I can't believe Jake is old enough to be sitting up, time flies! It really seems like it just happened over night. Thanks mom and dad for the early Christmas present with working video and audio (not to mention much better image quality). I actually was very frustrated last night because I thought audio for our video clips still wasn't working and must somehow be a computer problem (which I had ruled out before), then this morning Eden went to play on NOGGIN and said she couldn't hear anything. Turns out the computer had been muted, I have no idea how, but it must have happened in the last few days. (That's what I get for sharing the computer with my kids.) Any way, I did shorten the clip using my camera before I put it on our computer, but now I realize its still a bit long, hopefully I will get lots of practice and make more action-packed clips. But for now, you can enjoy 35 seconds of Jake sitting and being stunned by Bumblebee's sting-rays.

Heat Wave!!! Brrrrrr...

With the cold front and mini-blizzard that moved through over the weekend, our temps were below zero, even for the highs, for a few days. On Monday we had a wind chill advisory, telling us to bundle up in layers and informing us that exposed skin could freeze in a matter of minutes, temps with the wind chill were as low as 30 or 40 below- terrific. I debated for a long time weather to take the boys (mostly concerned about Jake, really ;)) to the gym or not. I finally decided not to brave the super-cold. But, it turns out it wouldn't have mattered, because when I went to start the van so it could warm up before we left to pick up kindergarteners later that morning, the battery was completely dead! Thankfully Teralyn was able to go get the girls- thanks again! (Scott went and got a new battery that evening.)
Today we finally broke past zero , and as I type this my weatherbug tells me its a balmy 29 degrees outside (that's the heat wave to which the title refers)! Yay!!!! Unfortunately, another cold front is expected this coming weekend. :( Just thought you all should know what REAL cold weather is... and weatherbug just changed to 24...

Merry Christmas and other December Happenings...

First set of random December pictures: I caught Eden trying to read one of Scott's books for his International Law on-line course, Andrew loves to help feed Jake, and Scott is 31!

Second set are just some pictures of the Christmas preparations going on at our house: English Toffee, Jacob's first Christmas ornament, our tree that Scott and the kids picked out, Peter Peeps, an advent calendar idea I copied from an old issue of The Friend, and we decorated the tree in the open space by our house.

Eden and Andrew at our shortened-because-of-the-impending-blizzard Ward Christmas party. Everyone was invited to dress up like a nativity character, Eden was an angel and Andrew was a camel (he had a hump on his back too).

Andrew is 4 now!

All week, Andrew wanted people to say "Happy Birthday Andrew!" So he was telling anyone who would listen that his birthday was coming. On the big day, he got to open one present in the morning, a zipper tie (he really was excited since he is an odd sort of boy who actually cares quite a bit about clothes). Then that afternoon we opened his other present- a big wheel, which Scott put together and Andrew got to try out for a few minutes. Then we headed to WATIKI, an indoor waterpark, we also stayed at one of the attached hotels, which was at least as exciting as the waterpark for our kids.
So we played all evening, then we had cake. Then in the morning we played as long as we could with the passes we got with the room- good for the evening from 4-10pm and then the next day from 8-10:30 am. We all had a fun time, but since one of us was with Eden and Andrew, and the other one of us was holding Jacob, we didn't get any pictures at the waterpark. Since I forgot the matches (I'm not sure we could have used them anyway in the hotel room), we cut a nice big chunk of cake for Andrew after lunch the next day and let him do the candle-blowing-out a day late. Oh, and those are transformers on his cake, his new most favorite thing.
Happy Birthday to a wonderful tough and sweet boy! We love you, Andrew!