My kids ae so cute. Here they are watching a cute show (the lorax) while they lay cutely on their cute tummies, wearing cute ballon hats. Or the other picture where they are curtey sitting in each others cute laps. While they cutely cute cute cute. How cute!

We have had this box of window markers kicking around our house since Alice's birthday. It never seemed like a good activity until today. One of the 15 days a year that it rains her in Saint George and it was way too chilly to go outside. So out come the markers. Jude of course wanted me to draw train tacks, his current obsession. And Alice wanted me to draw cupcakes, since she loves to put sprinkles on them. We drew bunnies, and houses,and eachother. I had a tricky time getting them to contain the fun to the window and Alice kept trying to use the curtain as an eraser. I ended up giving them wipes and letting them clean, which turns out is just as fun as coloring. Lucky me.

If there were such a thing as the silly police I am sure that they would come and arrest Alice. She found some costume items and a swap meet and just had to have them. A hugly floofy red dress, a tutu (that she repurposed into a hat) and then a sensible black bag. She was so in love with her style that she had to share it. She gave me the other tutu headdress and started cheesing up for the camera. She just walked from one end of the house to the other like she was on the cat walk. Let me tell you when it came time to take off the costume for bath time, ohh did we have a fight. We have a strong willed fashionista on our hands that is for certain.

BUNK BEDS!!!! I have been wanting bunk beds for the kids for months now. I had been lazily looking here and there but then found a great deal and got one exactly like I was looking for.We even went down to the store and let the kids pick out their own bedsheets. Lucky for me it even matches their curtains.  Derek suprised us all by having it put together when the kids and I got back from shopping. Jude and Alice were exstatic! They climbed up and down, in and out, and all over exploring and discovering their amazing new "toy" in the bedroom. They just couldn't get enough, a  fantastic reception for sure. Then it came time for bed. Jude climbed right up  under the covers and was happy and asleep in moments. Alice on the other hand was shocked and appaled that we were suggesting she sleep on this bed. It took us most of the night to finally get her to sleep on the bed. Luckly that first night was the worst and it has only gotten better. For the most part she sleeps on the bed but everyonce in awhile she gets it in her mind that she is going to sleep on the floor. Silly little rebelious baby doll.

If you spent a lifetime of time, energy, and money crafting the perfect toy it would still not compare to the wonders of an empty cardboard box. We were lucky enough to get these giant matching boxes on one of our costco trips. When we first got them the kids played in them for a good hour. Popping in and out  like jack in the boxes. They took turns "crying" when the other went missing and delighting when they would reappear. We had to hang on to these boxes for a couple of days because the kids kept finding new uses for them. Props to the cardboar box!

We have had a super cold spell in Saint George for awhile now. I think it's called winter, but in southern utah we very rarely get it. And when we do everyone goes underground. They don't really sell clothes for cold weather here so most people choose to stay indoors and not think about what's happening outside. Much like this groundskeeper for this church parkinglot. He must have turned on the sprinklers in the dead of night and had them on for awhile. Take a good look because everything isincased in ice! Every litle peice of grass and any part of the tree low enough to get caught in the sprinkler spray. The parking lot was also a mini iceskating rink that both Jude and Alice took multiple tumbles on while investigating. The kids wanted to stay forever despite the cold and with good reason. Nature sure is neat!

We showed the kids Dereks snow pictures and they begged us and beggedus to go play in it. So we bundled up in double layers and headed up up up. Cedar city is about 45 minutes away and it as a tundra. Snow everywhere and so much fun. We did snow angles, sledding, writing, and we tried to do a snow manbut the snow was super dry it didn't really work. SO we found a hue pile of snow and just carved one. Pretty good huh. Jude's favorite part was knocking him down. What a boy. About an hour into the snow-cation the kidsstarted shiviring. We turned on the car so they could go warm up. Jude decided he was warm enough and left and I left with him. Then Derek started getting too hot and stood right outside Alices door. And what do you know Alice goes and locks the car. We panicked for about 45 seconds thinking that ALice, cell phones, and keys were all locked way from us, and then Derek realized he had his keys on him. We were saved!!! wheew... Just for curosities sake we sat and tried to get Alice to unlock the door and soon realized she couldn't. We would have been in some super serious trouble. Thank goodness everything worked out. On the way homewe grabbed one of the most delicious tasting pizzas we have ever had and some equally delicous hot coco. Such a fun afternoon.

Derek and Uncle Brian went on a uper crazy klondike camping trip. The nutsos went with the boy scout group that Brian helps out with and the plan was to go a dig out a snow cave and sleep in it.  I think they are dozen types of crazy but apparently it was suburbia out there. Snow cave after snow cave all in a pretty line. Everyone was in 3 or 4 layers of clothing, and then sleeping inside of a sleeping bag inside another sleeping bag. And still it was cold. Derek said inthe morning that most of the things touching the floor had been frozen to it, and they had to break camp with an ice pick just to get it out. I hadn't had contact all night and I was realy relived when he came home. The first words out of his mouth were "Never again!" I just laughed. It ws a good experience but one that he will probably only do once.

Andrea and I were going on drive and we just had to pull over and take pictures with

ULTRA SAFE!!!

This was a couple of days after new years. Alice had been given a big purple bathrobe that she had taken quite a liking to. And in addition she was having a time tryingt o get the last couple drops out of our sparkling cider bottles. The combination of the two, plus the hat, makes it look like some wandering lush has shown up in our house. Silly little Alice.

 

These are my final pictures for 2012. We had another little party for new years. Pizza and friends a plenty. Then  off we went for fire works. It was a pretty classic year. Except for Jude, who was so brave this year.  The big picture is of him getting right up close to the fire works. He was about to touch it but thankfully I was close by and ran up and snagged him. Crazy kid. Got sing marks all over his coat. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Welcome to drive town. Jude and I were outside playing chalk and at first we were just doing silly squiggles but eventually they turned into looping roads, complete with round-abouts. It was such a cool road that even the neighbors were coming over to drive on it. It has kept Jude busy and entertained for 3 days till it finally wore off the cement. I'll give it a week or two and then draw it again where it will be New drive town!

The day after Christmas was one of great nothingness. We didn't do a dang thing. We didn't get dressed, we didn't clean, we didn't require anything. We were super tired from hosting both Christmas eve and Christmas day festivities and we just wanted the kids to have a day where they could play with their toys and not have any rules or stress. And boy what a day it was. They made such a messy mess! It was like our house exploded on itself. But our goals were accomplished, we had a fun relaxing day where we just enjoyed eachother.We took naps, we played games, we built towers, read stories, and just lounged in our PJs.  It was a really nice wrap up for the Christmas holiday.