Winry Turns 2!!

Happy Birthday Winry!!  This past week was pretty crazy.  I put Winry to bed one night, and I kid you not, the next morning when I went to get her she'd doubled in age!  Let's hope that's just a once in a life time occurrence!  We had a birthday party for her on Saturday, and she had a great time all day!  Just look at the excitement on her face.

This past week Brooke also started preschool!  What a week!  She goes Monday and Wednesday, and on Monday this week she went to meet her teacher, so her first day was Wednesday.  She was super excited to go, and she had a wonderful time.  She sent me a Marco Polo (video chat message) once she got home and told me all about everything that happened.  She's doing great.

We've already got a funny story from preschool.  I got an email from her school this past week saying they're trying to get better ratings.  One of the areas they're trying to improve in is the nutrition of the food they have at snack time.  However, the preschool doesn't provide snacks!  So they were asking parents to send their kids with healthy snacks to improve their rating.

I found Jelly calmly lounging in Winry's room one night when we headed up to get ready for bed.

On Thursday night when we were getting ready for bed Winry laid on the floor to get her diaper changed and pulled up the very hungry caterpillar.  She held the book over her head (as seen in the picture) and then exclaimed, in a very concerned voice, "I don't know words!!"  It was a rough revelation...

The girls had an intense dance party to Book of Mormon Stories that night.  The next morning we found out that Winry really likes when I jump up the stairs and scare her!  We had a lot of fun with that!

Friday morning/noonish Gram flew out to join us for Winry's birthday!  Friday afternoon/evening we spent a good amount of time blowing up balloons.  We were trying to get ready for Winry's birthday.  The girls loved having balloons around to play with, and Winry was even helping the sick ones get better.  That night we crammed everything into the corner so we could let Dobby vacuum the floor.

Then Saturday was the big day!  Brooke came into our room in the middle of the night, so when Winry woke up, the monitor woke everyone up.  Since we were all up, we all went in together to sing her Happy Birthday!  We let Winry pick out all of the meals.  This meant for breakfast we had "cereals".  There were a bunch on sale this past week too, so we got a lot of options to choose from.  In the end Winry picked the cheetah cereal (and then the Panda cereal because I didn't put things away fast enough).  While we ate breakfast, Pikachu called on the Echo and sang Winry happy birthday too!

We spent the morning getting the house ready for her party, such as by stringing all the balloons together into an arch.

Here's the whole table set up.  Winry wanted a "sucker" birthday, so we spun that a little and had a Candy Land party.  For lunch she picked to have "jelly ham-wich" and so we had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, amongst other items.

Here's the cake inspired by Candy Land.  We've got the peppermint forest, gumdrop... area, licorice house and lollipop bouquet!  All complete with a Starburst path.

The main party activity was gingerbread houses because that very possibly is Winry's favorite thing.  Or at least, favorite candy related thing.  I think most of the kids did a good job putting candy onto the house, and eating was a minimum.

I said candy eating was at a minimum, not that it didn't happen, or that no one could have gotten a little caught up in it.

Here's Winry chugging along!

And after house decorating it was finally cake time!  Everyone sang happy birthday, and then everyone 4 or younger was VERY excited for some cake.  We let Winry pick the first piece, and then continued dishing from there.

The cake was great!  It was lemon.  I think it was a vanilla cake, but Monica soaked a lemon glaze into it the night before.  Wonderful.  Winry was definitely happen with it!  Also, nerds in cake (or in the frosting), also great!

After cake, we opened presents, which is where the first picture came from.  Winry was very excited to open her gifts and spent a lot of time with that open mouth expression!  She was super cute.  After presents, kids were starting to get tired, so the party disbanded due to our lack of nap stations.  Winry also went down for a nap, and so did I!

While Winry was asleep, Gram and Monica ran out to get a few gifts for her from Gram.  We were going to go bowling once she woke up, but Winry slept too late.  Once she got up, we had Mac and Cheese for dinner, and then opened some more presents.  Here she is hugging her new dress!

When she opened a wrapped present, she'd rip off pieces of wrapping paper, and then she had to hand them to Monica before she could continue.  Here she is, wishing mom would take things a little faster!

Winry got a mermaid tail from Gram, but unfortunately wouldn't put it on for a group picture!  Gram brought her mermaid tail out that the girls gave her for Christmas, and she and Brooke got a "Fin Friends" picture!

After dinner and presents, we got the girls into their pajamas, and then we let Winry pick something fun to do since it was her Birthday (and since we missed bowling).  She picked Mario Kart!  She had a great time!

