Enduring Winter

We have become bad bloggers. Blame the iphone. I rarely get on the computer anymore. Unfortunately, that means I get to play catch up. Also, most of my pictures are from my phone and not the best quality, sorry! I am very disappointed in myself.

I guess we'll start where I left off...

We celebrated Koby's birthday by letting him have a few friends over for a little celebration the Saturday before. It was simple and last minute, but it was a fun little get together and Koby loved it.

Ty Mitchell

Ayden Stoner (Not pictured: Colton Stoner)

Nixon Bennion

Good old fashioned Games

Anna and Luke Craig

The following Tuesday was Koby's actual birthday. James took the day off and we planned to go bowling with the birthday boy. However the genius mom that I am, I scheduled Koby's 4 year checkup that morning. Nothing like Happy Birthday shots, right?!  It took both the nurse and me laying on him to get the last couple shots in. And James said you could hear him screaming all the way in the front of the office. I'm such a mean mom. Poor kid was lethargic all day and fell asleep before we ever got to go bowling.

The day was still fun and special though. The boys got to pick treats from the store's bakery...

We got to play with new toys...

Thanks Grandma Takako and Grandpa H.!

Building Clothes pin cars :)

Loving his Hoppy Ball

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa D.!

And Koby's dream came true when he opened his toy skate park...

In the evening we celebrated by eating delicious Hot Fudge Sundaes with Aunt Sherry, Cameron, Uncle Shane, and Aunt Emily.

Koby is now in Sunbeams and we just signed him up for some legit preschool this fall. I can't believe how fast time flies.

Today is February 26th, which means we are just 3 months shy of celebrating Lincoln's 2nd birthday! Linc has been showing more personality lately which has been fun. Linc is still a man of  few words, but he has been showing more interest in talking lately. Aside from his long conversations he will have with you in pure jibberish, he says: mom, dad, car, please("peeez"), apple, no no, thank you ("deet do"), happy, bye, hi. He is a funny little guy, he doesn't care if you want him to talk, Linc does what he wants to do. We have realized lately that he is just as stubborn as one of his parents (we won't name names),

Linc has two loves: 1-accessorizing and 2-brushing his teeth.

He especially loves to accessorize with his BYU hat. For about two weeks he wore that darn thing day and night. Now I can get him to forget about it sometimes, but heaven forbid I try to make him wear another hat...

Seriously, he is as stubborn as he is sweet. Here he is wearing sunglasses at 9 at night. In the pitch black and all..

And in the bathtub...

As Linc gets older he and Koby have begun to play together alot more. Not so much with toys, but with activities - wrestling, reading, chasing each other, motorcycle rides, etc. I love how much they love each other.

Instead of complaining about the horrible, awfully cold, snowy, winters here in Utah let me share the two things I will miss come Spring. One...

The gorgeous snowy mountains. And two...

This daily conversation: "Mom, if I eat five more bites of dinner can I go eat some snow? Please mom, it's a healthy snack!"

Koby

Tomorrow our little man turns 4! It's crazy to think it's been four years since James and I have relaxed. He is a little guy with a big personality! We are blessed.

The other day, Koby's primary teacher from church asked me what are 5 things about Koby that are special to our family. Well, here we go...

1. He is very energetic and full of life. 
         
          Koby always entertains us. It is actually quite fun playing with him because it usually involves us chucking pillows or balls at him while he tries to complete an obstacle and giggles like crazy :)

2. He is a daredevil and is willing to try anything.
   
          His loves are not the typical superheroes, cars, or trains. This kid loves snowboarding, cave jumping, skateboarding and skydiving. It sure makes shopping for birthday presents difficult. This year he can't stop talking about his "skate ramp" he wants with tech deck skateboards.

3. He says hi to everyone and makes friends everywhere we go. 

        At the end of my soccer game last week he was running around with a group of 8-10 year old girls. He always includes everyone too.

His favorite little lady, Anna :)

4. He loves to learn and is a smarty pants.

          Lately he has been sounding out words when we read :)

5. He is sweet and never passes up an opportunity to give hugs

We love watching him learn and grow! Happy Birthday Koby!

