Master piece in the works.

Who new my little man would love to color as much as he does.  It is so cute!  

sigh

He climbed up on a container to get up to the table. 

Hannah helped him pick a few crayons and he went to work. 

The finished product.  L.O.V.E

Pigeon Pete

Meet Pigeon Pete. 
He came to our house for a visit. 
Hannah was so ecstatic.
She has been waiting and waiting......
She wanted to give him his own personal photo shoot.
All the props, poses created by her. 
She could not be happier. 
Pete follows Hannah everywhere.
He wants to do everything that she does. 
Pete has to go back to school tomorrow. 
She is already sad about it. 

When there is nothing else to do....

We have been trapped inside our house for way to long.  My kids are sick of the snow and the cold and have asked me one too many times when spring is going to be here. Hannah asked me today if Valentine's Day is in the spring.  She cryed when I told her no.  I feel the same way.  So to make the best of the cold and the snow we decided to play with water and food dye.  The kids had fun mixing the colors (getting it everywhere) in containers and muffin tin.  We then put it outside and waited until it froze.  Once it froze we popped the ice out and made ice towers with them.  It was fun and gave the kids something to do outside. 
Happy long winter everyone!!

 Hannah "kissed" the metal on the trampoline and ripped half of her lips off.  It was horrible.  She came running in with a mouth full of blood! I had no idea what happened until about a half hour later when she stopped crying.  We then had a long talk about not putting your mouth, lips, tongue, and what ever else she can think of on cold metal. I don't think that she will do that again.  Poor girl.  You can tell how painful it was for her to smile. 

This picture has nothing to do with snow, and it is really kinda creeping looking, but I had to post it!!  I found these nail stickers at Walmart the other day and just fell in love!  They are not hard to put on and you don't have to do any painting!! I have had mine on for 2 weeks and they still look great.  So if you are brave enough to go to Walmart then pick up some of these!  They have tons of other patterns.  I have zebra print on my toes!

it is still winter?!

I know that I am going to have hard time with these next (long) winter months.  I always have hated the snow, cold, ice, bitter wind, and freezing temps, but it seems this year it has really gotten to me.  I can truthfully say that I loathe the winter months.  I am ready to go swimming, ride bikes, blow bubbles and play with sidewalk chalk.  Summer come save me from this winter insanity! 
To say the least my kids relatively like the snow, but lately it has been too cold to play outside. The snow here is not fun to play in because it is mostly made up of layers of fluff and ice.  So I thought that we would bring it inside and build little snowmen.  It was really fun and my kids got their creative juices flowing! 

We used glitter glue, colored water in a spray bottle (my kids fav winter tradition!) melty beads, baby carrots, and colored Popsicle sticks.   Now we wake up to these little guys staring though the window at us every morning!

{New}

I often think of January as fresh start, breath of fresh air, new.  I have a new look on life.  I want to start on this new crisp white piece of paper, I am ready to paint a beautiful picture.  I looked around my house, I looked at my family, I looked at myself and asked, what do I want to do this year?  How can I make things better....new again? I thought that I would start with my house.  It was calling for help under loads of clutter.  I started to gather things here and there, and soon I had a mountain of things sitting in the middle of my floor.  I made up my mind that I would not be sad or angry with myself, but happy that I was bettering our house.  And by doing so, bettering me and my family.  We took loads to the Salvation Army and to the dump.  Ahhhhh! It was so refreshing.  I was surprised how much better I felt and I was only half done!

My newly organized closet. I still have a lot of cleaning out to do.

Next, I wanted a change..... I have wanted to get some crazy red highlights for a year now and have never been brave enough to just do it!  Well I did..... I {heart} them!!!

My new walker..... It is a whole new world for my little guy!  The problem that he has "run into" is that everything sharp and pointy is right at eye level!  He met our bedside table.(each day it seem to get more purple!)

New phone/data plan/book/ect  
Kurtis has been in love with some sort of hand held device since I met him.  He has entered into the Droid world, and he is more than loving it! We have yet to talk about his goal for the year. :)

Hannah....

