PlayTime Pizza Place

My friend Julie and I discovered this great place (kind of like Chuck E Cheese, but a lot closer). Jack, Brianna, and friend Michael had so much fun sliding slides, playing games and earning tickets. Jack was so excited to meet and get a hug from "Henry the Hippo". Brianna, however who is quite a bit like all of her aunts in one way or another did not. Jack and 3/4 the kids in the place were following the Hippo back and forth from the birthday party going on in the party room when all of a sudden there is this horrified screeching coming from the top of the jungle gym. It didn't take long for me to recognize it as the cries of my little Brianna. Once she decided whether to stay up on top where it's "safe" or come down to me she literally tried to climb on top of my head for safety. Everyone was like "wow, is she afraid of the hippo?" and all I could do was respond "yeah, you should have seen her with Santa!" Now whenever we talk about the playtime pizza place she is sure to make clear that she doesn't mind the pretend Hippo, but she DOES NOT like the "real" hippo!

Story Time with Grandma

I thought these pictures were too sweet. Mom got to come up and visit us. She watched the kids while we went to a ward valentine's party. They made cookies, played games and of course read stories. The kids thought it was great that Grandma stayed over and ate pancakes the next morning. Who loves Grandma? WE DO!

BUBBLEY

It may be that bigger is better, or the Jacuzzi jets, or just the fact that it's mom and dad's, But the kids will always take me up on the offer to use our bathroom for baths. We've always had a policy of either Bubble bath... or.. jets, Today they opted for jets. I left them alone to play nicely for a few minutes... Panicked screams had Matt and I racing to see what was going on and this is what we found. Silly me I left their little bottle of baby shampoo on the side of the tub and apparently it doesn't take a lot to turn jets into bubble mayhem! Don't get lost kids! Needless to say, it took quite a while to wash away all the bubbles. Add one more plus to bathtime in mom and dad's room, they got to rinse off in our shower (another treat I guess)

Snow Much Fun!

After being cooped up in the house all winter we look forward to the occasional warm sunny day. This day we got home from shopping and Jack and Brianna couldn't turn down the sun on their faces and the irresistable puddles that resulted from the balmy mid-40's temperatures. We got out the bikes and made tracks and footprints until our wet pants started feeling too cold. I guess we should have gotten out the puddle jumper boots... Oh well, we had fun!

Snow Mountain

SNOW DAY

This winter has been a wild one. We've had plenty of St. Louis' infamous "freezing rain" that can be disasterous to powerlines and trees and on the road. Ice is pretty,but no fun to play in. We did get lucky enough to have some fun winter weather this month. Jack had been begging and checking the weather report (on our little NOAA radio), even praying for snow so he could build a snowman. Well we got the snow, but as is usual in this area it was so dry and powdery we could hardly make a snowball. We did however get creative and make a "giant snow mountain" in the driveway for the kids to climb on. We even tried decorating it to look kind of like a snow man but the kids decided it looked to silly. I love my cute little snow bunnies!

Here is a picture of Brianna and Jack with Aunt Jessica right before she went off to BYU Idaho. Today the kids colored lots of pictures for her and then we called and talked to her. The kids have been asking a lot of questions about where she went and why we can't go see her at the college in Idaho. (It's really cute when they say "Idaho") All they know is that it's really far away, like Florida. We love you and miss you "Aunt Keska"

It's a Girl!

Well, now that I have joined the technologically advanced and now have high speed internet, I guess I've got to keep up with the "blogging world". Today was a big day for our family. I went in for our ultra-sound and ...drum roll please... It's a girl! Of course, that was Brianna's prediction and not Jack's but we are all so excited about this new little member of our family. At 4 1/2 months along, my little round belly is starting to "show". We look forward to the busy month that will be July. When we sat the kids down to tell them it was a girl Brianna kind of twirled away and then asked me for another piece of candy. I guess it's a little abstract for her not quite three year old mind. Jack, however, acted quite ripped off. "NO, I said I wanted it to be a brother!" and then "The baby can sleep in my room, but only boys are allowed." While it may take a little getting used to, Jack is a very loving and caring big brother. We like to wait until we see her before deciding on a name, but some of our favorites right now are Lillian Mae, Chloe Kaye, Megan Mae, or Bella Kaye. We just will wait until we hold her in our arms and then we'll know.