Oh what do you do when it's cold outside?

Let me just say that I really don't like winter. It's cold and gloomy and makes life really hard when you have an active toddler who loves to be outside! The other day was especially cold and we were getting cabin fever, so here are a few of the activities that I came up with to pass the time:

Time to break out the playdough!

Swing (he would swing for hours if I let him)

Play Blocks

Make some noise

"Help" Mom make a cake

...and reap the rewards!

And when all else fails, I put on Emperor's New Groove (aka the Llama) in my room and he's happy for an hour

I'm still not entirely positive that I'll make it through this winter, but I have managed to get through January, so it should be uphill from here, right? Right!

Sleep issues and growing up

Over the past 6 months, Zachary has had difficulty sleeping off and on. It seems like the older he gets the more he wakes up during the night, which makes absolutely no sense to me. We've tried everything we can think of, and finally decided that it is just time for him to grow up and be a big boy. We're going to need the crib in March, so we borrowed a toddler bed for Zachary to start sleeping in. We set it up in his room next to his crib so that he could get used to it slowly, but he refused to sleep in it when the crib was right there. After a few nights of this, and a few days of me being a grumpy mom because I wasn't getting any sleep, we decided to move the bed and Zachary into the basement. I never intended to move him down when he was so young, but my sanity demanded it. :) He's been down there for almost a week now, and his sleeping is already starting to improve. He still wakes up in the middle of the night, but we can either go down and put him back into bed or just turn the monitor off and go back to sleep! (We lock his door so he can't get out) He's learned to get back into bed and go back to sleep if we don't come downstairs after a few minutes, and we're hoping that eventually he'll stop waking up altogether. If all goes well, we'll have this problem fixed just in time to bring a new baby home and start all over again! Oh well, such is life, right?

Apparently, beds are for playing and jumping on, not sleeping on....

This picture is blurry, but it's really hard to get a 2-year-old to hold still!

And here's the bed in his new room

All in all, he really likes his room!

Sibling Christmas Activity

Instead of exchanging christmas gifts with my siblings this year, we opted to do a fun activity together. There are now eight of us (five siblings and three spouses), and it was a lot of fun! We started off with bowling, which I wasn't sure I was going to be able to do at 7 months pregnant, but I actually ended up with one of my best games ever! Matthew and Cassie killed the rest of us both games, but I think we all had a good time. After bowling, we went over to Matthew and Cassie's apartment and played games until we were all pretty loopy. It was a great night, and we're definitely going to have to make it a tradition!

The newlyweds Bryan and Bekah

The pros Matthew and Cassie

The pseudo couple Kimberlee and Carson

And us!

Getting ready to throw a curve

A Strike!!!

Bryan was trying to beat me on the very last frame, but he missed by 3 pins....

I had to post these scores to prove that I did well :)

Family Pictures

During Bryan's wedding, I had my dad take some pictures of us as a family. I was going to use them in Christmas cards, but I never actually got around to that, sooooo..... I've already posted a couple from my camera, but here are the better ones:

Odds and Ends

We didn't do too many other things while we were down in Houston, but it was nice to just relax and hang out with family. It wasn't very warm while we were there (I have yet to be convinced that it really is warm in Houston), but the kids did get to play outside a little bit. At the end of the week, it was just us and Cami and Neil's parents, which was nice and peaceful after a crazy week. Sydney and Zachary didn't get along all that well, but sometimes they played with each other. :) It was a great vacation, and we're glad we got to spend so much time down there!

We tried to put hats on the kids, but they were all too big so that idea only lasted about 2 seconds....

Sydney

Micah

I think this was right before a bath (Zachary kept asking for bubbles and wouldn't stop until we finally gave in and let him take a bath--he was definitely the cleanest kid there!)

And last but not least, here's a cute video of the kids playing ring around the rosies :)

Children's Museum

One of the activities we did while we were in Houston was to go to the Children's Museum. Since we all have little kids, we figured it would be the perfect outing and it was a lot of fun! The place was packed, but a lot of it was too old for Zachary anyway, so we spent most of our time in the Tot Spot. This was full of activities just for toddlers, and it was perfect for Zachary and Sydney.

Before we left, we took a picture with all of the kids in their Texas shirts and hats

Zachary didn't appreciate having his picture taken!

The Tot Spot had fun things to do like this large light bright,

a padded tunnel to crawl through,

a place where you could stick balls through holes and watch the path they took falling down,

and trucks and cars just their size to drive!

It was a great day!!

Christmas Morning

Christmas Morning in Houston was crazy, but fun. There were a lot of people there, so it wasn't practical to go around and open a gift one at a time. Therefore, we pretty much did it in families even though we were all in the same room together. Zachary thought it was the best thing ever--he had a stocking full of chocolate, got to open as many presents as he wanted, and had all sorts of fun new toys to play with! Neil and I enjoyed relaxing and watching Zachary, since we didn't really bring many presents for ourselves. I did get a new computer, though, and Neil got an electronics kit, so we were both happy. :)

Zachary ate 2-3 oranges a day while we were there

A classic stocking picture--chocolate in the mouth and each hand!

Zachary got this from his cousins

Grammy and Grandpa gave each of the little kids a Texas shirt and hat

Zachary LOVES to read books, and it's hilarious to listen to him because I have no idea what he's saying, but he sure does!

These are the instructions to Neil's electronics kit

My old computer bit the dust, so this new one is awesome!!

Neil's mom collects alphabet books from different states, so we got her the one from Utah

This is a really cool book all about the lands of the Book of Mormon and things they have discovered in Mexico

Christmas Eve Nativities

A fun tradition in both my family and Neil's family is to act out the Nativity on Christmas Eve (or whichever day we happen to be celebrating Christmas Eve). Before we headed down to Houston, we had a party with my mom's side of the family. Every year we switch off acting out different parts, and this year we actually had a real baby Jesus! It's always crazy, and this year was no exception, but we have a great time. :)

Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus

The three wise women

This was in the middle, right before the angel left and became the angel of destruction by kicking a few people in the head....

Another picture of Baby Jesus 'cause she was so dang cute

My cute little shepherd who wouldn't stay still and let me take a picture

When we got to Houston, we got to do another nativity! Neil's mom had borrowed some fairly elaborate costumes from a neighbor, and the entire family got a part to play. They have a script that they act out and also sing songs from, which was fun. Again, it was crazy with lots of little kids running around, but we wouldn't have had it any other way :)

Of the three pregnant women there, I was elected to be Mary

Sydney just wanted to play with the wisemen's gold

Such cool costumes!

This was our best attempt at a group shot, which is impressive that we had four kids 2 and under!