted Thanksgiving, and now we are in January of 2013?! We had some fun in December leading up to the exciting Christmas holiday - but the holiday break was a real bust for our family! For the second year in a row we had the dreaded stomach flu go through everyone (but me - somehow I held strong). From Dec 22 - Dec 29 I spent my nights listening for the kids, washing sheets and towels, spraying Lysol and cleaning everything in sight! And then when one was done I would breath a sigh of relief only to have another one start. We did make it through Christmas Eve and Christmas morning without illness so the kids enjoyed opening lots of presents! I was just grateful to have my parents in town to help out - they babysat the healthy kids and cooked (or took me out to) a lot of meals. I was very sad to see them leave! But we made it to New Years and I was sooo excited to have a New Years Day family ski day planned - Mia, Lily and I got new skis and boots for Christmas and I couldn't wait to put them to use -- only to wake up this morning to Piper and her eyes swollen and crusty. I took her to the insta-care (in my ski clothes) praying it wasn't contagious so I could still leave her with the babysitter and hit the slopes, but nope! Its not pink eye, but a sinus infection that has settled in her eyes. I am home with her updating this blog while Jason and the girls are skiing on their new skis. This was NOT the Christmas break I had imagined. We started December at the Festival of Trees for Lily's dance performance. It was a great way to get in the Christmas mood with all of those amazing trees. (Mia's favorite with the American Girl doll tree. She had to have her photo with that one.) And we had constant Christmas music playing as in preparation Lily downloaded her ballet and jazz music and practiced her moves over and over. So darling! We also spent a lot of mornings searching for our family ELF - and seeing where he decided to hide and watch the girls for the day.

All of our sickness started with Mia the morning of Christmas Sunday - so of course the girls couldn't wear their cute Christmas outfits without everyone, so I thought I would hold them until New Years - only then Piper was sick....so hopefully one of these Sundays everyone will be well and I will get a cute picture of them in their actual holiday dresses. (Jason thought I was crazy that morning as I was scrambling to find other dresses for Piper and Lily - its a stress only a mother would understand.)

We had Jason's family Christmas party early this year - and that meant we got to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas day here at home and not have to go anywhere. It was truly a WHITE Christmas so it was so nice to watch the snow fall but not have to go out in it! The girls and I stayed in our PJs all day!! I loved it. We hosted my family for dinner on Christmas Eve and lunch on Christmas but we are a way casual family so it made for a relaxing and not stressful holiday.

Christmas morning was white (cold!) and lots of fun. My parents came up to be with us while the girls opened their stockings and presents. The big, exciting presents from Santa this year - it was all about gymnastics and American Girl doll accessories. The girls got gymnastics mats and a balance beam of their own, and their dolls got a gymnastics set and lots of leotards and clothes. Even Piper got a gymnastics Dora doll and plays right with them. My girls are constantly flipping over the furniture and all around the house (and the trampoline is covered in snow), so we have now set up their own gym for them in the basement and started the gymnastics equipment collection. It should keep them busy for a while! With Mia's first gymnastics meet coming up in February she has been perfecting her beam routine - lets hope for a high score on that event. :)

Overall, it was a nice, quiet, family-filled holiday! But with all of the illness I was happy to take down the decorations and move on to January - a new year and a new HEALTHY start to 2013. **It has been fun watching our newest animal kingdom member - our backyard bunny. It has burrowed tunnels through the snow and loves to play under the slide and in our rocks. It is so cute!!

Piper is TWO

We just finished our final birthday of the month - Piper is now TWO. The theme I picked this year for her was Our Littlest Pumpkin. The treats were all pumpkin-based since we were all tired of birthday cake and cupcakes - pumpkin bars and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. We had a family dinner on the 17th (her actual birthday was Sunday, 18th). My parents were in town so we had a bunch of family here all for Piper's big day. We made Piper's favorite - cheeseburgers and hot dogs. She had a TON of presents and really could have cared less. She loves books (and got lots of them), but she would open one and then she didn't want to open anymore until she had read the entire book. Cute, but it made the night go very slow. (Christmas morning could take us a long time if she uses the same pace again.) But it was her night so I didn't rush her and eventually all of the presents got opened. :)

