Tuesday, February 25, 2014

What Cute Kids!

this is all about our cute kids!  Most of the pictures are of Mason, but only because he has 3rd kids syndrome and hardly has any pictures of him!
Avery:
He is a sweetheart of a boy.  A couple of weeks ago, he had "store day" in preschool.  The students earn "money" to use at the store when they earn a party.  Well Avery came home with a bunch of stuff.  Going through it, I (Amanda) found some hair elastics.  Avery said, "those things are for Lily because I wanted her to have something."  So kind!  He is actually really good about waiting with his treats and giving a little bit to Lily or Mommy or Daddy.  He likes to think of others.  
A while back, he went to a last minute birthday excursion with a friend (they went to a museum and to eat hotdogs).  Well the other kids mom told us not worry about a gift since it wasn't a true party.  However, Avery decided he would give him one of his toys- a dollarstore sword, but still one of his own toys!  We love this kid!  
He has also been a really good helper with Mason. He will take the diapers to the garbage for us and even dressed him for church last Sunday! 
He has really learned his letters this year!  He has also been attempting to spell words on his own.  His Kindergarten registration is next week- crazy!  He is pretty excited about it.  
Avery is still crazy about camping.  The other day, he came up and asked Amanda if they could camp in the backyard (mind there was still snow at this point).  Not really paying attention, Amanda said sure.  Well a little bit later, both Avery and Lily come upstairs with their sleeping bags and tent, all ready to sleep outside.  Unfortunately, Mommy had to go back on her word and explain it was way too cold to sleep outside!
Avery loves fish.  He recently got to go ice fishing with Brian and the scouts.  Even though it rained and was miserable, he still had fun and caught a fish!  The guy that was helping out took the fish how to descale them and everything.  Avery was so worried about that fish and couldn't wait to get it to our house and eat it!  He loves fish!  

Lily:
What a princess!  She has been all about pink and princesses lately.  Her favorite is Sleeping Beauty still.  She is really good at making Mason laugh.  She is starting to write her name and wishes she could go to preschool.  She has actually been going a couple of times to the mommy preschool while Avery's teacher is out for just having a baby.  She still loves to dance- crazy, funky, ballet, jazzy, you name it, she will dance to it. 
 She keeps telling us she wants to marry her brother in the Temple.  We tell her she can't marry her brother, but could marry another boy, but she gets mad at us for  telling her that.  At least we know she loves her brother and knows where she needs to get married someday.
Is actually really good in Primary.  Amanda just got called as 1st counselor in Primary and so she gets to see them both in Primary.  She actually likes to listen and her favorite song right now is "I Will Follow God's Plan For Me" because that is the one they are working on right now.  
She loves to play hide-n-seek.  This is how we discovered that she can count to 10 and beyond.  She learned that all from Avery- because we parents have been slacking on that lately.  
Recently learned how to somewhat swim.  She can go a couple of feet underwater all by herself!  Oh boy swimming will be even more of an adventure now!
Mason:
8 1/2 months already!  Wow, time sure flies past.  
He is sitting up really well.  He is also scooting on his tummy in a circle (no actual forward motion yet).  Has discovered that rolling can get him places.  
Likes to eat with his hands now.  He is less interested in us feeding him and more on what he can do himself.  He likes graham crackers, saltines, bread, or anything that we can break up and is soft enough for him. 
He likes to have his sippy cup with water in it when he sees us drinking.  
He loves to be held.  He is really good and going stiff backed when we need to put him down or in his high chair.  And who could say no to such a cute face?  Well needless to say we do alot of things with him in our arms.
Is starting to "dance" when he hears music.  He has always been our music lover.   He loves to have his mobile on and music on when he goes down for a nap or bedtime.
No teeth yet.  We keep saying it will be anytime, but we are just reassuring ourselves since he has been very drooly lately.
Says all sorts of sounds lately- dadadada, mamamam, nanananaa, babababa, etc. 
Is still always so smiley!  He is usually such a happy kid- the nurses at the doctors office say its no fair that he is so happy right before they give him his shots- it makes them not want to do it!







Maybe his eyes will be green?



We are so grateful to have such wonderful kids.  We love them so much, even during the hard times.  They make us as their parents feel so loved.  For example, they loved making us Valentines for us over and over with the left over Valentines card they had for friends.  They come give us random hugs all the time and tell us they love us.  We couldn't ask for better children!  We love you!  

Snowmobiles, Snowmobiles, Snowmobiles!

January was filled with the sound of.........Snowmobiles!
First, we went to a condo at Bear Lake with Brian's family and did some snowmobiling at the first of the month.   We rode up a ways on a trail and then got out and tried out a treacherous tubing hill.  It was fun but crazy!  We even were crazy and brought Mason with us-in his carseat!  He slept most of the ride and was just content being in his carseat the whole time.
Lily was not happy in the beginning of snowmobiling (because it took too long to find a good hill).  However, once we found a small little hill for her to play on, she LOVED it!  She didn't want any help going down the hill (only going back up) and never wanted to ride down with mommy.

Stopping and eating lunch.  Avery thinks it is so cool to eat lunch out in the snow on the snowmobiles.  Every snowmobiling escapade we have went on since Bear Lake, he wants to save his lunch until we go on the snowmobiles so he can have a picnic.


