January Pictures

Warming up on the couch after playing in the DEEP snow.
This is Annika finger painting for the first time ever. Luke and Peter gave the girls some finger paints a while ago, and this is only the second time I have gotten them out. Isn't it nice to see Annika actually looking at the camera?
I thought this was so funny how she sat in a basket on her bed.

Fairy House

Here is our fairy house, we are still waiting for a fairy to move in.

Fairy Door

For Christmas Emily gave the girls everything they needed to make a fairy door plus books about fairies and a fairy flower press for making fairy clothes. It was great to have with us for our 10 day stay in the hospital because we really needed things to keep us busy. In the first picture Ariel is painting the door and then she is posing infront of our hospital door that we decorated with fairies that we made and cut out of the instruction book for the flower press. We went kinda crazy decorating both doors on about day 8 in the hospital, it really helped pass the time. We have since finished the little fairy door and made a fairy house with books, much like Emily's. I'll take some pictures of the finished house tomorrow and post it soon.

Faries tomorrow...I promise this is really the end of vacation photos

Jacob and the girls had already built their sandcastle this high before I even got down to the beach!

This picture was actually at the end before we got in the car. I wanted to take a picture of her with some sign that said where we were but this is the only sign I could find and I thought it was kinda funny. You will see later what happened to her pants.

Kind of a strange picture, but I really liked the color.
Even though I am squinting I kinda like this picture of myself, maybe because I look happy. This was only Dallin's second ride in the Baby Bjorn and I really started feeling it in my back. I ended up carrying everyone's shoes and pants, and Grandpa generously carried Dallin for a good part of the way down to the tide pools. I temporarily lost one of Adriana's shoes, until Grandma Lori found it on the way back. So both Grandparents saved the day for me.
Jacob and Adriana were both seizing the moment and communing with nature. Lucky girl to have an uncle as (and more so) adventurous as she is. Now you see how she came to have shed her pants later.
I love the expression on Adriana's face as she is trying to get Annika to pose for the picture. I had not yet managed to tie do the sweatshirt trick on Annika at this point and cringe at all the diaper pictures, but that's life. I also love how you can see Nikolay taking care of Ariel in the background and grandpa holding Dallin.

Today was nice and relaxing day at home. First we had Annika's play group over, then after Adriana went to preschool, I actually watched some grownup TV like the afternoon local news and the Today show. Then my friend Jess (hi) brought her cute boys over and we played and put puzzles together. And Svetlana came over. After Ariel and Adriana got home from school we went on our long awaited first trip to Chuck E. Cheese's (where a kid can be a kid). We took the two neighbor girls with us and left Annika and Dallin with Grandma. It was really fun, I even felt relaxed.
Fairies tomorrow for sure!

I just read that last paragraph and realized that it probably didn't sound relaxing, but I was just playing with kids all day and not stressed about someone being sick, or trying to shop (get the right stuff without spending too much money), or get housework done.

Almost caught up----vacation day 3----wild animal park------today's actual musings

Ariel was finally able to go back to school today, which meant that I could finally leave the house. So I went kinda crazy and ran all over the place regardless of the bad road conditions. I took the other kids to story time at the library (30 mommy points for me), drove carpool for preschool, went to Old Navy and got tons of great deals on clothes for the whole family, went to Albertson's for odds and ends, and took Ariel to dance class after school. I even managed to a read a book with each of my kids today. My goal this week for becoming a better mom is to spend more time with each child individually by reading a book with each one of them.
Grandma Lori gave Ariel and Adriana Webkinz for Christmas and we just got started with them last week. It was a great way to escape cabin fever and to keep from going stir crazy, but we may have started to annoy Erin and Rebekah by asking to get their kid's webkinz online. Now that life is getting back to normal, we probably won't be spending as much time with them. I started playing the games a bit to earn extra money for them because Ariel and especially Adriana are a bit young for it. There is one game like scrabble that Ariel likes and I think is good for her because it helps her learn how to spell words. I am rambling. After I post a bunch of pictures today I am going to have a fairy entry hopefully tomorrow.

I DARE YOU

I dare you to read Love You Forever by Robert Munsch without bawling your eyes out. Or watch PS I Love You

San Diego

OK, so today I am trying to put all of the rest of the pictures from our San Diego trip up so that I can start blogging about what is happening now. January is almost over and I feel like it has just started.

Legoland

We went to Legoland on Dec 27. It was a lot of fun, but the tickets were very pricey. We gratefully got to go for free. I don't think we would have gone otherwise.

more Christmas photos

Annika ran right up to Santa and climbed on his lap. At this age Ariel and Adriana were deathly afraid of him. Don't you just love her expression, like she is explaining something very important to him.
Santa handed out these goody bags and Annika kept saying "Santa gave ME present!"
Nativity scene. The girls came up with their own costumes. Adriana is a lamb.
Annika was so excited about her TWO dragons.

catching up from Christmas