My K-Kid

Lauren is such a sweet girl. This year at school she joined the K-Kids organization which is a Service Club at school. She absolutley loves it and has been able to participate in some fun activities. She has been able to finger knit some scarfs that were then given to those in need. She was able to help make cat and dog biscuits to donate to an animal shelter. She has helped put together after school bags (with snacks and a small toy) for kids who don't have parents to go home to after school. And last night she got to help with a really fun project. She picked out one of her own books and then was able to record herself reading it on a computer. The book and the recording will now be donated to a homeless shelter so that kids who stay there can have some fun books to listen too and read at the same time. She had so much fun reading the book that when she was done she really wished she had brought more books to read and donate. I am so glad that she has so much fun giving service to other people and that she has been able to be a K-Kid this year!

Snow Day!

We had our first snow day of 2011. Unfortunately, we were still up and at it very early this morning since Dave teaches early morning seminary and he needed to be ready in case the schools didn't do a delay or cancellation. So he got up, got ready and then right when he was about to leave at 5:40am, the delay finally came up on the news. He decided to go over anyway just in case any students missed it and sure enough, one student was there. But then he hurried back home (well, as fast as you can really go on snow slick roads) and got out of his church clothes and jumped back into bed until the kids came to wake us up. Lauren was very excited to learn of the late start today and immediately requested cinnamon rolls for breakfast and ran downstairs to play with Lydia. A little later we found out that school had been canceled altogether and she was very excited. She and Lydia had fun playing in the basement while we waited for the snow to stop falling so we could head out to play and shovel the walks. Here are some pict. of our morning in the snow.

Lauren couldn't wait to run out in the snow! As soon as she ate some breakfast she jumped into her snow boots and just ran out onto the deck. She thought it was fun until she decided to sit down in it and then quickly jumped back up because of the cold!

Lydia did so good out in the snow. We bundled her up good but I still didn't think she would last very long but she stayed out for about an hour and can you tell what her favorite thing to do was? EAT SNOW! She just kept dipping her gloved hand down into the snow and would then lick it off. (repeat about 100 times)

Here is Dave hard at work shoveling the driveway. I helped and it went pretty quickly. It helps that we only had about 3 inches snow. I think the only reason school was canceled was because of when the snow fell. Most of the snow fell in the morning when everyone would be going to school so the roads weren't plowed yet. It really wasn't a lot of snow - it just fell at a bad time.
But instead of getting a snow blower I just bought another snow shovel so Dave and I can tag team and get it done quickly!

Lydia did have one face plant in the snow. It was kind of funny because she kept trying to wipe the snow off her face but her gloved hands were covered in snow so she was having no success. She just looked up at me and said "face wet, face wet".

Lauren LOVED the new sled that Santa left us for Christmas. We have a little hill on the side of our house and it was perfect for her. The sled is a speedy little thing and she had fun riding it.

Eating more snow!

This is Lydia still eating snow even after we have come back in the house and gotten out of our snow clothes. This mat is right in front of the door that goes out to our deck and we all took our shoes off out there and then came in but of course some snow came in with us and landed on the mat. Lydia sat there on the floor picking up the snow and eating it. CRAZY KID!

Christmas Day

Christmas Day was pretty low key but fun. Dave, Lydia, and Jack all had colds so it was nice to just be home and relax and play with new toys for the day. Dave gave Lauren an alarm clock before she went to bed on Christmas Eve and told her she couldn't get up until it was at least 6am. She did great - she didn't get up until 6:40am. The kids had fun opening presents, playing with them and passing out presents to each other. We made some cinnamon rolls and some egg/sausage casserole for breakfast and just snacked as we got hungry. We aren't fast present openers since we like to play with the toys as we open them so it took a couple of hours to finish.

This is Lauren showing her favorite present of the morning - the DS she had asked for over and over and over again! She was thrilled to begin playing with it.

Lydia really wanted a Barbie and was so excited when she opened this up.

And both girls really love Lydia's new kitchen that Santa brought her.

Lydia especially likes the phone that came with the kitchen and loves to walk around and talk on it.

Jack was happy with his new car toy (and Dave was so excited to finally be getting some boy toys in the house.) The funny thing is the girls love it to and will sit and play with it too.

Can you tell someone was very excited about the Easy Bake Oven she opened?

And Lydia loves jumping on the new tramp. It plays music and is interactive as you jump on it so she loves doing it.

