March Madness

It's all fun and games...

...until Emma rips off your glasses. 

Brant started telling Spencer a story about when he was younger. He thought it would be more effective if he became an 85 year old version of himself. 

Brant convinced me to go look at puppies at a labrador retriever breeder. Everyone loved it. Tyler had always been terrified of dogs, but he loved the little puppies. 

Emma loved the puppies too. She kept trying to grab their ears and faces. 

Before bed cuddles. 

Emma is the coolest kid on the block and all of the neighbors love to play with her. 

Brothers wrestling

More wrestling

Malia and Gavin are best friends. They are so good at pretending and can always come up with a fun game to play together. 

Our gate needed some repairs so Brant taught Gavin how to hit a nail with a hammer. Not sure if he needed lessons, though. :) 

Rock Bridge Elementary had a showcase to show parents all of the things that they've been working on. Gavin did lots of Dr. Suess projects. 

Spencer did an awesome presentation on the Tyrannosaurus Rex. 

Tyler got a new Batman swimsuit and did a Batman pose for me. 

All of Brant's dreams came true when we brought this beauty home. Now he can go shot hoops anytime he wants. 

Love when babies sleep with their bums in the air. :) This is Emma camouflaged. 

Emma loves her bucket of toys!

We set up Tyler's toddler bed for him since all of the boys are in one bedroom now. He's fallen out of it a couple of nights in a row now. 

Our good friends, the Giffords, came from Texas to visit us. It was so good to see them. We spent part of one day in Hannibal, Missouri which was Mark Twain's childhood home. 

We spent the rest of the day in Nauvoo, Illinois. 

We took a carriage ride that showed us all around the sites.

We spent the next day in St. Louis. 

Our kids all play so well together. 

Brant's birthday was St. Patrick's Day and the boys decided he needed a new nerf gun. 

We had a little treasure hunt on St. Patrick's Day. This is one of Gavin's 'awesome poses'. He does a different pose for each picture and none of them involve just sitting and smiling. :) 

We went to HuHot for Brant's birthday dinner. It was an all-you-can-eat Mongolian BBQ and it was really good. 

Brant's parents came into town for about 24 hours on their drive out west. The boys were so excited to see them. 

January Happenings

This has been a busy month with lots of fun activities. Without further ado...

Tyler loves when he gets the chance to have lunch with Daddy. He's always sad when Daddy has to go back to work and can't come home with us. 

I had a serious mental lapse and bought a music set for the kids. They serenaded Emma--she was not impressed. It was seriously cute, though. And loud. Mysteriously, the kazoo has been MIA since this photo was taken. 

Our first time really playing in the snow. Gavin LOVED it. Tyler wasn't so sure, but ended up having a fun time throwing snowballs at people. As long as I made them for him he was good. 

We discovered we have the perfect backyard for sledding! Nice hill, but not too steep so you slow down before hitting the fence. 

Spencer's second snow angel in his life...

...went better than the first one. 

Meet Bob, our first Missouri snowman. Rocks for eyes and sans the corncob pipe, but it worked.

Tyler's at the tough age when he's getting too old to take a nap because then he won't go to bed on time, but he's still tired and needs one. I don't get why kids outgrow naps. I could take one everyday and still fall asleep at bedtime, no problem. Sometimes I tell Tyler I'll take his nap for him, but he says, 'No sleep, Mommy'. Not cool, buddy, not cool. 

 

Checking out the Oriental Trading catalog. For all of those things that you didn't know you needed. 

By our second snowy day Tyler had figured out how much fun it was! Brant didn't find the shoveling nearly as enjoyable, but it's still fun to see snow after four "winters" in Texas.

Now that Spencer's in cub scouts, we (i.e., Brant) get to make a pinewood derby car. He already learned that you don't need a power tool to cut the car so they went with a little saw. Now Spencer's in charge of the design. 

Tyler's idea of heaven. 

Three awesome people. 

Two awesome people. 

Since Tyler is officially potty trained (enter choir singing), he got to pick out any toy he wanted from the toy store. He picked a Batmobile and spends most waking moments with it. 

Hiking in the cold

We decided to spend the first day of 2016 going on a family hike. It was chilly, but the boys were troopers. 

Brant taught the boys about icicles and we all had fun smashing them on the rocks in the stream. 

A couple of cute boys riding the carousel at the mall. 

December Happenings

We spent the week before Christmas in Branson, Missouri. It's also known as the 'Family Friendly Las Vegas of the Midwest' so you can imagine our excitement. :) We spent a day at Silver Dollar City which is a big amusement park. We lucked out with perfect weather for December. 

After a family water ride, Emma and I hit up a show while the boys went on some more rides. We saw 'A Christmas Carol'. It's one of my favorite books and my goal is to read it every year at Christmas time, but this year I counted watching the show as reading it. It was really well done, though Emma didn't seem to appreciate it since she fell asleep. 

After the boys first roller coaster this was their reaction: Tyler: Thumbs up! Gavin: Thumbs down! Spencer: "Where am I and what am I doing here?" 

We had a quick lunch of classic amusement park food (hot dogs and hamburgers) and Brant was wonder-dad holding Tyler while feeding Emma (and trying to eat for himself in-between). I was too busy taking pictures to help out. 

The longest line we had to wait in was for the train. We waited over an hour, but I think it was worth it. The train went all around the park and they had a little nativity story at the end. Tyler's super pumped, you can tell. 

Spencer and Gavin loved the train. 

Back in our hotel room Brant finished up a giant bowl of cereal. We stayed somewhere with a kitchen so we made most of the food there instead of eating out which was nice. 

Except for the two times we went to Krispy Kreme for donuts. The cashier may or may not have recognized me the second time there...

Our last day in Branson we went to Branson Landing which has some shops and a cool waterfront. Brant was demonstrating his jump-up-and-tap moves. This picture doesn't do the height he got justice, but you can tell he was really enjoying himself. :) 

We came back home just in time for Christmas Eve traditions. In Brant's family they open love presents every Christmas Eve. That's a present that one family member makes for another family member. This year Brant's parents had us so they made the boys a teepee. It is really cool. The boys have already used it as a hide-out in their nerf wars and as a fortress while playing Book of Mormon characters.  

On Christmas morning the boys were more than helpful showing Emma how to open presents. She didn't really get into it this year, but she did look really cute. 

Emma was as happy as always even though she woke up with a cold on Christmas morning. 

Gavin got a new bike! He was really excited and it'll be nice for him to be able to ride bikes around the neighborhood with the other kids. 

Tyler got a Batman gadget set from Brant's parents. It was the first present he opened and we could have just stopped Christmas for him right there since he was so excited about it. He makes us call him 'Batman' half of the time. He calls me 'Wonder Woman' so it works out okay. 

We had a little New Year's Eve party with a few families. We usually go to the Jones' in Dallas, but we're a little further away now. We took one of their traditions and played a 'Year in Review' game. It was really fun. 2015 was a busy year with a new baby, a graduation, a new job, and a move. We feel very blessed, but we're looking forward to a calmer 2016!