Randomness

With the weather warming up a little, the boys have been LOVING being able to go outside and play more.  Here they are swinging.  The past few days, they have been working on building a "fire". 

Here are the boys pretending to be dogs and getting petted by Andrew.

The boys all really LOVE the pillow pets they got from Grandma & Grandpa Smith for Christmas.  Here they are having fun with them.

One day while Keagan was at school and Deker was at preschool, Bauer and I were home.  I left him on the couch and I thought he was watching a cartoon, when I went to get him to go pick up Deker from preschool just 5 minutes later, I found him asleep on the couch.  This is something my other boys have never done. 

Trip Home

In looking through my pictures of the past couple of months, I realized that I really need to get better at taking pictures. 

In February, my little brother got home from serving a 2 year LDS mission in Campinas Brazil.  The following weekend all of us brothers and sisters and our families decended on the small town of Caliente, Nevada.  Andrew and I took our kids to J&J's for lunch (a must do when visiting Caliente since it is one of the few restaurants there) of piccadilly chips.  Outside the gas station/restuarant is this green Sinclair dinosaur which the boys insist on sitting on each time. 

On Saturday, those crazy bike riders of the family went on a 35 mile bike.  The kids were outside playing and we ran to greet them when they got back. 

On the way home, Andrew was kind enough to hit a bird and it decided to stay on the antenna which is on my side of the van.  We didn't want to stop right away because Bauer was asleep and we didn't want to wake him up so it stayed there for a while. 

While we were all together, we got some nice family pictures taken.  Here is a picture of my parents their kids and grandkids.  We are quite the group, 30 of us in total.

We has such a fun time visiting family and were sad to have to leave at the end of the trip. 

Snow Finally

In January, we got a really big snow storm.  We ended up getting over 6 inches on our driveway.  The boys were so excited to go play in the snow that day.  They loved getting dressed in their snow things and had a ton of fun "shoveling" the snow that day. 

Bauer

Keagan

Deker

Tractors

A few weeks ago, we got a package in the mail from my sister, Vera.  She had been to Kohls and they were having a really good sale on kids clothes.  Inside the box, was a shirt with a tractor on it, a pair of pants and very cool tractor silverware sets for each boy.  There was also a church outfit for Keagan.  Needless to say, the boys were in heaven. 
The next morning, we used the silverware the next morning for breakfast.  Here are the boys, playing with their tractor silveware while I made breakfast.

Eating our eggs with the Telehandler forks and Bulldozer Pushers. 

Eating our cereal with the Front End Loader Spoons.

Here are the three boys dressed in their new tractor shirts. 

And of course, doing their silly pose. 

Here is Keagan in his new church suit from Aunt Vera.  He absolutely loves it and wears it every week and talks about it throughout the week. 

Thank you, Vera, for such an amazing package!  There have actually been some times when the kids have had friends over and they have gotten out their silverware to show their friends. 

Book of the Month Club - January

Andrew's brother, David, and his family had our family for Christmas.  They gave us an amazing gift.  It was a "Book of the Month Club" for kids.  There was a bag for each month with a book, list of activities and a few items to go with the activities. 

For January, the book was Dino Train.  When I opened the bag and read the list of activities I was so excited to get started.  One Friday in January, we read the book after naps.  Here is our dinner that night.  Dino Eggs and Dino Chicken Nuggets. 

Here is our Dino Dig that we did after dinner.  I baked the cake mix with the dinosaurs in it.  We then got to eat the cake for Dessert. 

A few days later, we did the snack train.  Andrew cut egg cartons length wise for 6 "train cars".  I set out six different small snacks.  The boys take their trains down the table and fill up each car with their snacks. 

We also made a train tunnel that we could crawl through and played other train games. 

We loved the month of January and can't wait to see what February has in store for us.  Thank you David and Leah for such a wonderful gift!

The Life of a Box

Andrew and I finally bought a new stand for our TV.  We found a really good deal on one online and we were able to get free shipping.  The boxes arrived on a Friday afternoon, while the boys were taking naps.  Since Andrew was gone, they didn't get opened until Sunday.  Here are the ways that we used these particular boxes.

First, we made a "maze" for the boys to have fun with. 

Later we added blankets so that the boxes could be a fort and a tunnel.

Then on Sunday, when Andrew was putting the TV Stand together, the boys brought their tools downstairs to cut the boxes.

The boys had so much fun that it made me wish we could get boxes in the mail every week. 

New Year's Eve, Aquarium & Riding Giraffes?

We decided to stay at home for New Year's Eve this year.  After naps, we all got our sweats/comfy pants on and we got out our party hats and noisemakers.  We had fun playing games and eating snacks.  After we put the kids to bed, Andrew and I watched a movie, attempted to put together a puzzle and then went to bed shortly after midnight.

On Monday since Keagan was out of school and Andrew didn't have to work, we took the kids to the Aquarium that recently opened.  Keagan, of course, was afraid to even put his hand in the water, but he did have fun looking at everything.  Deker LOVED it and would touch everything.  Bauer LOVED it was well, hought it was especially cool and got really wet plaing in the water.

As I mentioned in my Christmas post, the boys got really big, cool Pillow Pets that they absolutely love.  Bauer is funny because he is just barely taller than his pillow pet Giraffe.  He thinks it is fun to hug it, put it on the ground and proceed to sit on it.  It is so funny to watch him.