Daddy builds a snow fort

 John is such a great guy - who doesn't know that? The kids wanted a fort and so John went and built them one. They spent an hour outside "helping" daddy build the fort. The sad things? Drew was sad that it wasn't big inside when it was done so he came back inside. The next day it rained and the fort is not structurally sound anymore. It is the thought that counts right?

 You can't see her eyes because her hat is pulled down mostly over her eyes.

 Sliding down the fort.

They are holding hands while walking through the snow and I couldn't help myself with the picture taking, it was too adorable.

Snow Day

After I'd finished feeding Jocelyn I went to check on the kids. I found all three outside looking like this: Madison wearing two mismatching gloves, Alexis' sandals, a dog backpack, her pj's and her winter hat. Alexis was wearing normal enough clothing with her hat all funky. Drew was still in his pj's with Alexis' shoes on without any gloves or hat. They stayed outside much longer than I thought they would've considering they weren't dressed very warmly. Yes, I let them stay outside because I'm such a good mom.

Sore heads

 Alexis and Drew were running around when they ran into each other, not too hard, and bonked heads. They went and found some zip-lock baggies to put ice into to make their heads feel better.

Because Madison is our "me to" girl, she had to have an ice bag as well. No, her head wasn't hurt, she wasn't involved in the collision in any way. She felt much better once she had the ice on her head though!

Gingerbread houses

 Alexis wanted a rainbow over her gingerbread house. Isn't she creative? She also put some candy inside for the gingerbread man when he got home. 

 Drew wanted to have a lot of chimneys on his roof. I count six in this picture but I think it ended up with nine of them. He too had a rainbow and he left some candy inside for his gingerbread man too!

 Madison's roof didn't survive the decorating. She was okay with just filling in her house with bunches of candy.

 Construction phase...

 still constructing. (Notice the green sour patch kids in the corner of the tray? I was snatching all the kids' green ones and hiding them so I could eat them later. No, it didn't work out - John used them to decorate with.)

John's finished product.

John told the kids not to eat his house, they could have it Christmas day. John started picking at it which then opened the door for the kids to do so. While I was making lunch I heard Madison start saying "Sorry Mom, sorry Mom, sorry Mom." This usually means she's done something naughty. I look up and she had been trying to take some candy off of John's house and the entire thing collapsed. I wasn't sure whether to laugh or not. Needless to say the entire thing is now gone.

Madison

 The kids' goal seems to be finding the biggest utensil to eat from. They fight over this at nearly every meal. Madison discovered this spoon and won for the day. The other two were ticked that she found it and they didn't get to use it.

I made pineapple upside down cupcakes. I told the kids not to touch them while I fed Jocelyn. Can you guess who did the eating?

If you guessed Madison you were right!

 After being told not to draw anywhere but on their coloring books multiple times Madison decided to color herself, face included.

Five adults watching the kids and this still happened. Lipstick anyone?

 Mommy said no more suckers. While I was feeding Jocelyn look what Madison did. John found another 12 behind the couch. Are we noticing a theme?

 While trying to hurry and get the kids ready to make an unexpected trip to the doctor I went to pull Madison's hair up. I found two clumps of toothpaste bound hair and a piece of pink sucker. So I did what any good mom would do, I pulled it up so that no one else would be able to see what was in her hair. I washed it when we got home, I'm not that bad of a mom.

 I'm not sure how she got scissors but she cut her shirt and her pj pants.

I had just finished doing a load of dishes while talking to my Aunt Pam and this is what I found Madison doing. She decided to empty the entire book case and put all the books in the bucket.

This is how we found Madison Sunday night, asleep with dads shoe filled with balloons!

During Sunday dinner John and I were telling her to quit making airplane sounds during dinner. She turned and looked at me and said: "I'm not listening". She then proceeded to put a finger in each ear and sing la la la la la. I busted up laughing. I laughed for a good three minutes. John put her in time out because we don't do such things, but seriously, what two year old does that?

Most of the naughty things she does happen during my feedings of Jocelyn and most of them include some form of food. While I find them funny occasionally, it takes a lot of work to clean up all of her little doings during the day. It truly adds some fun to the day though, you never know what she's going to come up with.

Drew

 See the nice shine to the floor? It isn't because my floor is that clean. 

 Water, water, everywhere.

Drew has a naughty streak too. Drew wanted to take a bath, we told him he could take a shower, no bath.

I was gone long enough to dress Madison after her shower and when I came back there was water everywhere. I couldn't figure out where it came from. The water was too warm for it to be toilet water. The washer wasn't running. The shower heads couldn't be moved by Drew, they were too high. I called John to see if he could figure it out and then Drew pipes up with: "I know what happened. I wanted a bath so I sat where the water goes down and when it got too full it went out the door crack." John spent the next half hour pulling the washer and dryer out so he could get all the water up. Clever, but naughty was the final determination of what he'd done.

