Everyday Adventures

Tessa got rain boots, a rain coat, and an umbrella for Christmas.

She and Damon had so much fun splashing in puddles on a very rainy day last week.

It was a great way for them to get some energy out.

Rockwell got a set of gemstones for Christmas. He really enjoyed digging them out of the mold and finding all ten of them.

Damon and I have started working on his alphabet book and he loves it. He always calls it his ABCD book instead of just ABC book. :)

Tessa passed off all her Rainbow Words at school and earned her own pack of Skittles.

Rockwell had his last indoor soccer game. It was really fun to coach his and Wyatt's team with Al. Everyone improved a lot over the season. Rockwell loved playing every week.

The kids love when Paul lifts them up like this. Paul is such a fun dad! The kids are all happy to play with me, but as soon as Paul gets home, I just don't seem as fun anymore. :) I don't mean that as a slam on myself or anything. He really is just so much fun!! Our kids are very lucky to have a dad that is so dependable, loving, and fun.

The kids built a castle downstairs, complete with places for them all to sleep, guards (their stuffed animals), and horses and swords to defend against bad guys. They each have a telescope to look through to keep a watch out for the bad guys. I love when they all find something to play together! 

Rockwell bought some new bugs from the box tops store at school, which made him remember how much he loves to scare me with them. I came home from getting my hair done one night, and found bugs all over my stuff.

Paul and I watched the lunar eclipse in the hot tub Sunday night. That was pretty cool.

There was a huge snowstorm Sunday night and Monday. School was out for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, so the kids had a blast playing in the snow all day. 

Paul took them out while he shoveled for a couple hours, and then they wanted to go out again later so I went out with them. It was freezing, but they just don't seem to mind. Rockwell even made face imprints in the snow! I can't imagine how cold that was.

Life Lately

Damon is now a Sunbeam! We're all happy to be finished with nursery! He was a little nervous about sitting with his class and new teachers on Sunday, so he sat with Tessa during sharing time, and then went with his class for the lesson. I think he'll like Primary a lot better than nursery.

Paul fell asleep on the couch the other day, and the kids made sure he was nice and comfy for his nap. They kept adding new stuffed animals, pillows, and blankets on him. :)

Paul gave Damon an Alfalfa hairdo one day. Haha!

We got a big snowstorm on Sunday. Driving was miserable on Monday, but the kids have had so much fun with all the snow we got! They built a couple snowmen and had a snowball fight over the fence with Elijah Sunday afternoon. 

Damon and I shoveled Monday morning and had fun playing in all the fresh snow.

As soon as school got out on Monday I took the kids and Flynn sledding at Windsor Park. They loved that.

After sledding we went back to our house and Rockwell and Flynn each made a snow fort to use in their snowball fight. Rockwell thought that was about the coolest thing ever.

After Flynn went home, Rockwell added all the snow from Flynn's fort to his own to make it bigger. I looked out the window at one point and saw him talking to Erminia next door. When he came in I asked him what they were talking about and he said he had gone over to ask if she would mind if he used the snow in her front yard for his fort. I thought that was adorable that he went and asked before he took any. Later that night he said, "Mom, you know what's fun? Trying something you've never tried before, working hard at it, and accomplishing it! That's what I did today by building my first snow fort." I loved that!! He went back out and finished his fort Tuesday after school. It was a really cool fort.

He even made a snowball tunnel in the back corner. You could fill it up with snowballs, and they would come out the bottom, so you could grab and throw and then there would be another one ready at the bottom of the tunnel.

Tessa is so excited to be out of her car seat and sit in a booster!

I went in her room the other day and found her big bear praying. :)

Love my boys!

Christmas Break

Christmas Break was a lot of fun. We went and saw The Grinch with Al and her kids. I really enjoyed that one. The kids wanted a picture with the Spiderman display.

There was a day before Christmas where we were going a little stir crazy, so we went and saw Mary Poppins too. The weather was really nice one day, so we played outside with Shiree and her grandkids.

We ended up getting a little snow that the kids liked playing in.

Our friends Jim and Kamee had us over for dinner and games one night. That was really fun. Tessa and Leah hit it off right away and loved playing together all night.

Acacia came and babysat while Paul and I went to dinner and Elijah's basketball tournament. I love watching his games.

Mel offered Jonah $20 to go in the middle of the court and dance for one minute during halftime of the varsity game. He rocked it! :)

The kids loved playing with all their new Christmas toys. Tessa and Damon were so cute playing their instruments together! Tessa would hold the mic for them while they took turns singing.

They painted.

And shot targets.

They've had a lot of fun with Damon's camera.

Grandma Ham came over to see what they got for Christmas. Rockwell loved playing games with her.

Hallee and Wyatt came over and played.

The boys had a blast having a Nerf war in the Nerf course that Paul and Rockwell set up.

We went to Paul's school twice to ride bikes and play basketball, soccer, and dodgeball.

Paul turned on the music, and Tessa was in heaven. She danced on the scooter all around the gym, doing all sorts of tricks. It was absolutely adorable!!

The Carr's and Loosli's came over for New Year's Eve. Paul made street tacos and we played games until midnight. 

We went to Adria's house on New Years Day for our Christmas party with Marmie. It was fun to visit with everyone and play some games.

Tessa and Damon got to hold their new kittens, and they were in heaven. They wanted to bring one home SO SO bad. Damon has asked to see these pictures of the cats every day since then, and he tells everyone he sees about the kitty cats. They really were adorable, but we'll just keep visiting cute animals at other people's houses for now. :)