No training wheels

January 29

Cutler was out riding his bike, chasing the older girls up and down the street. Such a fun game for kids! When he turned around we told him we wanted to take his training wheels off because he wasn't using them anyway. He kinda moaned and groaned but Colby took them off, gave him a little push and away he went.
Done and done.
We had to lower his seat so he could reach the ground when he stops, and he has a little bit of a hard time getting started. But other than that...he's a 2 wheeler!!

Way to go buddy!

Saturday

This past weekend was proving to be quite a boring one for us. We had nothing planned...nowhere to go...nothing to do. Which isn't always a bad thing. But as the day went on we knew we needed to get out of the house. Lexie needed a nap, but I didn't want to end up anywhere cold. So we drove out to Gunlock to assess the damage from the flood. I couldn't believe how full it was. And there were a ton of logs floating all over. Down at the dam, they had a little fire going...burning all the wood. It was quite a site.
Well, Lexie fell asleep, and the boys were anxious to get out and be boys. So we let them.
Cutler got a slingshot for Christmas, so now both the boys have one. But we have very strict rules with them. They stay in the safe when not in use. And they only come out when they go to the mountains with dad. So far, the injuries have only been very minor.

 You can see in the water all the logs and the little floating pieces of wood

I even took a turn. We were shooting at a bottle Noah found, and Colby was the big winner. So he bought us all Golden Spoon!!

I love that we have so many different things we can do, and places we can go, close to home. Yet we feel like we went a long ways away.



Ice fishing

A couple of weekends ago, Colby took the boys up to Panguitch lake ice fishing. I don't quite understand the point in this. It's way too cold! Plus, I get freaked out thinking that the ice is going to break and one of the boys are going to fall in. Or something bad will happen. I always make Colby promise to be safe. This time they took the Razor[which added some more freaking out], and when they were done fishing they played and had a great time.

Happy Birthday...

Mr. Blake!!

updated

Not that anyone really cares...
And not that it's really that interesting...
But I have finally updated the blog. For my blog's sake, journaling purposes, and the 'hopeful' blog book, I've put it all in dated order.
So if you want to see our Christmas and Birthdays and such, scroll down. You might have to look at 'older posts'.

Happy Happy Birthday!!

to my Mom

I miss you
I love you
Can't wait to see you...soon!

Snow Day

We finally got some snow. Totally unexpected! I was up with Cutler around 5:00 and thought it looked bright outside so I walked to the back door to see why, there was about 2 inches. It was our last day of Christmas break, so that worked out good. [I have issues with our school system and all their 'breaks']
When the boys got up I told them to look outside. They were so excited we had to get dressed immediately.

I can usually expect Colby to show up at some point to build the kids some snowmen.

Lexie didn't quite know what to think, but she ended up loving it. Until she got too cold. She was very willing to go inside with me.

Cutler had to taste

 Our awesome undressed snowmen. The snow melts way too fast around here, and I didn't want to try to find stuff to decorate them. Sad, I know.

Birthday party!

In my mind I really wanted to do some great party. But because it's 2 days after Christmas, I wasn't really up for it. I don't even know how to explain it. I'm gonna have to think of a good reason someday when she's old enough to know. For now, making sure I have everything ready for Christmas is hard enough to do.

I wanted to do a Strawberry Shortcake party. But I didn't really want to be 'theme-y'. I don't think I really knew what I wanted to do. So, we had strawberry shortcake for dessert

There weren't really decorations. 3 cute tulle puff balls. Green, pink, and red. Not even a picture of them.

It's ok.

She was totally into opening her presents. She gets a lot of practice in 2 days. She got almost all things 'baby'. We got her an American Girl doll...Maggie, and she doesn't let her out of her sight. First thing every morning she asks "Where's Maggie?" And all day long. The one thing she did ask for [I brainwashed her] was a wiggle racer. She just started riding the boys', and she loves it. As soon as we brought it in the house, she went for it, and didn't get off. Well, there were tears when she got off.

Thank you everyone for all the gifts and for coming to her sad little party.

Happy Birthday Lexie!!

It's your birthday shout Hooray...!

 little miss is 2 today!!

Where did the time go? It's very hard for me to get into planning an event for her party since it's right after Christmas. So this year it's 'berry' simple.  

 We took some pictures. She didn't want to cooperate. She has a mind of her own. I'm learning very quickly...girls are very much different than boys. I'm fine with it. It's a good different. But there's lots of attitude!

Stats:

Weight: 23 lbs. (8%)

Height: 33 inches (38%)

These are some things we love about you right now

You talk very good. And know exactly what you want and how to get it!

You call me mama, and dad daddy. We both love those names.

You love your brothers, and they adore you

You are a total papa's girl

Still have the bink - no sign of giving it up anytime soon.

