preschool

I taught preschool at our house this week and on Tuesday Ryan was home from work and Kate was home from school so we had a few extra hands! Because Ryan was home I told the mom's to bring snow gear for the kids so they could play outside while Clara and I stayed warm inside. I think Kate loved being a part of Sawyer's preschool for a day and she did everything we did.

We were learning about colors so I made up squirt bottles filled with water and a tiny bit of food coloring and they had fun coloring the snow. They also went sledding on our tiny little hill. It wasn't too long until they were cold and ready to come in though! I'm glad I got a picture, don't kids in snow gear look so adorable?

once there was a snowman

We have been seriously lacking in snow this winter but we got a good storm last week that even cancelled school on Thursday! When I suggested to the kids that they go outside on the snow day Kate asked, "is daddy going to be home?" and when I said no they decided not to go out. Apparently he makes the snow fun! So they went out on Saturday when Daddy was home. It was a gorgeous sunny day and it even felt like it was raining on you because the snow in the trees was melting and dripping on your head. They were pretty proud of their snowman. Sawyer excitedly told me how he patted the bottom and how he found one of the pine cone eyes in the garage. Kate rolled the head all by herself. After their snowman building, Daddy built a starting ramp at the top of our very gradual hill to give them a little more momentum and they loved it! Daddy does make snow more fun!

Halloween Festivities

We celebrated Halloween twice. The first was the church trunk or treat that was on the Saturday before (which also just so happened to be my due date!) Since no baby stuff was happening, we went to the church and had a good time. We ended up having a big snow storm that night so instead of using our trunks we set up in the different classrooms. I was pretty exhausted so I was happy to sit in a chair and hand out candy while Daddy took the kids around to collect candy. I also think my exhaustion contributed to the lack of picture taking. I did dress up though!

(This picture was really hard for me to post! 40 weeks pregnant....LOVELY!)

Earlier that day we also carved pumpkins and I have the funniest video of Sawyer pulling some guts out of the pumpkin, shuddering, and then saying he needed to wash his hands. He is not a down and dirty type of boy! But he loved drawing his face on and I cut it out exactly as he planned.

After the big snow storm Saturday night the kids went out and played in the snow Sunday morning. Last year when we moved here Sawyer was totally not into the snow but he was loving it, making snow angels and sledding down our hill. They even made a pumpkin head snow man!

On Monday night we went over to a friend's house for dinner and then trick or treating in their cute little town of Wilder, Vermont. Lots of cute houses. We don't live in a neighborhood and it was fun to be walking around in one, especially one with such cute older houses. The kids LOVED trick or treating, especially Sawyer. He was walking around with a big smile on his face, singing the theme song to Jake and the Neverland Pirates and saying over and over, "This is so much fun!" They were happy to get candy and we went door to door until their energy was gone. It was also our first cold trick or treating experience. People still recognized Kate as Rapunzel but Sawyer refused to put a coat on. He kept saying, "I will NEVER wear a coat!" Eventually he put some gloves on his frozen little hands. Poor stubborn boy. He is just in denial of how cold it gets here.

snow fun

I haven't been a great blogger and I can only blame it on the fact that we just haven't been much fun. Daddy went to work today for the first time so we have been spending a lot of time together just doing the normal everyday stuff for a while. It was nice. Friday it snowed a ton and we had some fun in it. Sawyer, as I suspected he would, only spent about two minutes outside. Kate loved it. Lots of snow here to enjoy!

Have I mentioned my lens broke at Disney and so my camera is kind of out of commision? I'm tired of cell phone pictures too...

Now its starting to feel like we are in Vermont!

We have been in our house almost 2 weeks now and we really haven't been out of the house. When people ask if we are liking it in Vermont, we kinda just shrug and say we haven't seen much of it yet. We have seen the inside of our house and the bottom of quite a few of our boxes but that is about it. I had heard someone from church talk about this little carnival that was at a nearby pond and I was so excited to take a break from unpacking and getting settled to go out and see what living up here is all about. It was amazing! So many fun winter activities.

Horse drawn sleigh ride

Ice sculptures and an ice slide

Roasting marshmallows by the fire

Carnival games - penguin bowling and ice fishing

Ice skating on the pond - Sawyer needed lots of help but Kate really got the hang of it after a while

We are loving our new cold weather home!

playing in the snow

My kids have been in the snow a few times and are still getting the hang of it. Every time I have started to get them dressed, Sawyer always seems to throw a little fit as I try and stuff them in all their gear. It leaves me exhausted! And then, of course, they are outside for about 10 minutes before they are ready to come back in and I have to spend all the time undressing them. Isn't snow and winter awesome? (I said that while trying to convince myself its true! We have a lot of snow and winter ahead of us!!) It does help me to remember how yummy hot chocolate is though!

The last of the Tucson trip...

A little catch up with the pictures I haven't posted...

We didn't get to go bowling the day after Thanksgiving (which is our tradition) because it was kind of crazy so we went after Christmas

When I asked for a Kate sized ball behind the counter, the lady asked me if I wanted this famp thing that you could put the ball at the top and push it down and it gets up enough speed to make it all the way down to the pins. I had seen handicapped people using it before and I didn't know they offered it to toddlers...but it was actually really fun and she loved it.



Sawyer cheering her on
One nice day we took a stroll down to the duck pond with a grassy area for a little bacci ball. Here are the "twins". Everywhere we went people would make comments like, "oh, look at the twins!" I thought it was really weird because they don't look alike. And then one time we were at the food court in the mall and they were sitting next to each other but Jen was feeding Ethan and I was feeding Sawyer and the lady walked by and said it and I was like "umm...two babies...two moms...really?" But I digress. Here are the pictures.


Ryan always makes "Ryan pasta" (the pasta he learned to make in Italy on his mission) when we we are together. So Jared showed off his skills at Honduran cooking. We even made our own tortillas.


This was Sawyer's favorite place to hang out while we were in the kitchen. He liked to throw the letters under the fridge and then watch his daddy fish them out.One day we drove up Mt Lemmon to see the snow. We were telling Kate about snow that morning and how you can make snowmen and all that and she was excited. We bundled up the best we could (you don't really visit Tucson with snow gear).

Me warming Sawyer

Daddy and Kate trying out the sled on a small hill

She did it once with mommy and once with daddy and then wasn't interseted in doing it anymore.She probably won't ever be intersted again after seeing Daddy go down the big hillThen, after about less than 10 minutes outside, my warm blooded Kate said she was freezing so we put her back in the car. Mt Lemmon is so funny because its cold and snowy and then you drive down the mountain and you see the snow gradually disappearing and the pine trees gradually becoming more sparse and then you start to hit the cactus until you're at the bottom and its 70 degrees. So e started down the mountain and right as we started to reach the end of the snow, Kate suddenly remembered she didn't get to make a snowman. We debated on what to do, knowing she wasn't crazy about the snow or the cold. We finally pulled over and Daddy and Kate got out to make a snowman. As expected, Kate wouldn't go much farther than thisDaddy made her a snowman and then we headed back down to our warm Tucson