It's a Boy!

Hand by his mouth (3D version above, regular below)...

Two little feet

This morning we all went together to the ultrasound appointment. The baby was very cooperative, until it came to finding it if 'it' is a 'he' or a 'she', but the technician was pretty sure that it is a boy and showed us (briefly) what she saw (sorry, no picture). Luckily, we do have a boy and a girl already, so we'll be prepared if this 'he' turns out to be a 'she'. Eden was a little disappointed at first, but now she's eager to help us choose a name and thinks we should have picked one before we dropped her off at preschool. It was pretty neat to have see the 3D images, we didn't get to have those with Eden or Andrew, and she even put a bunch of images on a DVD for us in addition to printing out a few.

How Cold is Too Cold?

Getting ready...

Andrew had his own mittens this time,

but one of them kept coming off anyway.

Pyramid snow-lady, notice the pink ribbon Eden found

for her lips, and her 'hair'.

Pyramid snow-man

I now know the answer to a question which had never before crossed my mind: How cold is too cold to let your kids play outside? Answer (according to an article on msn's website): keep them inside if its below 10 degrees Fahrenheit, remembering to take into account wind chill). When the snow started this time, it was Sunday, and then on Monday it was a high of 4, which was better than the forecasted high of -1, but still too cold. Scott even had the day off! So, we stayed inside and played A LOT of hide-and-seek. (Andrew is still trying to learn not to answer when Scott ask "where are you?").

But yesterday and today it warmed up a bit, still below freezing, but no wind, so the kids and I headed out. Of course we spent at least as much time getting bundled and unbundled as we do actually outdoors. This was especially true on Tuesday, because Andrew's mittens were in Scott's truck at work, so he was trying to make do with some way-too-big cotton gloves, which significantly shortened our play-time. And of course, the snow is still too dry to make real snowmen, so we have settled for making what Eden calls "pyramid snow-people." Basically, we pile up a bunch of snow and then put a face on it. Eden would also like you to know that the little snow balls on top (which are as big as we could get to stay together with this snow) are the snow-people's hats.

Also, since they both got snowbibs for Christmas, they (namely Andrew) were much more willing to make snow angels too. And I finally got everyone a pair of really warm socks to wear in the snow. Maybe we'll even get to find a good sledding hill before this snow is gone, now that we are fully equipped in the bundling department.

Homemade Bread

On Saturday, I finally used my new grainmill (thanks Mom & Dad!) to make about 12 cups or so of whole wheat flour, then used some of the flour to make a couple loaves of homemade 100% whole wheat bread. The recipe book I used had directions for how to form the loaves, actually rolling it out into a rectangle and then rolling it up before putting it in the loaf pan (I had no idea there was any certain way to form loaves of bread), this loaf came out a little crooked. I think they were supposed to rise more than they did in the loaf pan before cooking, so we'll have to experiment with it a bit. But, it was so yummy, especially right out of the oven, and the other loaf is already gone!

Minneapolis & St. Paul

We drove out to the Twin Cities the first weekend in January for the wedding of my good friend (from BYU) Melanie and her husband Reuben. I went to their sealing while Scott stayed with the kids, then we each did a session. I'm so thankful that the weather cooperated for us that weekend, it was wonderful to be there and even got to catch-up with Melanie a bit. We're also grateful we could take advantage of being close to the temple.

We decided to spend a couple extra days to do some sight-seeing. This is a picture from the Legoland in the Mall of America. We didn't even go inside the store, but they had some fun building stations right outside where kids could build and race lego cars or build lego castles. Notice the huge bandage on Andrew's head- he had a rough weekend. First he knocked his head while the kids were running around, then he slipped and went underwater for a few seconds at the pool, and that night he got sick (I think his tummy had too much water in it). To top it all off, he and Eden decided to try and hide in the dresser drawers while Scott and I were getting packed up for our big day out and pulled the dresser (and TV) over on themselves. The TV landed right on Andrew's head! He was OK (not bleeding like you might think because of the huge bandage), but he got a huge lump and had a couple of sort-of-black-eyes.

We went to the Como Zoo, which was really cheap (they ask for donations $2 for adults and $1 for kids). A lot of the exhibits are indoors. They had some baby tamarins and a baby orangutan. But, Eden was most excited to see the giraffes and zebras. We also got to see a special discussion on their polar bear exhibit.

