Underwater Adventures

My dad was recently in town and so we ventured out to the MOA (Mall of America, for all you out-of-state readers) and visited Underwater Adventures. It's basically just a huge aquarium on the lower level of the mall. The only thing that made it worth the $18 entrance fee was the cool fact that it is in a mall and there's a tunnel that goes through the aquarium.

Fish would literally swim right over your head. And it was often a bit startling to Sam. I snapped the photo below immediately after a shark swam over us.

These are jellyfish - pretty cool.

Kate was there too...but you never would have known it since she pretty much slept the whole time.

Sleigh Bells Ring

Despite our recent frigid weather, Grandpa Lee hitched up Rocky (the horse) and took the family on a sleigh ride.

It's so great that Sam and Kate will grow up, having experiences like this at Grandpa and Grandma's house. They are so lucky!

Hide & Seek

This is how I found Sam the other day, while we were playing hide and seek...

...in plain sight in the kitchen...he still doesn't quite get the game.

Yes, I married him.

Jealous?

January

It's been a rather long week with 2 sick kids and cold weather outside. Which basically means we haven't left the house much at all. So I think mostly out of boredom, Sam has finally taken to wearing costumes...or at least a very small part of a costume.

And somehow, he even managed to make a one-eyed patch cover BOTH his eyes. He's a genius, I tell ya'.

Even baby Kate joined in on the fun.

But she decided, rather quickly, that it wasn't all that fun.

Family of 3.

Family of 4.

What we learned from my mother

How to do a snow angel.

How to snowshoe.

Both of which weren't too difficult, but were very fun.

Big Sky Christmas

Ah, Big Sky at Christmastime. There's almost something magical about it: being in the mountains, surrounded by snow-covered pine trees, and spending time with family in a warm house. We had such a great time at my parents' home. Music is always playing on the stereo, something delicious is usually in the oven, and there were tons of new toys for Sam. Strangely, Sam opted to open one gift each day, rather than all of them on Christmas day - which actually was a great idea on his part. He's a genius I tell ya'.

But the things that made this Christmas the best one yet, were the sweet moments with the little ones in the house.

Sam even learned how to build a fire...a skill that I pray he quickly forgets.

My parents also live on the best sledding hill in town.

Ok. Fine. It's actually a road. So it's probably totally unsafe to sled down. But there's not much traffic. Plus, when you get a ride all the way up the hill in a car,

there's very little time spent being in harm's way.

Why My Grandma is Awesome

One of my brother's Christmas gifts was particularly cold. Literally. He picked up the gift from under the tree and it was freezing. And it was from my Grandma Phyllis (my mom's mom). He had no idea what to think. Maybe Grandma had baked him some cookies and then kept them in the freezer? Maybe she had packed some other food or something in ice?

It was very strange.

And he was even more confused when he the gift tag said something about "cold hard cash."

So he opened the gift, and inside was a jar of ice, with coins and dollar bills literally frozen inside. And my Grandma was just giggling and giggling.

She gave him ice cold, hard cash. Literally. And she got such a kick out of herself.

But the funniest part was that he had to thaw out the gift. And so for the next day or so there were wet bills and coins drying on the counter, as layer by layer Adam retrieved his money.

Christmas Day

Our Christmas Day began with heading to the airport and flying to Big Sky, Montana. Sam was "so ex-ci-gig" all day long. He got to go to the airport, ride on a plane, watch a movie on the plane, and see Big Sky all in one day!

Kate, on the other hand, had no idea what was going on.

When we arrived in Big Sky, we had some wonderful people waiting to greet us.

Grandpa Alan, Grandma Becky, and BOTH Great-Grandmas:

and Uncle Adam and Becca:

What a fun day!

Christmas Eve

The day before Christmas Eve, I came down with the stomach flu. For a while I was afraid I'd have to miss the fun of the kids opening their gifts and spending time with Jerod's side of the family on Christmas Eve, but thankfully it turned out that it was just the short version of the flu (I've heard there's a 72 hour flu!) and so I was feeling somewhat normal by Christmas Eve. Miss Kate wore a real outfit for the first time (up until then she'd lived in sleeper clothes) and looked so cute - complete with size zero shoes just incase she decided to go for a walk .

Infact, all the cousins were looking quite dapper.

Then Grandpa Lee read the Christmas story from the Bible, and all the children listened intently and waited patiently to open gifts...

and oh boy were there gifts...there was about a 30 minute flurry of present opening.

At one point Sam asked me, "Mom, is this heaven?"

"No, " I replied, "It's Corcoran." (Just a little Field of Dreams reference for you there.)

Then we took family photos.

Our new family of 4:

Great-Grandpa & Great-Grandma Cornelius with a few of their Great-grandkids.

(Apparently Sam developed a strange tic that night - unable to say "Cheese!" without holding up his foot. His foot was straight up in the air in most of our family photos from this night.)

Uncle Matt, Auntie Heather, Emma, and Sadie:

Grandpa Lee and Grandma Barb (and a funny Sadie face):

Great Auntie Karen with the kids:

(See! Emma had to hold down Sam's foot to get a normal picture. Weird kid.)

and finally, Karen and Matt (just for kicks):

More Faces

It amazes me how many different looks a baby can have in just a few moments...some definitely better than others.