After playing for a little, she then wanted to watch some T.O.T.S.  She cuddled on my lap with her mermaid tail while we watched.

And we got a family picture under her happy birthday banner before taking everyone up to bed!  It was a pretty great day, and I hope Winry had a wonderful time!

I'm so grateful to have my wonderful little girls!  They bring so much joy into my life and have been such wonderful blessings.

P.S. since it took so long to have Monica proof read this and get it posted, I can now add that BOTH girls just threw up within 5 minutes of each other... poor Winry got really upset.  Brooke handled it like a champion and even made it to the toilet!  Hopefully everyone can get some sleep tonight.

Welcome 2020!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!  I hope everyone's resolutions are going just great!  I haven't reviewed mine yet, that'll come later tonight, so for now I'm doing superb! :)  For new years eve we had a snack style dinner.  Monica made a few appetizer like things like meatballs, pretzel bites, bruschetta and stuff like that that we combined together for dinner.  It was great, and provided easy snacking for the rest of the night.  Brooke took a nap that day, and so she got to stay up.  I think she didn't go to bed until 8:30, or maybe a little later!  What a night!  Here are a couple pictures together in a collage from the night.

Last Sunday we went out to play in the snow since it was still around.  We had a lot of fun and were out there for about an hour.  It was pretty great snow weather.  I'm guessing it was just below freezing, so it really didn't feel too cold.  We built our first snowman of the year, which is a real shame because we've had some really big snow storms and really good packing snow this year already.

In addition to loops around the back yard we also sledded down our biggest hill.  The girls loved it, and even went just the two of them several times.

The next morning Brooke worked on her beat boxing while we were playing her new cupcake game!  Everyone was a winner!  Jelly is still learning to get along with Dobby, our robot vacuum.  She likes to spy on it from around corners while it is running.  Maybe someday they'll be best friends.

On Tuesday Brooke ready stories for Winry on the couch.  It was very cute!

Tuesday was new years eve, and we stayed up till midnight.  Brooke got to stay up a little late and had a lot of fun with mom and dad.  After she went to bed we played Splendor, a board game I got for Christmas, until midnight.  I'm so proud of us for staying up all the way till midnight!

The next morning we got out noise makers for the kids at breakfast!  They had a lot of fun with them, and we also made donuts for breakfast!!  What a way to start the new year!

Brooke and I wore our "matching" Pokemon shirts too!  If we were Team Rocket, we'd be ready to blast off!

We headed over to Boondocks to go bowling as soon as it opened.  The girls were very excited.  I don't think Winry really remembers what bowling is yet, but once we got started she was in love again!  Brooke even threw the ball all by herself a couple times, which was a first.

Winry used the metal ramp thing, and had a wonderful time!  Winry did pretty well with turns and was typically willing to move back and let someone else go.

And who do you think won?!  BROOKE!!  Guess I'm better with the kids metal ball roller thing than I am throwing the ball!!  Everyone had a good time too, so we were all at least that kind of winner.

I had to head back to work on Thursday, and it was nice to have a short week to get back into the flow of things.  Everyone else headed to the library for play group!  They had a fun time, and I feel like it's been a really long time since we've been to the library because there haven't been library books around for a while.  There was also a cut out for pictures there!

On Friday we went to the rec center to go swimming, and they had a blow up snow man!  So many last minute Christmas/winter photo opportunities.  I know winter won't be gone for a while, but do you really think they decorated because it might snow?  I didn't think so either.

On Saturday we took out our Christmas tree.  It stopped absorbing water some time ago and was rather dry.  Like... really dry.  It might have left a rather large mess.  I think this is the worst we've ever had from a tree...

This morning Brooke and Monica made brunch from Brooke's new princess cook book!  They made Tangled braided biscuits with ham and cheese!  They were great, and Brooke had a wonderful time cooking with Monica!  Wins all around.

My nursery class is BIG this year!  Fortunately everyone was good today.  They may have just been subdued because we were marching into nap time, but whatever it was, they were great!  Winry was even in there with me!

I hope everyone has had a good start to the year so far.  Have a wonderful week!

Christmas!

HO HO HO! Merry Christmas!  I hope everyone had a fantastic week last week!  Things were great for us.  Monica got matching pajamas for the whole family that we opened on Christmas Eve!  The girls were very excited to get to match with Mom and Dad, as that doesn't happen very often.

