Making cookies for Santa...

"Santa needs some cookies to eat Mom...." Oh yeah!! Doh...what was I thinking? So Christmas Eve morning we baked and frosted some cookies for Santa! We had the neighbor friends over to enjoy in the fun too! The cookies turned out great and the kids had a fun time doing it!Lydia got to enjoy a non-frosted cookie!

This was right after Jenna took a HUGE scoop of frosting and ATE it....nothing else.

Anthony's cookie was piled high with good stuff! He had to make sure that one was set out for Santa! He is one lucky guy to get so many cookies!!

Here they are sitting up with Parker. Fun, fun days with kids around! The holidays are way better with them! The kids chose three cookies to give to Santa, poured some milk and left some carrots for his reindeer. Santa ate 2 3/4 of the cookies...the kids were excited to see that they were gone!

Neighbor gifts...

This is what my neighbors and friends got for Christmas this year! I thought they turned out quite cute...and Anthony had fun helping me!!

Graham Cracker Houses...

This is Anthony's. I made the house and he decorated it! He was so excited to put bugs all over it! He did a fantastic job!

Every year, but one, since Jake and I have been together we have made Graham Cracker houses and LOVED every minute of it. This year we invited Jessica, Justin and Grandma Williams to come have fun with us! Jake didn't make one this year because he had just gotten back from hunting and decided he needed to eat instead...oh and hold Lydia :)!! We missed his wonderful creations though, he usually goes all out!!

Lydia is 8 months old...almost..

I cannot believe how fast Lydia has grown up. I was telling Jake last night that in my head, she is still about 4-6 months old, not almost 8. I guess that is what you get when it has been a very stressful last 6 months....time just flies!Lydia LOVES to sit up and play with toys out of a basket...she can do it for such long periods of time! As long as we keep putting things in the basket, she will keep playing. Isn't she so cute?

We had Popsicle's the other day while Jake was at scouts and we watched "The Sing off". I was eating one and Lydia was sitting on my lap...you can tell what happened next by the pictures! She took it from me, ate it and was SOOO mad when it was gone. Cute little thing!
Lydia still doesn't crawl, but when you have limited time on your back or belly, that is to be expected. She doesn't get much alone time and anytime I have her on her back or belly the kids maul her and either pick her up and put her on her bum or roll her over or whatever the case may be. If she wants something REALLY bad, she will scoot on her bum to get it! Funny how each child develops so differently!

Brrr...It's cold outside!

Do you have as much fun as we do when its too cold to go play outside?? (-16 degrees with a wind chill is just too cold to even think of going outside!!)

Camping in a 'tent'

Coloring and stickering :)

Swimming around the living room and staying away from the sharks in the water!
We CANNOT wait for it to warm up a little bit so that we can send the kids outside to play in the snow, if there is any left with the weather being so random!

November...

Just a synopsis of what happened in November...

• The kids grew up!! Anthony is starting to spell things out and wants to know what EVERY word says. Jenna was potty trained, but then regressed; more on that later. Lydia is just getting bigger and bigger
• We went to lots of wrestling matches. Jake coaching takes up a lot of time, but he loves it and Anthony loves going to watch.
• Jake spent 3 days in the hospital. He had been sick from the first weekend of November with strep throat and bronchitis. He went to the doctor *which was a miracle--he never goes and will probably never go again* and got put on antibiotics. They ended killing all bacteria in his body, good and bad. C-diff (a VERY bad bacteria that we all make) ended up growing in the place of the other bacterias. It made Jake very, very sick. It caused some serious stomach issues for about 12 days before we got a doctor to take tests and take him seriously. The Monday before Thanksgiving Jake couldn't tolerate anything, liquid or hard, I didn't want my husband to die, which he wasn't far from, so we took him to a different doctor. They admitted him to the hospital because of his severe dehydration and being VERY ill looking. He was still super weak until the Sunday after Thanksgiving. He ate about as much as the kids for Thanksgiving dinner. We are grateful he is back to normal and that we don't have a zombie for a husband/father. It was probably one of the worst weeks in my life. So scary. The doctor said that it was a good thing Jake was young and healthy or he would have died. Counting our blessings for promptings of what to do!
• Thanksgiving (as you can imagine) wasn't the most relaxing. It was however nice. We stayed here and went to the Williams. It was nice to be able to sleep in, relax and let Jake recover.
• We didn't get to get our own Christmas tree this year, but Jeral was nice enough to get one for us! So at least we have one.
  
• So needless to say, not many pictures or too many other activities to report. We are grateful for our health now, our home and all the things the Lord has blessed us with. We sure hope that December is a heck of a lot better than November was!!
  

6 months old...

It is unbelievable how fast time flies. Lydia is already six months and almost seven months before I even get this posted. We just took her in for her six month check up and she is still just a cute, little girl.

She loves to sit up and look around her at everything that is to be seen. She loves to watch and LAUGH at her brother and sister when they are doing. She loves to eat graham crackers, fruits and just about anything she gets her hands on. She is such a sweet little child and just goes with the flow on almost everything. She has had a bit of a croupy cough so that makes the night not so fun, but she is getting better. She has just gotten her first tooth.

