Oh what a mess

Well the old saying that when the kids are quiet, they are probably into something is soooo true. And Why is it that when the kids are having the most fun they are usually creating the most mess.
Steven and I let the kids watch a movie upstairs by themselves and after the movie ended we went up to check on them, there were pretzels EVERYWHERE. During the movie they got hungry so Aubrey sent Brigham downstairs to "sneak" (Aubrey's own words) some food up for them to eat.
After they had eaten their fill they though it would be fun to dump the rest onto the floor. They made such wonderful crunching sounds and great barriers to run cars over. What I don't get is they knew that we (Steven and I) were NOT going to be too happy when we saw the mess they had made. After a LONG clean up I hope they learned a lesson. (I have to admit I say that with little faith).

Playing at the Park

Why have a jungle gym when there is a good tree around.

Can you believe that the two if them STILL fit into a infant swing. I know it had to be super tight. Only Dad could pull them out. Then again it was Dad that put them there in the first place.

Look how high they climbed

Playing the Piano

Our piano has turned into McKay's favorite toys to play with. In fact he does a great job, plays softly, no banging. I hope this is a small window unto the future. I really want all my children to learn to play this beautiful instrument.

Major Blogging

Ok, I had a lot of catching up to do so if you noticed I have been blogging like crazy. I must have published 15 posts. So while your looking don't forget to go to older posts!

Grammy and Grandpa

We LOVE Grammy and Grandpa
We had a great time with you, can't wait to see you again!

Marbles

After spending a wonderful time with the Mezzullo Family, you guys are GREAT!!, we headed home with Grandpa and Grammy. They were able to visit for a few days before they had to head back to Arizona. While they were here we took them to Marbles, a children's museum in downtown Raleigh. We had a blast!!!

They have huge Lego's and as you can see here is Aubrey's house. While she was in the process of building it, another person tried to help by putting blue blocks around the roofline as Christmas lights. Aubrey flat out told them it did not look beautiful and proceded to jump and knock down every blue block that these person had put on. She wanted a read and green house ONLY.

Behind McKay is an actual piece of the Berlin Wall. It is really interesting to look at because on one side it is painted, messages are written all over it. Then on the other side, it is still a blank sheet of concrete. That is because the people of West Germany were able to come right up to the wall, but in East Germany there was actually a whole other wall before the Berlin Wall. The individuals of East Germany were not allowed even close.

Having fun with Grandpa

D.C.

Whenever Brigham went missing this train is where I usually found him

If pictures could say a thousand words

OK, where do I even begin. This picture is to highlight one of the funniest, most embarrassing moments I have yet experienced as a mother. As I mentioned earlier we decided to make a trip into D.C and had also decided to visit the Museum of American History because it had finally reopened after a extensive remodeling project. The only problem was, that everyone else had the same idea. The museum was packed! With the number of kids way out numbering the adults I really don't know how much of the actual museum we even got to see. We were constantly looking for someone, and that someone was usually Brigham.

So now to explain the photo above:
We had only been in the museum for less then an hour, trying to stay together as a group and trying to decided where we wanted to go. The museum is broken up into themes and they have a exhibit at the entrance of each.
Well, we had all met at the entrance of the Entertainment portion, then seeing the long line to even get in, we decided to see something else. So as us adults were decided where to go next, Brigham noticed to beautiful refinished , mint condition Dumbo ride at the entrance of the exhibit. No worries it had a least a three foot glass wall around the ride and another 4 feet plus to the actual car. As an adult you can't even reach over the wall and touch the thing.

Well we finally decided where to go next, so we are rounding everybody up to go, when... we noticed Brigham missing, YEP, after calling his name several times we noticed this little head sicking up out of the Dumbo ride with the HUGEST grin on his face.
How he had managed to climb not only over the glass wall, over the floor, and into the car without being seen, all never know.

So here we are trying to lean over the glass wall (remember you can not even touch the thing, which meant we couldn't grab Brigham) asking, pleading, begging, threatening Brigham to came back over.

As you can imagine we are starting to create quite a stir, or really entertainment for the long line of individuals waiting in line to go into the exhibit. When I notice out of the corner of my eye a security officer trying to head our way as fast as she can without running. Luckily Brigham finally came over close enough for Steven to grab, right as the officer arrived.
She politely reminded us (as she is trying not to laugh) that these exhibits are to look at and please watch our child more closely in the future.

Like I said it was one of the funniest most embarrassing moments I have yet experienced!

My only regret, Brigham wouldn't smile for the picture

Our trip to D.C.

Brigham and his cousin are only a couple of months apart and they sure did have a lot of fun together. In all honestly I hardly even saw my kids the entire time we were there.

We got to see the Temple lights, it was the highlight of the trip! Inside the visitor center were the most beautifully decorated Christmas trees. I just had to remind myself: one year I will have a tree just for me, to decorate all by myself. Does that sound to selfish? Of course there will be two tree, one for the family, that you can touch and rearrange all you want, and mine; hands off, looking only.

We decided to spend a extra day in Virginia so we could take a trip into D.C.

Our kids love riding the Metro into downtown

Christmas isn't over yet

After spending a relaxing Christmas morning at home we left for Virginia to spend time with cousins and Grandpa and Grammy

The kids had a great time finding out Christmas wasn't quite over yet

Christmas

So we had the cutest videos of our family acting out the Christmas story, right as the kids are "trying" to fall asleep, and Christmas morning. So of course for some reason they will not load up onto our blog page so these photo's will have to do.

Santa sure loves our family

Are you cold?

So Steven and I keep the house at a fairly cool temperature. Well, we are the ones paying for the heating bill right? I try to layer up to stay a little warmer, but I didn't realize how it was effecting the kids. Brigham said he was cold and so I told him to go put on another shirt. He comes down a little while later with 6 layers on!! He now always wears at least 3 shirts and tries to get away with 2 pairs of pants

More happy memories

I thought this picture was to great, Daddy let Brigham lick the beater after making a cake for our anniversary

During the day on our anniversary, I got out my wedding dress so show Aubrey and Brigham. As you can tell Aubrey had a wonderful time trying on my wedding veil.

Finally playing with old Christmas toys. Steven and I made these blocks three years ago for Christmas. we had lots of fun building up towers and watching McKay pull them down.

Our 8 year anniversary

Steven and I decided for our eight year anniversary instead of buying something for ourselves, we would finally make the headboard for our bed that we have been talking about for years. Last August my parents had given us some beautiful old doors, and a piece of crown molding, and we already had the paint so this gift to ourselves only cost us ... time together!

We were really happy with the finished piece, as a added bonus we did buy a piece of crown molding to go on the black book shelf we had had for over 5 years. It make it look so much better why we didn't do it years ago?

Eight years and three kids later...
All because two people fell in love!!!
I love you Steven

Gingerbread houses, not just for kids

Our Library back in Florida had a annual activity of decorating Gingerbread houses. Aubrey was going to be decorating one at school but I really felt that Brigham was going to miss out on all the fun. Ok I admit it, I was going to miss out on all the fun. So I invited several other moms to bring thier kids over to decorate at our place. Brigham had fun... eating the candy. But then after everyone left I got down to business. But as you can see I wasn't the only one that got involved.

So here are our finished masterpieces from left to right; Rachel's, Aubrey's, Brigham's, and Steven's