On Sunday I took donuts and fruit into her Nursery class at church and they all sang Happy Birthday to her - she loved being the center of attention. And then my mom made dinner that night and we had yet another cake with candles for Piper. This time I just got her her own individual cake and let her eat it all by herself. But she was quite frustrated that she couldn't blow the candles out, so she reached out and touched them with her finger - ouch!! I got it on camera - she was so shocked, but it didn't take her long to recover, blow out the candles and dig into her cake. Before I gave her a fork she just used the candles to eat with. Funny girl.

Ouch - Piper touched the hot candles!!

YUMMY!

I cannot believe my baby is TWO. She is such a delight to have in our family. She can always make us laugh with her cheesy smiles and funny words. She has finally started calling Mia and Lily by name and she has them wrapped around her finger. We all love our littlest pumpkin so much!! Goodbye birthday celebrations - hello Thanksgiving and Christmas!

Birthday Break

Each year I look forward to my little get-away and break from the birthday madness at home. Jason has an annual meeting in San Diego each year in November and I get to go and meet up with him and spend the weekend! This year we stayed at the Hotel Del Coronado - what an amazing, neat and very old hotel with so much history. I loved it, and it was right on the beach so that made it even better!! We enjoyed great weather, food and alone time while the kids, who were staying with Jason's mom at our house, were enduring the first (and very large) snow storm of the season. They were snowed in for the weekend. My sister texted me a picture of the few feet of snow on her deck, and I sent this - a view from our hotel window:

Jason still had a day of meetings on Friday so I exercised and got breakfast with some of the other wives. Then a few of us took the history tour around the hotel. And then I did some alone shopping - no stroller, no kids and no hurrying back to get kids from school. I think I look forward to that the most each year. Saturday we just spent the morning running/walking along the beach, eating a late and delicious breakfast and exploring Coronado. We actually went to a movie that afternoon - another thing we only seem to do when we are in San Diego.

But we got home on Sunday afternoon as the snow stopped and Jason got to use his new snow blower to clean the driveway. And the girls played in the snow for hours. I really appreciate Sheila putting up with the snow, the kids and the craziness so Jason and I could enjoy our time in San Diego. Winter is here and we love it!!

Birthday Madness

So our November is crazy with birthday parties, celebrations, dinners, treats, etc. We start on the 6th with both Lily and Jason's birthdays. This year Jason was leaving town on his birthday so we celebrated early. Lily started her partying early, too! We had her "Friends" birthday on Friday the 2nd. She wanted a craft party - I didn't want a bunch of girls in the house with paint, glitter, glue, etc so we decided to have a party at Michaels craft store - what a wonderful idea that turned out to be!! I will definitely do that again. :) Lily got to pick what she wanted to do (decorate mirrors), then picked out all of the decorations (glitter, glue, stickers, etc) and then we just showed up with food and had a great party. At the end, I got to leave and not clean up one thing! The girls had a ball, and Lily loved her Lalaloopsy Craft party. She has made some really, fun cute friends in her kindergarten class, so I enjoyed getting having them all together and getting to know them better.

Sunday, the 4th we continued the party for Jason and Lily with a "Family" dinner here at the house. Lily requested her favorite - my meatball pizza. And then we also had grilled chicken alfredo pasta. YUMMY! And of course we ended the night with our usual birthday chocolate cake - and lots of presents. Lily finally got the present she has been wanting - her very own American Girl doll. Big thanks to meemaw and pop-pop for that one!!

So by the time we got to the actual day - November 6th - I was kind of done cooking and entertaining. But we had a happy birthday breakfast (cinnamon roll waffles with a candle) before dad left for the airport and then I took cookies to Lily's school class (which I bought because I got lazy) and then Lily had her weekly lunch bunch friends over after school for lunch and games. I was very happy that she chose to go to gymnastics that night over going out to eat. I think she was done celebrating, too. It was a great week of fun and now we have a dad that is another year older - and Lily that is now 6.