So, 6 more week of winter? How come there isn’t an animal in the summer that comes out and tells us we have 6 more weeks of summer?

The kids and I had a fun day of themed food in celebration of Groundhogs Day. For breakfast we had groundhog- in-a-hole and for dinner we had groundhog burgers. The best part was at the end of the day, our traditional groundhog in dirt cups. I basically have the kids color a picture of a groundhog, then we tape it to spoons, and stick it in our pudding dirt! The kids love it, and I do too. This one of those treats that I loved when I was little, but I didn’t have it very often, so now it feels like special treat when we have it.

Nadia was pretty sick yesterday. She had a slight fever, with an awful sounding smokers cough and runny nose. The thing that scared me most was she was so lethargic and wouldn’t eat anything. She could hardly hold her head up! This morning she woke up with no fever, and was acting more herself. She was pretty whiny and clingy through out the day, but that all changed after dinner. Nadia is old enough now that she knows when people are eating treats, so she has to have one too. I made her a pudding dirt cup as well…

As you can see she enjoyed it in this picture progression:

I am sure glad she was so cute, because I had to keep reminding myself that when I was cleaning it all up. Nadia wasn’t too happy when she had to take a bath in the sink

But afterword, she was completely back to normal! So, next time your child is sick, I prescribe a pudding bath, works every time.

I wanted to get pictures of Nadia in her cute shoes and dress before she grows out of it. Of course the other kids want to be involved, so I made sure I got pictures of all of them.

After Natalya was already for church, she tells me, “Mom, I am fashion!”

Tanner, had to dress up as a cowboy before church. I am just glad he still lets me take pictures of him!

And Nadia…can never get her to look at the camera and smile, but she is cute anyway!

We received a package in the mail today! It was a Christmas package from two of my best friends, Natalie and Ashley. The kids and I had a blast opening it, it is always fun to get presents!

Natalya received a lot of princess stuff, which she loved, of course. This included three of her favorite things in the world: chap-stick, purses, and nail polish.

Tanner also received his favorite things: guns, star wars, and building stuff. He will probably be in his room all day playing, which is AWESOME!

Nadia is still not too into presents, but she still seemed excited. She received puzzles, clothes and books! She loves books, and has already looked at her new ones several times!

And I got my favorite things: new books to read! And I  cannot wait.

Also, my Christmas present from Trent finally arrived. A new love seat for our living room! I am excited not to have a love seat that attracts every stain know to man. I looks so nice, and I am very glad we got rid of the old one.(Excuse the cute cowboy in the way. I figured if I was going to post a picture of the couch, it should include one of the kids)

One of our conditions for Natalya staying in Ballet is that she learns something, not just play around. Trent has asked the past two weeks how she is doing. Last week was her first week and she did great. She kept up with all the other girls just fine, though she would get distracted by her reflection in the mirror, and the pretty ballerina posters on the wall. Today it was the same. They did have a little test where they had to do something they had been learning all by themselves in front of the teacher. Natalya did it and her teacher said “Wow Natalya, you caught up fast!” So, when I get home Trent asks me how she did, and if I thought she was learning anything. Seconds later Natalya walks in, announces, “port de bras” and then does just that, a perfect port de bras. I think that answered his question.

I think we may have another little dancer on our hands

We were just waiting for the right snow storm to take the kids sledding. Last night we received several inches of snow (yay!), so we were all excited that we would get to go sledding!

We went to a hill not too far from our house, and it was perfect! Big enough to be fun and a little scary, but small enough the kids could climb up and down by themselves.

Tanner had a little accident where he ran into Trent on his way down. He was a little scared to go after that. Natalya on the other hand was our little daredevil. She went down by herself without another thought in her mind.

Nadia even went down a few times, and loved it!

Afterward we played at the park. There is nothing better then a snow park!

I mentioned last night on facebook that I wanted a good, big, snow storm to come in, since we haven’t really had any this year. Just in case you were worried, last nights storm just didn’t do it for me.

Yesterday afternoon it was beautiful outside. The sky was so blue, but then very black up against the mountains. It was so warm and fresh outside, almost like spring! I wanted to get some pictures of the girls out side in their semi-matching outfits. It was fun and I got to mess around with our DSLR camera that I am still learning how to use.

Of course we were tricked because we woke up to snow and cold temperatures this morning.

For you faithful blog readers, I have changed my preschool idea page (tabs across the top) to “Things to Do”. A few months ago I did a Relief Society mini-class on things to do with your kids during the winter. I complied a list of fun things to do when you just can’t get outside to play (this could be used in the summer too!). Anyway, I just wanted to share my ides with everyone. I may add new ideas here and there too, so check back often!

I like to have excuses for not blogging, so here they are:

We have been going non-stop for the past two weeks! It was like vacation was over and we were flung into reality pretty quick. Last week I was teacher for our co-op preschool, then I had YW’s stuff to plan and do, I started P90X again, began volunteering in Tanner’s class at school, and then all the normal everyday stuff going on. This week I had a training meeting at Tanner’s school, again helping in Tanner’s class, grocery shopping, more YW’s meetings, planning and activity,  plus Trent was super busy with work and church calling stuff every night and went to a Jazz game! I am looking forward to a slower quieter week next week.

A couple fun things:

I signed Natalya up for Ballet. She had her first class today and she loved. She did very well and kept up with all the other little girls no problem. However, she often became distracted by looking at her self in the mirrors… but that happens to the best of us. Her teacher is great and relates all their moves to princess things. Natalya is in heaven.

Oh, and next time I take a picture of Natalya, I will remember to wipe her face first.

Also, when I am helping at Tanner’s school, the girls go over to a friends house. When that friend then goes and helps at the school, I take her girls. They were over the other day, and I found the youngest two making trouble. I blame it on Nadia, she is always making trouble.

Trent and I were talking the other night

We decided that we got lucky with our kids

I think they may like food as much as we do

There is Tanner who loves seafood. Shrimp, crab, lobster, salmon, tuna, fish sticks and clam chowder are his favorites. He also loves bread. Good bread from a good bakery is as good as a treat to him. Tanner also loves fruit. If it is a fruit, he will eat it. Vegies are iffy. He claims that broccoli and carrots are his favorite, but I think he is just trying to convince himself.

Natalya is the opposite of picky. Natalya pretty much eats anything. She loves raw vegies and will just sit and eat them until she is full. Cauliflower, broccoli and carrots are her favorites. She also loves fruit like Tanner, but is a little more picky in that area. Other then that, if you put it on her plate, she will eat it. However, if given the vhoise, she would have peanut butter toast, not cooked and meat sandwiches for every meal. Oh, and she loves sugar. If it has sugar in it she will eat it.

Nadia is the pickiest of the three. She loves bread also. If she is fussing and dinner isn’t ready yet I just throw a slice of bread on her plate and she is happy. She loves graham crackers, orange cheese, soft meat, mac and cheese, and eggs. And she is a fruit monster. If I give her fruit and there is some left, I have to hide it. If she sees it she gets very upset that I didn’t give it to her. Her favorite are bananas, grapes, and oranges. She also loves sugar like Natalya, but she is more into candy than cookies and other sweets. If she sees the kids eating candy she will do whatever she can to steal it from them. An odd thing about Nadia is she doesn’t like spicy food at all. Our other two were not botherd by spicy until they were older (Natalya still isn’t bothered by it). So it is funny to see her panting when she eats something spicy.

One thing our children inherited from Trent and I (mostly Trent) is they love chips. The kids (especially Natalya) could down a whole bag of chips on their own. Maybe it should bother us, but it doesn’t. We are so proud.