Ski Lessons!

Brook Mueller called me in January and asked if I would be interested in putting Conner in ski lessons with his buddy Jaxon.  It was only $125 for 5 two hour lessons and it included rentals, plus after their lesson they could stay and ski for free.  Also, I could ski during their class and after with them for $10.  Score!!  I was all about it but wasn't sure if Conner would be.  He had never mentioned skiing before.  So I talked to him about it and he was all about it, in fact all the big kids were.

We made a deal that if they paid half, I would pay half.  They still wanted to do it!  Grandma and Grandpa were a great support and let the kids come over for a few Saturdays and do jobs to earn money.  They earned all their money in 3 weeks!

They started February 13th and have loved every minute of it.  Cassidy ended up having a friend from school in her ski group so she was super excited.  They have stayed late every week skiing!  Total die hards!  I skied with them on Feb. 27th and discovered I am losing all my need for speed in my old age!  Cassidy has it.  She is so fast and flies down the mountain.  Makes me nervous.  Conner and his friend Jaxon are of course little crazy maniacs that are fearless.  Corbin is a great little skier but is definitely a little more cautious, which I appreciate.  I would prefer to not have any accidents happen.  They are already so excited to do it next winter!

Jaxon and Conner

Sydnee and Cassidy

All ready to go!

1st time

All ready to go for the 1st time!

Cassidy and Sydnee on the magic carpet.

Corbin and me on the lift

I hadn't skied in 15+ years, so I was pretty nervous about skiing with the kids.  I started while they were in class, figured it would be better to practice without them as an audience.  It came back pretty quick, but makes me want to take a few lessons myself.  I do love it.  We had such a fun time skiing together!  It was freezing cold and I had given Corbin my hat because his was soaking wet, but super fun!

Cavity for Chloe

The big kids had a dentist appointment January 21st and I thought it would be good to start introducing the twins to the dentist.  I have gone to Dr. Moyes since I was little!  I just love the way he is with the kids.  So nice and patient and calm.  He had the twins lay in the chair and just peeked in their mouths, nothing to exciting.  The first thing out of his mouth was that I have braces in the future with the twins.  I had thought that...their mouths are tiny and their baby teeth are already packed in there.

Chloe, he noticed, had a small cavity on the top of one of her molars.  I am betting it was from when they had all the mouth sores in December and I gave up brushing for a while.  So we made an appointment to go back and get her cavity filled.  Dr. Moyes had warned me that he would give her some gas to help her relax but he would not pin her down or fight her, if that happened we would have to go to a dentist that could sedate her.

The big kids were at school and I got a babysitter for Caylee and Cate and we made our way to the dentist on February 5th.  Chloe did great.  She kind of shut down and just laid there, I think she must have gone to her happy place.  I could tell she was nervous and when the dentist scooted her up in the chair her little eyes welled up with tears, but that was it.  No crying, no tantrums, no nothing!

We walked out of the dentist room and it was like someone clicked a switch!  She was talking up a storm and running around.  She was so excited to go use her 3 coins and pick some prizes for being such a good patient.  Funny girl.  Hopefully we won't have many more cavities!

Christmas 2012...

Christmas was nice, but kind of a drag.  The twins were still sick and not happy campers at all.  They were running fevers of 102-103.  We had been into the pediatricians on Christmas Eve in hopes that they would need some antibiotics or something, but we got the standard, "Its probably just adenovirus, go home!"  We did not see our regular pediatrician, she was out of the office.  Needless to say our pediatrician got an ear full when we saw her a week and a half later.  It was NOT the adenovirus at all!   Their poor mouths were covered in sores and their gums would bleed if you looked at them wrong.  They were not happy.

Anyways...back to Christmas.

Christmas Eve I took Cate and the big kids down to see my Dad while Cameron stayed home with the twins.  We ate, opened presents and Grandpa put a little fireside together.  There was quite a storm in Salt Lake so we were happy everyone got home in one piece.

Christmas morning, we got up just before 8 and opened presents.  The big kids had woke up earlier but were good sports about waiting till Cate and the twins woke up.  It is not a pretty site when you wake up sick twins!  The kids loved their presents.  Cate (much like at her birthday) did not really care to much so the siblings were more then happy to help.  The twins were able to muster up enough energy to open their presents.  I wish they had been feeling better, I know the response I would have gotten would have been a lot better.  They got all PRINCESS stuff!