You have to be held to go to sleep

You love sleeping in mom's bed (and dad loves it)

You love to read books...still

Your favorite songs are 'Temple song', and 'Santa song' (I love to see the Temple, S.C. is coming to town)

You know all the words to both songs.

You love doggies

Still don't love nursery

You know the actions to 'Up on the housetop'

Before Christmas you knew which presents were yours and you would carry them around saying "this one Lexie's"

You love to help clean up

You love pockets. Everyday and night when I get you dressed you want pockets.

You love being outside with all the kids, doing just what they're doing

You're very smart and can figure things out for yourself.

You don't love getting your hair done, and sometimes scream the whole time

You're starting to be a little tattle tale. And every time after you've tattled, you say 'he/she did' so matter of fact-like

You're still as sweet as ever and love to cuddle, give huggies, and kisses

We love you so much Lexie, and are so blessed to have you in our lives

Happy Birthday baby girl!

Christmas

Colby and I [mostly I] had mixed emotions this year. Last year, and every year, we complain(ed) about how we have so many places to be...This year, we didn't have so many places and it was nice. But it was hard. My parents are gone, so my whole family was pretty much eliminated from the day. That gave us a lot of extra time to spend other places, and playing with toys. Which was a good thing...and a sad thing. As we were driving home from the Danjanovich's (my parents live between us and them), after opening presents and spending a few hours over there, Colby said to me You know, it was nice getting to do our own thing, taking all the time we wanted for whatever...but it's hard not going over there. Not seeing them today.' I watched their subdivision as we drove by and started crying. We both did. It was hard not having them here to watch my kids open presents, to have prime rib dinner on Christmas Eve, and to have a super yummy Christmas breakfast. We missed them!

Ok...sorry for the sob story. On to the fun stuff!!
I didn't take one picture on Christmas eve, but we went to Pizza Factory with the Danjanovich's. That's all. Just us, Kent & Sherie, and Melanie's family. Usually there's a ton of people. They did the whole thing different this year, and I didn't really love it. But...it's tradition. And I love going there, just didn't love it this year. After, I took the kids and we went to the house with everyone. Colby had to go back to work [wink wink] so we hung out, made cupcakes for Santa. Something different this year. Christmas cupcakes with halloween wrappers. Pretty sweet. I thought it would be something fun for us to do, but didn't think about the wrappers. Oh well, they worked. Then we watched Ironman and came home.
We opened our Christmas Eve presents...pajamas! Which by the way...this year Christmas pajamas were scarce. Whatever happened to just cute red, white, and green? Lexie refused to wear Christmas jammies, she had to wear princess ones. And because of that fit, I never even thought to take a picture. She slept during the movie, so she was sweet and stayed up until 11:30. We wanted to start getting things ready, but I knew she would want to play with everything and wake the boys up. So we waited. Lucky for us, Colby had to *work late* so there was no assembling to be done.

They were all pretty excited when they came out to see what was left. I have to say...I love the stage that Cutler is at. He really is easy to please. He didn't really ask for anything, besides a trampoline. So he got whatever Santa wanted to leave him. And he was thrilled! The whole morning opening presents he wore the hat. It kinda looks like a russian whatever in this picture, but it's really a coonskin hat.

So after the kids opened everything and we were just about to get in the car to go to grandma's house, I said to them... So what do you guys think? It was pretty good this year right? We all got what we wanted? -waiting to hear something about the trampoline. They didn't even think to go look out the back door. Until I started asking them what they asked for and if anything was missing.

Lexie wanted to jump too, but it was so cold, so she went back inside. Fun times.

We headed over to Danjanovich's to open a ton more and eat a super yummy breakfast.

After a couple of hours of letting the boys play and Lexie have a nap it was time for the Labrum party.

Every year people kind of make fun of our traditions with them, and they are different, but they're English traditions that Janet grew up with and has kept in her family. And they're corky, but fun.

First we eat an English dinner...roast, peas, carrots, potatoes, yorkshire pudding, and Trifle. Then we all pop our bonbons, find our prize, put on our hats, and take turns telling the jokes.

This year we kind of did a little talent show. I'm not a huge fan of those, but they like to perform, so...they did. Our kids sang 'Up on the Housetop' and did the actions. I'll have to try and put the video on here. And Colby did Chopsticks with his mom. Notice Lexie watching. She was totally intrigued.

Then on to the Nativity

Lexie was Mary, Cutler was Joseph, and Noah was a wiseman. I just noticed that Cutler was the one riding the donkey, not Mary. Funny. (ok, notice Lexie playing with her fingers? She does this whenever she's nervous, shy, embarrassed...it's funny. And she will not look at anyone.)

We ended the night with presents and more food. What a Christmas.

Merry Christmas!