happy valentines day!

cookie decorating at its best

it is very important for grace to 'celebrate' every holiday, so as valentines day approached, she kept asking how we were going to celebrate. hmm... luckily, grace and raegan were invited to a cookie decorating party! yay! they had a blast at the merrill's and made it home with a plate full of cookies for daddy.

wacky wednesday

for grace's school, they were having catholic schools week the first week of february. so, every day they had a different theme going on... so wednesday, it was wacky wednesday... and grace just loves that book (one of my personal favorites as well). so, she really wanted to participate, and we thought we would curl her hair for her 'wackiness' for the day. well, she hated it. she told me that she looked ugly and everyone would think she was ugly. i tried to reassure her and we went to school... where no one said she was ugly.

lost... where have you been all my life?

ok, where have you been the last 9 months? we have missed you dearly...

so, the final season of lost has returned. and about time. we were so excited, we decided to celebrate, in true b+j fashion... with a themed party... thanks to ashlee for taking the pictures and to the nortons who joined us also...

the episode was great and of course left us questioning our place in the universe... and while we tried to predict the madness of lost, we devoured our dharma initiative supplies...


*make your own here...

saddest. picture. ever.

jack... sleeping... with gloves on his hands to prevent him from sucking his thumb. this is how badly bryan wants him to not suck his thumb. can't we just leave him alone and let him suck his thumb until he is like... 10 or something?

and yes, when he woke up, the gloves were off.

of course, jack is a little sneaky kid too... before bryan put the gloves on, each time he would sneak in to check on jack and see if he was sucking his thumb, he would hear the oh-so-familiar sound of jack yanking his thumb out of his mouth... you know that loud suction-y sound... jack knowing that bryan would be there to remove it for him in a few steps.

shhh... don't tell, but i left the gloves off jack today for his naps... i have enough drama already.

and finally, the christmas post

so, we took like no pictures... just some really bad ones on christmas eve and like 2 on christmas morning... lame. well, here they are.
santa brought the girlies a doll house which, i swear is the best thing ever... the girls never ever stop playing with it.



and grace had a great time making a gingerbread house. her pride and joy... the best part? eating it.

scrumptious

randomness throughout december

well, it snowed... and it has snowed and snowed. but the kids are loving it... grace and raegan beg to put their snow clothes on and go out. grace will stay out until we make her come in because it looks like she is on the verge of frostbite... raegan will stay out for 5 - 10 minutes before begging to come in because she is so cold. the first time it snowed, they both were so excited for snow angels...



during december we also finished the bookcase project we started way back in august. yes, it took that long... here is a look at our journey.




and here we are... finally finished. yes, all that wood did have a purpose... the kids are so glad we are finished and they love their new storage. yay bryan and papa... i helped too, but mostly i just watched.



technically, this last picture happened in january... but i just had to show jack and raegan's cuteness. i love it when raegan plays with jack and she adores him. it is really so sweet.

jack makes it to one year of age...

ok, so jack turned one on 03 december. can you believe it? already? we celebrated at home with our little family and jack just about died, he loved the cupcakes so much. these first two pictures are on his birthday where he just grabbed the cupcake and smashed it in his fists and ate it without letting go... until it was gone. yum.




that weekend, we traveled to jeff city to have a party with nana and papa and the roberts clan. we had a great time and jack ate cupcakes again.



*pay no attention to the pink bib... after having 3 granddaughters, nana

has lots of pink bibs. ty and jack just have to go with it.

present time was fun, jack just wanted to look, but good thing he has two sisters to help him with the unwrapping. we are glad we were able to share this fun time with the clarks and the roberts! they are awesome!



and finally, pure happiness as you ride around on a dump truck.

one year stats...
weight: 21 lbs
height: 29.4 inches
teeth: 8

can you say themed costumes this year?

this was before the ward trunk or treat...
grace = glinda the good witch, raegan = dorothy with toto, jack = the cowardly lion... surprisingly, not many people got our theme...

*disclaimer: this was the best photo of everyone...

aurora = tinkerbell, ty = peter pan (contrary to popular belief, he is actually peter pan and not robin hood... again, not many people follow the theme)



however, he does hold people hostage.




what a fun group of kids... we had a blast hanging out with the cousins... thanks for coming to visit!

bedtime... awesome

*oh and yes, ty is wearing girl pj's... his were dirty.

byu... oh how we love thee... let us count the ways...

all i can say is... go cougs!

hayrides, mazes, pumpkins, oh my!

while rachel was visiting, grace's class went on a field trip to britt's family farm. we were all able to go together and go on a hayride that lead to the corn maze, which finished at the pumpkin patch. the kids loved it!

here is grace's class!
alexander, gabriel, grant, matthew, zoe, grace, tyler, anna, and diesel with mrs. bulinski.




raegan and aurora has a great time being part of the class while they did a little pumpkin skit before we entered the maze.




and finally, the reward at the end of it all... 'these pumpkins are heavy!'

devine fun

so, rachel came to visit with aurora and ty! yay! rachel was staying in missouri while they were clsing on their house and she came for a visit for 2 weeks! it was great. we spent a lot of time outside with the kids since it was getting to be perfect fall weather. the kiddos loved helping rake leaves and then playing in them. here are just a few pictures of our adventures in the leaves and at the park. i loved spending time with rachel and her kids... i wish they lived closer... come back!

the nuclearness of it all

last month, the nuclear power plant that my dad works at had a family day. awesome. they were able to give tours and we got to learn about the plant. since 9/11 we haven't been able to tour the plant due to security reasons and so this was the first year that we could go, and i haven't been since i was younger. what a great time. my dad, rachel, bryan and i went with dwain and caroline and had a blast. this is the cooling tower... a spot where we had a long and lengthy discussion about who changes the lights at the top of it.... well, apparently it has to be someone with no reservations about heights... or staring down to your death. you see, you climb the ladder quite a ways up... until the cooling tower starts to flare out... then you flip yourself around (as you can see near the top the change in ladders) and you climb facing outward. yep... that's right... you climb facing away from the tower. rachel and i expressed our horror and probably talked about this the most. dwain and my dad had many conversations about how the plant actually operates, many of which i have already forgotten. still, it was a great time to spend with my dad. he is awesome and i was so grateful to be able to spend the day with him learning. and many thanks to nana for watching all the kiddos!

insect zoo

so, yes, k state has an insect zoo. grace was in heaven. oh man... i took the kids on a friday that grace had off school and we walked around the little zoo looking at many many bugs. grace asked me question after question and was thrilled with it all. several times raegan asked me to hold her because she was scared. i think next time we go we will ask for the tour guide to tell us all about the insects.

grace's favorite part was the 'petting zoo'. i'll tell you, she is not afraid. here she is with the hissing cockroaches, centipede, and the tarantula.





and the latest miracle... we got raegan to touch the tarantula as well...



what a fun day... grace left asking when we could get a pet tarantula... the crazy thing... we are actually considering it.

k state vs tennessee tech

way way way back in september, we headed out to a k state game. we felt it would be a good way to show our spirit for the community... (actually, bryan and i both wore byu t-shirts... oops). it was military appreciation day and our awesome neighbor got us front row seats and we had a blast. well, jack did great, grace wanted to rest a bit while there and raegan just played on the stairs. it was great... and k state even won. go cats.