Hannah has found a new love for Ballet. It is so fun to watch her learn a new thing and just run with it.  The other day we bought her NEW ballet shoes.....she calls them her "real" ballet shoes.  

Me: Hannah what is your goal this year?

Her: To be a singer on the radio and get rich.

What's yours mommy?

Me: To be always patient and organized.

Her: ..... that's a weird goal.

New Facial Expression.   

I know... this face... she is our clown!  She will often call someones name and you will turn around to look at her and she will be making this face.... I just can't help but laugh every time she does it!  You know you are laughing too.  :)

Newly discovered artist!  

Caleb's goal for this year is to become a better artist and to get a 3 on his report card for handwriting. 

Caleb really does not like coloring or putting in any effort into his hardwritting.  He reminds me so much of Kurtis, no time for the "girlish" stuff when there is so much to learn.  He loves math, reading, science and history.  Art is at the bottom of this list.  :) 

This picture blew me away.  He usually does not take the time to color every inch of his paper.   

I love it. 

Can you tell I’m still in the optimistic stage? I am and I’m excited… Excited for endless possibilities and thrilled (and yet secretly slightly disheartened) to know that the only thing that could frustrate my resolve is me.  But for right now I am doing all I can to at least start, thinking...doing.  I love this quote that I found on my friends blog and I thought that it explaned what I want this year. 

"We become what we want to be by consistently being what we want to become each day."

 

 Happy New Year!!

For the beauty of the Earth

While at the cabin in Island Park, Idaho I went out to play with my Christmas present!  I got a 35mm prime lens.  It has the most beautiful depth of field!  F1.8!!! I am in heaven!  I love it to pieces!  Here are some pictures I snapped.

One day early

That is right, our family was just that special!  Santa came a day early to our house.  We made a special request to the big man and he came though!  The kids were so excited!  We spent all morning opening presents, eating butterscotch rolls, and playing with our new toys.
This year we bit the bullet and bought a xbox 360 with the kinect.  It turned out to be the best deal of the year.  We managed to get it for a fantastic price, which made it a little easier on our wallets.  The kids (Caleb) about fell over!  It was so fun to see their faces. 
The next day (Christmas) we flew out of Rochester to Salt Lake.  We then drove to Twin Falls to see my family.  It was SO much fun to see everyone.  I had a blast with my mom.  We shopped, crafted, watched movies, played games, ate yummy food (Cafe Rio!!!), and just plain chatted!  We even managed to get a family picture!  After a few days in Twin we drove to the Reed Cabin in Island Park.  They had a ton of snow and it was freezing...... not really my cup of tea, but we still had fun!  There was a lot of snowmobiling and game nights, and yes, lots of junk food!  After two days there we drove to Idaho Falls and spent time with the rest of the family.  More food, more games and more chatting!  (I came home feeling like a cow.)  We managed to get home at midnight Sunday night.
Long Story:  We got to Salt Lake to find that our fight had been delayed.  We then knew that we were going to miss our connection.  Which happened to be the last fight of the night. Once we got to MN we had to race across the whole Minneapolis airport to catch our connection and it truly was a miracle that we made it.  Thanks to a really nice employee who drove us in his speedy little car and then carried ALL of our bags while I pushed all our kids is a wheelchair to the entrance. Once we got on the plane it stood in line to be de-iced for a HOUR!!!  We finally took off and landed in Rochester 15 minuets later. (We could have walked home faster!)  It was one crazy long night.  We were happy to get tucked into our beds when we got home!  Here are some pictures from our trip! (I am sad that I don't have more) Thanks to all our family for traveling, cooking, planning, and hosting us.  We had so much fun with all of you!!!

 Porter eating Santa's left over cookies. 

While looking up these pictures I found pictures from Kurtis's phone!  I am so happy!

 On the plane!! Hannah was so excited! 

When we went to bed one night we discovered that the cat decided to cuddle up on Porters legs.... we all had a good laugh!

Gwen and Porter

 Derek, Kurtis, Christi

My man....need I say more?! (whenever I ride in this stance I feel like a complete idiot, how come he looks so good?!)