Is it almost spring?

*Warning* long post ahead.

I have a gazillion things I should be doing right now, but I realize I haven't posted for months and it's been nagging me. I have to admit that this January/february/March was kind of hard for me. It may have had something to do with being in the first trimester of a pregnancy (if you didn't know...surprise!) But I was tired, unmotivated, it was cold, gray and it was all just kind of depressing. No motivation, no blog posts. Luckily, the second trimester has hit, (i'm 22 weeks and it's a boy!) and I feel normal again. I have energy and I keep hoping that spring is around the corner, although it's taking it's sweet time. Did you know that we had the most rain in HISTORY during the month of march? I thought I moved away from that:) And as I look out the window right now, there is snow on the ground...(sigh).
So during those three blah months, we did manage to stay really busy. Both Malia and Jacob were playing basketball. Let me tell you, that Jacob is just like his Daddy and is so competitive. I can't believe how much he improved over the season. Brent helped coach his team which was great because I only had to show up for games. It was Malia's first time playing. I don't recommend waiting until 5th grade to start basketball, she spent the first half of the season learning the game and hated/fought going to practices and games. But by the end of the season she was starting to enjoy herself. She just needed a little confidence. She was on a very supportive team and had a great coach. She has a great shot too.

And in random order: We lit Chinese lanterns to celebrate Papa Ken's birthday. The kids were all scared that we were going to start a fire and stayed far away. But they thought it was cool to watch them float away. My sister in law Sara organized the lantern light, and sent lanterns to many different families in different states so that they could all be set off on the same night. Pretty cool!


For the first half of spring break the kids and I headed down to Oregon, so I could soak in some green-ness and visit family and friends. It was a short trip but we were blessed with a few beautiful days. While we were there I was able to go out to dinner with some good friends and do some shopping solo. The kids and I were able to go bowling, go to a bounce house, visit the old Alma Mater..go OSU, go out for frozen yogurt, go the the park, have an Easter egg hunt, play tons on Wii, go to our old ward and celebrate Claire's 5th birthday. I can't tell you how much I love this girl. She makes me laugh every single day. She is all girl and loves barbies, my little pony and pink. At the same time she'll throw on her rubber boots and head outside to catch frogs with the boys. The funniest things come out of her mouth. (For example, today she was doing a pilates video with me. I told her some of the moves were hard for me with my belly getting so big. She pointed to the instructor and said, "it's not hard for her, she's super bendy.") She rarely throws tantrums and is so positive. She loves to sing, watch pink panther and color. LOVE this girl!

Her little pet polar bear that Cole picked out for her birthday.
and for Claire the best part of her birthday was getting a new kitten which the kids quickly named Pearl. (going along with the gem theme, our last cat was named Ruby) Let me backpedal a little. We recently found a new home for our dog skipper. Skipper was great with the kids BUT, we got him thinking he would be an outdoor dog. He had other ideas. He wanted to be a mainly indoor dog. An indoor dog that shed like crazy. We also don't have a fenced yard and skipper would often run after bikers, runners and the horses that come down our road. When we would call him, he would look at us and the run the other way. He needed a home where he could be inside and have a fenced yard. We found the perfect home for him! But our track record is not so great. Our first cat was only with us a few months, we had gotten her off of craigslist and she wasn't super friendly with the kids, skipper lasted about 9 months. But I assured the kids that we will not be getting rid of Pearl. She is a sweet cat and has been amazing with the kids. She is a keeper...for reals this time!
The rest of the months have been filled with the usual little things. We have been very blessed lately. This has probably been the easiest pregnancy for me so far and I am thankful for that. Hopefully now that I have more energy I will be able to keep up with the blog better!

 

Pinewood Derby Champ!

Last weekend was our Tri-Ward pinewood derby. I am probably more nervous than Jacob when it comes to these Pinewood derby's. Jacob did most of the sanding and all the painting, but as a dad, I am in charge of car performance. If the car fails to perform that means the dad has failed in some aspect of the car creation. So although I pretend not to care about how well the car performs (I don't want to get my kids' hopes up to much). After the first heat of 4, Jacob was third place. He ended up winning the next 2 heats to finish third in the last heat. There were about 35 cars there so we were not sure how things would end up. As it turned out, Jacob's car was the fastest in our ward and third over all. They awarded trophies by ward so Jacob got a first place trophy! I was a very proud father! Next year I'll have to make 2 cars (I mean I'll have two kids in cubs making cars) so the pressure will be on. Until then we'll just enjoy the win! Nice job Jacob. Notice the sweet OSU car!

playing catch-up

Well, obviously I have one big new years resolution to make, and that would be to take more pictures. I can't seem to find any pictures of Christmas eve or Christmas. We must have been having so much fun, we forgot to take any. Let me just start by saying, i'm lucky if I can remember anything about Christmas week, it was such a whirlwind of events that I felt like I needed a vacation to recover.
First off, we started off our celebrations with an early birthday party for Malia. She had three girlfriends come over and we planned a few games and a movie. I'm not sure why I even try to plan games, these girls were CU-razy and had the attention span of toddlers. (except malia:) So basically we just let them do their own thing. ( This first picture I had to post, mainly because I wanted to immortalize the "cole squint." He doesn't like to wear his glasses, so we see this face a lot when he's trying to see something.)

