Our Brand New "Toy"...

At the end of last month Paul's new tool box for work arrived and it was quite the delivery. I should have woken up Riann from her nap so she could have seen the huge truck that brought it over to us. After we got it all unwrapped we had this wonderful box left over and Paul and I decided we should make a "house" for the kids. We had talked a few times about going out and finding a big box somewhere for them to play in, so when this one came with all of his other stuff we decided it was time for them to finally get one. Isn't it great how convenient that worked out?!

We brought it inside a few days later and the kids LOVED it. Colby was the first one to see it and he was in and out of it "yelling" at us in excitement. The picture of Colby in the bottom left corner is of him coming out to tell us how happy he was. When he gets really excited he pushes his arms straight back and jabbers at us in a very quick, husky voice. I absolutely LOVE it!!! Colby just loved going in and out of the house and running from the door to the window to tell us all about what he was doing. I can't wait until this kid actually talks because he already has SOOO much to say, we just don't understand any of it yet.

Riann woke up from her nap a little later than Colby and was very excited when she first saw it too. She instantly became the boss of her new house and we had to remind her a few times it was for both of them. She quickly tried to make a door for the front out of pillows and decorated the top with things from the front room, like our DVD cases and her favorite toys (She was mostly hiding things out of Colby's reach but we'll just say she was decorating... *Wink**Wink*).

Unfortunately we've already had to move it out of the front room because it was just too big for our small house but we're saving it for the summer time when we can pull it in and out of the garage for the kids to play with in the yard. I think they'll love it as a summer fort and hopefully they wont tear it up too much. We don't have a ton of yard toys right now so I think it'll be fun for them to have something like this for now, until we start collecting other things for them to play with. I hope they really enjoy it again when it gets warm outside.

Another Snow Day

A few Sunday's ago we decided it was finally nice enough to take the kids outside to play in the snow and really have a little fun. While Paul got some stuff done on the side Riann, Colby and I rolled around and played while we waited for Paul to finish up.

Riann had a great time making snow angels and "sidewalks" for everyone travel on. She really enjoys getting out there and getting deep into the snow, building and plowing anything she can.

Colby really seemed to have a good time too. He is still learning how to walk in his snow boots so he spent a lot of time crawling around on his knee's but when Riann would join him he had a fun time getting around. He likes the snow a lot, especially when Riann tosses it up in the air right in front of him. I don't know why he gets so much joy out of that but it is one of the many things Riann can do to get him to really laugh hard. She is his favorite person ever and it's so fun to watch them together.

After the kids got a little tired of crawling around in the snow, and it was starting to get a little dark and cold, we decided to try tugging each other around in the sled. For a while Riann and Colby let me pull them around but I think I was too slow for Riann and so she decided to get out and pull Colby herself. She did a great job but as you can see from above Colby did topple out a few times. He really enjoyed it though.
Once Riann got tired of pulling Colby around, and Paul was done with his stuff, he joined us and took the kids for an adventure ALL OVER the yard. They had a lot more fun with him because he could go a lot faster than me and he went lots of different places. After they both fell out a few times Paul had Riann lay on her stomach and he put Colby on her back. They both loved it and thought it was the best idea ever!! I'm so glad they get to have these moments with him. They really enjoy the time they get to spend with him.

This is just a few shots from one of their spills. Colby was usually the one left behind but he laughed the whole time we were out and was just happy to be along for the ride.

I love peaceful Sunday's like this!!

Valentine's Day

We don't do a ton for the holidays but I try to make sure the kids know that there is at least one going on. I think when they're a little older and we have more to celebrate, like through school and things like that, we'll do more but they just aren't quite to the age yet where holidays are a HUGE deal... well except for Christmas and Birthday's (and yes, I consider Birthday's holidays). We're slowing trying to do more and more but we're also trying to keep it fun and simple. For the last few Valentine's Day's I've tried to make sure the kids make Valentine's for Paul. Last year we made them for the grandparents too but I just wasn't on the ball this year... Sorry guys. We still really REALLY LOVE you!!!!

