All Dressed up for Church!

The kids wanted to wear church clothes from Grandma Wilcox today.  Lainee and Ashlin each received a dress from Grandma for their birthdays.  Cooper and Carson both received a nice sweater vest from Grandma for Christmas.  I think they looked great adorable!

I didn't get a picture of Cooper, because he had gone with Randall to his early meetings before church.

Lainee turns 4!

My little Lainee bug had her 4th birthday!  Where has the time gone?  She was soooo excited for her birthday.  She kept asking how many more days til her birthday.  Having Ashlin's birthday just 9 days earlier made her even more anxious.

For her birthday, Lainee invited her friend Avery over for a day of princess fun.  Lainee, Avery and Ashlin dressed up in princess dresses, had their nails painted and watched a princess show while Ashlin was napping.

 

 

Lainee wanted a Dora cake for her birthday.  I had an incredibly busy month going, so I took the easy way out and ordered some Dora figurines from Amazon (thank you Amazon Prime- shipped to my door in 2 days!).

 

My sweet little Lainee is a bit feisty at times, really girly at times, and very tom-boyish at times trying to keep up with her big brothers.  She loves coloring and any social activity.  She loves helping me cook and bake in the kitchen, and is a wonderful big sister to Ashtlin.  Now that Ashlin is a little older, they play together very well while the boys are gone to school.

Happy Birthday my sweet girl!

 

Lainee in her new Dora nightgown she received for her birthday.  Ashlin also received a Dora nightgown for her birthday, except in purple.

Lainee when she woke up on her birthday

 

Ashlin turns 2 years old!

I can't believe my baby is 2 years old!  Ashlin is my only child to have her 2nd birthday without a newborn baby in the house.  It's kind of crazy to think that I am entering a new phase of my life.  I'm moving away from babies and diapers and into school-aged activites.  It's sad and exciting all at the same time.  Randall and I are quite content with our four children and feel complete, at least for now.

Poor Ashlin had a bit of a crumby birthday.  Her birthday was on Sunday this year, and I woke up very early Sunday morning with Lainee saying her tummy hurt.  I thought perhaps she was too hot from having too many blankets on, so I sent her back to bed.  A few minutes later she was up again, this time I took her straight to the bathroom, and the vomiting began.  As I stood there with her, I realized I didn't feel all that well myself.  30 minutes later Carson was up and throwing up.  I followed a few minutes later.  It was a miserable morning.  Cooper had stomach cramps, but felt ok otherwise.  Cooper was my hero that day.  Ashlin never got sick (thank goodness!) and Cooper got her out of bed, changed her diaper, helped her get dressed, got her breakfast, and turned on a movie to watch with her--- all without being asked.  I was a bit delirious and couldn't even take care of myself, let alone my children.  Randall had gone to church- he wasn't sick either.  By 2:00 in the afternoon we were all hanging out on the couches instead of in the bathroom- a marked improvement!

I blame it all on food poisoning- from Ashlin's birthday cake no less.  She wanted a rainbow cake for her birthday, so I made 7 rainbow layers.  It was a made from scratch cake with lots of eggs, and with 7 bowls to lick, we all tasted a lot of raw cake batter--- all of us except Randall and Ashlin.  They say your chances of getting salmonella from raw eggs are something like 1 in 20,000 eggs.  I guess our luck ran out!

The infamous cake

Needless to say, we celebrated Ashlin's birthday a day late.  And even though I finished making Ashlin's cake, I couldn't make myself eat any.  It did look beautiful, though!  Ashlin is my jabbering toddler.  She says more works than most 3 year olds, and speaks quite clearly, forms 5-6 word sentences on a regular basis, and acts much more grown up than a 2 year old most of the time.  She loves playing princess with Lainee, and loves to be my helper.  She also loves to go with Daddy whenever she can, and she gives THE BEST hugs!

Ashlin showing off her style in her new Dora nightgown, upside down sunglasses and pink cowgirl boots!

Ashlin showing off her silly side- those are Mr. Potato Head glasses ;)

Happy Birthday my little lady!

Brrrr!

We've had a bit of a cold snap this month.  It started at Christmas time with our first real snowfall.  And we're now nearing the end of January, and the snow is still here!  That has to be a record for our neck of the woods- at least in the 5 years we've lived here!

We even had some below zero temps.  Living in Star Valley, Wyoming, below zero temps were common during the winter.  But since moving to Grand View, Idaho, I've become a wimp and accustomed to warmer weather.  I think the kids went for 3 weeks straight without going outside for recess at school.  (And it showed!  The kids at school were all getting very restless!)

I took a few neat pictures of our frosted trees...

Merry Christmas 2012!

