Merry Christmas!

We had a great Christmas! We woke up, opened stockings, and then ate our yummy Breakfast Casserole. After breakfast we skyped with Grandma and Grandpa Rasmussen and opened presents. We were very blessed!!!

The boys got trains hats and trains. They are pretty cute!! We are so blessed and love everything that we got! I will just go through a few, but we really loved it all!

The boys got two wonderful "cities" to drive their cars on. I love it! They also got this parking garage that we put next to the city for hours of entertainment.

Joshua and Dallin wanted the CAT machines, so we had to listen to them all day. I did mute them by the evening. :) I am grateful for the mute button. They also got some Lego trucks which work great with their machines!

The Cooney's got us these great blocks. Michael set them up so the boys could wake up to his creation. They love them.

Michael got Netflix. He is pretty excited about it. We have already watched movies and lots of National Geographic shows. I have a new mixer which will be great for baking, and also we get to try an ebelskiver. We should have plenty to do for the New Year! We missed our extended family, but all of you were in our thoughts!!!! We love and miss you!!!

Nieghborhood Christmas Party!

We had the neighborhood Christmas party yesterday. The boys got to see Santa, but even more exciting for Joshua was the firemen. They were so nice to him. They answered all his questions and let him sit in the cab. They opened everything up in the truck for him to see. I think it helped that the fireman had two sons at home, but he was so great listening to Joshua. Joshua was telling him how he had firetrucks at home and a fire hat. It was so cute, how my normally shy boy was not shy at all when it came to firemen.

Dallin wouldn't go near Santa, so I had stand there with him. We had to stand by the firetruck, they did not want to take one at the intended spot on the couch near the Christmas tree. My boys are so silly.

I mentioned in the post below we got Joshua a construction kit. He loves to build things. He built this yesterday with Michael. It is fake wood and plastic nails, but he enjoyed every minute of it.

My boys hard a work sawing away at the fake wood. Joshua loves to fix and build things. When he wakes up morning he will tell me sometimes that he had good dream about fixing and building. :)

Happy Birthday Joshua!

My baby turned four this week. I can't believe he is already four! He is such a blessing in our lives. He is a great kid, and always keeps us laughing. On Joshua's Birthday we had pizza and cake and had our neighbors over. The next day we went to the zoo. We had a great time. He got great gifts and people. He is blessed with good friends.

At the zoo we watched the lions while they were being trained, so the kids decided that they would run around like lions.

Joshua got great gifts, we got him a construction kit to build things. He got ten dollars from Grandma West and I had him pick out what he wanted from the store and pay for it himself. He did great, he found 7 things that he wanted that added up to ten dollars. He got a little basketball hoop, car carrier semi truck, and a play hut. He has been busy playing with all these toys ever since. We have another big gift that comes from Grandma and Grandpa Rasmussen that will come later.

The cake didn't turn out exactly as planned, but it tasted good. We were going for a race track, but it wasn't a smooth one. :). Aunt Jenny couldn't make it to the evening out due to sickness, but we did miss her.

We love you and are so proud of you Joshua!

Thanksgiving!

All of my boys got sick this weekend. It is so hard to watch people get sick. Joshua and Dallin had pink eye, and then got some type of stomach virus. They shared this virus with Michael. I feel very blessed that I did not get sick! It was heartbreaking to watch them suffer.

Aunt Jenny still made it over. She made a chocolate pie for us. Joshua wanted to help. We watched movies and relaxed.

We got dinner on the table. The boys ate Jello because their stomachs were recovering still. The food was good and it all turned out well.

We have many things to be grateful for. We have wonderful family and friends who love and support us. We are grateful for our callings in Church which we are learning lots from, unfortunately at the expense of our Ward. :) They are patient with us thus far. We are so grateful for work and able to provide for our family. We are truly blessed this Thanksgiving season. We hope you all had a great Thanksgiving too!

Update on the Kids

I had an appointment last week to make sure my placenta had moved out of the way, so I got to see another little picture of our little girl. Yes, she is still a girl. ;) Michael saw this picture and the first thing he said was that our little girl was going to have a huge forehead. I thought it was a cute picture, but I am just Mom I guess. :) My sister Jenny said big foreheads run in our family so she wouldn't be surprised if she had a big forehead. Jenny did not see the picture though. The baby is doing great. She weighs 3lbs and is looking good. I am feeling really good as well.

Joshua had his primary program yesterday. He did great! He sang a little, which was better than I expected. He even said his line! I am so proud of my little boy. When we got to Church yesterday his eye started to weep a little. I was a little concerned, but we were there so didn't think much else about it. When we got home from Church his eye was swelling and running like crazy. I felt so bad for him. We had plans to play with friends today, but I couldn't let him go looking like that. When it was bed time he was begging for medicine, which for my kids is really saying something. They run away when I try to put a band aid on them. I took him to the doctor and he does have pink eye. I gave him the medicine and a few hours later the swelling is gone! yeah! I am sure it will take a few days to get back to normal but he said it is feeling a little better. Joshua has the alphabet down, we are working on neatness when it comes to writing some of his letters, but he does know them now. He is doing great with school!