Christmas PJ's

Every Christmas Eve we get new Christmas Pajamas at our house (parents included). Lauren was SO excited to open her's this year. Last year I made Christmas PJ's Pail for each person in the family. I love how they look all lined up under the tree waiting for Christmas Eve. Lauren and Lydia know which pail is theirs and they love to pick it up and guess what kind of pajamas are in it.

The girls Christmas Eve night ready to open their Christmas Pajamas.

Silly girls in new pajamas. Can you tell they are so excited for Christmas?

And here they all are in their new pajamas in front of the tree.

Christmas Catchup

Okay - since I hope to make this into a book someday, I better get some of our Christmas 2010 on here!

Our Ward does a breakfast with Santa and this is our attempt at a picture this year. Lydia wanted nothing to do with the Jolly man.



And for the last Family Home Evening before Christmas, we made Gingerbread (Graham Cracker) Houses. Dave and Lauren worked together on their creation and Lydia and I were partners. Poor Jack just got to watch! They had a lot of fun making them and then a lot of fun eating them over the next few days.

Lauren with her yummy creation.

Lydia with our house.

Grandma and Grandpa Came to Visit

In Nov. my parents came out to play with us for a few days. It was a lot of fun and we planned some fun activities while they were here.

One day we headed over to Hershey, PA and we went to Hershey World. It was a lot of fun! I would definitely recommend it to anyone and actually, I think we will head back this month to participate in all their Christmas activities that they have.

Lauren boxing up some Hershey Kisses

Lydia boxing up some Hershey Kisses.

Lauren ready to watch the 3-D Hershey Movie. They pipe in the smell of chocolate - yummy.

Lauren loving the free ride you can go on explaining how they make their chocolate. We had to go on this a few times because they give you a little Hershey candy bar at the end and we all wanted our free chocolate. And I was holding Jack each time we went so they always gave me two! Darn girls ate the extra chocolate every time though.

Lydia enjoying the ride too.

The singing cows from the ride - Lydia loved them.

My pict. are out of order but here is Lauren with her box of Hershey Kisses she helped box up
(no, you don't get to keep them but she had fun anyway).

For our other big excursion we decided to head over to Liberty Park in NJ and take the Ferry out to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. It was a lot of fun and something we hadn't done yet since living here.

Lauren wanted a Statue of Liberty hat for her souvenir of the day and so here she is proudly wearing it.

This is a pict. of my parents taken from the Statue of Liberty looking across the Hudson River at NYC. I don't think they believed us when we said it was really close and we would get to see it. We had fun picking out some of the sites across the river. We could see the Empire State Building, the Brooklyn Bridge, and we could see where they were working on the 9/11 Memorial.

Our family with some of NYC in the background.

Lady Liberty herself. It was really fun to actually be right there and get to see the Statue. Ellis Island was pretty cool too but our kids were pretty tired of day trips by this point and the young ones did not do so well at Ellis Island. The history of the place was kind of lost on them. They liked being able to run around at the Statue of Liberty though.

Just a cute shot of the girls at the Statue of Liberty.

So that is some of the stuff we did when Grandma and Grandpa came to play. We are already planning their next trip. They want to come out next Summer during the Hill Cumorah Pageant and see it with us and then go up to Niagara Falls.

By the Numbers

Lydia and Jack each had a check-up at the Dr. last week. Lydia had her 2 year check-up and Jack had his 4 month check-up. Both had to get shots and neither was happy about it. But they are both very healthy (which we are very grateful for) and they are both getting bigger.

Lydia:


Lydia weighed in at a measly 24 lbs and 12 ounces (25%) and was 35 inches tall (80%)
Honestly - I don't really think Lydia is in the 80% for her height. She is definitely not taller than Lauren was at this age and Lauren was always at about the 75% for her height. The way they measure the height at my pediatricians office here is funny. They just have the child lay down on the table and they take a pen and mark the top of the head and then mark the heel then get a measuring tape and see what it comes out too. I don't think they do a good job of lining the child up right or making sure they are getting the top of the head and not the hair. They had to redo Jack twice last time because they realized they did it wrong when he was off the chart and they realized they were marking from his hair (which pokes straight out of his head) and not his actual scalp! Since Lydia is 2 now, they will start measuring her on a normal scale and use the scale to determine her height as well so we should get a more accurate reading at her 2 1/2 year check-up!