Paul was really busy with school the week of Valentine's day so I snuck the kids back into Riann's room and we decided to give daddy some quiet time while we decorated cards. The kids had a LOT of fun with it, even though it was a little stressful keeping them quiet, keeping them out of the glitter, and keeping Colby from eating his hard to dad.

This was Riann's card. We collected the letters form a Valentine's day display at Walmart that they had sitting out where you could make your own cards. Unfortunately I thought I grabbed a "V" but I either lost it or it never made it into the pile. Then after I set all of the letters out in order Riann added them to her card. She did a great job lining them all up by herself. She then picked out her glitter and painted on her glue and decorated. She even asked to sign her card by herself so I wrote her name on a different piece of paper and she then wrote it on the card. She's been working VERY hard on learning how to do that. She is getting better at it all the time!!

Colby had a fun time playing too. I don't know what I was thinking giving this kid a permanent marker to "draw" with but I couldn't find anything else and I was trying to quickly shuffle them into the back room so we just used what we had. He actually did a very good job "writing" his messages, he just didn't want to leave the paper on the try so I had to hold it down for him. We got a little messy but overall I think he did pretty good. I was amazed at how well he could hold the pen. He seems to be a natural at that so maybe he has his dad's creative touch. It'll be fun to see what he comes up with when he's older.

These are our finished cards. Riann's card is the blue one, Colby's is the green one and mine is the red one. We didn't do anything fancy but they'll be fun to save and show the kids one day what they put together on their own. We snuck them into Paul's lunch box along with his Valentine's day treat and he didn't find them until he was up at school. It was a lot of fun getting his text when he finally spotted them and I was really glad it ended up being a surprise for him. I swore he knew what we were doing back in the bedroom when we made them but Riann did a great job not telling him, even though she kept saying, "I have a surprise for you... but I can't tell you what it is." I bet she wouldn't have been able to keep it quiet if we hadn't done it late the night before and I didn't put her immediately to bed right after we made them.

Later the night of Valentine's day we were in Idaho Falls and decided to do dinner out there. We should have planned better because we ended up calling EVERYONE to see what their wait times were and most were running a 45 minute to an hour and a half wait to get a table. Unfortunately we didn't decide to do dinner out there until about 6:30 that evening so it was quite an adventure finding someone who could get us right in. We ended up stopping at Chili's and had a great meal with only a 15 minute wait. Next year we'll plan a little better and not end up being so stressed by the end of the night. But we had a great time and everything worked out really well.

I hope everyone else had a great Valentine's Day too!!!

My Wonderful Kids

I just had to write a quick post about how much I love that these two guys play together and just enjoy themselves.

Aren't they just so cute when they are together? They love cuddling together and watching movies. They'll actually sit like this for at least the first 30 minutes of a movie and Colby has no issues with it. The last time they watched a movie together Riann had her legs wrapped all the way around Colby and he was so happy to just be there. If we try to cuddle with him we maybe get him for a full 5 minutes but he LOVES sitting with her and will do it all day long.

They do have their moments of pure torture when they are just getting on each other's nerves, and those moments are a lot more frequent now that Colby is learning he can stand up to Riann more than in the past, but they really do love each other. Colby just adores his big sister and he is so fun to watch as he follows her around the house or he lets her lead him from room to room. Colby is not one of those kids who can hide how much he loves something and I hope that's not a trait he loses anytime soon. He's a great little brother and the best baby ever and Riann is such a fantastic big sister to him and tries to help out in anyway she can.

Even with all of their messes, I am one lucky momma. These kids are great!!

Winter Time Walk

A few weeks ago we had a stretch of good weather and a few of our neighbors and I got to get outside and go for a walk. The kids loved being out of the house and got to enjoy some time together with their friends. We also recently got Riann some new snow clothes so it was fun for her to try those out and for Colby to get to try on his hand-me-downs. He could barely stand in all of his puff but it was SO fun to see him enjoy the snow and I was glad that he was super warm when we were done.

We haven't gotten as much snow as we usually get around this time but the kids have had fun playing in what we have gotten. Colby really seems to enjoy it all and as long as Riann is "in charge" of whatever activity we're participating in outside she's pretty happy to play in and eat as much snow as she can. I sure love these guys!!!

