January fun

Mid January already and snow has melted a little, but has been pretty nippy outside. We had a fun past 2 weeks doing different things. Here are the latest and most recent pics....

My Little "Con" Artist :0)

Kimmie playing and singing. I LOVE that my kids love the piano!

Speaking of con artist, I was finishing up business after changing Jacob's diaper and thought he was downstairs. Well, if you don't put the clip on the opened cutting board then he can crawl up the drawers and get onto the cupboard. After awhile I went in to see what he was doing. I saw him, told him to stay put--and ran and grabbed my camera. He cooperated :0).

Beautiful winter afternoons, the sky was really pretty.

Here is Evelyn Christmas Day at my mom's. I love my little neice.

Besa Mi!

Grandma with her 3rd grandchild

Kimmie has a lot of fun each week playing with her friend. Last week her friend came over and she taught McCall how to play Break the Ice.

......a little nervous....

hmmm, almost....

aaaaahhhhh!!!! haaaaa! yay!! (I love this picture of them. They screamed with fun when all of the pieces fell)

Here is a puzzle mat Kimmie made a house out of. She was pretty proud of it. Then she hid in it.

Loves oranges! I call this monkey boy.

He's learning to eat better and more variety, but is still a very VERY picky eater.

His favorite way to go to sleep....

Last night Kimmie fell asleep (talking one second, silent the next!) She had her stuffed animal on top of her face and her arms were the way they'd be when she slept deep as a baby. So funny.

Kimmie's favorite thing with Daddy or Uncle Jason, walking on the ceiling. Thank goodness Daddy has strong arms and shoulders!

Kimmie loves preschool. She has it twice a week. She's made a couple of friends, one is Sommer from our ward. Jacob loves having Mommy-Jacobeans time while she's gone for 3 hours. Oh, the things I can get done now!


Jacob is my little organizer. He loves to get our canned food and stack it, sort it, arrange it. He's just like me when I was a kid. Kimmie started helping him. Jacob also has a long attention span for a kid his age. He does get into things, lately, quite often, but when I see his cute face smiling back at me I just can't get mad. I do, however, need to learn to listen more to the "still quiet voice" (aka, the spirit) when it tells me to do something. EVERYTIME I don't listen I regret it. Today it was, "You better put the clip on the cutting board or Jacob will be on the counter before you get out of the shower". I thought--Oh, they're playing fine in the front room. They won't think about the kitchen. I got out of the shower and found Jacob on the counter playing in a pile of orange flavored metamucil powder (granted, they need it, but not in that quantity). He poured the whole container out. I don't know how much they ingested but Kimmie had 1/2 c. of powder in a glass ready to eat and Jacob was licking his fingers. After vacuuming up all of it off the counter, linoleum and rug and mopping the semi-sticky floor, I now know not to leave any yummy flavored stuff around, let alone opened!

Jacob is always so handsome and cute. This is him ready for church, but he's not in his booster seating eating, so I didn't get a front shot--he's always walking away. He is doing great in nursery at church. I even drop him off. He whimpers, but is fine once we leave. Kimmie is a Sunbeam and likes her new teachers. Church is now 9am-noon. So anyone from out of state calling on Sunday mornings (7am-1:30pm Missouri time) you won't catch us home. Lane is in meetings starting at 6:30am--then I meet him with the kids at 9am. It's hard to get ready and out the door on time without pulling my hair out, but I did it. I like church early, even though I'm not a morning person. It's nice to have an afternoon of semi-quiet (Jacob and Lane nap). Kimmie and I find something to do. We have new houses/people added to our ward/church and we go to a different church building. It's smaller and nice. It'll feel like home before we know it.

This picture is a painting of Jacob done by Lane's mom, Dianna.

Here is a picture Lane's mom did of Kimmie in November of 2006

There's no time like SNOW time!!!!

Kimmie, cousin Olivia, Grandma and Mommy made snowmen at Grandma's house

Eating the snow.....it's nothing new....but it is cold!

The finished product has carrot nose, arms are old day lily stems, apples for the eyes. I thought we were really creative!

GRANDMA AND KIMMIE--it wasn't very cold at all!

Our Christmas Surprise

This is our front room the morning after Santa came.

