It was 42 degrees on Saturday. The sun was shining, and the kids were convinced that spring was finally here. Tyler has shorts and sandals on. And yes - Adam has no shoes on. The water in this turtle sandbox had a sheet of ice on it 20 minutes before this picture was taken. Crazy kids, or bad mom?

Brian's new jeep! Can you believe it is 10 years old? The interior is immaculate. Brian just lifted it a few inches so it looks manly. Er - I mean so it has more clearance underneath. Ya, that's it. Hope you all have a great week!

BethAnne's Birthday

 

 

 

 

Here are some pictures of BethAnne's family birthday party and a picture of Grace from today. Such pretty girls, but I'm a little biased. Things have been going well lately. Spring has already sprung here in Washington. It is beautiful! (I'll try to send some pictures soon). Most of us are suffering from allergies, but it's not too bad. We ran some errands yesterday and it seemed more like we were taking a scenic drive than running errands. You should all come and visit, especially those of you dealing with cold, snowy winter weather.

Here's some recent Grace comedy-

Grace and BethAnne were listening to a lullaby CD in the car yesterday and Grace said "This is the magicalist lullaby I ever seen. I liked it when I was a little, powerful baby."
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Today we were discussing as a family how the girls needed to behave better when the home teachers are here or they would have some kind of punishment. Grace said- "Punishment is not polite."
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Have a great week everyone!
Love,
Aubrey

Joy likes baby food

 

 

 

 

Our little Joy is 5 months old today and she loves baby food. In the first pictures, Mark had just fed her some carrots so her face is tinted a little orange. The last picture is Joy on BethAnne's birthday eating some peaches. She loves all fruits and vegetables so far, which I guess is not common, but our kids have been that way. It's probably because their Daddy likes most foods. We love our sweet Joy!

Love,
Aubrey

Joy Baby

 

Here's a picture of Joy from yesterday. She's getting so big too. She's such a dear.
Love,
Aubrey

BethAnne's 7th Birthday Party

 

 

 

 

We had a very fun party for BethAnne yesterday at Chuck E Cheese's. Here are some pictures from it. I can't believe she's getting so grown up, they all are. I hope you are all well. We love you!

Love,
Aubrey

February Update

Brian just played his last basketball game. He did great! He even made a long basket during the last game. He needs to learn that guarding doesn't include shoving people and holding them hostage. Nor is it necessary to stick your tongue out at people when thy steal the ball from you. Very funny and embarrassing at the same time.



Ok - could he be any cuter?!! He insisted on an elmo cake, and I delivered (sort of) . My neighbor is taking a cake decorating class. I think I should win a free ticket to the class - like someone could nominate me like they do for the Oprah show when people have really ugly kitchens. The ugliest cake decorator award!?

Aren't we darling? I was so unprepared for this birthday. I had to wrap Adam's presents in towels because I didn't have any wrapping paper. Bad mommy!

Our beloved jeep. I killed it. RIP. We sold it for more than I thougt we would, so that was good (or will be if the guy ever comes to get it. At least he already paid us!). Brian got a new jeep that he is very excited about. I will post pics when he gets the lift and tire spacers on. Very fun!

Happy Sunday everyone!

Riding Bikes

The weather was warm today, so we took the girls to the school to ride their bikes. Grace loved her new tricycle we got last November at Harbor Freight in Boise. Thanks Lisa, for telling us where to find it! She's able to ride it really well, which makes everyone happy.

Things here are going pretty well. We had a wonderful time with Mom visiting last weekend. She is such a great help and a great friend! We are looking forward to BethAnne's birthday party on Saturday at Chuck E Cheese. Nana and Papa are coming up from Boise for it so that should be very fun. We hope you are all doing well!
Love,
Aubrey

P.S. Kid Comedy from yesterday-

BethAnne- Was there ever anyone who was hit by lightning and they didn't die?
Me and Mark- Yes.
BethAnne- Did it change them a little bit?

:)

After the Snowstorm

These are some pictures we took Sunday after the first snowstorm and before the second came on Tuesday (we ended up with a few feet of snow after all was said and done). Jeff climbed up on the roof to brush off the satellite dish so we could watch the Super Bowl.

Then he built a deluxe bobsled track that went from the back of our backyard (as you can see, he piled up a bunch of snow for a ramp at the start; since then he has added more snow and it's almost up to the shed's roof) through the gate and out to the sidewalk. He and Eva and Aiden had a blast sledding.

Even our next door neighbors, Betty and Bill, took a turn. I haven't tried it yet (my excuse was that I had to stay inside an hold Xander), but I plan to do it soon.

I'm Keeping My New Year's Resolution!

It hasn't even been a month since my last post! During most of the month of January the kids took turns being sick with fevers and colds and ear infections, but as of right now we are all well (knock on wood), and mommy is quite relieved.

As I sit here the snow is falling in a huge snowstorm that is supposed to be the biggest our area has received in decades. It's supposed to be at least two feet of very wet heavy snow. Jeff and the kids are so excited! I know that's probably nothing to you Logan-ites, but D.C. just doesn't know how to deal with this stuff. We had a few inches of snow on Wednesday and they closed school. Last night the school district preemptively announced a snow day for today even though the snow wasn't even predicted to start until 10:00 this morning. We've now exceeded our allotted snow days for the year, so they've decided to hold school on President's Day, which is fine with me since I'm not even really sure why it's a holiday. There was a run on the grocery stores yesterday with people trying to load up on supplies, and one of the local hardware stores sold 1000 snow shovels last night (two guys got into a fight over the last snow shovel and a plain-clothes cop had to come break it up) and 1500 this morning. Today we've been hunkered down watching the weather channel and playing Wii. It's quite cozy and we all think it's pretty fun to have daddy home on a weekday.

Aiden was the first one outside when it snowed on Wednesday. He built this little snowman (you can see it if you look really hard) all by himself before Eva and I came out and helped him build a big one.

Eva insisted that she needed to shovel the deck since daddy couldn't do it because he was at work. She did a pretty good job!

Two days ago Xander rolled from his back to his tummy for the first time, and he was furious about it (he did not like being on his tummy at all). He got over it though and now tries to roll over every chance he gets.

Here's a picture of Xander in his "Elmo jammies" smiling and cooing at the cute baby in the mirror.

Beautiful in Blue

 

 

 

 

Hi Everyone,

Joy was so cute in her outfit today, I had to take some pictures. Have a good weekend.

Love,
Aubrey

Funny, sweet Grace

 

Above- Grace helped make brownies the other day. She loves to help in the kitchen!

Grace Comedy-

Awhile ago, when it was colder, we were driving home past the park-

Grace- (yelling) "Park! Park! I want to go to the park!"
Me- "We can't go to the park, it's freezing outside and BethAnne is sick."
Grace- "We can leave BethAnne home"
Me- "We can't leave BethAnne home alone"
Grace- "She won't be alone, the baby will be with her."
(apparently, we were going to leave the baby home also).
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Grace- (question) "Babies make bad choices?"
Me- "Babies don't know how to make bad choices"
Grace- (enthusiastically) "I DO!!!"
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This morning I was feeding the baby in the family room and I could hear Grace loudly eating her cereal in the dining room. Here's the conversation that followed-
Me- "Are you being careful not to make a mess with your cereal?"
Grace- "I'm being careful, but my milk isn't. My milk is naughty."
A few minutes later
Grace- "My spoon is naughty too."