Dallin is great as well. He does really well in nursery. He and Joshua fight a little here and there, but are usually best friends. We are still working on colors with Dallin, but he can count to ten. Dallin is a little more emotional then Joshua was, so sometimes things get interesting, especially when he is tired. Yesterday at Church he was so thirsty. He is not good at drinking out of the water fountain. He doesn't get enough water to satisfy him, so Michael went to the kitchen and got a ladle out and had him drink from there. He had to fill it like ten times, but the job was done. I think about bringing a cup but I then talk myself out of it figuring he can last until nursery where they give him a cup with water. Oh well. I am truly grateful to have such great kids. I love them so much and so proud of them. I am so blessed to be able to be home with them and watch them grow and teach them.

Fun on Saturday

We went to the museum and aquarium yesterday with Dad. We had a great time. The boys and I go and do things a lot, but Dad doesn't always get to come, so it was fun to take him along. The boys had a great time and loved showing Aunt Jenny all of the sights.

The boys got to pet the sting rays and feed them!

The boys were digging for dinosaur bones at the museum. They had a dinosaur exhibit going on and Joshua was terrified of the animated T-Rex. He said it was too loud. :)

We feel so blessed to be able to spend time together and have fun together!

Stressful Week

We have had a busy week. Last Wednesday I noticed that our gas was not working. (no hot water, no stove, and no furnace). I called the gas company and they came out right away. He told us that we had a leak in our house line and we need to get it fixed. Ach! Michael came home and called the Scout master to tell him that he wasn't going to make it to Young Men's and the Scout Master said he has put in new gas lines before and suggested everyone come over and help. The YM came and helped dig a 70 ft trench. It was amazing. Michael a few leaders worked until 3AM. I was so touched by their hard work and generosity. On Thursday we found out we had the wrong pipe in and had to switch it out. Friday we failed our first inspection. By the way inspections are not fun, the man was not too friendly. We failed a second time on Monday because of things that he neglected to tell us the first time and finally passed the third time on Monday night. The gas people took a good 24 hours to turn the gas back on but they did and it is awesome to take hot showers and cook food on the stove again! I have never shoveled so much in my life. The boys were loving it. They had their hard hats on and were "helping us dig". We are so grateful for our many friends who helped with dinner and shoveling or who simply listened to us complain. We were given different information by every person we talked to from the gas man, to the inspector, to the people in the plumbing store. It was ever so confusing, but worth it. We saved a few thousand dollars by doing it ourselves.

On a happier note Michael's sister had her baby! We are so proud of her and her husband. They will be great parents!

Happy Halloween!

We were so busy we almost didn't have time to carve a pumpkin, but we did it. The boys would not touch the goop on the insides. Michael did a great job carving it! I thought it turned out great!

Joshua was Bob the Builder for Halloween. He looked very cute. He loves to build and dig so it was perfect for him. He enjoyed the Halloween carnival on Saturday.

Michael was a pilot and I was Pippi Longstockings. We went to a carnival and then Dallin came down with a fever. My little dragon was really burning up. Aunt Jenny gave us a ride home so Joshua could enjoy the carnival.

It was a little difficult to get Dallin to wear his costume but he looked adorable. In this picture he is burning up so he doesn't look too happy. He is doing much better today!

Two Night Camping

We took a two night camping trip and had a great time! The second night we had our friends join us for even more fun. We had great food the whole time. Dallin had a really hard time sleeping the first night, but other than that things went smoothly. We had yummy food both nights. We got a little rain at night and heard the wild pigs that are around.

The campground had a really fun playground the boys enjoyed playing. We also took the raft out on the lake. It was so nice to have a full day to relax. On Friday morning I went for a jog, while Michael made breakfast. The boys played in the dirt the whole time. We were all pretty filthy by the time we got home.

We had a great time with our friends. It is always fun to sit around a campfire and share stories with good friends. The kids had fun running around with their friends. We had a good game of volleyball, which my volleyball skills need some practice.

We had a great weekend, but enjoyed coming home to sleeping in my own bed.

Pumpkin Patch

We decided to try out the Flower Mound pumpkin patch this year. Joshua told me he liked Tyler's better, because their train had steering wheels. :) The boys ended up having a great time. We went on the hay ride. We avoided the bounce houses. Joshua is terrified of them. It was really dusty, but we ended up getting a few good pictures.

The boys enjoyed the hay maze behind the Little Einstein characters. They figured it out pretty easy. They have lots of characters most of Joshua's and Dallin's favorites were there.

We didn't actually buy a pumpkin here, but it was fun to run though and look at them. Aunt Jenny came with us and helped us take pictures. We got her out of bed early, so we appreciate her efforts!

You can't tell by this photo but we are in a train,. My boys hardly ever look and smile at the same time. They were troopers though.

Fall is Here!

We played at the Arboretum this week. It was so fun. They have all of their pumpkins out and the boys had a blast. The boys of course wouldn't smile for me, but this was as close as I could get.

They have a little maze set up for the kids. The kids had fun trying to go through it and then just started to play and go over the barriers.

We are loving the cooler temperatures. We have been outside lots more. Dallin got his first hornet sting. He survived. Joshua is working on his bike riding. Michael is busy with work and Church. We are just enjoying our time outdoors! I love Fall!