Also at Mall of America we went to the aquarium. It was pretty good, but a little over-priced ($16 for adults and $10 for kids). One nice thing was that the pass is good all day, so went back after dinner. They also give you a schedule of different feedings they do throughout the day. The kids really loved the touch pool, and even got to help feed the stingrays (their 'stingers' were removed). We also went on a few rides with the kids at the amusement park in the middle of the mall. Nothing special, but the kids had a great time and it wasn't super expensive. We also heard the Children's Museum there is great (and reasonably priced) but it wasn't open on Monday, so didn't get to go.

Sorry it has taken so long to post about the rest of our trip. I wanted to get all the pictures together first (we had some on a cell phone, some on a disposable camera, and some on our digital camera (once I got batteries for it). All in all it was a great little family vacation for us.

Frozen Lake Minnetonka

Last weekend, we drove to Minneapolis for my friend Melanie's wedding. While we were there, we drove out to Lake Minnetonka. There are ton's of lakes everywhere and they're all frozen over. Some of them, like this one, people actually drive out onto (that's our car in the picture) and go ice fishing. We drove a little way out, then parked, and walked out further to get a closer look at the ice fishing. It was super cold out on the lake so we didn't stay very long. But the kids (and us too) thought it was so neat to be out on a frozen lake! Our pictures of the rest of our trip are spread out because I brought the wrong cord for our battery charger, these came from our cell phone, I'll post more soon.

FYI...

Just wanted to point out that I've updated the links in my "Useful Stuff" list. Between Eden and Adrew's super-excitement (and lots more questions) this year about Santa and some discussions I've had lately, I decided to do a search on LDS.org for "Santa Claus". There were a lot of stories and some opinion sort of articles- I found it pretty interesting, so maybe you will too. About the same time, I got an e-mail (maybe some of you have too) again about how Target doesn't support veterans and troops and is owned by the French. Usually, I ignore these type of forwards, but I had heard it from a few people and even found out one of my neighbors won't shop at Target. I really like shopping at Target, but had a little bit of guilt floating in the back of my head about it. Anyway, I've become a fan of the SNOPES website, so that's where that link will take you. And lastly, I've finally put some of our picasa albums on the web, so if you really want to see even more pictures, click on that. I'll try to update it monthly, since that's how I organize our pictures in Picasa.

I'm sure some of you are having a good laugh right now about how much I use the internet, oh well. It's not like I'm Sandra Bullock in "The Net." I did do about half of my Christmas shopping in person at the stores this year.

Our Merry Little Christmas

We had Christmas at our house this year, and were lucky enough to have Robin Fred and Shaun stop by on their way to Denver. On Christmas Eve we did a little nativity play with the kids. It was a shortened version from the Joy School manual that worked pretty well. Eden wanted to do it again, but Shaun and Andrew weren't interested, so I read it again while Eden did her part (Mary of course). I didn't get any pictures of that, but I think/hope Robin did. On Christmas morning, the kids enjoyed their Santa gifts for a while then we ate a breakfast including sticky buns, company strata, and of course, pigs in a blanket. Then we took turns opening the gifts from under the tree. Andrew and Eden were a little too excited and helpful for Shaun's presents at times, but it was a fun day. The race track that Santa gave to Andrew was a pretty big hit with all the kids, and I think Scott and Fred enjoyed it too.

Shaun loved the plush bear from Grandma Finley. He ran around hugging it for a while, and in Denver it joined the club with his other favorites.

One of Eden's favorites was the "Barbie as the Island Princess" movie that we gave her. She was also pretty excited about the Rosella and Prince Antonio (characters from the movie) dolls that Santa gave her (her first Barbie dolls). We (or maybe just me) debated whether Eden was old enough and whether we wanted to do the "Barbie thing," but eventually decided to draw the line at the Bratz dolls (they're on the other side of the line of course).

The kids loved playing with and moving their gifts all over the house. Christmas evening we had a ham dinner. Here's everyone ready to eat (Andrew didn't want to change out of his Christmas Pajamas). I've never done a ham before, but I'm a fan of it now (the pre-cooked and seasoned variety anyway- just heat it for a couple hours and its all ready to go!). We hope you all had a fun and Merry Christmas too!