BYU-Idaho Employee Family Day

BYU-Idaho does a family employee day each semester and Winter Semester's family day happened to be at Badger Creek. I had just told Jason how sad I was that we hadn't taken the kids sledding this year when I got the email. We decided to brave it and take the kids. The drive was a little over an hour from the house and we spent all morning making sure we had every possible winter gear we would need to keep the kids nice and toasty.

They had horse drawn sleighs for us to ride when we got there. The kids watched the horses with fascination. I'm not sure they knew what to think about them.

They had a few games for the kids to play and hot chocolate and donuts. Brooklyn was in a grumpy mood and it was hard to convince her to do anything. Poor Morgan was tired and just wanted to sleep.

We finally made it to the top of the hill with the sleds and were able to take Carson and Brooklyn down a few times. A very kind student employee held little Miss Morgan so that we could all go together. Once we started heading down the hill the kids thought it was AWESOME! They giggled and laughed the whole way down. The snow was pretty soggy, so we didn't go terribly fast and we had to push start a few times down the hill. For the kids' first time really sledding it was perfect. We all got so warm that we had to start shedding layers of clothes. We also forgot sunglasses and it was extremely bright out there.

It was a fun little day trip, but Jason and I were both very happy to be home at the end of the day. Sometimes, doing fun things for your kids wears you out! This was one of those trips that was more work than fun for the parents. All that matters is that we are making memories with our little ones!

Adjusting to 3

I was extremely nervous about having our third baby. Everyone kept telling me how hard #3 was and it made me terrified! Brooklyn was/is such a temperamental little girl and I wasn't sure how she would do with another baby here. Carson is only 3, which means I would have 3 kids ages 3 and under. Jason and I want our kids close together so we wouldn't want it any other way, but that doesn't make it any less challenging or stressful. With Jason being in school and working full time, it meant it I would mostly have to do it on my own. I was prepared for the worst.

We brought Morgan home and I just kept waiting for things to explode.....but it never did. The kids have been so excited to have her here and I actually adjusted fairly easy to 3. Granted there are HARD days, and times when I'm overwhelmed, but for the most part we are adjusting to 3 kiddos just fine.

One of the first days home from the hospital, Carson insisted that we make a birthday cake for Morgan. He wouldn't stop talking about it, so one night after dinner we made a cake. I let Carson pick out the decorations, so the cake is very boyish. Morgan slept through her entire "birthday" party.

Carson loves playing in the snow and one day with the girls were sleeping we took him outside and played. He loved it! The snow was too soft to make a snowman, but we made snow angels and ran around.

Jason took the kids to the Lowe's kids workshop to get them out of the house and do something fun with them. They built a Christmas train and got to decorate it with stickers. They always look so cute in their little aprons and they really enjoy building things there, especially Carson.

Brooklyn's hair is getting so long! She looked so cute one day that I had to take a picture.

The kids wanted to make sugar cookies one day so I pulled out all of the Christmas cookie cutters and let them go for it. They had such a hard time waiting for them to bake. They patiently stood by the oven and watched the whole time. Afterwards I gave them each a plate of frosting and the sprinkles and let them go to town. Carson used an entire container of sprinkles on his cookies. The sprinkles on top were thicker than the actual cookie. What can you expect from a 3 year old, I guess. :)

So far our adjustment to 3 kids has been a good one. Morgan is a sweet baby and the kids love her to pieces. Hopefully it stays this way!

Ready for Baby!

I went to the doctor the day before Thanksgiving and was dilated to a 3. I've been having pretty steady contractions so I think the baby will be here before we know it! I think we are having a boy, but Jason thinks we are having a girl. I guess we will see who is right. 

I've been trying to stay home and get everything ready, which has meant the kids are getting a little stir crazy. I gave them popcorn and let them watch a movie, and the popcorn ended up all over the floor. Next thing I know they were eating it up off the floor and acting like puppy dogs. Silly kids!

I've hit the stage where I don't have many comfortable clothes to wear and most days I stay in my sweats. I wear Jason's shirts and sweaters a lot and I told him that maybe we should switch wardrobes until I have the baby. He didn't really think that was the best idea.

We have had some snow the last few days and Carson really likes playing in it. Our neighbor, Abram, is Carson's age and they like to play together. It is fun to watch them play outside in the snow in all of their snow gear. Cute little boys.

We are all ready for this baby to arrive! It should be any day now.

January in review....

January was a challenging month in our house (more about that in a future post). For the most part, we stayed inside and hung out together. Not only was it a lot of fun, it also kept us nice and toasty warm since most of the month we were in the negative digits outside! I went to a YW retreat in Island Park and it was -18 while we were there. I thought that was bad, but the Sunday we got back it was -25 in Idaho Falls. That's really cold, in case you were wondering....

Jason has been extremely busy with school and work. He is gone all day, poor guy. Weekends are spent at the library, and for the most part we have part of Sunday with him and Monday nights for FHE. I'm grateful he works so hard for his little family, but we sure do miss his face. 

Sam's Club! One of our favorite places to go. :)

Brooklyn's first pigtails. Super cute little girl!

Brooklyn LOVES the cat. She will crawl and follow it all over the house, squealing and laughing the whole time.

Brooklyn loves seeing herself in the ipad camera. These are a few pictures of her looking at herself.

Carson's favorite shirt - his MONSTER Shirt! It has a cape on the back which means he can fly!

This is how Carson helps feed Brooklyn her snacks - dump out the entire bag of yogurt bites.

 Not only do my kids love their baths, but they love their bath toys. Brooklyn loves the little foam circles with letters on them and she will put them in her mouth and just leave them there. It's so funny and cute. She cracks me up!

 My kids always feel the need to get up super early no matter what time they go to bed. Last Sunday, they felt the need to get up at 5:30am after I had gotten up with them both several times during the night. Jason had been at the library all day on Saturday (8am-3am on Sunday) so we went into the living room to play. If they weren't so dang cute I would probably be a lot crankier with them. :)

 We had a lot of snow in January. A lot!! One weekend most of it melted and then we woke up Monday morning to about 8-10 inches of snow. The wind had created quite the snow drift back by the garages....up to my waist. It took Jason and I an hour to dig out a path for him to get to work. Carson wanted to help shovel too, so I told him he could take care of the front porch. He is so cute in his snow gear.

 We had a follow-up appointment for Brooklyn's ears with Dr. Hanks. Carson is so used to going to the ear doctor that he climbed right up in the chair to wait. Brooklyn's ears look great and she hasn't had an ear infection since her tubes. Yay!!

 The kids have had a blast playing with their toys from Christmas. Brooklyn loves her Jungle toy and tries to pull herself up on it. Once she stands up she lets go because she thinks she is ready to walk. Silly girl needs to slow down! Carson loves his car toy and has a lot of fun sending any toy down the spirals that will fit. They are getting to the point where they play really well together. Brooklyn loves to follow Carson and play with whatever he has, and Carson likes to bring her toys and show her how to use them. I love it. Mostly, I love them.

Sledding!

The week of Christmas we got a ton of snow!! It was great! Carson and Papa went outside and Papa pulled Carson on the sled. He thought it was awesome, and thought it was hilarious when Papa fell. It lasted about 5 minutes until he face-planted in the snow and then he was done. Brooklyn rode with him a few times, but she didn't find it as fun as he did.

After he was done sledding, he helped Papa shovel the driveway. He sure does love his Papa!