Curly Hair

Kaitlyn loves to have her hair all fancy and curly. She requests me to braid it the day before any special event.

She just had to look cute on her birthday at the beginning of this month:) She turned five and is getting ready for kindergarten - I am having a harder time with her than I did with Bryson - I thought it would get easier with each kid.

Kaitlyn requested molten lava cake with blackberries and whip cream!!!

I let Alyssa help me make the cake even though I had just given her a bath:)

I love this photo of Kaitlyn in the apron her Great Grandma Middleton passed on to her. She loves to wear it to help me in the kitchen or cook downstairs in the toy kitchen with Alyssa.

Alyssa and the Wii

When Alyssa and I were in North Carolina, Alyssa loved playing with Uncle Riley! One morning she woke him up and wanted to play mariokart on the wii with him. She technically doesn't play but it sure looks like she is playing and I love watching how she is trying to even push the buttons like Riley!

Astronaut Ice Cream

Bryson went to our neighbor's rocket birthday party. He got to bring home astronaut ice cream as the party favor. We all had fun trying it. (Some people are so amazingly creative:)

San Francisco

I went with Kevin to a conference in San Francisco. Kevin's parents were so good to watch the kids. We were able to go out a day early and stay with G&G Middleton. They took us to get shrimp and Ghirardelli ice cream. We also went to the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park. The last day we were in SF, Kevin and I took the trolley to Lumbard Street and Fisherman's wharf for more shrimp, Ghirardelli ice cream, and clam chowder in a sour dough bread bowl.

Utah!

Over the New Year we were able to go to Utah!

We had fun going to Hogle Zoo and seeing the lights!







Kaitlyn loved that Ryan was great at giving her lots of love (attention)



We were so grateful that Thayne, MaryAnne, and Cache joined us at the zoo. We loved getting to see them but we also had needed Thayne's energy for Bryson:)


Bowling!




They went bowling while I snuck away for a quick trip to Logan to see precious Evie (and Chad and Cara).



We of course made time to play a few boardgames!


The kids had been so excited to get to do Grandma's apron while they were there.


The kids loved getting to play with their cousins! We miss you Benjamin, Josh, Josie, and Jackson.

My kids grew up

I was just looking through Christmas pictures and I kept thinking about each of the kids and how grown up they are looking!

I love this video of Alyssa coloring. When she is intently writing or coloring she will crouch low - it makes me laugh. Also you can hear her say "Yeah" which is her favorite word. It is so much more pleasant than no - I wish she would teach all toddlers yeah instead of no. She also has really started talking and it is fun to hear her 3 to 4 word sentences but my favorite is her new word, "Hey". She will be sitting at the table writing and will say it to Bryson or Kaitlyn because they are playing with one of her toys or something. "Hey" - it sounds pretty funny from the mouth of a little one!

What is cold

It is funny how perspectives can change with the weather. Last week the kids had 2 days of school cancelled because it was too cold. One of those mornings when we got up it was -15. We were glad there was no school cause we loved that we could just hide inside and didn't have to leave. It has been a bit warmer and yesterday it was 26 so when Bryson got home from school him and Alyssa went outside and played on the slide and in the snow. It almost felt felt like spring yet when I thought of the temperature I couldn't believe that this is now what we think of as warm!