Christmas 2010 was a success, if I do say so myself. I once again attempted to save money by buying toys in advance, only to buy only more with "such great sales!" and really didnt' save that much. So, I now have birthday presents for this year. We spent christmas eve with my parents and had a wonderful, quiet evening watching the nativity and reading the Grinch and the Christmas Story out of Luke. The kids opened their christmas pajamas and I of course could not get them to pose together so separately, here are there pajamas. Isak was old enough this year to understand about Santa and being naughty or nice and still continues to threaten to call Santa once in a while and tell him I am being a mean mommy. Anyway, we put cookies out for Santa and we had to get our kids up early christmas morning because we had to be over to Kevin's parents house in time for his whole family to open gifts. It was a little nuts. The kids were pretty groggy when we woke them up and it was rather anti-climatic. We had to remind them to keep opening presents. They were pretty excited though, Isak got his Iron-Man that walks in the snow that he's been asking for for months. We left it unwrapped and put it outside in the snow christmas morning. Kevin took him outside to get it, he was pretty excited. Lucy got a Buzz Lightyear pillow and an alphabet of wooden, painted letters and some other things. We had presents left that weren't unwrapped yet so I just stuck them in the closet for their birthdays. I didn't even get them that much stuff but I think next year I'll stick to 2-3 presents a piece. Isak was a little overwhelmed by it all.

At kevin's parents house, we had 5 families and 7 grandkids opening presents at random. Isak got this awesome Ironman shooter gun. Sense a theme? Yea, it keeps going.

Kevin bought me a beautiful necklace and earrings and I suprised him with a Kinnect for our Xbox, which happens to be the most fun thing ever. Anyone want to come over and play Dance Central with me? Its AWESOME!!Lucy got a stuffed Buzz and a Woody doll with some books and other toys. Kevin and Isak also got matching IronMan pajamas but really, how awesome is that? My sister made my kids these great dress-up costumes. Isak and Lucy got matching dinosaur ones and Isak also got a leopard one. He's been wearing them quite a bit sense Christmas. Below he is trying to figure out how to shoot webs with his fingers while wearing the dinosaur costume.
We went to Kevin's Grandma Grimmett's for Christmas dinner and Lucy provided some entertainment for everyone by jumping on the table and clapping for herself. She cheers for herself often.

We went to my parents house Christmas night to open gifts and Isak got an Ironman Costume. Now he can be IronMan that Walks in the Snow. He was super excited. Lucy got a doll that she can take in the bathtub. We all had a great Christmas and it was nice to be able to share it with family.

December Happenings

Isak made gingerbread houses at his preschool a few weeks ago at their little christmas party. He was pretty excited and I think it turned out pretty awesome. Definitely looks like an Isak creation. I let him pick off a little bit of it for the next week till the candy was gone. Santa also showed up at Isak's little party. This was like the 3rd time Isak had seen Santa. He was getting a little confused as to why Santa kept popping up at random places. This might also be why he's looking a little bored in this picture. Santa gave Isak a present that was a book that I had wrapped for him previously. It was a cute night before christmas book with flaps and cute illustrations. Would've been a pretty awesome book had his little friend not got a Spiderman book that was way cooler. I was reading Isak's his when he ran over to check out Spiderman. Yea, I felt pretty lame. Isak didn't complain though, just was obviously way more interested in the other book.

Kevin's brother Jason and their family came up a week before Christmas to visit. We went to the Lowe's kid build project one morning and each of the kids got to build a train. It was a nice little wood train that they spent the next hour running all over the store.

Afterwards they had cookies and Juice from, you guessed it, Santa. Isak was more confused than ever and his little cousin Claire asked where he parked all his reindeer.
Since Jason and Vicki were visiting, we decided to ditch our kids for a night and run up to Levenworth. I have never been there at Christmas when all the lights are out and it was super pretty. Kevin's cousin Todd and his wife came too and we had a great time. We did some shopping, ate at this nice Italian restaurant that was probably a little too trendy for us (we all split entree's), and took an embarassing wild west photo at one of those little "dress up photo shops". The shop was actually ran by some members of the church and the lady who was helping us was pretty funny. She brought us boas to the dressing room so we would feel more "covered". Yea, it was slightly awkward. I'll spare you the picture.
We stayed at a very cute little inn there that had a fireplace and no kids! It was great!

Vicki and I in the snow the day we left. Next up, Christmas!!

Playing Catch-Up

I realized I still haven't blogged about Thanksgiving. Aaron and Mark were able to come up and Isak LOVED having two of his uncles here to give him lots of attention. We took him bowling and he had lots of fun nudging the ball down the lane at 2mph. He got bored after about 5 turns and went to play in the arcade. Lucy spent the whole time trying to run after the ball in the lane so she was quickly banned from that area.

