December photos

Tried bigger pig tails, they didn't stay in long.

 Everyone loves the Christmas train.

 "No mom, I didn't dump all of my cereal in the basket and onto the floor."

 Playing with play-doh.  The girls had a taste, and only had to be reminded a couple of times not to eat it.

 Tried a new hair-do, it didn't stay in very long either.

 The girls do pretty well with marbles, as far as not putting them in their mouths.  They had fun putting them down the ramps.

 This was really cute, I wish I could have gotten a better picture.  Jenna was pulling Kaylee along by each holding onto one of their blankets.  They were giggling and have a fun time running around together.

 Quick project I did to hold some more hair-bows.  Just stuff I had around the house - picture frame, ribbon, two dowels and some pipe cleaner.

The girls have discovered the bouncy house and they like it!

Thanksgiving 2013 Part 2

Thanksgiving morning we helped get things ready at the Petersen's.  We had 5 big tables set up downstairs and about 30 chairs.  It was great to see all of the family and the kids loved playing with their cousins.  I wish we lived closer so they could see them more often.  It was great having lots of help from my girl nieces to take care of Jenna and Kaylee.  I didn't have to watch them all day!  Lunch was great with lots of yummy food.   

 I forgot to try and set the girls up together for a photo op, but you can see that they looked super cute for the holiday.  They even kept their hair-bow in for almost the whole day - it was amazing!

 After lunch there was visiting and some games played - thanks to Dori for always getting people going.

 Of course there was napping and electronic devise usage too.

 Hats off to Wendy and Chad who did practically all of the dishes - I offered to help, but they said they were on top of it.

I had given the girls a nap early - before everyone came for lunch and I was glad I did since they didn't really get a chance for the rest of the day.  In the afternoon around 4 we went over to my Aunt Jill's house and saw some of the Datwyler family that was there.  They have a Jeep Power Wheel, so the boys had fun with that. 

Friday:
 We spent Thursday night at my parents so that I could go shopping with mom on Black Friday.  We left around 6:00 am and went to Kohls.  We got most of our shopping done there with great finds and hardly any lines.  We also stopped at Shopko, Kitchen Kneads, and Campsaver where mom and I both got some snow boots - mine had fallen apart the week before so I was glad that I could get some new ones.  We had lunch at Rumbi Grill.  I had never eaten there before and I loved it.  We then went back to Smithfield, Doug had been great to watch the kids so that I could have a great day with my mom.  Then Doug and I went to the the Temple to do an endowment session.  I hadn't seen the new film yet, so it was great to see it.  Very morning and emotional.  We had dinner with my parents then went back to the Petersen's for baths and bed.

Saturday:
We had the Petersen Christmas party early so we could be there - thanks everyone for accommodating us.  We met for a quick lunch then went on a family history tour of Doug's parents on where they lived growing up.  We went into Logan, up on campus, north to Lewiston, and then west to Cornish.  It was interesting to see where Mike and Arlene grew up and where they met.  I was glad to learn some more of our family history.  (Again the girls napped early and then I tried to put them down in the afternoon when we got back from the driving - but they didn't sleep.  They ended up taking a quick nap around 7 during our program which ended up being very nice).

playing at Grandma's

 The boys helped put up the basement tree too.

 We had all the cousins line up - we were missing the Eric Petersen family because they were getting their talent ready.  Jenna and Kaylee are numbers 24 and 25.

 We had a great program from everyone.  We all did a talent of some sort.  We had yo-yoing, soccer kicks, singing, dancing, and Once There Was a Snowman performed.  It was so much fun.  I hope we make it a family tradition.  I took video of it all, but no still shots.

Of course the kids love the gift exchange.  Tyler got a Skylanders figure.  Damon got a cool Chima Lego set, and Chris got a TMNT dress up mask and nun-chucks and a puzzle.  The girls got some dress-up things.  Thanks cousins!

 They had just woken up :).

It was a great week, plenty busy but so fun to be with family.

We left Sunday morning again and only made one stop in Rock Springs - at our favorite place on campus with dinosaur skeletons (Thanks Brian and Taryn for taking us there once, now we stop there frequently to eat our lunch).  We made it home in record time even with the crazy wind.  Thanks Doug for doing all the driving.  The kids were pretty good - we listened to Indian in the Cupboard and watched a few movies.

Of course it's always nice to be home and sleep in your own bed, even though it means a ton a laundry to do the next day :).

It was a great Thanksgiving and I am so thankful for my family!

Thanksgiving 2013 Part 1

 So we went up to Cache Valley this year for Thanksgiving, mostly to avoid driving during snow storms.  We left on Sunday morning and arrived at Doug's parents house in time for dinner.  We made good time and stopped in Rawlins for lunch and then made it to Bear Lake to let the girls have a break, they were screaming quite a bit.  They calmed down for the rest of the way for which we were grateful.  We stopped again real quick at First Dam to help Tyler from being car sick.

We were excited to see Doug's parents new house.  They moved in only a few weeks before.  There were still boxes around, but they had made up the basement very nice for us.  They boys had a bunkbed and a twin in their room and we had our own room and the girls were in an exercise room.  Their house turned out very well though they are discovering a few minor mistakes that the builders had made.

Monday we mostly just stayed at the Petersens and had a fun day visiting.  The boys helped Grandma P. decorate the upstairs tree with gingerbread ornaments and our niece Candice came over to help with the kids so Doug and I could go to a movie: Hunger Games 2.  It was very good and nice to go on a date.