After presents we once again divided to go to Grandma and Grandpa Harvey's.  Cameron stayed home with the twins again.  Everyone else went to Grandma's for a awesome breakfast.  I love the tradition my mom has started with the grandkids.  She opened a CD for them a few years ago and she puts in $25 for their birthday and $25 for Christmas, then they get a book to open on Christmas.  They get so much anyways and now they will have a little savings for when they are older.  I have been putting in $5 a paycheck.  It has been fun to see how fast their CD has grown with just that little bit being put in.

I made a crosstich for my mom and actually finished it in time to give it to her on Christmas day.  I was hoping to finish it before so she could frame it and have it up for the holidays but oh well.  At least I finished it.  I still need to finish the Twins and Cate's stockings.  Maybe next year...

After that the kids and Cameron hung out at home while I went to work.  My night at work was a reinforcement to how thankful I am for the gospel and ETERNAL families.  I am sure glad I am stuck with mine forever!

Cameron and the kids went to Nicole and Ben's on New Years Eve.  I stayed home to try and sleep because I was going into work at 3am.  Thankfully the twins were almost completely recovered by that point.  That is one illness I would really not like to repeat!

Just had to throw in some of our tree decorating pictures from earlier...

Chloe

Christmas PJ's.

Chloe on my lap and Caylee standing up. 

Cass with her new earrings!

Love this smile!

Notice the bowls behind me...the twins' stockings!  :)



Cate was way more interested in eating!  She is one of my best eaters, by far!

Poor mouth!

Corbin kept asking for an alarm clock.  It was the one thing on his list that never changed!

Chloe and her new PRINCESS!

Caylee and her new PRINCESS!

Cameron messing around.

Twinners Birthday...

These two sweet girls turned 3 on Dec. 22!  I cannot believe how fast time goes.  I feel like I just had them.  These cuties were unfortunately sick on their birthday so no big party for them!  It was just coming on so they were still pretty happy.  We just hung out at home and opened presents and had birthday brownies and ice cream.

Caylee and Chloe are still not very talkative.  They have qualified for preschool through the school district and will start on January 3rd.  I'm a little torn about this.  They seem so small and not ready for this.  They will be ride the bus to and from school, that is the scariest part for me!  There is an aid on the bus that helps out, that makes it a little better.

They are still tiny things, but they are on the growth curve, surprising!  Caylee is in the 9th percetile for weight and Chloe was in the 20th.  Funny how much a difference 1 pound makes!

Some of the things they love:

-DOLLS

-Helping 

They will help with almost anything.  Dishes, washing walls, cleaning their room, laundry.

-They are not a fan of cold but will tolerate it just so they can go outside.

-Pediasure (nutrition drink for kids)

-Princess clothes

-Princess anything!  (Everyone is "-lella")

-Baths

-Balloons!

-Num Nums  (Donuts)

Caylee will jabber on and on.  Chloe is more of the silent type.
Caylee is strongly opinionated about wearing pink.  Chloe is good with purple (she will wear whatever).

Sure love these 2 punkins!

Chloe

Chloe

Caylee

Caylee

Caylee

Cate needing some attention!

Chloe

Caylee

Chloe and Caylee

Caylee and Chloe



Visit with Santa...

Our ward Christmas breakfast had Santa come and visit!  The plan was to hurry and dump the kids around him and take a picture.

It didn't work and ended up being a family picture!

Chloe and Conner

Cassidy and Cate

Caylee

Corbin, Cameron and Chloe

Caitlyn is ONE!

Holy smokes!  I cannot believe how fast this first year has gone.  I really tried to enjoy it, in fact I wish it would have gone a little slower!  Cate is such a fun baby, pretty easy going and loves to eat!  I love her huge smile and her chubby cheeks and her thighs....I just have to give them a squeeze whenever I can.
Her hair is an out of control mess, but is so cute on her.  I need to get strict and make her leave her barrettes in so it will stay out of her face, but I just can't do it.  I'm probably creating a monster, but she's the baby!  :) 
She is a wonderful napper.  If she has her elephant she is happy to usually just go to sleep in her crib, she does struggle giving up to the nap if she is not in her own bed.
She is just barely starting to get interested in walking and can do a couple of steps.  She falls and laughs and loves to stand back up and try again.  She does the best when she thinks no one is paying attention.  When we try and have her walk to someone (usually Mom, Dad or Cassidy) she gets so excited and falls forward trying to get to you to fast!
Her first word was Dad, but Mom was soon to follow and now it is about all we hear.

We just love this little princess and the joy and energy she brings to our family.

We went to Temple Square the night of her birthday (see Temple Square post).  The next day we had brownies by chef Cassidy and ice cream and opened presents.  Cate loved the brownies, of course.  You can't really tell in the pictures, she was getting tired.  She didn't care so much about the presents.  Lucky she has plenty of siblings to help her out.