We had so much snow! We usually don't get that much in this area but we had a TON at Thanksgiving! There were drifts all over our backyard. Most of it melted this wekkend but we got some more snow last night. Isak is loving it so hopefully we at least have a little through the winter. Isak and I built a snow fort out in the front yard one night and he was insistent on drinking hot chocolate in his snow fort.

Last Saturday Kevin and I went to Apple Cup with my parents. I graduated from WSU back when their football program was a bit more stellar but I will always be a true Coug at heart. It was actually a really good game, WSU played better than I thought and it was close up till the end. It was fun to visit the campus and see the changes that have happened since I was there. Oh and it was freezing cold! I wore running tights under my jeans in addition to hand and feet warmers.

I still am sad we didn't make a Boise State game this year. We will have to go to 2 next year to make up for it.
We finally got our christmas lights up, although this picture doesn't display that. I was helping kevin just finish them in the front when I must have tugged on them wrong or something and they ALL CAME DOWN. Like dominoes. Kevin turned around just in time to see them one by one, all fall off the roof. We just had to laugh, I didn't even know that was possible. Luckily they went back up pretty quick.
Lucy has been loving these plastic animals lately, particularly the sheep, horse, and elephant. She takes them to bed with her and makes them talk to each other. Sometimes we find her in the morning with them lined up at the side of her crib and buzz lightyear jumping on them. She's awesome.

Our ward christmas party was last night. We had dinner then the kids decorated sugar cookies. They did a children's theater and read the Grinch that Stole Christmas. Isak was particularly excited for this part as he just loves stories. I didn't realize just how excited or I might have had him sit back with me. See, all the kids were sitting in the front where the adults were passing the microphone and reading the story. Isak was hyped up on sugar cookies and quite excited for story time. He started repeating the story back to them, quite loudly, and would pick out phrases he liked. Such as "AND ROAST BEAST!! HAHAHA!" "HE CAME DOWN THE CHIMNEY!". He wasn't being super disruptive and he was just really excited, not trying to be naughty, so I let him listen and do his thing. It was pretty dang funny.

They during the nativity scene, Isak yelled at me right before they started to sing, "OH NO MOM! MY COSTUME, HURRY FIX IT!". So then I had to run up there and fix it to which he yells, '"NO tighten it, mom!". Anyway, people laughed so apparently no one was too annoyed. I had several people come up to me today and yesterday and say they enjoyed Isak's "performance" last night. One girl even asked me if he was like that at home. When I said, Oh yes, She said, "wow, you must be really busy". Yea, I just assumed everyone's kids were this nuts but apparently Isak is especially crazy. Just wait till he's in sunbeams, I'm doubting it will be this cute in the middle of sharing time!

"Cheese!". Lucy just found kids to run around with and screamed a lot. She's starting to be very verbal which is great but its kind of a pain too. She was yelling "I want to go ooome!" over and over towards the end. Yea.

Then yesterday Kevin and I also had the chance to go the temple together, one of my very bestest friends was going though for the first time and I got to go. It was super awesome and a great experience. I am so excited for her and know she will be an awesome missionary!

"Isak-isms"

Some weird things Isak has told me lately:

"Mom, I love you more than bad guys, electricity and fire."

"Mom, I want a real knife for christmas. Then, I can just cut through the wall and get to the
electricity and the plasma!".

"I'm going to tell you a story about my mission. There was a huge fireball that came in the
meetinghouse and just blew it all up. Then bumblebee came and brought a sea otter. I know a lot about sea otters mom. Sea otters are usually mean!"

He keeps telling me he wants an Ironman that walks in the snow for christmas and also told Santa this. Funny how I have gotten him everything but the very thing he has asked for. Although, I am not sure the Ironman toy I am thinking of could actually walk in the snow.

I really don't know where he gets some of this stuff.

Snow! We have a whole lot of it right now, kind of usual this time of year. And while I'm not the biggest fan of driving in it, my kids sure like to play in the stuff. Well, Lucy is still pretty impartial. Isak loves it though. Lucy just likes to be pulled around in the sled and as long as she is completely covered and not getting wet , she's okay with the snow. Isak, however, will go outside and play by himself in the snow, not caring that his fingers are blue or that he is shaking with cold. Over Thanksgiving, 2 of my brothers were in town so the kids LOVED all the extra attention and I loved having someone take them outside! Lucy was fond of my dad pulling her around on the saucer. Isak loved squirting the snow with green water and making snowballs and a large snowman "rock warrior".

We went sledding across the street at the park where we found a little hill. It was freezing!

