Winter Storm Warning...

We have had the driest, most brown winter I can ever remember. I swear a week ago we could've been doing this:




Now in the middle of January we are getting a winter advisory and our mountains are expecting 3-10+ inches of snow. Which, is a good thing for the summer because then we can water our lawns and go camping.

So far today, all I've seen are small flurries here and there, but not even enough to coat my lawn or even pretend to. I'm sure it's on it's way and it just hasn't hit my house yet, but at the rate we keep moving, next week we'll be back to more of this:













I'm not the biggest fan of winter, but I do like that it brings us water for the summer so we can go play. I've loved not having snow down my shoes and all over my driveway all winter, but I can do without the weird bitter cold we've had. Looking at these pictures sure makes me miss the fall! I can't wait until spring.

New trick

Overnight Lincoln has become a huge fan of eating. He used to eat just enough to get by and be fine with that. Now if there is food pulled out somewhere in the house, he knows and he wants it! He has been eating so much and is such a good little eater. Maybe one of these days he'll eat enough to actually hit the 20lb mark!

Anyway, once he started eating a lot, he wanted to start to master feeding himself. He does pretty well too! I'm not sure if he was actually eating at the end or just playing. Either way, he was happy!

Pinterest

While browsing Pinterest for what felt like a few minutes (which in all actuality was a few hours...it's like a time portal! You get sucked in and are spit out hours later without realizing what happened), I have found a few different photo ideas that I've wanted to try. This is one of them. I wanted to try it while Lincoln was still tiny, so we put our own spin on it. Instead of cowboy boots and a cowboy hat (neither of which we own...) we went for Mart's work boots and a trucker hat. It seemed to fit us a little better.

He wasn't very happy about the boots, so I wasn't able to take a whole lot before he started trying to climb out of them. It worked for what I was going for though.

I'm sure one day, Lincoln will be a bit embarrassed by these pictures ... but who can resist a tiny naked bum?? :)

The things he comes up with...

Ethan just picked up Mart's old Ghost Busters gun thing and asked me what it was, and then asked me what was in there. I said "I don't know, what's in there?" and he goes "The Holy Ghost is in there"

I guess it's nice to know he is at least paying a little attention. Maybe now we should work more on specifics. :)

Christmas ... finally

I suppose I should probably get caught up on my Christmas post before I have a ton of other posts to add ... (not that I don't have a ton backed up already.... :) I'm a blog slacker )

Martin worked a ton leading up to Christmas. It was good, but not at the same time. It was like we didn't even see him through all of December. It made for a really good paycheck two days before Christmas, which helped a ton! But it made for a little bit of a lonely holiday with him coming home late every night. Besides Mart being gone all month, when he was home, it seemed like we had plans. We felt like we were rushing everywhere all month long. Birthdays and more birthdays, shopping, work parties, a play, and who knows what else. It felt like a very busy month.

It took a while, but we finally got our tree up. We generally get it put up right around my birthday (right around Thanksgiving), but this year it just didn't work out until into December. My boys thought the tree was great fun! Ethan even decorated his own little tree again. (Bottom right corner)

Mart usually spends the entire month of December outside building Christmas projects, but because he was so busy at work, he didn't make it out there until the week before Christmas, which meant he had to cut 80% off what he was going to make off his list.


We must have been good because we were spoiled this year. Way more spoiled than I had originally anticipated. I spent a good chunk of time making our boys some gifts as well. I made both of them a quiet book for church. They took me FOREVER! I started about a month before Christmas and was only able to work on them at night when the boys were sleeping. Which meant, I was up sewing from like 10pm to 3-4am every night for a month. I have never made a book before so I wanted to make it as easy as possible. Once I got the hang of what I was doing, things when a whole lot more smoothly. They loved them when they were done, and that made it all worth it! I will post photos of the books in another blog post. They also got new quilts and some homemade stuff from a craft fair Mart was a part of a few months back.


Christmas morning:









Light sabors were by far the biggest hit of Christmas! Ethan walks around with all three of them attached to his pants. We have sword fights several times a day!


Ethan even tried to open up one of his boxes with it ...


What better way for two boys to get their aggression out? A punching glove set. :)


Ethan got a small kitchen set and vegetables he can chop. He loved them! He cooks for me all the time now.


And Lincoln man got a tool set which was a big hit with him as well.


And, we can't forget the new hand print hat of the year.


And Santa Clause brought them each a big Tonka truck! They will be so fun in our yard in the summer in the new sandbox we are going to make!


This isn't a great photo, but I had to throw at least one in of me too. :)



It was a great Christmas. Long and a little stressful, but I guess that's what happens when you have to have three separate Christmases. It was nice to get everything taken down and put away, and get back to normal lives.

Now it's time to get ready for Ethan's 4th birthday ... and Disneyland!

You know you're tired when ...

Lincoln was getting sleepy, so I ran to the bathroom real quick before I put him down for a nap. I came back about 2 minutes later and this is what I found ...




He must have been more tired than I thought. :)

Family Pictures October 2011

A little late ... but better late than never. :)


As usual, family pictures turn into a huge process and it's next to impossible to keep everyone happy and smiling or even looking at the camera, or you know, in that general direction. We got some okay ones considering how fast it all went downhill. Family pictures with children = not a very fun experience. I'm glad that we at least get a couple that semi work out when we go.

Ethan pulling a super cheeseball face

When we ask Ethan to smile, this is generally what we get. Which, I suppose, is better than screaming and looking the other direction.

When I get home and look at our new pictures, sometimes I am taken by surprise at how big our family is getting and that I have 2 kids! It's totally crazy.

Now if the weather would ever cooperate and actually snow instead of this abnormally weird warm weather for December and January, we'd go get some snow pictures.