Happy 40th Anniversary!

Today is my parents' 40th wedding anniversary!



Forty years! Wow!

I am so thankful for such wonderful parents! They shaped my youth and they continue to be a constant guide now.

I love them so much!

Oh, You Make Me Smile

These kiddos totally make me smile.

Emily looking backwards out of the Bumbo



Emily's "Downward Facing Dog" yoga position




(Love those tippy toes)

Megan started spontaneously clapping her hands this week. (I tried to catch a picture of her with her hands together, but this is the best I got. I had to put the camera down to clap my hands so she would clap her hands, but then she wouldn't clap for very long and by that time I had missed the shot. So here she is with her hands just coming out of a clap.)



Tyler's language abilities have expanded exponentially in the last few weeks. It is so fun to hear him talk. Today he was out helping me shovel the snow. (We had to find his sandbox shovel.)

Tyler said, "Hey! We're helping! I like it!" Later he said, "This is fun!"



A few weeks ago I was having one of those days/nights. Tyler found me rocking Megan to sleep. He came up and patted me and said, "Oh, sweetheart!" I'm not sure where he picked up the word sweetheart, but it was just what I needed!

I Like to Move It, Move It!

Emily is a girl on the move! She army crawls all over the place. She likes to push up on to her hands and knees or on to her hands and tippy toes. I'm sure she'll be crawling before too long.

She is much faster now than when this video was taken, but you get the general idea.



Megan can army crawl a little, but she prefers to roll to get where she wants to go. She also scoots like this sometimes (especially when she's mad):

Look at Me!

Megan is a "master sitter" now!

Videos

Here is a video of the girls' first "fight." It is so cute to watch them take the spoon away from each other.



I "caught" Tyler on video conducting a "concert." There are 3 segments.

The first is of him conducting the Mormon Tabernacle Choir on one of their Christmas DVDs. If you look you can see him pointing to the orchestra to bow, just like the real conductor does. He probably would have bowed like the real conductor did too, except that Tyler was turned around looking at me at that time. Sometimes he claps and says "Thank you so much!"

The second clip is of him dancing to the same concert.

And the last clip is of him ending a song. I wish I would have caught a little bit more before the actual end. He has the songs memorized and knows exactly when a song is going to end. No matter where he is or what he's doing, he will end the song right on beat with his hands in the air.

Ta Da!

Emily mastered sitting by herself this week!

Christmas

We spent Christmas with my family. The kids and I went a few days early. We went up with my parents and we picked Derek up from the airport on our way there. Darrell came up a few days later and picked up Tansy from the airport. We were all together for Christmas and it was wonderful.

Fun with cousins

Olivia with Megan and Aubrey with Emily



Olivia and Emily



Daniel with Emily and Daniel with Tyler



Fun with aunts and uncles

Tansy



Greg



Derek



Sage



Making sugar cookies



Making sugar cookies the next day too



Fun in the snow



What comes after having fun in the snow



Christmas duets with Kimberly and Greg



The girls loved the orange peels



The nativity



Christmas jammies



Santa Claus found us



Tyler and his ramp



Emily with her Cabbage Patch doll



Megan with her Cabbage Patch doll



Two fairies (I love Olivia's cowboy boots!)



Christmas dinner







Sunday morning. This is the best we could get.



Otherwise it turned out like this



My grandpa and my uncle John came up the day after Christmas, but I didn't get a picture of them. My uncle took this picture of all of us.



There really is "no place like home for the holidays!"

'Tis the Season...

for sickness at our house. In the last month we've had:

R.S.V.: Megan and Emily

A cold: Tyler

Ear infections: Megan and Emily

Ear infections (round 2): Megan and Emily

The flu: Darrell, Debbie and Tyler (I can't tell if the girls got it or not.)

2 new bottom teeth: Megan (OK, so that's not a sickness, but she was pretty miserable)



Some pluses:

I think Zicam may have helped me avoid the RSV/colds the kids got. I should have been really sick with all the sneezing, coughing and runny noses I came in contact with.

I was home for Christmas when the girls had their 2nd round of ear infections. Thanks to Mom and Kimberly who have a little bit more experience in detecting and treating ear infections.

Some how we've lucked out. Tyler has never had the flu until this last week. I'm so grateful cleaning up throw up hasn't been something I've had to do a lot.

Darrell was home and able to help with the kids when I had the flu.

I hope "the season" is now done with our house. (thank you very much!)