Jack:



Jack is a whopper! He weighed in at 18 lbs. and 2 ounces (90%) and he is exactly double his birth weight! He was 25 3/4 inches tall (70%). So he went down in both of his stats from his 2 months (he was in the 95% for weight and 75% for height then). He is definitely a chunky monkey but so dang happy and smiley (for the most part)! Everybody is always amazed though when I say he is only 4 months old . He definitely looks more like a 6 month old baby. I am guessing that in a year he will weigh at least as much as Lydia if not more!

Great Wolf Lodge

Dave and Lauren both had no school on Columbus Day or the day following so we took advantage of the break (and the great deal we were able to find) and surprised the kids with two days at the Great Wolf Lodge in the Pocono Mountains. It turned out to be such a fun little vacation for our family and the best part was that it only took us about 30 minutes to drive there! We checked in on Mon. after lunch and headed straight to the indoor water park where we swam until dinner time. The kids did better than I ever expected. Lauren LOVED doing the big rides with her Dad and I was able to stay in the more calm parts of the water park with Lydia and Jack. Lydia was the perfect size for all the little slides they have and she loved being able to walk all over the park. Jack was so good too and would just sit in the water with us and when he got tired, we put him in his car seat and covered him up and he would nap away.

The kids also loved the room and we brought microwave popcorn and drinks and we were able to relax for a little bit and hang out in the room and have fun.

Since we were there in October, the Lodge had a Halloween Hunt and the kids could dress up and they got to go to different parts of the Lodge and at each place were given candy or small toys. They loved that part as well.

After the Halloween Hunt we changed into our Pajamas and headed down to the main lobby of the Lodge and they have a big story time for all the kids down there. My kids loved it and had a lot of fun watching the animated story as well as listening to the story read to them by a worker.

The next morning, we got back in our suits and headed back to the water park for another day of swimming. We finally headed out about 1:30 that afternoon because the two little ones were ready for naps and we were all hungry (the food was really expensive so we figured we could make everyone happy with a Happy Meal and save lots of $$ in the process). We definitely got our fill of swimming though. We are hoping Dave and Lauren's schedules match up again next year and we can find another great deal.

This is what Jack looked like for most of our time at the water park.

The girls all dressed up and ready for the Halloween Hunt.

After story time they got to take their picture with the wolf cub (Lydia wasn't so sure standing right next to the wolf cub was a good idea).

The beautiful Pocono Mountains (if you are from the West, more like hills) - the leaves are just starting to get really beautiful!

Lauren really felt like big stuff when she tried to do the leap pads across the pool. I took her picture just as she was toppling off.

The girls loved playing in the wave pool. I love the zero entry for all the play areas - perfect for little ones.

My Little Peanut

I cannot believe that two years ago today, I was the Mom to just one little girl. I can barely remember when it was just me and Lauren all day, doing whatever we wanted because there was no more nap time and because she was such a good girl we could go anywhere. We would go to movies together, the Children's Museum (any time of the day), swimming at the pool or beach, or off playing at the park or with friends. But that all changed on Oct. 6th 2008, when little Lydia joined our family. Tomorrow this little peanut turns 2 and she is such a sweet little thing! Sure, things changed quite a bit after she came along but that was okay - we were SO HAPPY to finally have this little one join our family!

She has been the best little sister for Lauren. She absolutely adores having Lauren as her big sister and follows her around all day and loves to be doing what ever Lauren is doing.

She has also made the adjustment to being a big sister as well. She loves her little brother Jack and is so good to take care of him and is so gentle with him. If he is upset she is the first to run and get help. Once Jack is on the move I think Lydia will have a permanent little shadow herself!

Lydia at 1 week old

Lydia today - being my big helper and unloading all the silverware from the dishwasher.

We Love you Lydia!

I'll have what he's having

I was at the store last week and realized Jack is finally old enough to sit in a Bumbo chair so I bought him one. He does really well in it and seems to like it. Little did I know his older sister would decide it was the coolest place in the house to sit. Now, whenever she sees Jack in his chair, she immediately asks for him to get out so she can have it.

Jack, enjoying his new chair

Lydia, also enjoying Jack's new chair.

Right now Lydia has the upper hand but just wait - I think by the time Jack is 1 he will out weight his older sister and it will not be so easy for her to just take what she wants from him!