I haven't been very good at updating my blog lately.  December was a very busy month!
Randall had surgery on his finger again on December 3rd.  We weren't sure exactly what was going to happen when we went in... the doctor (a very good hand surgeon- Dr. Kloss) told us he would decide which of 3 options was best when he got into the surgery and could better assess the situation.  One of those options was removing the finger... we're thankful that option was not chosen!  The procedure that was chosen, the z-plasty, was probably the most desirable option as far as healing time, and invasiveness.  Plus, he didn't have to go back in for a 2nd surgery 2 weeks later!  Yea!

Snuggled up with dad and reading a book!  The kids enjoyed lots of snuggle time with Dad while he recovered from surgery.

 

Randall had a cast on again for almost 2 weeks, and he was in a fair amount of pain during that time.  He had to take it easy and hang out at home for a while.  The kids and I enjoyed having him around a bit more.

We took the kids down to Salt Lake City and saw our friends Paul and Joni and their beautiful kids.  We made a stop at Temple Square to see all the beautiful Christmas lights.  Wow!  We haven't been since Cooper was a baby, and it sure was neat!  Ashlin especially love all the "pink" lights.  She would say, "Look mom, yellow... look mom, blue... ooohhh, look mom, PINK!"  She is such a yacker, and acts much more grown up than she actually is.  I wish I could make her, and all my kids for that matter, stay little a bit longer!

Cute kids all dressed up for church!

We made a gingerbread house!

We enjoyed a nice Christmas at home, complete with our traditional Strawberry and Cream Crepes for Christmas breakfast.  Santa Claus made his deliveries and the kids played all day with their new spoils.  Cooper and Carson had requested new ropes, wallets, spurs, and a few other things.  Dad was a good shopper and gave Cooper a fancy pair of spurs and Carson some new chaps.  Lainee wanted a Sleeping Beauty doll and Ashlin wanted a Cinderella doll.  I love it when they're easy to please!  We really do love our quiet and simple Christmas Day's at home with the kids.  It snowed Christmas night, much to the kids' delight.  They had a blast playing in it the next two days before we headed out to visit grandparents.

We headed over to Southeastern Idaho for New Years weekend- we first made a stop at the Raymonds for a party with Randall's family.  We delayed it a bit, because Scott and Maureah had been in Texas for Christmas, and their return flight was cancelled.  With a lot of hard work we were able to find them another flight and they were only 1/2 a day late instead of 2 days late like the airline originally told them.  It was nice to all be together.  We even made it to the Clark Christmas party this year!

We also attended the Schneiter Christmas party where we made some quilts to take to Primary Children's hospital, put together laundry kits for the Rexburg Family Crisis Center, and gathered several large boxes of food items to donate to the Rigby Food Bank.  We are all so blessed, and it's nice to have an opportunity to give back.  The kids received some money for Christmas from grandparents, and they all decided on their own to use a portion of their money to help Randall and I purchase items for the food bank.  I was so proud of my little munchkins!  It's moments like that, that make me feel like just maybe I am doing something right as a mother.

Ashlin taking a bath in the sink at the cabin.  All the kids have bathed in this sink when they were little!

Ashlin all dressed up to go outside in the snow.  Isn't she cute!  I wasn't very good taking pictures this year.  I guess you'll just have to take my word for it that we all had lots of fun!

The winter wonderland scene as we left Island Park.  It really is beautiful up there!

To finish off our grand trip, we headed up to Island Park to spend some time with my family at the cabin.  Everyone made it up there for at least a little while.  New Years is pretty much the only time of year we're all together, and it's become a tradition we all look forward to.  Like last year, we were lacking a bit of snow, so there was no snowmachining.  But there was enough to pull the kids around on sleds with the 4-wheelers.

All-in-all we had a wonderful Christmas and New Years!  Here's to a wonderful 2013!

Monster Concert

Cooper had the opportunity to participate in a Monster Concert last weekend.  He played a duet, along with 9 other duet partners on stage at the same time, 10 pianos in all.  It was really neat!  Cooper worked really hard on his song, and I think he did really well.  The concert had a western theme, and Cooper's song was titled, "On The Trail."

I'm so proud of my little piano player!
Carson wasn't able to participate this year, because you have to have taken lessons for at least a year prior to the concert.  He is looking forward to next year, though!

Carson's Lost Tooth

Carson lost his first "official" tooth.  I say official, because he had to have 2 of his bottom molars pulled a few months ago.  He didn't even realize it was loose until middle of the afternoon one day.  By night time Carson told me the tooth was bothering him and he couldn't sleep.  I took a look, reached in and took one little tug on the tooth and out it came!  If only they were all that easy!