Bowling

A week or so ago the kids and I woke up on a Saturday morning itching to do something other than our normal wake up, watch TV and bum around the house all day while daddy's at work routine. After a brief status post on Facebook asking about what kind of fun things we could do in Rexburg we got a text from our neighbors who had decided to spend the morning bowling and they asked if we wanted to tag along. Eager to try something new the kids and I adventured out and decided to go have some fun.

We went to the bowling alley at Fat Cats Theater in town and we all had a great time. I don't know if you remember the last time we bowled there, for Riann's 2nd birthday, but they have ramps that the kids can place the balls on top of and push them down so that the balls don't go quite as slow down the lanes. They also have the lanes set up so that you can get bumpers based on who is bowling, that way you don't have to wait for specific lanes to open and you don't all have to use bumpers, if you don't want to. I probably should have had the bumpers up for me a few times though.

Riann loved doing everything on her own and even gave up on the ramp half way through. She'd lug her ball up to the lane and chuck it as far as it would go. Unfortunatelly she didn't have a ton of power behind her roll and it would take a little longer for it to get down to the pins but she loved watching it make it all the way down. She was quite animated and, as you can see from the last picture below, she waited for a high 5 at the end of every turn... BUT, you had to wait until the ball hit the pins to actually give her the high 5.

Colby even for to bowl a few times too, under my name, and he had a great time. Next time I think I'll actually pay to let him have his own turn. With the ramps he was more than able to do it. I just couldn't get any pictures of him bowling because I had to help him the whole time. Our friends might have gotten a few, I'll have to check and see. Even with Colby's help I still broke 100 (I can't remember my exact score) so I'd say we make a pretty good team. Colby didn't even get the bumpers for his turn and we still scored pretty high.

We had a great time. Riann loved her shoes too and was very sad that she had to return them at the end of her adventure. The whole time we were there they played music from Disney movies too so the kids had a great time dancing and singing along to the songs we all knew. I was surprised how many I could name as well. I still can't decide if that's good or bad.

I'm thinking we'll save up and try to go again soon. Hopefully this next time we'll be able to pick a time when daddy can come with us. Maybe we'll all go on a fun family date at the end of the semester so we can celebrate how hard Paul's been working in school and at work. He really is doing a great job this semester. I don't think I could keep up with all of the work he's got. We're VERY proud of him!!!

Baby #3

This update has been a LONG time coming and I don't know why I've held off writing this one. I think it's partly because I've been hoping there would be some way we could get a second ultrasound to confirm the sex and because I've been trying to figure out how to scan in our pictures so I can add those as well. Buuut, we haven't gotten any further on the scans and thankfully the baby is going right on schedule so we haven't had a reason to get a second ultrasound. I finally took a picture of our best picture and I'm finally ready to write this post because our "assumed" gender goes right along with what I've been feeling since we first found out we were having another one, so I feel like it's okay to post about it for our family record.

That being said we are very happy to say that Baby #3 is most likely a GIRL!!! Our technician searched and searched for anything suggesting we might be having a boy and she just couldn't find anything. However during the scan our little one would scoot away whenever we were JUST about to get a shot and even now when we go in for checkup's she's very active and tries to get away from the Doppler. She is going to be a lot like her older sister with a GO GO GO personality.

When I first found out I was pregnant something told me we were going to have a girl (even though I doubted a little bit when Riann was so adamant she was getting another brother) so when she told us that her "professional guess" was that we were having a girl it just felt right.

We have been struggling with names this around because Paul has his favorite and I have a few that I like but I think we're just about settled on a name. I'm going to check with Paul before we officially announce it but if you ask Paul or I in person or if you chat with Riann it wouldn't be too hard to get it out of any of us.

We are very excited for the changes that are coming and although I'm grateful we have a little over 3 months before she gets here it'll be so great to have her here in our family. I think Riann is going to LOVE having a sister and with Colby getting to be our little man for a few more years I think this change is going to be VERY fun for all of us.