I told Drew and Madison they couldn't have any kiwi's because I was feeding Jocelyn. When I finished I found Drew cutting up all the kiwi's in the house so they could eat them right then. Thankfully he used a butter knife and not a steak knife.

How can you stay upset with someone who has lashes like this?

Alexis

 Alexis was running in her classroom when she tripped and fell. 

She had to disguise a turkey so the hunters wouldn't find him. I think she was very creative!

Alexis has been complaining of her leg hurting for the last year. I took her in to the doctor and we discovered that she'd grown two inches in the last six months! He went ahead and x-rayed her leg because it is always the same one. There was nothing on the x-ray so not much could be done. I mentioned that her hip was starting to hurt too and when he looked at the x-ray again he said to try fiber and juice. Sometimes a nerve gets pinched when there's "stuff" in the intestinal tract. It's been three weeks and no leg complaints!

Many faces of Madison

 Madison's newest phrase is: "Take my picture Mom, take my picture!" Here's what we get when we "take her picture."

John's 30th

Look at my cute family!

For John's 30th birthday we went to Papa John's for lunch.

After work we had a small celebration at home for him. We had to make it quick because he was heading out to Young Mens and we didn't have much time. We had cupcakes with raspberries on top. We didn't do a cake because Alexis was worried that it would catch on fire with that many candles. I guess old age is officially setting in for him! Alexis did a little song for him and Drew and Madison gave him some headphones for at work. Then off he went to YM's. While I was putting the kids to bed Alexis and Drew said that Dad's birthday sucked. They were upset that there weren't any games and that we didn't have a big cake and that he only got one gift. They aren't spoiled at all are they?

We're lucky to have such a great dad and husband. He's such a hard worker and he's so good with the kids. Although Madison seems to have an aversion to him currently, unless he has something she wants, all the other kids are definitely daddy's kids. He makes the best paper airplanes and makes up the best bed time stories. I don't know what we'd do without him! 

Sicknesses

Can you see the red patches on her face? Jocelyn has had a hard week!

The day before Jocelyn had her four month check-up I had my visiting teachers over. One of them offered to keep Madison and Drew while I took Jocelyn to her appointment and I happily accepted. The next morning she called to tell me that they had croup. Needless to say I took the kids with me. By Sunday John and I were starting to feel bad. On Monday when we were getting ready to head South for Thanksgiving John and I were feeling even worse. I called Steph to make sure they still wanted us to come even though we were sick and they said come.

John & I were completely loaded on Sudafed, which is worth every penny it costs just in case anyone wants to know. John ended up losing his voice for two days while we were there. I lost my voice as well and a week and a half later it's still not fully back. We both had really sore throats and generally felt like garbage.

 Luckily the kids didn't get it as badly as John and I had it, but they didn't escape it either. John ended up with an eye infection. 

A couple days later I took Jocelyn in and she had a double ear infection. The doctor said that John & I have adult croup and the kids croup.Who has ever heard of adult croup, seriously? A couple of days into her antibiotic her face was red and we went back to the doctor. He isn't willing to call it an allergic reaction to penicillin, but we shouldn't give her penicillin for a while. So, we changed meds and hoped that we were done with all the nasties associated with this illness. The next day Drew and Madison had eye infections! Nearly $150.00 later it looks like we're getting better.

I have cancelled all visiting teaching appointments until April. This nastiness has lasted for three weeks already and we're done being sick. Hopefully this will be the worst we get this winter, we can hope can't we?

Thanksgiving in La Verkin

 Here's what Steph is going to look like pregnant!

 See this cute face? He's a mischievous little man. Madison came and told me that Drew had peed on her but I kept ignoring her until I reached down to move her along and my head got wet. Drew was going to the bathroom and Madison wouldn't leave him alone so what did he do? He peed on her. Seriously. When I asked him if he'd peed on his sister he got this impish grin on his face, put his pointer finger on his check and tapped it while saying: "Um, um, um." In other words, Yes, I did it and and I don't want to fess up. I had lost my voice and between that and laughing so hard I was crying John was left to discipline.

 This is Haus. It took a couple of days for all the kids to get used to the dogs, but by the end they were sad to leave them.

 Gma Tobi was able to come and have Thanksgiving with us! I'm pretty sure this is after they'd woken Grandma up again.

 This sweet little girl in the middle of Thanksgiving dinner peed on her chair. The funny part was that Steph and Ikani were so disgusted that they left and I don't think they returned. 

 Ikani made a great deep-fried turkey! It was his first ever turkey and it turned out fabulous! They have a cute new house in La Verkin and I'm pretty sure that they will be childless because of us for a while longer!

 Their house had a nice open circle to it and the kids had endless fun running around in circles. I'm sure they logged a few miles each over the course of the week we were there.

 Alexis took all the pictures of Thanksgiving. This is her self-portrait.

I thought this self taken picture was adorable. They're getting pretty good at taking pictures of themselves!