Jack Lives For...

Basketball!Jack loves basketball so much! He amazes me every day the new things he comes up with while he plays. I have good intentions of videoing him playing someday soon while he plays. It's pretty intense.

For now, here's a picture of him wearing his new "soccer" shoes. I thought he would call them basketball shoes since that's what he calls Kate's pink version of the same shoe style, but for some reason he calls them soccer shoes. One night he put his "basketball" pajamas on with his new shoes and started playing. He tries really hard to dunk it, but it's still a little too high. Yesterday he made me sit underneath the basket, so he could stand on my legs while he dunked it. Crazy kid!

Happy 200th Blog Post!

Somewhere on my blog this morning I saw that this post is my 200th! That's a lot! I guess it's probably about time to print out my blog or make it into a book or something. Have any of you done anything like that with your blogs? I don't really know what to do.

Anyway...I wanted to post some pictures of the kids that I took last night of them helping me make chocolate frosted marshmallow cookies. They loved every step of the cookie making process. Kate loved putting the marshmallows on the cookies. Check out my other blog for the recipe. They're delish!

When I was taking this picture of Jack, Kate said, "Look at Jack's face!" And Jack said, "Me Superman!" The cookies were a hit with Superman.

Build-a-Bear

Yesterday we met our sweet friends, Chris & Geneva, at Build-a-Bear, so they could get the kids' "bears" for Christmas. The kids loved every minute of it. Thanks Chris & Geneva!

Here are some pictures of the bear building process:

Choose your bear (or kitty)

Chris helped the kids pick out clothes (and basketball too).

Stuff it.

Wash it.

Dress it.
We didn't take any pictures of the kids with the bears when they were all dressed. The kids have played a lot with their "bears." Jack's bear has a recording of Jack saying, "Shoot it" when you press on its foot. Jack has spent a lot of time yelling into the bear "shoot it." Kate's kitty meows of course.

Anyway...The kids loved the whole experience and love their animals. Thanks again Chris & Geneva!

New Year's Utah Trip

A few days after Christmas we loaded up and headed to Utah for a week. Here are some pics of our trip:

The kids' New Year's party

A little bowling... The kids loved it! Ethan's turn.

Kate's turn.
Jack doing it his "self".
"Me did it!"

We met Uncle Bruce at a reservoir to watch him ice fish. It was freezing and windy!

Norm, Ethan, Jack, Dave (drilling), Bruce

Kate and EthanJack was freezing! He lasted about 10 minutes on the ice and then he and I spent the rest of the time waiting in the van. He doesn't handle the cold very well.

Dave pulled the kids around on the tube a little bit. Jack helped too.

It was a nice trip. Good to see family. It's nice to be home and get back into a routine. Kate started school today. I started teaching piano lessons today. I think it's going to take a little while for the kids to get used to me teaching. Hopefully they'll adjust soon.

Oh, I wanted to write down Jack's latest version of Jingle Bells:

"Tinkerbell. Tinkerbell. Tinker all the way. Oh, what fun. Ride horse. Hey!
Tinkerbell. Tinkerbell. Tinker all the way. Oh, what fun. Ride horse. Hey!"

Christmas

My parents and brother and sister spent the week of Christmas with us at our house. It was nice to have them come (on really snowy roads though) and stay with us. They all took turns playing lots of basketball with Jack. And, Kate loved having Emmalee to play with. I loved having someone clean up the kitchen after I made anything. Thanks for coming Mom, Dad, Emmy & Steven!

Watching Cars with Grandpa & Emmy

Opening Christmas Eve presents... new jammies!

Santa brought...

and...

Opening presents...

Being shy...

I'm sad that we didn't take more pictures of everyone. Hope you all had a great Christmas!

Kate's Dance Concert

Friday night was Kate's "worship" dance recital at the Baptist Church. She did a really good job. It was fun to watch.

Kate and her friends, Annika and Nina

I think the highlight of the night for Kate was getting flowers. My friend, Elise, thought ahead and bought some flowers for Kate and Annika.

While I was at Kate's dance dress rehearsal, Jack went to his friend Amy's house. They were sitting outside and Amy's mom told her to put her arm around Jack. This is what happened.

Usually Jack is the one doing the kissing.

What I Did Yesterday

This is what I did yesterday...
Before our last move I threw away Kate's Winnie the Pooh-cheaply-made-free-back-of-the-car-seat-organizer. Yesterday Kate really wanted to know where it was. When I couldn't find it, she suggested that I make her a new one. So, I did. Just don't look too closely at it.
And then I had to make Jack one.

And, I guess they double as aprons.

A few other things we did yesterday:

• Jack had three baths/showers.
• Jack took off his diaper and then pooped in his jeans (a first for me to clean up!)
• Jack watched the "Bear Necessities of Light"
• Made fudge (a first for me in a while -- it took forever! I think I either didn't have the stove up high enough or the high altitude affected it)
• I made a huge mess with all my cooking and sewing. Which is why I don't sew very often.)

Snow Day

Today was a snow day! The lab and all the schools were closed today, so we all got to hang out at home together. Dave measured the snow in our backyard this morning and we have 13". Most of that is from the last two days. I guess it's supposed to keep snowing through Thursday, so we'll see how much we end up with.


The kids played in the snow for a little while this morning while Dave shoveled. I wish they would have played in the snow longer since it takes so long to get them dressed. Oh well...

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Not much new going on with us besides snow! I'm not quite sure I like the snow. It was kind of nice not having any. Oh well. It snowed once last week and I took some pics of the kids playing in the backyard.

After Kate went to school this afternoon, I bundled Jack up and we went out to tackle the shoveling (for the second time today). He really wanted to ride his bike and help me shovel. He really should wear a helmet when he rides that tiny little bike, especially when he rides it on ice.

Thanksgiving Week Festivities

We had a fun Thanksgiving week. Vaughn and Marianne drove down and stayed with us. We were sad to see them leave yesterday. The kids have been going through Grandma and Grandpa withdrawal. Thanks for coming Grandma and Grandpa!

Here are some pics of our Thanksgiving spread.

Jack is really thankful for his one green bean.

Jack kept Grandpa busy playing lots of basketball and football. Jack loves to dribble the basketball in the kitchen on the tile. He's pretty good for a two-year-old.
On Friday we drove about an hour away to cut down a Christmas tree. It was a little windy and snow started to blow around. The kids and I hiked around for a little bit and then spent the rest of the time in the van waiting for Dave and his parents to find the perfect tree.

Jack had a hard time walking in his snow pants -- I think they might be a little too small.


The tree.

It's a little smaller than we usually get, but there weren't many great trees to choose from.

The kids loved helping get out all the Christmas decorations and decorating the tree. Jack thought it was really funny that the tree poked him.

I'm pretty sure Kate didn't leave Marianne's side the whole week.
Thanks for being a wonderful Grandma, Marianne!
I just figured out that we don't have any pictures of Vaughn, probably because he took all the pictures. Anyway...It was fun week.