Fall Scenery

Fall was long and warm this year and we had so many chances to get out with the beautiful scenery. We went up in the mountains to take family pictures one Saturday and it was so pretty. 

Kids having fun while cousisns were taking pictures. 

Leaves falling while we were digging potatoes. 

Our yearly fall picture. (Nora loved getting to wear shorts and flip flops until the end of October!)

X marks the spot in the sky above these pretty trees in the park. Carrie and Zeke had an extended conversation about how they would get to the treasure the X was marking. 

Moon rising through the fall foliage. 

The grounds crew gathered the leaves in one place just outside our house one morning, and Nora was lucky enough to get to play in it before they took them away. She's standing up in this picture, so the leaf mountain is probably 2 feet tall or so. 

Irish Jig

St. Patrick's is so not our holiday. We're not Irish, we don't drink, and we don't even like corned beef.

But- we do enjoy the festive green and shamrocks and rainbows and gold-wrapped chocolate.

So, we wore our green today, 

we decorated with shamrocks,

and at pajama rama at the library last week we learned how to do an Irish jig. The kids got really good at it and had a ton of fun! Nora was a natural.

Zeke was all about the travelling Irish Jig (ie, moving around the room while jigging). 

January Snow

 We have the cutest kids...

Winter is not the favored season around our house, but the kids really do look forward to the snow. They don't like the cold, or not being able to play outside all day, but they love the snow. 

Zeke built this sweet snowman with our neighbors.

Nora and I went winter walking and picture taking. Look at that blue sky above the snow-capped mountains - so much better than the foggy smoggy mist of the city that I usually walk in. 

Probably their most favorite snow activity is to walk in it. Making footprints, scattering snow, crunching around, and pretending to ice skate on the sidewalk happens pretty much every time we walk out the door!

My favorite snow activity is to watch it snow. From the safety of my own house, with nowhere to go and a bowl of soup to eat. :)

January So Far

We started our January off busy! 

Making gingerbread cookies

Visiting and playing at the Loertscher party on New Years Day

Meeting cousin Jacob and opening presents with him 

Dressing up for church

And building puzzles we got for Christmas

Here's to 2014!

Making Chocolate Cookies

Chocolate, chocolate everywhere!

My mom has pictures just like this of us :)

Posing kids.

Parchment paper 'treasure maps' were a big hit!

No pictures of cookies, but they were yummy! I took them to work for a coworker's birthday, Zeke took a few to his teacher, and everyone loved them! Recipe here.

Backyard Fun

A few weeks ago my sister offered us her little climber/slide/playground, because she had gotten a sweet deal on a big playhouse-style one. Given that our kids love to slide, and this little one was the perfect size for our patio, we went and picked it up right away!

The kids have both loved it. They have sent toys down the slide over and over. 

They are both big Jake and the Neverland Pirates fans right now, so they climb aboard to play pirate ship and even had a pirate picnic of saltine crackers and milk one afternoon. Nora keeps saying 'It's Bucky and the Jolly Roger!' While I'm not quite sure how it's two ships in one, I'm glad it's such pirate-y fun.

And of course, lots and lots of climbing up and sliding down. 

When Nora wants to go out and play, she says 'Can I go have fun?'

Sunday Cuteness

We've captured a lot of cute moments on Sundays recently. On General Conference Sunday, we started the morning by looking out the window to find a young ring-necked dove on our window box. He was content just to sit there while the kids looked out the window (and tapped on the window...) for quite a while. 

During one of the General Conference sessions, we got out the duplos and built some towers. I built Nora a window for her bunnies and a castle for her princess, and she played for quite a while. 

Zeke used all of the other blocks and vehicles to build a city.

Cute girl ready for church. Yes I did get her to wear something besides her purple dress, for one week at least. I have loved this jumper. 

Cute hair! I took a picture because I figured it wouldn't last through church (and it didn't). Her hair is super fine (she gets that from me) and ponytails just don't stay in well yet. She tolerated it well, but I could tell it was a little weird for her :)

End of Winter

In the last month or so we've seen all sorts of end-of-weather as we have been out and about. 

From flying in snow

to scootering through the puddles,

to climbing the melting snow hills. 

Now the snow is gone, the days are warmer, and the spring flowers are popping up out of the ground. We're so happy it's spring!

Sunday Shoveling

Don't you rush home from church to shovel the snow? 

More Dressing Up

Going to church on cold January days just seems a little better when you have fancy red clothes to wear. Such good looking kiddos :)

Winter and Snow

Lots of crazy snow last weekend. Friday morning I expected the drive in Parley's canyon to be slow and snowy but I didn't expect all of the snow in Salt Lake. If I had known how bad it was on the east benches of the valley I probably would have taken the day off! It took an hour to get from the freeway to the University, and then when I left to come home at lunchtime I had to go the long way around the mountain and through Provo. Quite an adventure, but I traveled safely and it felt so good to be home. 

Here's the aftermath in Salt Lake- snowbanks and icicles and cold. 

Yay for beautiful blue skies in Midway. I'm so grateful to escape the fog and smog and mist every night leaving Salt Lake. 

The kids love the snow for as long as they can stand the cold. This winter they have loved shoveling with their-size shovels!

Dressing Up

We didn't set out to buy the kids Christmas outfits, but we ended up with several! Zeke got a white shirt and purple tie for the wedding, then he also got church clothes for Christmas from Draper and Carrie and Grandma Carlile. (We were sure glad we had double white shirts when we had a hot chocolate disaster at the beginning of the wedding reception.....)

Nora got a couple of hand-me-down fancy party dresses, and even though she wasn't thrilled about them at first I think she really likes them now. Plus, I made her a new cute red bow to match the new dresses, and she really likes that. 

This picture doesn't quite do this dress justice, but we had room for only one picture on our camera after Christmas and wedding festivities and I'm just pleased to get a decent  picture on the first try! :) Love these cute kiddos.