Malia was most excited to receive some Barnes and Noble gift certificates! Malia is an amazing 11 year old. She is mature, responsible and smart. Claire adores her and Malia is SO good with her. We are so lucky to have her as our oldest.
Christmas eve was spent at Grannie's house with all of the other Ditto's in the area. There were 10 adults and 12 kids. We had a great Christmas eve program, complete with lots of food, a talent show and a white elephant exchange. Late that evening we headed home to spend our first Christmas ever at our own home. Yes that's right. Since we've been married (12 years) we have always spent Christmas at someone else's house. I was a little worried about doing it on our own, I thought it might be boring. I was wrong. It was pretty great. We took our time looking at what santa brought the kids. Took a break for cinnamon rolls and orange juice and then opened the rest of the presents. It was relaxing and pretty much perfect. It was so great having Christmas on a Sunday, I loved going to church and being reminded of my savior. Christmas afternoon we headed back to Grannie's for a delicious meal and plenty of games to follow. It was the perfect Christmas.

The week that followed was a bit of a whirlwind, but fun! It was all out playtime for the kids and their cousins. We went to sky high (trampoline place), watched movies, played games,ate, had more birthday parties. Brent spent his birthday skiing with his brothers. I spent my birthday hanging out with my sis-in-laws followed by a small party at home. It was a fun week.

Yesterday Malia had her first piano recital. She started piano lessons in November and has picked it up quickly. She did really well, she must have learned her mad piano skills from her mom. :)
Monday Brent and I took the boys on their first skiing trip. The girls opted to stay with Grannie. The boys LOVED it. We wanted to start them out really slow, but after three trips down the bunny hill they were begging for something harder, so off we went. They never did quite pick up the concept of "downhill traversing" (impressive huh?) or going back and forth down the hill. They just basically zoomed down. I had a hard time keeping up with them. There were lots of crashes, but they loved it and keep talking about when they can go back. The only downside of the day was that it was freezing! About 10degrees on the top of the mountain. I had so many layers on I felt like the pillsbury dough boy, but it was fun to ski again. It had been years for me.
I included this picture because of the view behind Jacob (and because of jacob of course) We went to Silver mountain which has the world's longest gondola ride to the top of the mountain. I have to admit, I was a little nervous and kept trying not to think about the cable snapping and falling to my death. It was a long way down. In the background is kellogg idaho where we boarded the gondola.

Today we enjoyed our first SNOW DAY! I was wondering if those even existed here? We have over a foot of snow at our house and we were all praying for a day off. The kids had a great time playing in the snow today. And I enjoyed watching them from the comfort of our warm home :)

An Early Christmas present

A few years ago (like 5?) we got an old table from some friends. Brent did some work on it and wa-la, it looked like it does in the photo below. It was a great table, but after we moved into our new home, we found that the table was a tight fit. Also the wood veneer we used was started to peel up in some places. And i've always dreamed of having a farmhouse table with benches. So the table underwent a second makeover. This time Brent actually cut the whole table down the middle lengthwise and put it all back together. I don't really know everything he did, I just know that I lOVE it! See bottom pic for final product.

My invisalign story

I can't believe i'm posting this picture, especially after Claire told me last week that I have a lot of nose hair. Leave it to your 4 year old to get up close and personal.
Well, last week I received my first invisalign tray. Invisalign is like "invisible braces." My teeth have been shifting a bit and I have some wonky teeth, so I figured why not? Let me tell you, I was regretting my decision last week. The trays fit so snugly that the first night I was in tears trying to get them off. I finally gave up and went to bed hungry (you can't eat with them in) Then I found that the tray was cutting into the bottom of my tongue, so I spent two days trying not to move my tongue and talking like a crazy person. I am happy to report that I can now get both trays out in a minute or less! And the pain under my tongue is gone. My teeth are sore, but I am trying to focus on the end result. The picture below shoes the "buttons" that they put on my teeth, they help keep the trays on and put pressure on certain areas so the teeth can shift. I've been pretty self-conscious of them, but as my brother-in-law Kelly said, "they are hardly noticeable..they just look like you have some stuff stuck in your teeth." Luckily I know he was kidding, right? I'm hoping to take some pictures along the way so I can see the progress. only 11-16 more months to go...

The Tree hunt

Last year around this time, we were reminded that we now longer lived in the Christmas tree capital. All of the sudden I was expected to fork out 30-50 dollars for a tree I would have paid $15 for the year before. Luckily we found a place to cut down our trees for only $10. There is a paper company in the area that owns a lot of land and for $10 you can get a day pass and go cut down a tree. So I convinced all of the family to join us. The tree's are always slightly charlie brownish...but that's part of the charm, right? Our tree this year actually turned out pretty great, although it's big!
Below: We like to give our kids things like saws and knives to play with...
Logan proud of his tree conquest
Claire loved Christmas tree hunting. And loved it even more that her cousins were there.

All done!