Oh those curls...

 Little Miss Lydia is all spunk lately!  She has so much feistiness in her but is so sweet too.  Jake and I both agree that this is our very favorite age/stage of kids so far.  She loves to learn, loves to do what everyone else is doing and just does so many cute things.  She has progressed into a BIG GIRL bed and doesn't want to sleep in her crib anymore. I resisted the whole thing, but she would have nothing to do with her crib one night so Jake got the bed out and she has taken to it ever since. 

 She LOVES to play with her sister and loves to make her brother and sister both squeal. She still is a sort of picky eater, but is getting much better at that when she actually wants to eat. Sometimes meal time can be torture with her around because all she does is protest, but other times she just gobbles things up.  

She loves to talk and tell you so many things, yet we only understand about half of it (if even that).  She is so helpful and loves to unload the dishwasher with me.  So cute!

She loves to say Cheese at the camera...can you tell?  She hates to have her hair done which is too bad because it gets a rats nest in the back every time she lays down because it is so curly. But when we do get it done, all we have to do it clip up the front because the rest takes care of itself because its so curly...and were did the blonde come from?

We love our Little Miss Lydia!!

Ouch...

 Our little guy finally had to get stitches. I am amazed at just how many people have scars on their forehead...probably from doing the same thing Anthony did.  We were sitting home watching football just waiting for our babysitter to come so we could go out on our date and Anthony was running back and forth from the stairs to the fireplace like he has done SO many times before.  Well, this time, he caught his foot on the carpet and slammed right into the fireplace.  As soon as I saw him do it, I knew we were going to the doctor.  So I handed him off to Jake to get the bleeding under control and got the girls ready to go to our neighbors house.  Anthony was so brave. We sat at the doctors office for quite a while and then they gave him some numbing stuff, stitched him up with 3 stitches and sent us on our way.  We had to stop and get Anthony a frosty and french fries for being so tough.  He didn't even cry once we got the hysterics taken care of when the blood was gushing out of his head.  He didn't even want pain medicine that night.  He was jumping around after his sisters the minute we got home.  

Glad his first ouchie didn't take too much out of him!!!

A New Preschool...

 Jenna wanted to go to "nene's" preschool and I wasn't sure she was quite ready in August.  But I KNEW she was in January.  Luckily, Mrs. Mueller had an opening in her afternoon class so Jenna got to start!  She goes three times a week for 2 hours and loves every minute.  She asks every day when it is she gets to go to preschool!  The only downside is that she rarely takes naps but at least she has something to enjoy!

She is growing up too quickly!

Little Sister, Big Sister...

These 2 little girls LOVE each other so much.  It makes me so happy to see them being such great friends already (I just hope it lasts).  Lydia wants to do everything that Jenna does.  I was wearing a hat that day, so naturally Jenna had to wear one, which made Lydia want one too.  Jenna doesn't think she looks beautiful in a hat unless she has a bow on both sides, so naturally Lydia wanted 2 as well.

I love my girls!!!

First bow kill...

Story to come as soon as Jake sends it to me :).

Bear Hunting...

 (This happened back in May but I'm just adding it so it can be in our book I make each year!)

Saturday at about 7 pm my gun earned a new nickname.

Picture yourself high on a mountain side with 6 inches of fresh snow blanketing all the spring vegetation. Imagine the calm silence as new snow falls around you. The silence then being broken by the cracking of a branch off to your left as you continue to climb. As you peer through the timber you see a flash of black and gray. You pull up your rifle to try and get a closer look only to immediately see the face and body of a brown bear running through the trees. That's where it all started.

My friend and I went bear hunting for the second weekend. The first to set up the bait sites and this last Saturday to check on them. We were pretty disappointed to find nothing had hit the baits yet, and the weather was pretty nasty with snow and sunshine trading off about every 15-20 minutes. We decided to climb a hill and see what we could find when came up on the bears. My friend ending up taking a shot as the bears circled back around and walked about 60 yards in front of us broadside. I think he got too excited and ended up shooting just underneath it (it was quite a rush to be that close to a bear in the thick timber). We then tracked it through the snow down, across, through the creek bottom, up the next ridge, around the point and back up another draw over about 2 miles. Roughly an hour and a half later we spotted the bear across the ridge about 300-350 yards away. We crawled around a rock outcropping/cliff area and found a good rest. As I pulled up my rifle, I see the bear stand on its hind legs and start scratching its back on a big pine tree. I fired off a shot and missed. It started running and slowed to figure out what was going on. I let off another shot, then my friend shot. Then as it started to head up the hill I took one more shot. I watched through the scope to see it turn its head and attempt to take one final step over a large red rock only to slide, tumble, and roll about 100-150 yards down the hill. At first I wondered if it maybe slipped, but through the snow flying I could see the large red spot on the side of the bear and knew I had bagged my first bear.

It is definitely not the biggest bear, but it is a bear nonetheless with big teeth and claws. The experience was unbelievable.

Cotton Candy...

Santa brought Grandpa Guymon a cotton candy machine.  Jeff and Shonie were nice enough to get it out for us so we could test it.  We all enjoyed eating the yummy treat!

Christmas at the Guymon's...

 The party just continues all weekend long.  After we opened presents and got ready for the day, we went down to the Williams to talk to Jon on the phone. It is amazing the technology that we can talk to him all the way in Argentina. It is always fun to hear a missionaries voice and enjoy hearing his stories.

Once we got done talking to Jon, we headed down to Logan to enjoy the Guymon side of the family.  We were missing several family members who were greatly missed, but it was still a good time. Lots of cousins to play with and lots of yummy things to eat! 

 This was Lydia taking a picture of me taking a picture of her :)...

 The kids got suitcases from Grandma and Grandpa and have loved them ever since!  They will come in handy and get lots of use out them!!

 

 Here is Jenna all dressed up in her princess attire she got from her cousin Stanley!  She loves being a princess!!

Christmas Eve at the Williams...

Every year we get to go have Christmas Eve at the Williams household. It is always a party with lots going on and this year was no exception.  There were lots of cousins to play with and luckily they included Anthony because all but one were girls :)...Jaxon needs to grow up a little so Anthony has a boy to play with!

 Cute couch of cousins...

 Waiting for the pinata...thanks for the picture Natalie!  Not often do I get them with me and my kids!!

 The Christmas pinata!

 

Grandma made these jammies for the girl cousins and Jenna needed some cowgirl clothes so she got that.  I just love these pictures of such cute girls!

Once again, Christmas Eve was a party and a great way to start the holiday weekend!!

Christmas morning...

We had such a wonderful Christmas morning. I couldn't have asked for it to be any better.  Anthony woke up first and couldn't WAIT to go downstairs.  He ran downstairs and ran right back upstairs and let Jake and I know that Santa had come and left him a Bronco's football helmet.  We asked him what else Santa brought and so he ran downstairs.  This happened about 4 or 5 times until he had for sure told us all that was in his stocking and all the things his sisters got outside their stocking too.  It was so cute seeing his happy face every time he came back in our room.  I love the magic of Christmas morning.

Lydia kept forgetting to go back into her stocking. I don't think she ever even got everything out of it. She was too excited for everything she pulled out.  She still loves the camel that came with the Fisher Price Animal Zoo!  Cute little girl...

Jenna was so excited for her talking baby doll that needed her Mommy :)!

Our little sports boy all dressed up in his football stuff from Santa.

After we opened up the presents and ate our breakfast casserole we just hang out and played with the toys, lounged on the floor and had a great time just enjoying each others company.