We spent a week in Texas...it was great! Wonderful company, awesome weather...we didn't even need our jackets most of the time! We kept ourselves busy and had a ton of fun!

Here are some of the highlights:

Jan 23rd:

Here we are at the airport...getting ready to leave for our big Texas adventure! Taking 4 kids with us to fly stand-by wasn't as bad as we had anticipated. Everyone was very nice and accommodating. At first they had us seated all over the plane...one seat here, one seat there, another one WAY over there! Jeremy went up and explained our situation (2 crazy parents trying to travel with 4 children under the age of 6!) and they gave us new seat assignments (closer together) and then once we were on the plane the other passengers were more than willing to trade seats so we could sit together (Jeremy sat with Hannah and I sat across the isle and down one row with the other three) I think they saw us coming and thought "I don't want to be stuck on a plane for 2 1/2 hours next to all those kids!" The kids did wonderful on the plane! We had packed snacks, coloring books, barbies, paper, pencils...we were prepared! I think they would have been fine without any of that...they were excited to be on a plane and more excited to be going to Texas!

Jan 24th:

We headed over to Jared and Mitzi's to see their new house! It was still under construction last time we were here! It's really cute...they've done a great job decorating! Then we let the girls play at the park (thanks Ali for all the way cute pictures! You can tell she misses the girls...I think she took over 400 pics of them playing at the park!)

The girls got to do a coffee filter art project with grandma!

Just hanging out having fun at grandmas house!


The girls found Nancy box of costumes so they had a fun time dressing all of us up!



Jan 26th:

Jared made these canoes (he actually built them in his garage...pretty amazing!) So we took them down to the river for some fun! He even made a little one just the girls (and Mitzi's) size!

While we were down at the river we made some S'Mores...YUM!

Jared even made a sail for the boats so you could take them sailing!

Jan 27th:



We took the girls to the butterfly museum in Houston (the boys went to the car show!) The girls had a great time looking at all the displays and reading about all the bugs but when we went into the atrium they were scared to death! Mind you the atrium is filled with BUTTERFLIES...oh and moths, but mostly little butterflies...B-U-T-T-E-R-F-L-I-E-S! Not man eating butterflies just normal pretty butterflies that tickle when they land on you like this:

My girls couldn't handle it...they screamed like...well, like little girls and wanted to leave soon after we entered! I made them hang out for a while hoping they would get used to the butterflies but as soon as they saw a butterfly anywhere close to them they would scream and hide behind someone! I tried explaining that they were just HARMLESS butterflies but that didn't work either! Then we saw this:

It's an Australian walking stick. And it's a little (A LOT) creepy! My girls...didn't scream! They didn't want to get close to it but it didn't get nearly the reaction that the scary butterflies got!

When we left the atrium they had a play area for the girls...they loved it! They got to learn about bugs without having to be around any moving ones! They had a wall that had butterflies "flying" on it (it was a movie screen with butterflies projected onto it) and the girls loved dancing around with the "fake" butterflies...just don't ask them to be around any live ones!

After the fun day in Houston (at the butterfly museum and car show) we went to the park to play baseball with Maggie! It was fun to be outside and run around! The girls had a lot of fun and Maggie just has way too much energy!



Jan. 28th:

Grandma helped the girls make party hats out of paper plates! There are plenty of art crafts when Grandma is around!

After that Hannah and Wynnie got to help Grandma Nancy make Esther a birthday cake!

Then they got to attend Nancy's art lesson. They had a great time. They got to learn about doodling and then decorate their own pair of flip flops!




After dinner we had a birthday party for Essie! I can't believe she is one! We had a great time. She loved her cake and enjoyed opening her presents!

Jan 29th:



Mitzi took us down to a nature trail. It was nice to walk around and look at all the cool "swamp" nature.



The night before we left Hannah's tooth was REALLY loose and I was afraid it might fall out in her sleep so I wiggled it around and it fell out! She has joined the ranks of all her friends who have lost teeth! She was really excited! She has been waiting for this day for a long time!

Jan 30th:

Jared got to fly our plane home...how cool is that! Mitzi came on the flight too (she was coming to Utah to visit her family.) It was great to have her help! Hannah and Wynnie insisted on sitting by her which meant Jeremy actually got to sit by me...so nice to have his help with the two little ones! Once we got to SLC Jared took the girls up to the cockpit! It was neat to see...it looked really complicated...lots of buttons, and dials, and levers...I'm glad Jared knows what he's doing!

We will miss the company and the weather but it's always nice to be home! (Even if it is a mess...because we started a crazy home improvement project then went on vacation!)

I have some fun videos of our trip too but this post is already WAY long so I will try and post the videos later!

Beauty Palor!

The girls have been wanting hair cuts for a while and we leave for Texas in the morning so we headed over to the Thomas Beauty Parlor tonight! The plan was to cut Hannah and Wynnie's hair...they both wanted it short then Hannah changed her mind and just got a trim. Wynnie wanted her hair cut like Ellie's (but we did it a little longer so I could still pull it up in a pony for gymnastics.)

Here's their before and afters:

Aren't they cute!

Well, that should be the end of our hair cutting adventures; however, our hairdresser is a little pushy and she snatched Sophie up and shaved her bald! Not actually....what she said was "You know Sophie's hair is the one that NEEDS to be cut...come on Sophie lets cut your hair" and that is all the invitation Sophie needed (of course she wanted to be like her big sisters and get her hair cut!) I was having a hard time with it...I knew she needed a hair cut but I didn't want to loose all her curls...I love her curls!!!! I'm just the mom and don't get a say when it comes to all things hair...that is aunt Ellie's department so to the sadness of my heart Sophie got her first hair cut!

