Making Valentines

We made Valentines to send to people. I'm not sure how many actually got sent out...I found the ones for Grandma Evie and Grandpa Mike not too long ago in my pile of papers to be dealt with...

Three-year-old view

Star Wars card

Grandpa Mike gave Grandma Evie a card that played the Star Wars theme song for her birthday. She thoughtfully sent this card onto Caleb. It turned into an OBSESSION! Then Andy made a CD for the kids of songs they dance to/listen to and included music from Stars Wars on the CD. We got this CD in the mail shortly after the card died because it had been played so much. I make Caleb take turns with me so I can listen to something besides the Star Wars theme song. Every time I go to put in some music Caleb says no and says he wants to listen to Star Wars. (Occassionally Annika requests her song which is the first song on the CD and we listen to that too.) We have to take turns--I get to listed to something I want to before he puts in Star Wars on repeat for as long as I can handle. Who knew it would turn into something so big. We'll make sure Caleb brings his CD with him when he visits TX. :)

Since returning to Ephraim

I was so proud of Caleb being able to climb around on the crib like this. I know there are parents who are pulling their hair out because of their kids' climbing. However, Caleb has always been a pretty cautious kid and never got into anything, climbed on anything precarious, etc. So when he does climb I'm just happy he has the coordination.

One of Annika's new and adorable outfits!

I had to include this first picture because I was trying to get a picture of Annika eating her begal at the little table and Caleb flew his Star Wars spaceship right in front of the camera.

This recipe doesn't have raw eggs. We all enjoyed it.

Fun in the bath. Bath pictures are always cute.

I love Caleb's new church outfit! Why oh why did I have to take it in front of the unmade bed with a bunch of junk on the floor?! I made the bed, straightened a bit, but the other pictures weren't very good. This one still doesn't have him smiling, but here it is. Every time I looked at him today I just couldn't get over how handsome he looked!

Annika ready for church. She wanted to wear this sweater to church.

Caleb and Annika climbing into the toy box Andy bought us for Christmas. I couldn't resist posting most of the pictures I took. One of these days I'll take pictures when the room is clean...For the record, we do pick up the floor before going to bed each night.





Annika wanted her Dolly in the picture too, but she sorta slipped into the toy box.

Wearing the mask he got from his first friends (we stopped to see our friends who had been our neighbors in TF when Caleb was a baby).

Opening presents on Christmas

It was so fun to have lots of people there for Christmas! There was Grandma Hyer (who is getting older and having a hard time remembering things--often chaos is really hard for her but she did really well Christmas morning and I think she really liked watching the kids open their presents), Aunt Janell (who loves to spoil and our kids were the only ones there and only 2 of the four grand nieces and nephews) Grandma Evie and Grandpa Mike, Tio Dave and Tia Ale, and Andy and his dog and me. I think this might be our last Christmas being together on Christmas day and watching the kids and being with in-laws, but it was really fun that we could all be there. It will also be fun having multiple Christmases and making our own traditions as the kids alternate years.

Well, Caleb and Annika are the only grandkids on my side and only two of four on Andy's side. And the other cousins live in Wisconsin. That meant there were a lot of presents! I knew there would be. I even tried to tell myself not to buy anything because they would be getting a ton of presents at Christmas. But it's so hard! Andy found some cool and useful things for the kids (you saw the ski helmet and he also got the life-jacket) and Caleb LOVES his backpack and takes it with him everywhere! Annika loves the purse Grandma Evie got for her too. It came with keys, a phone, a wallet with a debit card, and a little toy lipstick. The lipstick has mysteriously disappeared, but the rest of the contents are constantly underfoot because she loves them. The kids got so many great toys. They also got some fun books and clothes. Last year we had a lot of presents too but Caleb still took turns and played a lot with each toy between opening presents. This year he plowed in! He just started opening present after present. After a while we needed to take a little time out from it all because it gave him a bit of an attitude and Annika was getting fussy too. So we sorta took a break part way through. Andy took a nap. The rest of us started opening presents again and Caleb began playing with some of his toys. After he got playing, it was hard to get him to open the last few. It was hard to get Annika to open anything--she just kept going around to see what was going on with Caleb and what he was opening. However, she did love that purse.

ski videos

Christmas in Boise (Daddy's house)

I think this was our first full day here. Boise had a lot of snow the week before and it hadn't melted yet.

