Christmas season in review

Once again I have fallen behind on my blogging, but I'll attempt to do a quick recap of some happenings around our house from the Christmas season. Here's what we've been doing:

Lots of playing on the piano- We love singing and
playing Christmas carols.

Singing "All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth"-
Lydia's permanent teeth are growing in a bit but both
twins had lost their two front teeth by Christmas

Dancing to the Nutcracker music- The kids seriously
did this multiple times a day...even Hyrum. He knew
to ask for the clown dance by name and tried his
best to follow his sisters' steps.

Making gingerbread houses

Every Christmas Eve we act out the Nativity from the
scriptures. Lydia was Mary this year.

Charity the shepherd

Rachel the angel

Christmas morning

Poor Hyrum came down with a stomach bug on
Christmas Eve night. This picture was taken on the
26th when he was feeling much better. We felt bad
our family battled a stomach bug most of the Christmas
break....Hyrum on Christmas Eve, Kenny on Christmas night,
Rachel a few days later, and Hyrum again a day after that.
We're glad that week is over!

Rachel and Lydia received twin babies

We are very grateful for our Savior Jesus Christ and the opportunity we have to celebrate his life and atonement for us.

Happy Halloween!

Our family had a fun Halloween! Trick-or-treating was much better this year (last year we got rained out), but this year the weather was perfect for the kids! Hyrum was nervous at first about the costumes but quickly discovered that with the costumes comes candy! It didn't take long before he knew to hold his bucket out at each house and he would get a treat. Earlier in the day we attended a costume parade at Rachel and Lydia's school and enjoyed seeing all the kids dressed up there as well.

Our annual visit to the local pumpkin walk

Pumpkin carving

I thought I had safely stowed the Halloween candy
on top of the piano...I guess not.

Rachel the leopard

Lydia as Little Red Riding Hood

Charity the witch

Hyrum the monkey (he didn't like his hat under
his chin...he is pulling on it in every picture we took).

Back to school

I can not believe that it is time to be back in school already! My kids are growing up so fast. Rachel and Lydia are now in school all day in the first grade and Charity is in preschool. Hyrum and I are not used to having such an empty house! The girls are all doing great in school and really like it.

Charity

Lydia

Rachel

Summer recap

I haven't posted for awhile so this is going to be a quick recap of a few of the happenings from our summer.

Fourth of July parade

We got our first pet (a fish), and then second pet (a fish),
and then found ourselves pet-less once again.

My brother Eric got married to a great gal and we
are thrilled for them! They had a beautiful wedding day.

Kenny and I completed the Top of Utah half marathon
together. I appreciated Kenny sticking with
me the whole time and pushing me to do better
than I could have on my own.

And last but certainly not least, we have a yard! Grass,
a fence, an in-ground trampoline.....the kids are loving it.

He did it again!

I'm late on posting this but I just wanted to congratulate Kenny on successfully completing another marathon. Thanks to his brother Cory for the picture below. Kenny did a great job and beat his last time by a long shot. Kenny and I are looking forward to running a half marathon together next month!

Summer fun!

We are having a great summer! The kids love having plenty of time to play. The girls are also involved in some gymnastics and swimming lessons. Here are a few pictures from the last little while.

We went to a family fun center and played with some cousins.
Here's Rachel and Hyrum having fun.

Lydia

Charity

Hyrum loved this little merry-go-round. He would fuss
every time we tried to take him off. He rode it over and
over and over again.

Lydia and Rachel created this spooky spider web in the basement.

They all love peanut butter play dough!

Picnic on the back patio

We're putting a yard in this summer so way too much of
our time has been spent making decisions and picking up
rocks in the yard. Hats off to Kenny for all he's doing.
Hopefully we'll have pictures of grass soon! The kids can't wait!

A Day in the Life of Hyrum

Hyrum is definitely at that age that keeps me constantly on my toes. He is into everything! Here are a few pictures to take you through some of the activities he does in a day.

Hyrum likes to help rearrange the drawers...

and the pantry.

He likes to tear apart the phonebook. Our phonebook
now starts on page 25 because he has ripped out the other pages.

Unrolling and tasting the toilet paper

Turning on the master bathtub (luckily it's
too high for him to climb in yet).

Trying to escape- We use the pack and play as a gate
to keep Hyrum in the family room and away from
the stairs. He has tried to escape by sliding past....

and crawling under. Luckily he has never succeeded.

Enduring sisterly love and torture. This little guy loves

his sisters and enjoys the attention they give him. Unfortunately
this sometimes means having bows in his hair...

And purses on his shoulder. His sisters really are good to him
though and shower him with love and attention.