I bundled Lucy up one day right after lunch and then she started yelling "night night!" (her request to sleep). Since it took so much work to get her ready for the snow, I made her go out anyway for a few minutes. She insisted on taking her blanket or her "deedee!" and laid down in the sled. She lasted maybe 5 minutes till she was in her crib.

"The Angel has left the building". This is what Kevin declared the other day as Lucy deliberately took the christmas balls, threw them, then smacked Isak on the side of the head. Her looks are so deceiving. She started hitting this week, Hitting when she's mad, hitting when she doesn't get what she wants. Its a problem. At least its not biting, but still. She will look at me, I will tell her no, then she looks at me sideways with her eyes, and does it anyway.
Then she shrieks, yells, kicks, and screams, usually, "no! no! no! no!". She's only 21 months, time out is kind of hard because she doesn't understand. So I tell her "no" firmly and displace her away from whatever it is. This kind of works....mostly not. She gets when Isak is in timeout, because she will walk over and start scolding him in her babble and pointing her finger, enraging him. Oh how she loves to irritate him.

Anyway, I've heard of people wanting all their kids to be 2 years apart and blah blah blah so they are well adjusted. Well, dear next child of mind, it might be a while so if you are feeling ill adjusted later in life due to the birth order and spacing of your siblings, you can blame your dear sister. She's driving me batty. The kids and I made sugar cookies on Tuesday while Kevin was studying late. My mom got us all these super cute aprons at a christmas bazar. Lucy and I have matching ones!

I never thought Isak would be the easier kid, but these days, he's much easier to manage. It helps he can communicate well and can tell us what he wants. He's so excited about the snow out side tonight, we went out and played in it for a while. Its amazing how kids never get cold, I was freezing and he was just having a great time.

Conversation with Isak following nursery today at church.
Me: "Isak, how was nursery today?"
Isak: "I was just a little bit naughty."
Me: "Oh really? What happened?"
Isak: "I took a piece of puzzle and threw it across to the table".
Me: "Did you get a time out?"
Isak "uh huh".
I love my son, but I am so glad that I am not his teacher. Kevin's mom has him next year in sunbeams, along with 3 other rambunctious little boys. I can only imagine.

Lucy started throwing tantrums this week, she technically isn't two till Febuary. I think she is starting early. Isak was destructive and active, she is mischevious and very naughty. Somehow she always finds my gum and eats it, with or without the wrapper. I painted her nails on Saturday for the first time, and she LOVED It and kept wiggling her toes and pointing to them. Isak also requested his nails to be painted, we are all matching in red at the moment, minus Kevin.

I'm painting my cabinets this week, sick of the matching floor/cabinet thing and since we will tear them out eventually anyway, it doesn't matter what color I do. Any ideas? I was thinking some shade of green....

Dress Up!

So I got a few half price halloween costumes since Isak has taken to dressing up lately. And after wearing the lemur suit for 3 days while visiting my sister, I thought it might be hygenic as well for him to have some options. Below is Isak dressed up as "bumblebee" from Transformers. He really likes this mask, which suprised me, since he can hardly see through the thing. My mom found Lucy this very sweet cinderella dress and she likes to watch herself twirl around in the mirror with it on. She really loves herself.

My mom also found Lucy this really cool butterfly wings which are huge and have strings that let her flap them herself. They will probably fit her until she is 10, heck, I could probably wear them too. Isak is also demonstrating his darth vader cape and mask.

And lucy combined the vader mask and butterfly wings to make a unique costume. See those boots? She insists on wearing them all the time. She wore them to church on sunday with her dress. If we put somthing else on her feet, she brings them to me and goes, "boot! boot!".Already showing prefernce at 21 months. Probably not a great sign.

And best of all, the wings let her fly! Isn't this an awesome picture??

Anyway, they have a few more but they are for christmas gifts. On another note, tonight is our ward craft night that has caused major stress the past week. Since I am only in charge of one craft, it shouldn't be that big of a deal. But there are tons of little parts to remember and the dang thing goes till 1130 pm. I might fall asleep, unless the toxic smell of paint keeps me awake. And I got a new calling as the primary secretary which is also going to keep me busy. On the plus side, we don't have to travel anywhere for thanksgiving or christmas this year and I am determined to make it the least stressful year ever. I already pretty much have my kids christmas all done! Now to plaster my house with obnoxious christmas decorations...and hope Lucy doesn't keep eating and tearing the clingy snowflakes in the window.

Halloween

We spent Halloween with my sister as well. We carved some pumpkins.

They had a trunk or treat on Friday night in their ward and Lucy recycled Isak's old costume and was a green monster or a large piece of grass. Whichever. She loves her frog boots and insists on wearing them all the time.

Isak was ninja cat for the trunk or treat, mainly because his lemur costume needed to be washed after the trip to the zoo. He was okay with this until he realized Maddie was a lemur and he had a meltdown, screaming for "my ringtailed lemur suit!!". Luckily, maddie convinced him he was a red fox lemur and that sort of helped.