Over the weekend Winry got a pretty bad sounding cough, so I took her in to the pediatrician on Monday.  She did a great job, and was very happy and interactive the whole time. There was a little crying until I took the sucker out of my pocket that Monica gave me to bring.

On Christmas Eve we had some friends over for dinner.  There were 20 of us in total.  I hope everyone had a great time that came.  While we were getting ready for everyone to come over I found out about Winry's secret hiding spot...  Jelly used to climb in the couch back there when she was little too.  After dinner some of the kids acted out the nativity and it was really cute!

That night we also had a few special presents.  One was the pajamas we were all sporting in the first picture.  In addition, both of the girls got a new super soft blanket!  They have been loving them ever since!

On Christmas morning the girls had an amazing time!  We had a few moments where everything almost stopped because one present was just TOO exciting to move on.  I kept a bunch of pictures, but don't have a lot to say about them.  I just wanted some cute Christmas morning pictures.  In addition, I'll drop my Christmas videos here too.  There's the girls coming down in the morning, Brooke opening Jelly's stocking,  Brooke getting a Pokemon shirt, and Winry getting a T.O.T.S. carrier thing.  I don't necessarily have pictures of all of those, so there's all the videos up front.  Also, a huge THANK YOU to everyone who gave us something.  Christmas was fantastic and the girls LOVED their presents.  Monica and I loved our gifts too.

Here's Winry finding her new squishy from Santa.

The kids examining what Santa left.

Winry on the new tricycle.

Jelly in her new cat house/hammock thing.

Winry riding her new bouncy triceratops from Jerusha.

Brooke and Winry looking through one of their new books.

Me learning that Christmas isn't about the presents you get... ;)

Winry pushing a TOTS baby in it's cart.

Monica finishing making Christmas morning breakfast.  We had french toast made with Kneader's cinnamon bread!  It was super great. 

We headed to Tyson and Tina's house a little after breakfast and spent the rest of the day with them.  They got a big ice cream maker for Christmas, so of course we had home made ice cream!  We had a lot of fun, and the girls had a great time playing with their cousins.

After the kids went to bed, Monica and I spent some time with our new gifts, and Jelly got to meet Dobby our new robot vacuum.  The next day was mostly spend playing with toys.  We also played a new dragon game the kids love that Monica gave them.  The dragon game wasn't a super hit when it was opened because the kids didn't know what it was, but once we played it... oh man.  It's the first thing Winry has asked for every morning when she wakes up.  It used to be breakfast, now it's a dragon.

Speaking of Winry, at dinner on the 26th she decided one water bottle wasn't enough.  Good thing she got a new one for Christmas.

On Friday we finally made it to the zoo.  We were going to go on Monday, but Winry was up a ton coughing the night before, so we decided not to go then.  We had a good time, and got to see some new things.  One such thing was the giraffe trying to operate that hand crank that moves the zoo keepers cart!

The fishing cat was out and walking around, which was great.  They're nocturnal, so a lot of the time when we go we either can't see them, or they're sleeping inside a log.  I think a keeper was maybe getting food ready or something because he kept pacing around and going back to the door to the back.  The fishing cat was also walking right up next to the glass in front of the kids.  I'm not sure I've ever seen it that close before.

The penguins were loving the cold weather, and I've never seen them so excited and happy.  We of course stopped by the flamingos and saw that there's a baby there!!!  The glass there is always good for a reflection or two, but Monica was still able to get a picture.

After the zoo, I ran to Home Depot and bought some wood to build some shelves in our basement.  Monica took all of our food and stuff off of our storage shelves to clear out the room.

Then I cleaned up the floor and laid down some of the extra carpet we have leftover.  Here's the first shelf in the room.  Everything is much more organized now that there is a bunch more space!

And here are the final shelves with everything back on them.

Monica got out her new dehydrator to make some banana chips.  Turns out that takes a long time.  I think we probably ran them for... 9 or 10 hours and they weren't all the way dehydrated to being crisp.  I still really like them though, even though they're a little chewy. And Winry loves them!

Winry found our Dip Buddies on the counter and snatched them for use with her TOTS.  They're meant to clip onto a plate and be a place to put ketchup, etc.  Winry saw them and thought "baby bath!"  She was having a great time.  Also, she doesn't recognize her monkey toy, so she just calls it "little nugget." She also always says that her toys are sad when she plays with them, and always wants to cheer them up.

Today Brooke gave a talk in primary!  She did a great job.  And we fortunately practiced it in a Marco Polo to my family, so I can add it here for everyone to see!  She talked about the scriptures, and she did an amazing job.  She even helped write the talk last night with Monica. She even picked out that topic on her own!