Andy took Caleb skiing at Bogus Basin. That's three generations that have been skiing there. We talked to Caleb about going skiing in the summer and he has been talking about it ever since. Now Andy goes skiing or snowboarding and he and Caleb talk about Bogus Basin. It's pretty cute. It was a really cold day, but Caleb was a trooper and they still had a good time. Annika and I tagged along. I didn't want to miss seeing Caleb on his first run. :) I have a bunch of videos but since they take a while to load, I'll save them for a different post.

Swimming in pool at Grandma Evie's and Grandpa Mike's hotel.

Opening stockings Christmas morning.

Caleb and beloved Tia Ale. Tio Dave and Tia Ale are WONDERFUL! I was so excited when I learned they were coming out for Christmas and the kids were going to be able to get to know them. Caleb and Annika's cousins got to spend lots of fun times with Dave and Ale when they lived in Texas last year and Caleb has been wanting to play with Tio Dave ever since he saw a picture of Cousin D boxing with Tio Dave on the cousins' blog. Ale is studying to be a nurse and I think she's going to be so good with her patients. She is also wonderful with children and Caleb followed her around.

Caleb and Annika being silly at Daddy's.

I couldn't get this video to move.

Caleb got to open many of his presents from Daddy early. It was fun because it made each one more exciting. Christmas morning got crazy with toy after toy--fun, but lots of stuff.

Pre-Christmas pictures

I came into the kitchen after church to see Caleb sitting like this talking to my mom. Only, of course when I went to get the camera he changed. He was sitting there relaxed and chatting with my mom about his day. My parents decided to spend the afternoon with Caleb. They built a snow fort and a horse/dog for Caleb to ride on. We left for Boise soon after that, so he didn't play in it much. But they had a fun time making it.

This is Annika in a dress that my Dad's mom made for my sister when she was little. I never met that Grandma, but I think this dress is so pretty. The girl is also very pretty. :)

Caleb and I made a volcano out of paper mache. It was fun. He didn't like the paper mache because it was too goopy. But he liked painting the mountain and he liked the brief but exciting vinegar and baking soda eruption.

Annika with two binkies (how do you spell binki?) in her mouth.

Then Caleb wanted me to take a picture of him.

Ward Christmas party Santa.

Random pictures

Annika playing with Aunt Katie. She was being so cute so I grabbed the camera and of course didn't catch a cute picture again. Sigh...but she is still cute.

Caleb is also incredibly good looking.

So one day I went in and Annika had dressed herself in this:

Then Caleb thought it was hilarious and wanted to wear a shirt on his legs too. I have a fabulous video of him dancing around in a shirt on his legs and would love to post it, but at the end the shirt slips just a little too much to post online. It was just too much of a plumbers crack...Also, Annika has quite the little personality. She's independent and opinionated. She has so many cute clothes. Seriously I just want to dress her up in every outfit she owns and take her picture. However, she has serious preferences and that whole mommy play dress up with her baby doll girl is not going over with Annika and she insists on picking out her clothes. Occasionally I can persuade her that certain things don't match or certain things do...but sometimes we get the outfit like the one she's running around in in the superman video. By the way, Caleb also loved that outfit and said he wanted to buy one like it. I said they don't make outfits like that for boys and he was really disappointed over it.

Annika really likes to help now and I need to be on top of it and establish habits like clearing your place when you eat when she is so eager to help. She can pick up toys very well, help set and clear the table, wash her hands, put her dirty clothes in the laundry room and probably a few other things.