We love having Lydia around!

Here are her stats:

Weight: 14 lbs 12 oz --13%

Height: 25 1/2 inches --22%

Head: 17 inches

Not much to report...

We have been super busy, just not doing much of anything :). Jake is coaching so that takes up most of our spare time. The weather has turned cold, so we are inside more, which makes the time seem to slow down a bit. Anthony and Jenna are getting to be really good friends and LOVE to play like they are going camping, dressing up and dancing together and so much more. They make me laugh almost every day.

Jenna LOVES to make messes. ALL THE TIME. This was the result of the last mess she made.

Isn't she LOVELY?

We are fighting a whole lot of sickness in our house and hopefully we have seen the last of it for awhile....but i'm not holding my breath. It seems that once you get something you get everything else too.

Jenna is POTTY TRAINED!! YAHOO!! We aren't accident free yet, but she does so well for only being a few months older than 2. She loves to go on the potty and makes sure everyone gives her a high five when she gets done and that she does her little dance that she went on the potty! I'm so proud of her!

Halloween...

Halloween was filled with fun activities, as always! We had ghost pancakes for breakfast, mummy pizzas for lunch and pumpkin soup for dinner. I still haven't found the right dinner in a pumpkin yet. I'll keep trying until we find it!

Our ward and the Yellowstone ward had a trunk-or-treat at the church. They are always so nice to do, get there, go around the church, fill up the pumpkins with candy and home in 30 minutes. The kids love it too! After the trunk-or-treat we went down to Grandma Williams to say Hi. Great Grandma had lots of visitors and we could resist taking some pictures of some of her grandchildren. Wouldn't it be nice if we could get them all in there? She is so proud of her posterity! Here is our little Lydia kitty, isn't she so cute?

Jenna our Bigger kitty. She was so excited to be a kitty. Her costume was super fun to make and easy too! I made it out of an old sweater of mine that I was going to throw away. Added felt, fur and you have Jenna the kitten!

Anthony couldn't make up his mind on what he wanted to be. He kept saying a ghost, superman, spiderman and would go through 10 or 12 things. He kept coming back to being a ghost so I encouraged that. He then told me he wanted to be a green ghost and this is what we came up with. He Loved getting his face painted. Nobody really knew what he was, but he was happy to tell them!

This is a result of about 10 pictures. there was so much going on that they kept turning their heads to look. I am amazed that I got a picture that both of them were looking.

Here they are getting candy from Anthony's preschool teacher. The little redheaded girl just got in the way as the camera clicked :(.

What a cute little family I have!!

Holidays sure are more fun when you have kids to celebrate them with! It was fun to come up with the costumes, meals and festivities throughout October. Now onto Thanksgiving and November. I can't wait for next year!

LOVE fall...

I love that my Dad loves to take pictures of my kids (or any kid for that matter). We always get some great shots! I love these sooo much! Thanks Dad!

Decorations...

Wow, moving into a new house is so much work! But when the kids say they have the coolest room and give me a hug, it makes it all worth it!

Here is the girls room. It is turqoise, green and PINK! It turned out just the way I wanted it! LOVE IT (oh and so does Jenna)!!

Here are a few things in Anthony's room. I'm still not completly done with his room, but at least some of it is started. He picked out the camo wallpaper border himself, asked Grandpa for pictures and wanted a green wall. He got all of those things!

Here are the blinds in our front room. My mom made them and this picture just doesn't do them justice. They are AMAZING and just how I invisioned them. Isn't my Mom the best?

More pictures to come as I get more things decorated around here. I'd like to say things are going to slow down so I can get more done, but that just doesn't seem to be the case. Oh well, we are loving life here in our new house!

Leaves are falling on the ground, on the roof top, all around...

We sure do get a lot of leaves at our new house! Good things the kids like to rake and then jump in the pile! Jake got home while we were raking and asked what we were going to do with the leaves once we had them raked in a pile.

In the innocence of youth, Anthony replied, "Jump in them!"

October is slipping by...

We have been in the making mood apparently... We have made spudnuts, cookies and forts :)!! Seems like every day is filled with something to do. Jake is coaching wrestling again this year and is gone until 5:30ish every night. He is still super busy with work so we hardly see him at all. SOO to occupy both me and the kids, we make stuff. We make crafts, cookies, forts, anything we can think of!

This last weekend we went down to my parents and had a blast. Its fun to go down when there isn't too much going on and just get to play and hang out. We got new pictures of the kids from my Dad and I can't wait for him to bring them up so I can show them off! We love when Grandpa Guymon takes pictures! I've been busy making the kids halloween costumes and having FUN Doing that. They can't wait until it is Trick or Treat day :). I still can't believe that October is almost done....I hope time slows down sometime soon!

Lydia is rolling over...

I don't know why, but I love seeing her in this little pose. Her little legs crossed and trying so hard to roll over!

Lydia has been working so hard to roll over. She finally mastered it and now isn't so sure she wants to. Everytime she gets all the way over, she gets mad and doesn't want to be on her belly! I love having a baby in the home. It is so much fun to watch them grow and learn new things!