Tuesday we went to the Mall just to let the kids play for a bit and get our of the house.  Damon and Tyler were a bit too big for the area and I tried to tell them to be careful with the younger children - but they still jumped around like the crazy boys that they are.

 In the afternoon we went to Brenda's house so the girls and I could get a haircut.  The girls didn't like it so much, but their hairs looks a lot better, thanks Brenda!
Jenna:

 Kaylee:

 Wednesday: I went over to my mom's with Chris and the girls to help make pies and visit.  Doug took Damon and Tyler to go play with some of their cousins.  They came back to my parents for dinner then went back to Providence to sleep.

18 month update (late)

So as of December 2 the girls are 19 months old!  Crazy!  As most of you know this is a big deal when it comes to going to church - they can now go into nursery.  They have been three times now (due to stake conference, being sick and traveling for Thanksgiving) and they have done well.  It is fun to peek in the window and see them sitting in their chairs eating a snack or listening to a lesson.  Sacrament meeting is pretty hard - the girls just want to walk around and not sit still.  Today they were really tired and I took them to the mother's room to wander and cry.

So here are some thoughts about Jenna and Kaylee.  They are starting to interact with each other more.  In this picture they were each putting a toy in their mouth and making a funny sound to each other - I tried to get it with a video, but of course they stopped. 

When we are walking to school Kaylee is frequently behind a little bit and Jenna will look back and open and close her hand to tell Kaylee to come.  They give each other hugs sometimes.  Kaylee will sometimes feed Jenna or give her her binkie.  When they have a snack of Kix, Kaylee will put some in Jenna's mouth. Of course there is the pushing and taking each other's toys too.  But over all they treat each other pretty well.  Most of the time they just each do their own thing, but if one sister gets something, they other wants it as well.  It was funny last night we were watching a movie and Doug and I each held one of the girls in our laps.  Then they both got up and switched laps, then did it again - it was pretty funny.   

Jenna was our little climber, but now it is Kaylee that wants to get up on everything.  Maybe Jenna fell once and that discouraged her.  She is a good eater and is now getting her two bottom canine teeth.  She runs everywhere and play with her brothers.  Tyler will pull them on a blanket across the tile.  Jenna is now 20 lbs 9.5  oz (21%) and 33 inches long (69%). Her hair is getting longer and she has a cow lick right in the front that makes it hard to part her hair to the side - her hair is always in her eyes if I don't have it pulled back.  Jenna does not like having bows in her hair and will quickly pull them out.  She will pull out her pony-tails too, just not as frequently. Both girls were sick a few weeks ago, but we are glad they are back to normal even though they are constantly getting into things.   Jenna goes to sleep well and loves it when Daddy comes home.  She will tell him good-bye when he leaves and shout 'Daddy' when he comes home.  

Kaylee is now our little climber.  She can pull herself onto the bar stools and even made it into her high chair. She has also made it up our playground ladder outside.  Kaylee is pretty fearless.  She climbed up on the playground at the park and went right down the big slide without me around at all.  I had to grab onto her jacket the to slow her down and prevent her from hitting someone at the bottom. Kaylee is also very smilely and gives happy faces readily when she is feeling well.  She also has been sick, but we didn't have to give her any medicine.  Kaylee is now 20 lbs (15%) and 32 inches long (53%).  She continues to be about a 1/2 pound lighter than her sister.  She can now walk and run as well as Jenna, it just took her a month to catch up.  They are both learning now to eat with a fork and spoon and Kaylee seems to like to do that the most.  She is also a good eater - she does better at eating things from a spoon from me (Jenna likes to feed herself).  Kaylee loves to sing and will sings "ee i ee i o" if I start singing Old MacDonald. Both girls will also sing "Rio, Rio" spontaneously - we have been listening to that a bit lately.  

It is hard to find differences between them since they are both learning the same things.  They both sign lots of things now and mostly try to say the word as well: milk, cracker, fish, dog, bird, frog, cat, banana, apple, candy, cheese, more, drink, juice, hurt, water, bath, car, plane, hat, coat, shoes, socks, please, thank you, sorry, grandma, grandpa, mom, dad, and others.  It is fun to see what they are looking at as they point things out to me.  I think Kaylee's first word was 'apple' and Jenna's was 'more' - I think.  They started signing first so I have a hard time remembering what they actually said first.  

I had the girl's pictures taken at JCPenny's.  I had prepared for their pictures for awhile hoping that they would be happy and healthy.  But of course they still had their colds- their noses at least didn't look too bad.  But they were not their normal happy selves.  We got a pretty good one of them together, but their individuals were pretty bad.  sigh, oh well.  I am going to try and take some myself sometime this week.

Jenna

Kaylee

Jenna

Kaylee

Folk Dancing

I just wanted to post this quick to remember what the boys were able to do at school.  They have been practicing line dancing and square dancing during P.E. and I think during some of music too.  They put on a pretty good show learning some fun steps.  Both boys enjoyed it and were pretty coordinated.  I was glad I was able to go.  I got someone to watch the kids for Damon's grade, then I took Chris and the girls for Tyler's.  Chris joined Tyler for the 'chicken dance' at the end.  Glad that they learned this at school.

JCPenny Pictures

We managed to get our family pictures taken at JCPenny.  We got one good shot, which is all we needed.

Space Derby

Back in mid November Damon had a space derby with Cub Scouts.  It was the first time for the ward, so it was a little bit slow.  Damon only got to race twice, he got second and then third.  He did a good job of making his ship with Dad's help.  We were proud of him.