December 2015

12/1/15

Anna has been studying the moon in school and has had to record moon sightings for part of her homework.  Some times it was hard to find the moon.  On this day we spotted it on the way to school (can you see it?).  I took a picture so Anna could remember and record it in her moon log when she got home.  We liked listening to this Moon Song and singing along during her moon studies.

12/2/15

Bath time.  I need a water proof poncho to give these two a bath.  Sometimes I hide (cower) behind the shower curtain.  If they get too splashy I make them get out, but they sure enjoy their bath time together.

12/3/15

More potty training misadventures.  John was not happy to be using the potty on this day.  In fact, this particular incident ended in me having to change my own pants and thoroughly clean the baby gate and the floor of the hallway and bathroom.  After that I decided to take a break for a while until he's more into it.  Poor John.

12/4/15

Getting Santa-ed up.  John tries on Matthew's Santa suit for his race tomorrow.

12/5/15

At the Santa Run (5K) with the kids.  You can see my dad and John in the background.

12/6/15

Emma is walking!  She's a good little walker and wants to explore everything.

12/7/15

John enjoying an orange.

12/8/15

Grant was wearing only pants.  John was wearing only a shirt.

Put them together and they have a complete outfit.

12/9/15

Gingerbread mode.  I spent a couple days making gingerbread for gingerbread houses.  Our houses got assembled and I think the kids had fun.

12/10/15

Our completed houses.  Not looking quite as classy as other years, but done.

12/11/15

I was trying to take a picture of Emma when Grant and John decided to be aggressive photo bombers.  I like Emma's expression.  Those crazy boys!!

12/12/15

On the Christmas tree hunt.  These were all precut trees, but Scott helped us find a good one.

12/13/15

Two Steves.  Maybe we can make these heads last a few more years.

12/14/15

Mongolian beef for dinner.  Yum.

12/15/15

We've been enjoying the Christmas tree!

12/16/15

More snow.  There's been a lot this November and December and the kids have been enjoying it.

12/17/15

Grant won a 2 liter bottle of Root Beer at school for winning a BINGO game.  He was very proud of his prize and treated everyone to root beer floats after dinner.

12/18/15

I went to the school yesterday and today to see the kid's music performances.  Here is Grant and his preschool class singing Santa Clause is Coming to Town. They were so cute.  Grant was very enthusiastic and remembered all the actions.  :)

12/19/15

Scott is here for a long Christmas break visit.  We're all so excited to see him!!

12/20/15

"All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth."

Matthew lost his other front tooth this weekend.  Now he can sing that song and mean it.

12/21/15

This year, I'm semi-obsessed with the Snow Miser song from The Year Without a Santa Clause.  And we've been watching the clip of it on You Tube a lot.  Anna drew the Snow Miser and the Heat Miser (that's the Heat Miser in this picture) and we had to compare her picture with the real thing.  She did a great job.  "He's too much!"

12/22/15

Getting ready to go caroling and see Christmas lights.

Emma looks all grown up in her coat.  But still so tiny.

12/23/15

It snowed.  Again.  It's been snowing nearly every day for the past week and a half.  Scott and I shoveled a teeny tiny sled run for the kids.  We used a lot of snow from the yard and uncovered some dirt and grass that would normally have been covered by several inches of snow.  The kids had fun playing on there for a long time.  I think it wore them out.

12/24/15

Here are the kids on Christmas Eve wearing their jammie pants from Grandma Guptill.  

They were so excited for Christmas!

12/25/15

Christmas morning!  We made the kids wait till we ate breakfast (which we always do) and here we are about ready to dive into gifts!  There was a new blanket of deep snow on the ground and it was a great Christmas day!

12/26/15

Here we are watching Goblet of Fire for movie night (see Harry Potter there on the screen?).  The kids and just finished reading the book which took us many months.  We all loved watching the movie.

12/27/15

Emma got two baby dolls for Christmas (one from us, one from a relative).  She LOVES them both and takes them with her all over.  Grant stole them and was having them pretend to attack him.  He thought that was very funny and wanted me to take a picture.  If Emma saw this, she would not be happy.

