My favorite people!

So some of my sisters have done really cute posts about each of their wonderful children and sweet husbands. I don't mean to be a copy cat but I promise the things I say will be different.



Eliza is almost 5 years old, she is counting down the days until her birthday. She is becoming very interested in numbers and math. At preschool she has learned all about the days of the week and the months of the year. So now I say something like "maybe tomorrow we can" and she says, "you mean Thursday." Eliza loves to write and is so curious about spelling everything. She has even started to read some words. You can often find her drawing pictures and writing notes to people. She loves to wrestle her brother and play Star Wars but the very next minute she is playing princess in dress-up clothes. The best of both worlds. Eliza can hear a song only a few times and already have it memorized. Listening to music on her Ipod is one of her favorite things to do. She is growing up so fast and I can't believe how smart she is.



Luke is so full of energy. His new favorite thing right now is Star Wars. Almost everyday he asks to watch the old Star Wars movies. His favorite is not Luke Skywalker but rather the Stormtroopers. He will run around the house playing Star Wars and shooting his stormtrooper gun. Luke is such a cuddle bug. He always says, "hold you me please." Several times I have snuggled him in bed at night and stroked his hair as he falls asleep, precious times. Luke is always learning and trying to follow in his sister's footsteps. Luckily he has a good example to follow. It is amazing how much Liza teaches him. Luke also loves to play games on the computer. I can not believe how good he is at using the mouse. He can start the games by himself and totally understands what he is doing, it is so second nature. We get to spend a few hours alone during the day when Liza is at school and Jameson is napping. He is such a fun little friend to have around.



Jameson is such a sweet boy. I can't believe he is over 1 year old, weaned, feeding himself, and basically walking. He can take like 20 steps by himself, then stops and stands there, then goes down to his knees and takes off crawling. He is constantly emptying things, like toy baskets, drawers and cupboards. I have to tape my pantry door closed or I have soup cans rolling around my kitchen floor. Jameson also loves to wrestle. If you lay down on the ground he comes over to you all excited and laughing. Then he crawls on top of you and starts to wrestle. He loves to be involved with whatever you are doing. He is very social and loves to play with his brother, sister, and dad. But I have to say I think I am his favorite person, ha ha. I am so glad he is learning and growing so well.



It is crazy how these little people can mean so much to me. They really are my friends and my day would not be the same without them.



Now last but not least, my wonderful husband, Michael. He truly is my best friend and I would be lost without him. Michael is such a great father and always makes time for his kids. He does such a great job teaching them. They love him so much and always want to play with him. He works so hard for us everyday so that I can be home. I will always appreciate that effort and sacrifice for our behalf. I love to spend time with him and we always have fun together. He is a wonderful helper and takes good care of me. I love him so much! I am so grateful to be a mother and to have Michael as my sweet, loving, patient husband.

Well it happened.

Jameson finally learned to feed himself. Yeah, I think. I used to complain that if I put a cheerio on Jameson's highchair tray he would pick it up great but then not eat it. He wanted to be feed like a baby bird. But over the last week he learned to put food in his mouth. But unfortunately he puts more than just food in his mouth. Now all those little things on my floor that he used to ignore are going in his mouth. This is the normal behavior for most kids his age, but I am just not used to it. He used to never put anything in his mouth. So I am constantly scanning my floor and making sure we do not leave food in his reach. Not to make anyone worry, but he has already choked a few times. Luckily he has a great gak reflex and he throws up when he is choking so the thing he is choking on comes up as well. He is such a curious and social baby, he wants to be right where I am doing what I am doing. He is always underfoot and getting into things. This new skill has really made him a better eater. He seems to eat everything we offer him. He also still lets me feed him on a spoon. He is doing well with weaning. Now all I have to do is kick the 6:00 am feeding, which is the hardest because I don't want to be up for the day at 6:00 am. I have really grown accustomed to sleeping in.

We love visitors!

We just love having family come to visit. We had Grandma Kay and Grandpa Dennis come for Jameson's birthday in the middle of January. We had a fun party and enjoyed hanging out with them. The kids love their grandparents. Then the last weekend of January my sister Emily, Cameron, Emma, and Maren came to Carey to visit the Cooks and they spent Sunday afternoon with us in Hailey. It was so much fun to visit, eat, hang out, and play games. The kids played and had a fabulous time. We really love their company and had so much fun visiting with them. But I forgot to take any pictures. I have made a vow to take more snap shots with my camera of everyday things. They will come in handy for blogging.



