Keep the Old Ones

Second week of January I started getting into the Valentines swing of thing.  I love Holidays and often they sneak up on me and I don't get to do all of the fun Holiday stuff I wanted to.  We are going out of town in February, so I knew we needed to start early.  We made some heart shaped Valentines cookies.  And with everything that I try with the girls, its a complete disaster.  I have no idea how we always make such a mess.  But they had fun decorating and mostly eating the cookies.  One of Wembley's favorite words is "cookoo."  That girl loves her cookies.

I've been trying to make more of an effort to do Brizzy's hair and help her pick out her clothes.  It helped that Portia was here and was a positive influence on Briz for matching her clothes.  I was being really lazy before with her hair and clothes.  It's easy to not do anything with her hair because its short.     

My college roommate Meredith came into town with her husband and three boys.  I haven't met her kids because she's been in other places around the country.  It was SO fun!  They were here for a job interview and I'm really really hoping they get it because it would be so fun to have them around.  

Here is Nolan and Dubs giving each other hugs.  The twins and Dubs are 6 weeks apart.  And Briz loved having Weston around to play with/boss around.

I can't help but act like an idiot when I'm around my friends.

Back to Life, Back to Reality

As we got back into school and work and the regular routine of things, and I put all of my Christmas stuff away, I was motivated to clean and organize.  I didn't get very far, I got portions of my office done, the playroom, and then sorted through paperwork.

With Brizzy's constant art work, I am always reorganizing that.  And I was behind a few months, so here is some that I took down from her bulletin boards in her room . . .

She went through a few weeks in the fall where she was very into drawing portraits.  Here is Snow White

A self portrait from the summer.

A giraffe and birds from the zoo.

One of her many many notes.  She writes me a few notes every day.  They're all very sweet.  

She also loves copying books.  Here she made her own version of this board book.  

And sketches of her toys/stuffed animals.  One of her favorite palace pets.  I can't believe she didn't trace this.  

This is a really old one that must have been left up for a while, but its her self portrait from September at the start of Kindergarten.

And her opinion writing from last spring in Kindergarten.

We had this picture on cardboard from way back in Nike Tykes.  She is a little 3 year old here.  How has she already doubled her age?!

Post Christmas

After Christmas we did some more fun stuff.  We saw a few movies, (Star Wars and Joy), played a lot of games, watched movies at home . . .

We went swimming at an indoor pool with all of the cousins and we went ice skating at the only outdoor ice skating rink in Portland.  It was small, but it was still fun.  They even had cute little skates to put on Wembley, and I just pulled her around.  She would go completely limp but giggled so apparently she liked it.

We also went up to Mount Hood to sled and ski.  My girls LOVED the snow.  On the drive, as we started to see snow, Wembley kept saying, "Wow" very enthusiastically.  She literally played in it all day, no nap.  My Mom and I took turns helping Briz ski.  

They had this cool tube carousel thing.  Wembley and some of her cousins spent a lot of time in this.  But Dubs only wanted to be in it alone.

It was cold but a beautiful clear day.  You could see the top of Mount Hood from the lodge.

Briz and I spent the first half of the day on the little toe rope hill.  She was nervous but did much better than I thought she would.  The trickiest part was grabbing onto the toe rope.

We took a break for a while, had some lunch and hot chocolate.  Wembley's hair is awesome.

Briz loves her hot chocolate this winter.  She did a dance and song about hot chocolate in her dance class, and ever since then she thinks its great to sit and drink hot chocolate.

I was able to take a few runs by myself.  It was so beautiful!

By the end of the day, I convinced Briz to go on the big mountain with me.  I was so proud of her.  She fell a few times and didn't cry or have any kind of meltdowns.  

  

The view from the top of the mountain.

New Years Eve Day was freezing!!!  But it was sunny, so we decided to take advantage and go to the park.  

That night, we had so much fun.  We played games with the kids, had pizza and treats, and then at "midnight" aka 9 p.m.  we lit fireworks, blew noisemakers, and had a silly putty war outside.  I loved being with these kids that night.  I love watching how excited they get.  I feel like a kid again, celebrating with them.

The adults then stayed up and played games until 2 a.m.  We played Cards Against Humanity and laughed so hard that we almost peed our pants and our cheeks hurt.

A few days later, we got snow!!!  Church was canceled, so we took a little walk around the neighborhood.  Briz was very imaginative in her ability to spot animal tracks.  She found deer, dogs, cats, racoons, and I think a few more.  Wembley had a few face plants but recovered quickly.

Our friends the Papworths were supposed to bless their baby that day in church, but since it got canceled they blessed him at their home, so we went over to there to join in.  I finally got to hold him!  And it made me baby hungry for about 10 minutes.  

Briz was in love.  She was almost in tears because she wants a baby brother very badly.

The next day, we had freezing rain so school was canceled.  More excuses for lazy mornings and fun days playing around.

We went over to the Papworths to bug them and break off all of the ice in their yard.

It's been a really fun Winter Break.  I get sad when its over cause I love just being home with my family.  Sad that we have to go back to work and school.

Christmas

The week before Christmas we had a lot going on.  I was just newly called about a week prior to our ward Primary Presidency as the second counselor.  This was my 5th primary presidency, but I love the calling so I am excited.  I ended up being in charge of sharing time and singing time the Sunday before Christmas.  And then I was asked to speak on the same Sunday.  My friend had her baby that same Sunday, so after church, I ended up watching her three kids for 2 days.  Nick's birthday was the Friday before, and my family was all coming into town that weekend.  Probably not a huge surprise that on Tuesday before Christmas I got sick again.  I came down with a bad case of strep.  I was nervous to take antibiotics because I have been trying to build up my immune system but it was necessary.  I was in bed for a day and a half with a 102 fever.  Horrible time to get sick.  But luckily Bri and Ronell came into town and were able to take care of my girls for me.  Nick was stuck working unexpectedly.

They took all of the grandkids downtown on the MET to see Santa at the Macy's.  I was sad I had to miss it but glad they were still having fun.

We went to Pump it Up one morning and the kids had a blast running around, being crazy.

Christmas Eve Day, we continued our tradition of going to Holly's grave and singing Christmas carols.  We quickly realized that we need to work on memorizing the lyrics of a lot of them.

We also went with a little singing group to a local rest home.  Briz sang some Christmas songs with her friends and after we spent some time visiting with the residents.

Christmas Eve I hosted at my house.  We had a really fun night.  I didn't end up doing quite as much as I thought I would because I still wasn't feeling great.  We had a delicious dinner.  After the kids participated in a talent show and then they acted out the nativity.  Afterwards, the kids got in their Christmas jammies and we ate dessert.

We sent the kids upstairs to watch a Christmas movie while the adults had a White Elephant Exchange.

Nick and I were much more prepared than we thought we would be.  Normally we're up until about midnight getting stuff ready, but we were done by 10 p.m.  Christmas morning, the kids didn't get up too early.  We were downstairs just before 8 a.m.  It was so fun to see the girls excitement.  Bri and Ronell had Christmas in the other room, but the kids would run back and forth sharing the presents they were excited about.

We take turns opening up stockings individually while everyone else watches.  We started with Holly's stocking, then did Wembleys, then Brizzy's.  Wembley loved all of the stuff in her stocking.  I was pretty surprised how into she was.

Brizzy also loved everything.  She particularly loved this scarf and the beanie boo stuffed animals.  She has worn this scarf literally every day since Christmas.

After stockings and presents, everyone came over for a big breakfast.  We opened some more presents, took naps, then headed over to my parents for dinner and some more presents.  It was a great day.  I loved dragging out the presents opening.