12/28/15

Bowling!!  It's cold, snowy and icy outside here.  So we decided to go bowling.  It's a good indoor activity, although driving to and parking/walking in at the bowling alley was a little treacherous we made it and had fun.  My parents watched Emma witch made the whole experience so much easier.  We had fun bowling.  Scott destroyed us all with his awesome bowling, as usual.  :)

12/29/15

Anna and her two missing teeth.

She has been so excited to lose teeth and is enjoying this new phase in her childhood.

12/30/15

Emma and her dollies.  She pushes them around in the stroller, carries them around and tries to get people to help her with them.  It's very cute.

12/31/15

We had a little new year party at home with lots of good eats and fun.

Another year has come and gone.  Happy New Year everyone.

November 2015

11/1/15

Uncle Matt (my brother) and Aunt Karen gave Matthew a racket and ball play set and he loves it.  He wants to play with it all the time.  We play until the ball goes on the roof and then we have to go rescue the ball.  Because of the way the roof is in the back balls can get stuck up there pretty easily.  Matthew loves playing though.  It was "wear camo" day at school today by the way.

11/2/15

It must be holiday season at Costco because the gigantic bears are back.

11/3/15

Matthew has a new life ambition.  He wants to be a computer programmer (past ambitions include taxi driver, eye doctor, farmer and police officer).  I got him a scratch account a while ago and he enjoys going there and writing little programs.  He even started learning a little Python.  Matthew thought it would be good for him to have an old computer to take apart.   Grandpa found an old, cheap computer and parts at the thrift store for Matthew to disassemble.  First they put it all together to see if it worked.  And it did! Here's Matthew connecting things.

 11/4/15

In the past John has gone to physical and speech therapy for some developmental delays.  Our pediatrician here recommended taking him to be evaluated by the school district now that he is old enough for that to see if he would qualify for help.  Long story short, he didn't qualify.  His speech and gross motor are within the normal range.  So that's good.  Here he is waiting for the speech therapist.

11/5/15

About 15 minutes before school got out I got a call from the school about Grant.  He accidentally banged his head on the table at school really hard while putting his supplies away and he was hurt and inconsolable.  I zipped over and got him.  He had a cut on his nose, an ice pack and was very sad.  He rested at home and felt a little better by the afternoon.  Poor Grant!

11/6/15

An exciting day for Anna!  She got her cast off today.  She has gone through three hard casts and one partial hard cast (at the beginning) and now she is ready to have them off.  The doctor gave her a soft splint to wear when she plays, but she can take it on and off and not worry about it during baths and such.  She is very happy.

11/7/15

The kids helped Scott rake leaves today.  Actually he raked them into a pile, with some help, and then let them have at it.  They had so much fun!

11/8/15

Emma turned one year old today.  We had some small party activities including cupcakes and presents.  Emma wasn't too sure about some of it, but I think she had a good time overall.  Happy Birthday Emma!!  Read more about her big day HERE.

11/9/15

Scott left today - back to California for work.  In the morning I lost track of John and found him downstairs in my bed.  Maybe he was missing dad.  Or maybe he just wanted to go back to bed.

11/10/15

John ran errands with me today in the snow.  There was big snow coming down but it was too warm to stick much.  During the night we got another light coating but it melted pretty quick.  It was exciting though.

11/11/15

Tonight was the Reflections contest open house.

The Reflections contest is an optional art contest through the school.  The kids had a month and a half or so to work on a project if they wanted to submit something.  Remember this is totally optional.  The night before the projects were due Anna decided she wanted to submit something.  I told her I would help her fill out the paper is she finished something to turn in, and tried to gently remind her that starting something the night before isn't a great choice.  She made this art project in the lid of a shoe box.  When Matthew saw her working on a project he wanted to make something too.  He ended up making an origami diorama.  We submitted their work and today was the day when you could walk around and see everyone's projects and who won awards etc.  The projects the kids made were very much on par with many of the other projects that were submitted.  They didn't win any awards but they were happy to participate and see the other projects.

11/12/15

I made an appointment to take a family picture.  We don't do professional pictures that often, maybe once every few years.  But I thought I would try this year.  It was a little tricky to find a time when Scott would be available, but I made an appointment.    Here are the kids the night before with new haircuts.  Matthew got one too.  The kid haircut place took FOREVER!!  We had an appointment but we were still there over 2 hours!!! Don't think I'll go there again.  But the kids look nice.

