painting day

I had a poster to paing for our church primary activity, and Ava came down in the middle of it and decided to get in on the fun. she is real proud of her painting shirt

this picture is for curly grandma, she is saying hi.

It's kindof nice the day when Luke has his playgroup and Ally is in school, so Ava and I can just hang out.

little angels

Ava was hanging out with Ally, and then I went up to check, and here they were, all worn out and fast asleep. What little angels.

random stuff

Well, it seems like December and January have been so full of so much stuff, some good, some bad, almost all causing major change in our lives, that I haven't been too good about updating this. Plus facebook seems to take a larger amount of time that it probably should. So I am resolved to do better. Happy Valentines Day!!! Josh and I traded babysitting with some friends this year, so we went out Friday so they could go out tonight. We went to a hawaiin restaurant here in Boise, with a buffet and live hula dancing. It was interesting and fun. so today for V day, Josh went snowboarding, and when he got home I made a trip to the gym to work out alongside the couple of people who didn;t have other plans. The kids had fun with their friends and we made Valentines cookies. So it was a good day, and kindof nice not to go out on a busy Saturday night. We have been busy with Josh's new company, which seems to be all squared away as of this weekend, so Boise Legal, here we come. Let's hope it's a good change.

So enough ramblings about us. Does every singel two year-old girl have to wear fancy dresses over their clothes? We are two for two. I see other moms with thier little ones dressed the same way out around town, we just smile a knowing smile. I'm sure some of you know what I am talking about.

We took Ally and Luke skiing. Josh was VERY patient, and they both loved it. Luke has even been back one more time (he's free) but they were very good and had a lot of fun. I pulled Ava around on the sled and we hung out and watched in the lodge.

Here in Boise, we get a lot of what is called an inversion. See the clouds? We live under them. It seems about half the winter, we are living in a cloud. and it's cold. then we go to the mountains, and it is warm and sunny. Crazy.

So here are the kids yesterday with some friends enjoying thier school Valentines spoils. they planned out their own little party, I opened Ally's room door and here they all were, sucking down the pixie sticks.

Pre-Christmas fun

Well, we had a pretty exciting Christmastime around here, probably like most households with little kids with wild Christmas blood in them. Or maybe it is wild Christmas sugar. WE were lucky and had my mom here for almost a month. Besides being a free babysitter/cleaner/chef and someone to talk to during the day, she spoiled the kids and introduced them to the art of making Christmas candies. Ava had a blast dipping pretzels, and then dipping her own fingers. And licking them. Yum. We also had a very very white Christmas, with lots of snow. See how Ally's head is also the head of the snowmen. My children are so clever.

After getting chilly in the snow, we needed to get cozy with some hot chocolate by the fire. Ava never made it out that day, but needed to be cozy nevertheless.

Luke was a shepherd in his preschool Christmas program. I wish I could post how he sang the very loudest (and I mean LOUDEST!!!) for the songs they sand to the old folks. I'm sure even the hardest of hearing among them could hear that day. I was laughing so hard I couldn;t video straight, but he was pretty cute.

We had a fun night with curly (my mom) at the mall while Josh was travelling. There were guys making balloon swords and puppies, we rode the escalator many times (the absolute highlight), got a butterscotch sucker at See's candy, patted the puppies at the pet store and got a pretzel while the kids tried out the rides that take quarters. they even got to put money in one this time (thanks grandma). Ava couldn;t quite make it onto Santa's lap, I should have a picture of me holding her at a safe distance while she sucked her two favorite fingers and rubbed her worn out bellybutton.

And Santa did make it to our house, I will post Christmas pictures later. This is progress for me to get these up, so just enjoy them for now.

the treats

And here is what all that hard work was all about. The haul-

Now we get to eat it all-right?

Making some important trades of the treats.

Ava shares the wealth

Now put the kids to bed so Josh and I can pick out our faves from the pile. Only one bit-O-Honey this year, I was sad.

trick or treating

Here we are getting ready to go out on Halloween. somehow my pictures got put in here backwards, so this one was supposed to be last, but here are me an Ava getting ready to go into the haunted house (which we determined ten minutes later, was a mistake-that cute smile was gone) So our neighbors do a really elaborate haunted house every year, which people come to from far and wide. Last year it was really fun. This year it was really scary. Ally and her friends and Luke and Ava all came out with tear stained faces.

Here is Ally, calming down.

And Luke with Pa-pa, still feeling scared. He would not go to any doors to trick or treat that were even remotely scary or had sounds. Even for candy.

Here we were right before the haunted house. I think all of the girls cried. At least the ones that went through.

and here are my little candy lovers ready to go and get some.

par-tay

This was the Halloween for parties. We were worn out before the trick-or-treating even started. but a good worn out. Here is Luke and his friend Ryan having pizza before heading out to hit the streets. (Luke is the Ninja. He started out as a ghost with a sheet over his head, but it got kindof in the way of him and getting to the candy.)

Okay, my friend went to so much work making holiday goodies for her daughters birthday party earlier that day, that I just had to include some of her hard work. Rice Krispy fingers, cheese fingers with red pepper nails, deviled egg ghosts, witch hats, and Oreo spiders. This is not even all, there wer hot dog worms, spider ice cubes, caramel apples, caramel popcorn, sugar cookies to decorate, and a pumkin cupcake cake. It took her two days to make and about twenty minutes to eat.

The kids had friends over the night before Halloween to hang out and have fun.

Here we are decorating sugar cookies at the birthday party. I don;t even think any of these kids are mine, sorry.

And Ally's class party. Ally is the third one from the left in a bat shirt and blue jeans.