Jacob Christmas morning eating the leftover half cookie Santa didn't eat. He didn't understand this day or what he was supposed to do....so we all helped open his gifts. He wanted to play with boxes and bows and twist ties and Kimmie's stroller.

At around 8am I finally went in and whispered to sleeping Kimmie, "Did Santa come?" and she got up very groggy (but quickly) and walked in to see the tree and daddy sitting on the couch.

Lane gave me one of my favorite things to collect! Food storage!

Santa gave a hit toy. Whoever chose this for Jacob, he loves it!

Three of my favorite gifts from mom.

Kimmie got this shirt, pants and coat.

They love break the ice! I love this picture of Jacob helping Kimmie and wanting be part of the "action".

This is what Kimmie asked Santa for. He delivered. Baby Chou Chou (shoo shoo). She laughs when you push her belly and she blows kisses, says bye bye, and says love you when you raise her hand to her face. She came with a little carrier that can be on her back, held like a car seat, or can be turned into a purse.

My Grandparents at the Redford Christmas Eve party at my parents' church in Bountiful. Everyone chipped in to get my Grandpa a camera and printer and my Grandma a pulling stationery luggage to hold all of her cards. She write hundreds of letters! My Grandparents were shocked and didn't understand why we would all do this for them. We all love them both soooo much.

The two boys in my life that I love the most.
My husband was very patient that night waiting to go home and sleep while we cleaned up the church.

Two of my cousins with my Grandparents

My aunt performing "O Holy Night" while my daughter and her daughter (my cousin) come in thinking it's too loud!

Our Redford family tradition every year is to dress up and perform the Nativity story from Luke chapter 2 in the Bible. Ever since the first grandkid was little it has been done. (The past 30 years+)

Darrell and Brendon are Wisemen.

Sterling and Anika as Mary and Joseph.

James and Darian are Shepherds

Sharlene is the narrator. Kirk is the Angel who said "Good tidings...", Olivia, Kimmie and Callae are Angels too.

Close up of the Angels: Olivia, Kimmie, Callae

The Sunday night before Christmas I didn't feel well and was laying on the couch downstairs watching t.v. I heard sounds outside the window and foot steps and didn't really think anything of it until the door bell rang 3 times quickly and then stomping. Lane ran upstairs and I followed slowly. I heard him say, "What?!" with a confused tone. I came in and saw our porch full of tubs of gifts. We were both in shock and didn't understand. There was a big turkey and a sack of potatoes included, so we knew we were chosen as one of the Sub-4-Santa families the ward does every year to a few families. But we didn't understand why. (We were content with the small Christmas we were going to have and though we had a very testing last 4 months we were doing okay.) I went downstairs to grab the camera and dried my tears before I came back up. I later told Lane and he said he teared up also. We felt so humbled and loved (after the shock and confusion left us). There were over 40 things to open, with gift cards to stores and cash. Lane said, "Well, maybe we need to know what this feels like so we know how the families that receive Sub-4-Santa feel when this happens and how grateful of a feeling our hearts feel for this time of year."

Here is what the ward gave us. Kimmie was "all for" being in the picture and wanted to open EVERYTHING that night. It was a tough 3 days before Christmas with all of these under our tree filling the empty space. The kids wanted to play with everything. This Christmas of 2008 will be one we will never forget. We hope now to be the ones to do this for someone else so they may feel how we have felt. (All of the toys and clothes in the previous pictures are from Sub-4-Santa. The only gifts that weren't are Bye Bye Chou Chou and the gifts I got. They chose better than I ever could have for what to get the kids.)

Here is everything under the tree. It was Christmas before Christmas came.

Jacob admiring everything.

Christmas Day at my parents always includes our favorite things to eat....cheese cake and danish dessert cake....

.....and my mom's rolls!

Kimmie helping me wrap a gift for Aunt Andrea

NOW we have SNOW!!! This is our backyard. You almost can't tell we have 2 levels.

We had huge winds and snow storms and snow, snow, snow---Christmas Day was bad weather. The snow drifts made a neat backyard though. View looking out the kids' bedroom window to our backyard. Brrrrrr.

Lane and I both love and appreciate everything that our parents do for us. Thank you for the love and support you constantly give and for the unconditional love you show us. We hope that you receive all of the blessings the Lord has in store for you.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! 2009 WILL BE GREAT!