Oh what do you do in the winter time.

These last couple months I thought would be relaxing, bordering boring.  It's winter time....what are you going to do?  Well, with finishing the basement and 4 kids, there's really never been a dull moment.

This girl turns one in a week!  She's close to walking and loves all the new things and views she discovers every day.

                                               
                                               Of course everything goes in the mouth.

           Whitney and Travis loved playing in the snow.  Even Hailey got into it.  Such a nice break for them to get outside!  One day with new snow, Dad burried Whitney. 

 Hailey meanwhile has gotten a lot of Dora time in while I attempt to do some cleaning in between Ashley's naps.  The things Hailey says and does keeps me laughing!  I have to mention Puzzles.  I need to take a picture of this to truly show how many puzzles a day this girl does.  Our floor was littered with puzzles everywhere.  Thank goodness most were put together.  I convinced her to do puzzles at the table now, and that has somewhat contained the chaos.  Impressive to me that a 2 year old would pic puzzles over all else.

 And then, by night, they always change into the super kids.  They love playing superheros.

 Yes, cheesy comment coming.  They really are super kids!!  Mostly....Ashley's getting there :)

Basement stuff

Wonder why I haven't blogged in forever?  I can tell you exactly why in one word.  Basement. 

The beginning of December we started framing the basement.  We added vents, electrical, doors, moved doors, did lighting, insulation, ect....

Seems like every Saturday and spare night has been spent making progress on the basement.  It's been fun but hard to juggle all I normally do and try and do the basement on top of it.  And our poor kids are orphans every Saturday. 

But enough whinning, we are almost done.

Here's one of the chores I loved most.  Demolition!

We tore out the wall at the bottom of the stairs.  The kids were excited to help.  Although, not to brag too much, but my mean tae bo kick is what really did the wall in :)

 End result = openness.  I love it.

 I am especially thankful we got an awesome bid for someone to put up the sheetrock and mud/tape.  We could've have done it but that would mean 2 more months of our kids being orphans and me cursing sheetrock.  We don't really get along.  So before the sheetrock project started we cleaned up and had a roller party.  Bikes, ripsticks, rollerblades and scooters were invited.

 Whitney peaking through the window into the playroom under the stairs.  Yeah, I caught this on camera as she passed by...that's why it's a blur.

 And . . . hold your breath... After one day, that's right, one day of our guy sheetrocking we have a ceiling!!  Makes me so happy .  With each cut and screw I hear him do downstairs at the moment I smile, knowing I'm not doing it! :)

Idaho

Since the last post was all pictures, I guess this will be all talk.  Mostly because I always forget to take pictures in Idaho.  We're always having too much fun.  I think my kids would prefer Idaho over a lot of other vacations. 

This time the ride went smoothly both ways :)  We swam, sledded, played games, enjoyed talking, snowmobiled, and much more.  The kids can't get enough of playing with their cousins.  Travis especially adores Mathew and Brian.  He also decided he wanted a snowmobile for his birthday.  We are blessed with amazing family.

As 2012 closes it's sad to see my kids growing up and yet I'm excited for a new chapter.  A year hopefully with no pregnancy, babies, or sleeplessness!  I remember my one word goal for last year was endurance.  And in a way that's what it was.  Enduring the end of pregnancy, enduring having a newborn, enduring a baby with kids home for summer, and the grand finale being enduring all the fall activities while juggling kids.  But honestly, if that's enduring, sign me up.  Because, yes, it was hard.  But there were so many nuggets of gold along the way that made it worth it all.  I wouldn't trade it for anything.  This coming year I hope to build on that.  I hope not to just endure but to enrich the moments of life.  Make more meaningful time with my kids, family, and friends.  I hope to be less selfish and give more of myself.  So my one word goal of 2013 I guess would be enrich.

Christmas

We had another fun, memorable Christmas.  It's always exciting with kids counting down to when Santa comes.  It's also fun having added family. We enjoyed Christmas with Jeff, Selly, and Marcus, Grandma and Grandpa.  That's what the holidays are all about.  Christmas to me is much better explained in pictures rather than words.  So I'll do my best to have more pictures and less talk.

Here's our Christmas Eve birthday party dinner.  Love the midgets, especially Marcus swinging.

Grandma and Grandpa had plenty to do :)

Grandma even helped Hailey figure out the right way to use her sleeping bag.

Grandpa got superman pajamas and added to his outfit quickly.  He's still my "superdad"

There were a lot of Zebras in our house on Christmas.  Especially with Ashley decked out too.

We played some fun Christmas Eve games including Glow in the Dark ring toss, snowball fight, marshmallow shooting, an all-around competition...

And I almost forgot the human Christmas tree.  What good sports.

The kids slept awesome knowing Santa only comes if you sleep.  But nothing beats the excitement of Christmas morning when everyone is anxious to see what he brang.  We snuck one quick picture in before the chaos began.

This girl was good for a while eating and watching all the craziness.

Marcus is such a cutie and was fun to watch.  We love this little guy.

Lots of Zebras

After things settled down it was on to the fun part of playing with toys.  Travis was quick to try on every star wars dress up he receive and test out his new light saber wii remotes.

This girl played on her kids tablet and did Legos for about a day straight.  It was fun to sit down next to her and watch this architect go at it. 

It's always sad to see Christmas go.  I think I need two months of this season.  I love the lights, the music, the family, the fun, the excitement, and most of all the symbolism everywhere of our Savior.  It was another year of fun memories.  I know these stages will cruise by, so there's self inflicted pressure to make the most of it.  All in all - I think we'll call it a success.  Merry Christmas!