But when we went trick or treating, he had the lemur costume back and was a happy camper.
My sister sewed these 3 costumes for her kids last year and they wore them this year too, only Isak borrowed one and Caleb opted for the dinosaur suit.
Isak missed his nap on halloween and fell asleep at 5pm. He woke up in time to do some trick or treating but he was pretty groggy. He said, I have enough candy now. And we were done.

While Isak was asleep, Lucy was definitely not tired and enjoying her sugary sucker which put her over the moon. She loved trick or treating and figured it out pretty quick. She would grab one candy and say "bye bye". I just had to lug her everywhere because her little feet aren't too quick. I was tired by the end of the night!
All the kids, minus Martin, in their costumes. Martin was a ninja ,I think, and he got invited to a little halloween party so he didn't trick or treat with us. Anyway, aren't they cute?

Trip to Madison

We traveled to Madison to visit my sister and her family the last week of October. I usually just see her once a year because she lives so far away. This was the first time Kevin was able to come with me on the plane and it was a HUGE help. The car ride to the airport was eventful, as Lucy got carsick and vomited all over her carseat and clothes. We had to park our car there and didn't have time to clean anything so we changed her clothes and left her pukey carseat locked in the car.

Isak loved watching all the airplanes take off and the moving walkways and escalators. I am deathly afraid of both so I let Kevin take him on all those fun adventures. Our plane ride there went pretty well, we were well equipped with treats, iphone games, and dvds. At one point the flight attendant even gave us free tv and claimed it was because another customer who was eligible for the free upgrade declined it. I think it was because Lucy was screaming and she was trying to get her to be quiet. Either way, it worked in our favor. Frontier Airlines is awesome, we got warm cookies on each flight, we were big fans. Our plane had to circle about 3 times while trying to land in Madison because of high winds, making an extremely turbulent flight. I did not handle this well and judging by the number of puke bags I saw leaving the plane, no one else did either. We went to the zoo the first day which was great because it was so cold, no one else was there! The zoo they have there is a free zoo and has tons of great animals and exhibits. They had a great playground with huge climbing structures. Isak decided to don a matching lemur costume with Maddie and they wore them to the zoo. Don't their tails look awesome?

It was fun having all the kids together and letting them spend time with their cousins. Especially now Isak is old enough to remember things. It was great having Maddie and Martin there who are 7 and 9, they are old enough to entertain the younger ones and can help out quite a bit. Perhaps this is why people have more children.

The elementary school is just across the street from where they live and has a fun forest area to explore as well. Below is Caleb posing. Him and Isak raced a lot, Caleb is super fast and always won. It helps he is a year older as well.

Maddie got a new bike for her birthday and loves riding it around everywhere. She is quite the character.

Reed is just a few months younger than Lucy and would always give me a smile. He really loves my sister and would cry anytime she was out of sight. He started to warm up to use after a few days and would no longer cry if I talked at him or looked at him wrong. :).

Maddie just turned 7 and I made her some cute hair flowers and a headband. She sported this and some of her Barbie make up to church on Sunday. She looked pretty awesome.

I loved that Kevin came along because I could do things with Valerie and didn't feel bad about leaving my kids. We went shopping one day and hit up a thrift store where we had all sorts of great finds...ie, red leather pants for $0.10, wooden picture frame $1, fluffy pink pillow for lucy...$0.10, piano bench for $7...I wish Othello had one of those!

My cute sister and some of her kids. We did a race on Saturday, it wasn't a big one, not too much of a big deal, except, we RAN to the starting line. Which also wouldn't be a big deal, except that it was 13.5 miles away. In another town. Madison has more bike trails and running trails and skiing trails than anyplace I have ever seen. Anyway, my sister thought it would be a terrific idea to run to the starting line, sign up for the race, then run the race. It was the UFO days in a nearby town, they even had a doll head float. So, I ended up running almost 17 miles when all was said and done. I was pretty sore on Sunday, I hadn't run that far since September.

We went to the arboretium one day and explored and saw some wild turkeys. The kids had alot of fun running all over and climbing on the leaf piles.

We also went to the children's museum in Madison while we were there which was amazing. They had a water room, a huge climbing structure, arts and craft room, tons of neat hiding places and things to play with. Above is the shadow room where this camera will take a picture of your shadow on the wall everytime you push a button. It was pretty cool.

The roof had a chicken coop, a garden, and several herbs the kids could taste test. There were binoculars the kids could look out over the city.

I also introduced my sister to the beauty of spray painted furniture and we found and painted this piano bench.

We had so much fun! Now if only I could convince her to move to Othello.....