I love to see the temple

Recently, on a nightly basis, Koby has been waking up scared in the middle of the night. He will scream from his bed, too scared to get up, or quickly run into our room. Every time, we bring him back to his bed and he asks,"Can you please say five scared prayers with me?"

A couple weeks ago we hung this on his wall...

He has not woken up scared since.  It's amazing the comfort the temple can bring.

A Utah Christmas

Well our first Christmas at home was a success! I can't say it didn't involve a little bit of home sick feelings, especially when we FaceTimed with our families and watched all of the Christmas festivities going on without us in Washington and California. However, all in all, our day was pretty Merry!

We were lucky to be invited down to my Aunt and Uncle's house in Springville for a Christmas Eve party. It was so much fun and made us feel loved :) We ate delicious food, visited with family, played spoons, decorated gingerbread men and Christmas trees, and played some really fun Christmas games!

Koby loved playing with Uncle Terry

Aunt LaNiece played Christmas Bingo with the kids :)

Jas and Laura's cookie eating game was hilarious. You had to place a cookie on your forehead and get it into your mouth without using your hands...

We got home around 10:00 pm and put the kids straight to bed. Then James and I began the wrapping process. The boys got a train table this year. I tell ya, it would sure be nice if Santa could just put that thing together with a wave of his magic mitten! Here we are at 2:30 am, still finishing the dang thing...

We woke up bright and early the next morning, getting about 4 hours sleep, but the look on Linc's face when he saw the train table was worth every minute of sleep lost.

Following tradition of course, we took our annual Christmas picture on the stairs. Linc obviously didn't know it was Christmas yet.

Lincoln stayed by the train table most of the morning, while Koby opened all of the presents. He sure was good at unwrapping this year! Koby got the exact things he asked for this year, "guys and games". James is pretty excited about the G.I. Joes too, maybe I'll understand one day if we have a little girl opening up some Barbies :) 

Linc did humor us long enough to open a present or two...

We spent the rest of the day in our PJ's, playing and relaxing. It was a good day. 

Christmas time for James and me means Anniversary time. December 27th to be exact. This year we celebrated six big ones! We are not mushy people so all I can say is, its been good, good, good! 

We are hoping on Anniversary #10 we can go somewhere hot and sandy. But for now, we have been making the most of the never ending snow we have here in Utah. 

It has been snowing off and on (mainly on) for about a week and a half now. Saturday we ventured out with the Craig's for our first sledding experience of the year. We had so much fun. I wish we were neighbors. These kids are the best of friends...

Luke, Koby, and Anna

Dehn pulling the boys up the hill over and over again :)

We packed a lot in on Saturday. The Craig's also came with us to the Lehi Rec Center for some indoor swimming. It was freezing, however it did not phase these kids at all.

Towards the end of our swim, a lady came up to us..."Are these both of your boys? I have never seen kids so comfortable in the water! What do you do?!" We are happy, both Koby and Linc are little fish when it comes to the water. It makes swimming with them so much fun.

I should have just told her we take a lot of baths in our house...

Today we went out sledding again, this time with Em and Shane. Yet again it was a great day. However this time we were reminded just how dangerous sledding can be. Emily and Koby got rammed into (head on) by some teenage girls at the bottom of the hill. Poor Em sprained her ankle really bad and is now on crutches and sporting an ankle brace! 

I did not realize my flash was off on my phone...These pictures are pretty blurry. Sad! 

We have had lots of fun with friends and family this holiday! The week before Christmas we got together with the Finch's, Bennion's, and Mitchell's and made some gingerbread houses-A tradition I can't live without.

  A couple weeks ago Emily and I had the opportunity of celebrating my Grandma's 75th birthday with her! We had some delicious dinner together and some rather exciting girl talk. It was a fun night and I am glad we got to share some birthday love with her.

This blog is never ending I know, but I just have to post some pictures of my little guys as of late. They have been playing together a lot more this week and today I even found Koby reading to Linc. Of course I ruined the moment by trying to take a picture.

In the dryer, of course.

And that's a wrap. Goodbye 2012!