11/13/15

Friday the 13th!!  Scott was supposed to fly in early this morning.  Last minute Scott's flight was cancelled and we were afraid he would have to miss our picture appointment.  Luckily he was able to change some things around and made it into town with hours to spare.    Here we are in the waiting room of the photo studio.  I kind of wanted to do an outdoor photo shoot, but it didn't work out this year.  Oh well.  The kids' clothes  matched the decor of the waiting room.

11/14/15

We saw the Salt Lake Temple made of Legos at BYU.  We also went to the Wilk and the Eyring Science Center.  I have to go to the ESC when I'm there since I spent so much time there in college.  :)  Memories.

11/15/15

Emma is starting to sleep through the night a lot better than before.  Hooray!  Unfortunately, John has decided he needs to come visit me in the middle of night.  Every night.  Here he is sleeping on the bed before I even go to sleep.  It wakes Emma up and she is always excited to see him.  Sometimes they peek a boo at each other.  I want my bed back.

11/16/15

It's hot chocolate season.  Grant likes to go play outside in the cold just so he can come in again and request hot cocoa.  Here are the boys enjoying their cocoa.  On this day they were feeding each other from their spoons.

11/17/15

John with the big hot chocolate mug.  They like to have their cocoa luke warm.

11/18/15

Trying out the selfie stick.  John had to go up real close to the phone still to see what was up.

11/19/15

Emma and Mom.  Emma is teething and we think that's why she has been extra grumpy lately.  She likes to be held a lot and is sometimes inconsolable.  So its nice to see her happy.  Her teeth are coming in quick so that's good.

11/20/15

Nighttime drama.  Anna (7), Grant (4) and John (3) share a room at my parents house.  After we do our bedtime routine John and Grant still have a lot of wiggles to get out before settling down for bed.  Sometimes they throw all their clothes on the floor or spread toys and books around or jump on the beds.  Or just create general havoc.  Anna exasperatedly cleans up the books every night (or morning) after their wild rumpus.  She's given up on cleaning up the other stuff.  Anna finally got tired of it all and asked if she could sleep on the floor in the room with Matthew.  Matthew (8) is a much calmer roommate.

11/21/15

My cousin, Jessica, and her family came down to visit from Idaho.  Here are Anna and her daughter Audrey.  Audrey is 5 and Anna is 7, but Audrey is still quite a bit taller.  They had fun playing together.

11/22/15

From the potty training misadventures.  John turned three in August but he's pretty resistant to potty training most of the time.  We've still tried a little bit but not with much success.  He agreed to wear his underwear on this day.  Just on his head.

11/23/15

Anna does a lot of art projects.  Anna made this picture as part of a book for Emma.  It says, "This is a purse."  Anna thinks we can just teach Emma to read and then we won't have to tell her what all these things are (like purse, ball, dolly etc).  She can read them for herself.  Ah, the power of reading.

11/24/15

Last day before Thanksgiving break.  Matthew's class did a reader's theater for the parents.  If you look close you can see Matthew.  He was Squanto in his group's performance.

11/25/15

Thanksgiving preparations are underway.  I do a lot of prep the day or two before to make the big day a little (or a lot) easier.  Anna is helping me cut up some cornbread for the stuffing.  Hooray Thanksgiving!!

11/26/15

Thanksgiving morning my parents watched the kids so Scott and I could run a 5K together.  It was so great!!  Despite being 27 degrees when we started running we had a lot of fun and even enjoyed some treats and festivities after the run before heading home to work on our Thanksgiving feast.  See more Thanksgiving pictures HERE.

11/27/15

A lot of people ask me if John and Grant are twins (they're 16 months apart) so I wanted to check how much taller Grant was.   Grant's still got a few inches on John.   That's Serena in the background ducking out of the picture.  :)

11/28/15

Another snowy day!  The kids had fun playing outside and enjoying the snow.  John's hat was a little too small and would not accommodate his ears.  Time for a bigger hat.

11/29/15

Grant likes to write his name.  Sometimes he runs out of space for the T and has to put it above.

11/30/15

Anna working on her homework.  On this day she was supposed to roll dice to determine how much money she could add to her pot until she got to $1.  She liked keeping track of all the money on her little spreadsheet (is that accounting, Scott?)