I think that's all I've got for now, but stay tuned for next year because I'm sure stuff will keep happening!  Also, be so proud of me!  This is the first time I've gotten out a Christmas post the same year as that Christmas!  This is my most missed week of the blog!  Happy New Year!

The Basement is Finished!!

Hooray!  Our basement is finally completed!  There's still work for us to do, like painting the doors and building the rest of the shelves, etc.  But from the standpoint of inspections, we passed our final inspection last week!  Our final item to pass was putting in the air admittance valve under the bathroom sink, which I posted last week.  I also did the tour of the basement last week since everything was technically done.  Anyway, this week it's official!  On to the new, we took a family picture in front of our Christmas tree today!  It's hard to get the kids to stay in a picture when you run a 10 second timer, but we eventually got this one.

On Tuesday, Brooke had a dentist appointment.  I believe this is her second one she's had, but this is the first time I was there.  They took some x-rays, but the device was too big for Brooke's mouth, so they couldn't really get both top and bottom.  Brooke didn't like it because it was so far into her mouth, but she was a trooper about the whole experience.  Her teeth looked great, and she enjoyed getting her teeth polished!  All in all we had a great time, and her's and Monica's teeth were great!

Tuesday evening, Monica flew off to San Diego to go to her grandma's funeral, and I stayed home with the kids.  On Wednesday morning, we had cereal for breakfast.  We had a pack of little cereal boxes, and the kids loved them!  I let them pick what they wanted, and they decided to split the Fruit Loops and the Apple Jacks.

I got the Frosted Flakes and Cocoa Pebbles.  It was a wonderful breakfast, and even evolved into everyone taking turns pretending to be Santa!

Our final inspection was scheduled for Wednesday, and our time slot was from 10 to noon, so we had some time to kill in the morning.  We headed to King Soopers to grab a few groceries, and the girls got to take turns riding the horse.  Brooke rode to Philadelphia, and Winry rode to Utah.  We were there for a LONG time, good thing the store provides a bowl of pennies.

We wanted to go to the museum, but again, we were waiting for the final inspection.  That meant it was time to find things to do around the house.  Honestly, we have a lot of stuff to do around the house.  This morning stuffed animals were the top game, and Winry was helping Minnie Mouse get to sleep.  When did she get so big!?!  It's so cute to see our girls play mommy with their dolls!

After the inspector stopped by for at most 5 minutes, our basement was officially finished, and we headed off to the museum.  We got there around noon, so the first thing we did was have lunch.  After lunch we went into the kids area for a LONG time.  The girls played with basically everything except the sand pit.  They loved the lite brites, and I eventually had to ask them to move on to a new game so other kids could play with them as we were causing a line.

We eventually worked our way over to the animals, and stopped to ride the new half pipe on the way!  Look at these amazing tricks the girls were pulling off!

We headed from the museum over to Tyson and Tina's mostly because Winry has been missing Megan so much!  Since Thanksgiving, whenever we're in the car heading to church, Winry will ask "See Megan?"  So since we were kinda heading toward them I figured why not stop by after the museum?  We had a lot of fun, and Winry was very excited to play with Megan.  We were also invited for dinner, which was very nice since we showed up rather unannounced.  While we were there we also saw our great Christmas present in action!

Monica came back Thursday morning and things headed back toward normal.  That night we decided to go out for dinner to Indochine.  It's down on main street, and after dinner we went out to see some of the Christmas decorations.  We're going to head back to see more, probably tomorrow night.

Yesterday (Saturday) was the final day of my training plan.  A few months ago I decided that my running had been a little too loose in structure, so made a new training plan.  For the most part it worked great, though I did do a few tweaks toward the end that will roll forward into future training plans.  I ran a 10k about 4 months ago in 47:02.  After that I took a week off, and then started this training plan.  Race day was not an actual race this time, I just went out to the trail and ran it on my own, but I came in at 43:16!!  That's 6:50 a mile!  Looks like things really did work out great!

This morning we did some special getting ready for church, and the girls both got their hair curled.  This was Winry's first time, and she did really well, though her hair didn't curl very well.

After church, we read Luke 2 and watched the new "nativity" video from the church called The Christ Child.  It was really good, and everyone enjoyed it!  After, Winry took a nap and Brooke and Monica made cookies for Santa!! Monica told Brooke, show me how excited you are for Santa to come! This was the face we got in return.

That's all I've got for this week.  Have a Merry Christmas!