She looks absolutely adorable...but the curls are gone!

Looking for snow!

Hannah didn't have school today so we headed out for the hills! We wanted to get at least one more day of sledding in before we head to Texas (warm weather here we come!) It's been kind of warm the last few days (for winter in Utah anyway) and our normal parks don't have much snow on the hills anymore so we went up the canyon looking for snow. We were told there was great sledding up Trappers loop so we loaded up and headed off! When we got to Pineview we saw some parachutes over the water/ice so we stopped to see what was going on. When we got out of the car we saw two people para-skiing across the ice. We watched them for a while...it was really cool! Hannah and Wynnie told me that they wanted to try...I told them we would have to wait and see!

We headed back up the loop and found lots of snow, but no place where people were sledding so we headed back to the park in North Ogden that we went to last week. The hills we were on last week were now grass but the big hills on the east still had snow so we got to get our sledding in (finally!) We had fun...there was only one wipeout!

Here's a video of the para-skiers...really cool...we may just have to try this out someday!

Here's a picture of the wipeout...

Shark Teeth!

Hannah has been obsessed with losing her teeth. It all started about a year (or more) ago when her cousins and friends started losing their teeth. Here are some of the MANY comments Hannah has made to me about losing her teeth (It is a very popular subject in our house...we talk about it at least once a day):

"Why haven't I lost any teeth yet?"

"All the kids in my class have lost their teeth"

"Mom, look my tooth is loose" said in a VERY excited voice. (On further inspection the tooth is not loose...not even a wiggle!)

"EVERYONE has lost teeth but me!"

"We need to brush my teeth more...so they will fall out!"

I try explaining to her that she is one of the youngest in her class and that she has very strong teeth and that as a baby she was really late getting her teeth in but this doesn't matter to Hannah. The only thing that matters is that she still has all her teeth.

So when she came to me tonight and told me that one of her teeth was loose I thought "Yeah right...I've heard this before" But I humored her and checked it out and to my surprise the tooth actually moved! We got excited...Hannah finally has a loose tooth! I told her to let me check it out and when I looked in her mouth this is what I saw:

To be honest it freaked me out a little bit! After doing some research I learned that "they" call it shark teeth and it is quite common. Everything I read said that her baby teeth should just fall out and then the permanent teeth will move on up into place. But for now we are having fun with it...her new nickname is shark teeth!

Bye Bye Tonsils! (and Adenoids)

Today was the big day...Wynnie got her tonsils out. We arrived at the surgical center around 9:00 am. Once they took her back I think Jeremy and I waited a total of maybe 10 min in the waiting room and then the nurse came and got us and told us they were done (that's like $300 a min!)

The doctor told us that the surgery went well and that Wynnie had some of the biggest tonsils he had seen (the biggest by far for that day!) With Hannah's surgery they kept the tonsils in a cup and gave them to us, but we didn't even get to see Wynnie's. I guess now they just get rid of them during the surgery. I know some will think it is gross but I think it is interesting to see them...especially since our girls have such big tonsils you look at them and think "How did these even fit in your throat?" The doctor just made a circle with his thumb and first finger and told us they were this big...he seemed impressed.

They then took us to Wynnie's recovery nook (she didn't have her own room it was just a big room with different areas sectioned off for each patient.) There was another girl (about Wynnie's age) on the other side of the room and she was screaming her head off (for about 1/2 hour we had to listen to her screaming for them to take the IV out--I think you can hear her in one of the videos.) Once Wynnie woke up she was a champ!

She recovered really well (she ate 4 Popsicles--one of every color they had-- and probably would have eaten more but it was time for us to go!) They gave her a barf bag for the ride home. I showed her what to do with it and she promptly stuck it to her face and left it there for the whole ride home. She kept telling me (every min or so) "Mom, I didn't throw up yet....Mom, I didn't throw up yet..." Once we got to my mom's (to pick up the girls) I carried Wynnie in and she told me she didn't feel well so we headed to the bathroom and just in case you were wondering one purple, one blue, one orange, and one green Popsicle when mixed together turn brown.

After that she did fine and is just resting now! I'm sure she will be back to her normal self soon (they say kids recover really quickly!)

Hairy Carrots!

The girls wanted to help me make dinner tonight. They are going to be excellent mothers when they grow up. They are always wanting to help me cook, clean, take care of the babies...they just want to help. So, I put them to work! Tonight I let them peel the carrots while I cut all the veggies up. It was so cute to listen to them. Wynnie was washing the carrots and handing them to Hannah who was peeling them:

Wynnie: Here Hannah (as she handed her a carrot)

Hannah: Wynnie, do you want to help me shave the carrots? It's real easy, you just take this thing and shave them.

So I got Wynnie another peeler and she helped Hannah shave our carrots! I'm so glad...I hate hairy carrots!

FYI: Sophie's job was to eat the carrots and Esther was on clean up which means she played with the brooms while we worked! And if you'll notice Wynnie is still wearing her Skeleton girl outfit--she didn't want to take it off! I finally got it off of her when they took baths tonight but she did ask me if she could put it back on after...I told her that we needed to wash it!

Skeleton Girl!

A few years ago we got this book:

and Wynnie saw this picture:

Ever since then she has asked (even begged) if she could have an outfit like the girls. I kept telling her we would have to see if we could find one. Then she came up with the idea that we could just buy black pants and a shirt and paint them (she really wanted this outfit!)

After Halloween this year I found one at the store for 60 cents so I snatched it up and was going to give it to her for her birthday, but I forgot! But then I remembered (today) so I pulled it out and told her Happy Late Birthday! She LOVED it! She wanted to put it on immediately and then asked me if she could sleep in it (of course!)