Raspberries

The boys really seem to have a lot of fun with Eleanor.  She is just so fun to be around, she is really a “all in” kind of girl.  She is up for anything they want to try.

The other day Henry opened the door and then jumped down to the step.  Eleanor stepped up to the door, took a good long look at Henry, seemed to determine he turned out just fine, and jumped.

This is fine when it is just a foot or two, but I have had the limit the boys from jumping off the arms of the couch or diving head first into the couch.  Not that Eleanor necessarily needs them to dream up dangerous things to do.  She plummets from the couch head first all on her own, heads down the driveway on her bike and dangerous speeds, and slides down steep slides all without being shown how.

These pictures are a bit blurry, but still capture the spirit of things.

Jack and Henry are usually the ones blowing raspberries on her belly- sometimes as helpers when she doesn’t seem to want her diaper changed.  But a couple weeks ago Jack was laying on the floor with his shirt up a little, just scratching or something, when she came over and planted one on him.  Pretty soon the boys were lined up on the floor with their tummies exposed and she was going back and forth between them- much to their delight and hers.

Nona and Papa Visit

Nona and Papa arrived the day after Christmas and showered us with even more gifts and spoiled us with good food and fun outings.

We took the kids to a place called Kangaroo Zoo where they have all these huge blow up toys.

We had a blast.  Eleanor was in her element.  The girl is fearless.

We took Nona sledding, but Eleanor had to stay home with Papa due to a difference of opinion between she and I on the usefullness of her special blanket on the sledding hill.

But, out of all the fun things that we got to do, it was likely the book reading that the kids enjoyed the most.  Nona and Papa brought each of the kids a book all about them.  They are the personalized kind so that the story is actually about Jack who has friends named Kolby and Parker and lives in Saratoga Springs.  The kids love them, and Henry looks over every page and points out all the places where it says his name.

Christmas Day

I guess I didn’t really realize how lucky I was growing up.  My parents and both sets of grandparents all in the same town.  Christmas day was an entire day of family and gifts and food.

But, having seen Jared’s family on Christmas Eve, and my parents not arriving until the day after Christmas, Christmas day was wonderfully quiet with just us and Aunt Denise.

I decided, that instead of opening up all the presents between 6:30 (I told the kids no earlier) and 6:34, we would spread them out.

It worked wonderfully.  They each opened a present and then actually played with that thing for quite a while.  We ate, played new video games, played, ate, opened presents, played, etc. all day.

I think this will be a new tradition.

All the big cool gifts were from Nona and Papa.  Henry got a racetrack and Jack an aircraft carrier with metal planes.  They LOVED their gifts.

 

Nora got a kitchen.  She played and played and played with it. 

I asked Jared if it was worth staying up until midnight assembling…wouldn’t you do anything for this girl?

Sledding

Christmas Eve turned out to be a beautiful day in the midst of some terrible Utah inversion.  We took Aunt Denise over to the small sledding hill at the park and had a wonderful time.

Eleanor especially loved it.

Christmas Eve

Jared and I are always trying to think of new traditions.  When I was a kid, I remember always going out to Los Hermanos for Christmas Eve dinner, then going over to my best friend Krista’s house to eat her dad’s deer meat sticks (I am sure those things actually have a name) and Krista and I would exchange gifts.

I still have a purple diary with bears on it that she gave me one year.  It had a lock and everything.  She gave be a red and yellow bear pen to go with it.  I think it said “Honey” on it and at the top was a honey pot where you had to push the bear’s head down into the pot if you wanted the pen to come out.  Then there was a little black button on the side you could push to retract the pen and make the bear’s head pop up again.

The first entry says something like, “I just got you for Christmas from my best friend Krista.”

Other entries (there aren’t many) say things like, “I saw him at the mall today!  I just couldn’t talk to him, I was too scared.”

But, onto new traditions.  Jared and I have decided that every Christmas Eve we are going to eat home made Chinese food.  Luckily for us, we had invited his sister Alisen over, who is an amazing cook, and she made delicious lettuce wraps and sweet and sour sauce.  We made pork egg rolls and some tasty Asian Fire meat.

Henry and cousin Ethan:

Eleanor and Aunt Denise, who drove all the way from California to be with us.

Henry and Aunt Denise:

Cousin Levi:

The boys opening their pajamas- a tradition I have borrowed from lots of families.

Graham Cracker Houses

We live in just about the very best neighborhood anyone could ever ask for.  As stay at home moms we get together fairly frequently (well, more frequently than I blog) for various activities.

Here we are making graham cracker houses- AKA- an excuse for kids to eat lots and lots of candy.

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Investigate

I love to watch the minds of little people work.  Especially those who only say words like “Dah!”  and the occasional “Bah!” 

This was back in December.  But she was definitely DOING something.  I am just not sure what.