This is how content Mason is when snowmobiling!  He is all cozy and warm and just loves being outside!  He gets all excited when we go out in the snow!

The little hill Lily loved to play on.  (Its Avery though)

A couple of weeks later, we decided to take Amanda's parents snowmobiles and fix them up (well BRIAN did all that, with just a tad bit of help from Amanda when loading the snowmobiles.  They didn't run so we had to push them onto the trailer.  Tough work.)
The day that Brian got the snowmobiles was just like Christmas for Avery.  He went running through the house all crazy and excited.  He was probably more excited than on Christmas.  He and Lily made Brian take them for a ride across our front yard and back (which really is not very far at all).  Our poor neighbors probably hate us for all the ruckus we make loading/unloading/starting them up all the time!
We could hear Avery making snowmobiles sounds all day and all night it seemed.  Everything would remind Avery about a snowmobile.  For example, he would eat a cookie and say, "Hey this looks like a snowmobiles."  One of his new favorite things to draw is a snowmobiles. What a kid!

We were able to go on a few other excursions with our borrowed snowmobiles:
We decided to go with just the 5 of us up into the mountains to a popular snowmobiling spot.  We rode for a little ways, had lunch and then the kids were mostly content to just play on hill by the parking lot.  Then we started to go on a longer ride, but it was getting dark.
Mason did not ride in the back of the snowmobile like it shows in this pictures.  We just wrapped in our our baby carrier wrap while we drove the snowmobile.  Again, he loved it.  


Snow Angels!

going down the hill by the parking lot.


We have also been able to go sledding and snowmobiling a couple of other times with Brian's brother's family.  Even though we don't have much snow down in the valley's anymore, we have been able to find some way up in the hills and its been so much fun!  It is just great to be out in the mountains and fresh air!




Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Christmas 2013

Is it already January?  Well here is our happenings in December with all sorts of holiday fun!!!

We got a Christmas tree over Thanksgiving up at Amanda's parents property.  It turned out to be a great tree!  We were so busy the first week of December with Brian being gone for work and stuff that we finally got around to putting it up the first Friday at Midnight!!!




Lily by the tree before putting the star on

Avery is super excited!

with our bubbly (Mango Martinelli's Apple Cider)
As a tradition, we always have Brian give a toast when we put the star on top of the tree.  We have fancy glasses and Martinelli's Sparkling Apple Cider to go with it.  Since we were rushed, we put the bottle in the freezer to get it cold faster.  However, in less than 2 hours, it froze!!!  Well it was really slushy and made quite the mess anyway.

O Christmas Tree!
Christmas Eve we had our Christmas Eve dinner and then watched the Nativity movie and opened PJs from mom and dad.  We ended getting to bed late, but that was ok!
Christmas Morning, as always, was magical!  The kids wanted us sleepy parents to get out of bed alot sooner than we parents did.   They were also good not to peek into the room as they came upstairs.

One of our gifts we got was the new-to-us sectional couch that we are sitting on.  We were able to get it earlier in the month and we love it!

Mason LOVED the wrapping paper.  He couldn't get enough of it.  If there was a present anywhere near him, he would try to unwrap it or eat it.



Avery got what he had asked for.  "Cars2 and a slide"  Santa couldn't put the whole swingset together that came with the slide, so he just put the slide downstairs for them to play with until spring.  The kids were sure excited for that.  


Mason was super tired and so he went back to bed quite soon after opening presents.  That is why he isn't in this picture.

Lily wearing her new pjs and a skirt she received from Santa and slippers from Great Grandma Downs.
We just lounged around the house for the day enjoying lots of movies which we got for Christmas, playing with the toys and taking some naps.  

This is the Downs Family Picture that we took at Thanksgiving
A few days before Christmas, we were went to Idaho to stay with Brian's family.  Brian's brother Mark was up from Florida for a few days and so we wanted to spend some time with them.  The Saturday before Christmas we went to a fun Live Outdoor Nativity put on by the community for free.  It was so much fun, even if it was cold.  We got to ride a wagon pulled by horses to different scenes in the Nativity.  Then there was hot chocolate at the end!

 Grandma & Grandpa Turpin were doing the 12 days of Christmas while we were there.  One of the days they got princess gowns for Grandma's dress-up box.  Lily pretty much lived in the Rapunzel one the whole time were were there!  If she had to take it off, she took the other 2 dresses and laid them out all nice and flat on the floor.  We were not allowed to touch them then.  It was quite cute.  Then once more cousins came they found some graduation hats to dress up in as well.  We made them some "diplomas" for completing the "Princess Academy."

There was some fun sledding at the Junior High School.

Avery & Boyce

The Crazy Youngest Turpin Brothers

All piled on for a big train!
playing with another 12 days of Christmas gift from Grandma
 One of the days we were going to go sledding again, but instead had a snowball fight and did some snowman making just at the house.  It was quite awesome!  The big snowman took all the guys lifting the head over their head to get it on.




Then they decided to make a sweet snow fort/igloo.  That was quite the adventure (it wasn't planned out so a little sketchy at first, but they still managed to get it done).  Unfortunately, by that evening when we left, it had started to rain and the snowman fell down :-(