Bear's Hair

Barrett was born with hair that sticks straight up and it has done exactly that almost every day of his life since!

Pari

I've known Pari since I was in 5th or 6th grade.  She used to come to our house and wax our eyebrows while we laid on the table.  Our cousins would come over to get waxed too, it was quite the party.  Eventually she stopped coming to our house but we'd still go to her house to get waxed.
She always sent a Christmas card.

I don't have any pictures with her but Jill had a couple so I asked her to send them to me. 

Pari was always brutally honest.  When I had bad skin or had gained weight, she was sure to mention it.  But I knew if she complimented me, she meant it!  

She had cancer for several years and I haven't been up to see her as much in recent years because it was out of the way, but now I'm wishing I had done it anyways.  I never took the chance to say goodbye.  I'll miss you Pari!!

7 Months

Eden is 7 months old now and a light in our lives.

She weighs a little over 13 lbs, wears size 2 diapers, and still wears size 3-6 month clothes- BUT some of her pants are getting a little short for her!

She got her bottom two teeth in this month.

And started eating solid foods.  She also graduated from the bumbo on the table to the hanging high chair.

I don't think she'll be crawling too soon, she doesn't especially like being on her tummy.

She has started really enjoying splashing and kicking in the bath.
She never snuggles on me like this but she'll always lay her head down on Lala.

She got her first cold, ear infection, and cough this month too :(  She's been pretty miserable and is still dealing with her cough.

Eden likes knocking over block towers.

She smells so good all the time- even when she's covered in spit up!  I wish I could bottle her little scent.
She just isn't a great napper.  It kills me after having Bear be the best napper in the world!  He still naps everyday for 2-3 hours!
She has recently decided she doesn't want to go down unless I nurse her first, so the last few days I've basically given up fighting her for naps.  I'll nurse her and try to put her down for a nap and if she goes down (for her usual 30-45 minutes) great, if not, oh well and I'll try again next time she needs to eat. I actually hate it because I like having my kids on a good napping schedule, but it just wasn't happening!  She is pretty much tired all day, but I can't get her to sleep so this is how it is right now.

Bear

I haven't been able to make it to the gym very often over the last 7-8 months and when I have gone, the kids have been left home with someone.  I went one afternoon and even though my parents could tend the kids, Bear really wanted to go to the gym "with his best friend."  When Nicole and I were done with our class we got the boys and noticed they were both wearing dinosaur shirts!  

Barrett's snowman has lasted forever!  Today we went out and knocked off his head  just for fun.  Then he threw it in the street and played snow soccer with with Lala with it.  He also really loved climbing the remains of the snowman.

 He loves to eat snow.  Even dirty snow and old icy snow.  He was eating his snowman.

I came into the kitchen after putting Eden down for a nap and Barrett had finished his lunch, go the vacuum out and was vacuuming under his chair! THEN a while later, I went to get Eden up from her (always too short) nap and I didn't see Bear so I called his name.  He was sitting on the stairs waiting to go to his room to be put down for his nap.  He had already gone potty and brushed his teeth and was just waiting for me to read to him!  He's been so extra great this week!!

He's really into mixing colors lately and asking every possible color combination- what do purple and black make, What do you get if you mix orange and pink, etc.

He asks such intelligent questions like how does your body move? and how can you talk? He likes to understand how things work.

This was just a face he wanted to show me that made me laugh tonight.

He told me today that he wants to learn how to read and he has pretty much taught himself how to write his name.  He's getting really good at it!

Darth Vader

About a month ago my mom bought these cute kids Star Wars books and Bear has been totally obsessed with them (there are 3 of them and they're actually pretty long).  We read them each at least once a day when she first got them and he memorized many pages.

This page in particular has been giving me grief!

Almost every time we read it, he asks me the same question.  I was really caught off guard the first time he asked and wasn't sure how I wanted to answer... For now, since he's only 4, I just tell him that they grow in Mommy's belly!
Dang you, Darth Vader!

Best Night with Best Friends

We had big plans to get all our friends together after Christmas but almost everyone was sick or had sick kids the day of.  We ended up having the Loves and Adams' over to our place for some super fun times. 

Kelsey and Missy wouldn't lean in for this picture so it looked like I was just hanging out with all the guys.

Here we all are. We seriously had so much fun!  I miss these guys!

The babies had fun too!

Hadlee and Eden.  It's like if Kelsey and I were babies again!

She is such a happy little girl and Bear was glad he got a turn to hold her too.

Sword Corner

When my little brother Taylor was young, he had a million toy guns and he kept them all together between his dresser and the wall.  We called that area "gun corner".  

Now Barrett has a million swords/light sabers and they are all kept behind one of the toy baskets.  I call that area "sword corner".

Guess Who's Back?

We started out 2016 in the best way... going to pick up Grandma and Papa from the airport after their year-long church mission to Peru.

We had to wait for quite a bit longer than expected and the kids got tired.

YAY!

There were lots of hugs and joyful tears! We missed them so much!

Eden was born while they were out so even though we had facetimed them regularly, this was their first actual meeting.

All the grandkids but Ava and Eden.

We went back to their house afterwards and had pulled pork sandwiches (they were banned from eating any pork products in Peru because it's not safe) and Chick-fil-a because Dawn loves it and they don't have that in Peru!

They brought the kids home these pretty handmade blankets and also bought a loom to show how the blankets were made.

Pretty cute!

New Years Eve

We had a few different options for going out to celebrate New Years Eve but we decided to stay in instead so we could get our kids to bed and not have to try to get a babysitter.

This picture isn't actually from NYE, but it's cute, so here it is anyways. 

Back to New Years, we just stayed at my parent's house and everyone came there to party.  The kids played some hopscotch.

We played Ticket to Ride.

There was Dominos going on too.

The girls.  Liv stayed at our place for a few hours and then she went out to a party.  That made me feel really old and sad!

Some super obnoxious blowers and noise makers.

My hot date.

Happy New Year!