March

3/05/12 ~ My brother blessed his little girl, Molly. She looked adorable and was so good. We had yummy food after and got to visit with family. We missed all those that couldn't be there!

3/03/12 ~ I just love this little boy! He was SO into boots and wanted to wear his snowboots everywhere that I finally broke down and bought him some rainboots. Worth every penny. He wears them everywhere and just LOVES them! I get such a kick out of hearing him say, "boots" too.

3/10/12 ~ I love that it's getting warmer. After walking Emily to the bus today we stayed outside for a while and drew with chalk and pulled out some bubbles. Jacob was hilarious trying to blow them. He actually managed to blow a few, although most of the solution ended up down the front of him.

3/17/12 ~ We had some tricky leprachauns visit us. They turned the living room furniture upside down - rug included. The kids thought it was pretty silly. They also left some gold scattered throughout the living room and Emily & Jacob had no problem tracking down the shiny stuff. While we were off at a birthday party the leprachauns returned for their gold and left a surprise (dart guns)  in its place.

3/22/12 ~ With the warmer weather soccer has started up again. Jeff pulled out the goals and helped Emily warm up for the season. She loved trying to get the ball from Jeff and is so excited for the season to start again.

Jacob tried to join in too, but would get frustrated and just throw the ball into the goal.

Then he gave up and just went and played on the swing set.

3/23/12

3/25/12 ~ We got tickets to the PAC 12 gymnastics championship. There were two sessions and Jeff, Emily and I met up with my sister Jenny and all of her girls at the afternoon session. It was fun to see all of the events and the talent of some of those women. Later that night I went back with Emily and my mom to see the other four teams compete - of which the U was a part of. The sessions were totally different. The evening session was packed and so alive! It was fun to have so many fans there and to cheer the U on. I could also tell a difference in the quality of competition too. We enjoyed seeing the meet and will hopefully be able to attend another one next year. Emily's now decided that she wants to do gymnastics and play soccer and gymnastics for the U when she grows up.

Date Night

Jeff was able to get his company's Jazz tickets so we could take a doctor and his wife who are in our ward. They were the really nice seats - Lexus Club dinner before the game, drinks & candy at each quarter, and dessert at half time. We also each got a visor. We were only a couple of rows away from the court and had little tv's in front of us to watch any replays, etc. It was really fun to go to a game like that but especially fun to hang out with Justin & Lucy. They are a lot of fun. Maybe next year we can take them again. And bonus - we beat Denver!

February

The kids always like to help Jeff when he's working outside. Jeff enjoys the company, but a lot of times they slow him down and get in the way. After the catastrophe of only having one rake this fall and attempting to shovel our first snow storm this winter Jeff told me that if I ever saw kids snow shovels to grab them - it didn't matter the cost! I happened upon some at Toys R Us on clearance and immediately got them. I think it was more of a present for Jeff than the kids! Even though they haven't had the chance to use them much, they have loved 'helping' their daddy. And they look so cute doing it.

 With Emily's only sibling being a boy and with how much Jacob just adores his sister, we haven't really been too surprised or concerned when he wants to wear headbands, crowns, bracelets, necklaces, and lip gloss. But the other day Emily was dressing up and Jacob decided he wanted to get the full experience and he dawned Snow White's gown. Now I remember when I was little my sister and I would dress up our younger brother Chris all the time. He's turned out ok so I guess I shouldn't worry, but seeing Jacob in a dress that day definitely threw me. Atleast he wore his more manly boots  in case he needed to tackle any dragons... or tromp around outside in the snow.

Since my youngest brother Matthew is getting ready for his mission we all met up at the bountiful temple for his first session. It was fun to be with so much family and it was nice to have some quiet time away from kids. We went out to dinner together afterwards where I enjoyed eating without a child on my lap, not hearing "this is yucky" and "I don't like this", as well as not having to mop up any spills during the course of my dinner.  Thank you Mike & Niki for switching me places for the night and handling all the whining and messes for a few hours.

My dad is out of town on business for several months so the night before he left we got together for dinner and 'goodbyes'. I think I heard every grandkid say at least once, "I don't want you to go!" Of course all of us adults were thinking, and sometimes saying, the same thing. We love you and miss you dad and can't wait til you come home!

I helped with Emily's Valentine's Day party at school. She got to hand out her valentines, play several games, decorate a picture frame, make a candy necklace and decorate sugar cookies. It was fun to be there and see all the fun the kids had. I was in charge of the cookies and had spent the day before and the morning of baking and getting things together. I was amazed at how much frosting, sprinkles, and candy some of those kids could pile onto a little cookie!

As soon as we got home I donned my apron again and started in on our Valentine's dinner. Stan & Mel were in town and were able to join us for our festivities. We had a yummy candlelight dinner and instead of using Grandma's goblets I bought some fun heart straws. I figured with two 2 year olds this year, staying away from the crystal was the best option.

After dinner we played a game with some valentine jelly beans, Valentine's Bingo, and decorated sugar cookies for dessert. Since there was candy involved in every activity, Jacob chose to take advantage of me being distracted state and snack on candy all night.

After the festivities were over we got ready for bed and read our "Love Notes" as a family. Then the kids got to open a valentines present before heading off to bed and before I completely passed out from such a crazy busy day.

The kids absolutely loved having Heidi and Ryan in town to play. I was horrible about pulling my camera out this last month so I had to steal all the pics from Melanie. Emily loved having another girl around (especially one that would do anything she asked) and she was always wanting to hold Ryan. Jacob was hilarious with Heidi - they'd just sit next to each other and laugh forever. He also really liked 'helping' the baby. It gave me some good insights as to what I'm in store for this summer.

Stan & Mel's last night in town we all got together with Mike & Niki. After dinner we sat around talking, laughing, and wrestling with the kids. At some point a beach ball started getting thrown around and at 10:00pm we had all 4 kids running around hyper as can be, the couches shoved to the side of the room, and 6 adults laughing hysterically as they tried to keep the ball in the air, away from the "dark hole" behind the entertainment center, and still nail anyone they could in the face. After a while (and no serious injuries) we finally decided to call it quits, say goodnight and goodbye and wrestle some extremely tired kids to bed.

Jeff is such an awesome dad. Emily & Jacob both just adore him and love playing with him. One night as I was cleaning up dinner they decided to play superheros and pulled out all of Jacob's capes. Of course daddy had to have one too and pretty soon all three of them were racing around the house (Jacob yelling "Fwyyy! Fwyyy!" in the process). It just made me smile to see Jeff play along with them. I'm so grateful for how involved he his and how much he just adores them. They couldn't ask for a better playmate than daddy and I couldn't ask for a better husband.