Random pictures that have stories attached to them that I don't want to forget......

Natalie turned 10 in Oct. Paul and I went into her room in the middle of the night to hang these stars from her ceiling . She loved waking up to them! So much in fact that we are currently in Jan and the stars are still hanging up (minus the ones Brooke has ripped down).

 While Natalie was opening her presents Kate was sitting not to far from her watching. While Kate got to pick out her gift that she gave to Natalie we also told Kate what Brooke was giving her. After every gift Natalie opened (and it didn't matter who it was from) Kate would laugh and say "I just had to get you that, I couldn't help myself". That is why Paul is laughing in the photo below. She did that after every present and had know idea that we were laughing at her taking credit for every single present. Such a funny kid!

 Our Thanksgiving was so relaxed this year that we didn't even get out of PJ's! I don't even think anyone even showered that day. Thank goodness for dry shampoo. Natalie looked up on the internet to see how to fold napkins and has claimed that to be her job from now on. She told me that because we just had small paper napkins that there wasn't much she could do this year but next year if I get the "right" napkins she can do more. I laugh more and more with my kids these days!

 Natalie made a gingerbread house at school and asked if I could blog about it. She has read through my blog and loves it when I update it. This is currently how Brooke says cheese and it is part of the reason why we didn't do family photos this year! hahahaha

 I just love movie night at the house! Blankets, pillows, popcorn, candy and my girls spending some good quality time together! I just love this!

 We did get some snow at our place this year and Brooke and Kate were all about playing in it!

My little superstar.....kind of....after all it is just 3rd grade basketball!

This is Kate's 2nd year of basketball and she just loves it! There are 4 dads that have daughters on this team and they love sports. So at every practice there is so much help that everyone gets a lot of one on one coaching. We have moved Kate up to AAU which is a lot more competitive then the city league that she played on last year. The coaches do yell a little more and while everyone does get playing time we are out for the win. Kate has improved so much in this season already that she doesn't even seem like the same person.

 They played in their first tournament a few weeks ago and were the champions. All the girls loved that they got a plaque....what an exciting day for them!

 In the last couple of games we have been up against some really hard teams and while we haven't always won I just love watching them play. Kate has made some baskets, stolen her fare share of balls and played some really good defense. The group of moms that I sit with during the games is a great group. We all yell to cheer on the girls and yes we yell when we think the girls need to do something other then what they are doing. hahahaha we are not crazy yet but then again it is only the 3rd grade....give us time!

 She is just so stinking cute! Kate told me in the car on the way home from practice one day that she thinks she is the sporty kid.
Me: Yes you play very well and seem to have some natural talent for it.
Kate: Yeah Natalie likes books and I like sports.
Me: yes that does seem to be the case.
Kate: So I can just do sports all the time.
Me: well not really but you know books and school are really important too.
Kate: Yeah but Natalie can like those
Me: Well you know in jr high and high school if you don't get good enough grades they can kick you off the sport teams.
Kate: What? That doesn't seem fair.
Kate is loving that she is coming into her own and has found something that she feels she excels at. We had to continue the conversation about how sports is second to school and that life is about balance. I had to tell her that while Natalie does love school and books it is also good for Natalie to be on the swim team so her life has some balance. I am not sure if she understood the balance thing but she definitely heard me say they can kick you off the team for bad grades. At the end all I got was "So I have to keep doing my homework and reading books so I can play sports?" I just ended with a simple yes but I am sure we will be talking about this again.

Christmas 2014

So the pictures on this post are going to suck because I have had the flash turned off on my phone and they are blurry. Anyways we had Christmas at my sister-in-law's house this year and it was so much fun. All the family was there, at least the immediate family, so the cousins got to play together and have a real good time.

 When Paul and I went to Mexico I found out when you order a screwdriver, which is made up of orange juice and vodka, that in Mexico they don't use orange juice they use tang. By the end of our trip I was pretty use to tang! hahaha So for Christmas my father-in-law got me a Mexican screwdriver. Best gift to date from him!

 We were out there for about 2 and a half days and we spent a lot of time just hanging out on the couch under the electric blankets.

 The kids loved there gifts and had so much fun with all the chaos around us.

 We drove home Christmas night after dinner and it was really starting to come down. We had to drive about 45 miles per hour so the trip took longer and all we heard the whole way home was...."I wish I was playing with my toys right now instead of riding in the truck". I love that paul and I are worried about the snow and staying on the road and that stuff doesn't even seem to phase the kids. It's all about the toys! hahaha oh to be a kid!

 Well this picture is interesting because we have learned something about Brooke. While she is a great traveler and does really well while in the car we have figured out that the next day is really ruff on her. She has a tendency to throw up the day after traveling. She isn't sick it just seems to be how her little body coupes with traveling. She has done this before when we went to Utah to visit family. Oh the awful smell of sour milk that was left behind in my cousin playroom was the worst! She is only sick for a few hours and then she is over it.

 When we made it back to our house we all fell in love with the electric blankets out at my sister-in-law's house that we went out and bought us one. The girls crashed on the couch and watched movie under it.

 Brooke has always been my hot baby (even in womb) so she really didn't want anything to do with that hot blanket. She would touch the blanket and say "noooo hot".

Although there wasn't much snow we did play in what was out there. The kids were hoping for at least a couple of feet but we only got a couple of inches. We played games, put together a puzzle and just enjoyed hanging out together. I love that my nieces and nephews are getting older and can chat with the adults now. As I get older it is so much fun to hear about their lives and remember the times when we were that young.