The very next weekend the Stocks came for a visit. We must be popular, or everyone loves this beautiful city. Mike and Jon went skiing in Sun Valley. The weather was sunny and they had a fantastic time. Lindsay and I had a wonderful time visiting while the kids played. They sure got along really well. They had so much playing Uno, pirates, and watching Star Wars. We tried to go ice skating but they were closed so we played in the snow instead.



The big kids had a super fun time playing Hand and Foot and Sequence. I will just say that the girls make the ultimate team. Go Linds and Mel! Thanks Jon, Lindsay, Belle, and Sam for a fun weekend. We are really grateful to be blessed with family that are also our friends. We look forward to having more visitors, anyone is welcome anytime.

Snowy Days

I would guess that it has snowed about 2 feet over the last 3 days. Mike had to snow-blow the driveway every morning just so he could get out of the garage. The piles of snow on the sides of our house are enormous! Eliza and I played in the snow for almost 4 hours yesterday. Luke joined us for almost half the time, and Jameson napped for 3 hours. He was like a hibernating bear in the basement.

We built a snowman in our front yard and I kept sinking in the snow, it went past my knees. I had to stomp down all the snow around the snowman so Luke did not get lost in it.



We walked to the park down the street and went down the sledding hill a few times. But Liza and Luke perferred jumping off the playground platforms into the soft snow.

We also dug a tunnel in a huge pile by our driveway. It reminded me of when I was a kid playing with Chris Roberts and Cole Christensen in the church parking lot. Good times! The tunnel was only big enough for Eliza, I did not want to test its limits. But she thought it was so fun.

Last night I was beat. I played like a kid all day and that takes a lot of energy. So today when Eliza asked to go out again I said she would have to go by herself because I was too tired. She only played for about 30 minutes and got bored. I guess I should be flattered that I made it so fun for her yesterday. I'm sure I will be up for it again next week.

Winter Sports

Because of our new climate we are having to broaden our horizons when it comes to outdoor activities in the winter. About a mile from our house is a park that is flooded in the winter to create a frozen lake for ice skating. There is a trailer full of skates to borrow at no charge. So you can go ice skating whenever you want for free. We went last Saturday and had a really great time.



Luke and James got pulled around the rink by Mike (who now wants to learn to play hockey). Luke was supposed to "boot skate" behind that chair for balance but thought it looked easier to sit and be pulled around. They had lots of fun on the stroller/chair train.



Eliza actually wore skates and used a little walker that slides with you for balance. She only fell once and really got quite good by the time we were done. She is so excited to go again soon.



She said, "Next time I am going to try to skate really fast. I did not say I will do it, but I will try." You might want to look for her in the 2018 Winter Olympic games.

Big Birthday Boy!

Jameson turned 1 year old on January 14th. It is hard to believe a year has gone by since he was born.



He is such a sweet boy and is learning something new everyday. He is not walking yet but he cruisers along the furniture like crazy. He sometimes will let go and take a small step forward and he can stand alone for several minutes at a time. Any day now he is just going to take off. We went to the Ketchum YMCA bouncy house on his birthday. He just loves crawling around and bouncing on his bum. He also loves to watch his brother and sister wrestle and tackle each other.





We did not have his party until Saturday afternoon because Mike's parents came to visit for the weekend and we wanted them to come to the party. The party lasted maybe 30 minutes. Jameson didn't really unwrap his presents, probably because Liza and Luke were doing it for him.



When we brought out the cake he went straight for the lighted candle and almost got it. Luckily I am faster than him and we did not have a crying baby on hand.



Jameson does not feed himself. He will pick up food but not put it in his mouth. So he got cake all over his hands but never really tasted it until Liza and Luke gave him bites from their fingers. He must have really loved the taste because he eventually figured out it was all over his fingers and started to lick them. But he was done after a few minutes so the clean-up was easy.





So the party was short lived but very fun. He is growing up so fast and I just love being able to watch him grow everyday. We love you JJ!

Luke is now a Sunbeam!

And guess who his teacher is...that's right. I had a feeling I was going to be called to be the new Sunbeam teacher but I was hoping I was wrong. So today was the second week of Sunbeams and it went much better than the first week. I have 8 little ones and they all come every Sunday. I thought Luke would do better with someone else as his teacher. But now that I have set some rules, no sitting on my lap and no crying. He actually is doing really well. I am of course biased but he participates the most and likes my games. It helps that I know what games he likes. I am glad to be in Primary again. The best part is that Michael has to take Jameson the whole time because my hands are full. At least I get a break from that little guy. But who wouldn't want to teach this cute boy Luke!