A few new things for January

Cute Evelyn

Whenever I am folding laundry, Evelyn likes to put Maggie's and/or Jared's underwear on her head and call it a "hat." Maggie decided to join in the fun this time.  Crazy girls.

So, a few new things have happened for us this January.  One is that Jared got glasses!  After some frustrating lack of communication with Jared's elementary school, I finally had his eyes screened at his primary care doctor to see if I needed to take him to an optometrist.   (The school tested his eyes twice but wouldn't let me talk to the school nurse about it!  "Oh, no. Don't worry. She'll call you if there's a problem.") He was a bit reluctant at first to admit he needed glasses, but I think now that he has them he is excited.

He doesn't need to wear them all the time--mostly just during school and if he wants to see better during a movie or something.  Doesn't he look handsome?

Alan also went to see the optometrist with Jared and ordered contact lenses for the first time!   Today is only his second day wearing them, but he has loved having peripheral vision that's not blurry.  :)  Hopefully contacts will continue to work well for Alan.  I sure think he looks handsome with or without his glasses on. (Wow, we have lousy vision genes in our family, don't we?)

 Another change in our house is that Jared and Maggie both got moved to their very own bedrooms in the basement!  (They had previously been sharing a very small bedroom on our main floor.)  I moved them to the basement about 6 months earlier than I had originally planned, but I think I was just so fed up with their shared room always being messy (there was not enough space to put all their stuff!) and the kids complaining about not having their own space.  I told Alan that I thought about 80% of the problems Jared and Maggie had with getting along were because they shared their bedroom, so we decided to move them down to the basement even sooner!  They have been down in the basement for two weeks now, and things are going well.  We have adjusted our furnace fan to make our basement a bit warmer now, and I think the kids like having their own space.

 Jared's new bedroom (not the cleanest in these pictures.)  I had fun buying some new things to decorate his walls.

Jared's bedroom does not have a built in closet, so we had to improvise with this wardrobe (our old coat closet we used before we built one into our kitchen.)

 Maggie's new bedroom.  This bedroom set was the set I used when I was growing up.  Maggie was thrilled to get some princess/Frozen decor.

Maggie always has her clothes for the next day laid out on her bed (complete with panties).  She is such a cutie.  

The third thing that is exciting (well, for me!) is that starting next week I am going to take an adult ballet class!  Alan has been saying that I need to have a "night off" every week where I do something for myself, so I found this adult drop-in class where I pay per class (so it's ok to miss if something comes up).  It's a bit expensive, so I feel bad about that, and I'm also worried that I'm so out of shape that I won't have what it takes anymore!  Yeah, it's been about 15 years since I have done serious dancing--sheesh!  Ha ha.  But the class description said it was for people who have danced a lot previously and have missed it in their lives, so I will try to be patient and gentle with myself.  I'm so excited, and I'm grateful that it was Alan's idea to have me do something for myself.  He is such a wonderful, sensitive husband, and I do admit that, as much as I ADORE my children, I have been kind of burned out lately with all the stresses that go along with mothering.  I'm sure I'm the only one out there who feels that way, right?  

Here's to ME having some "me time!"

Christmas Break Fun

After a pretty mild December, we finally got some snow right in time for Christmas!  

Evelyn loved playing in the snow for the first time (well, until her mittens soaked through and her hands got all wet.)  

Jared pulling Maggie

We made a mini-snowman.  Either I was too impatient, or the snow wasn't sticky enough to make a really big snowman.  

Evelyn crying because she's cold

On New Year's Eve we went with Alan's sister Angela to the zoo because it was a free day.  Seriously, I must be a glutton for punishment.  While we were eating breakfast that morning, our outdoor thermometer read -1 degrees!  Then while we were driving up in the car, it was 7 degrees. When we got to the zoo and got out of the car, it was so windy from a canyon wind that I said, "Ok, maybe I was wrong and maybe this was a mistake." However, when we were done with our zoo visit, it was finally warm--17 degrees!  Ha ha.  We were prepared, though.  We bundled up, and the kids wore snow pants and all their snow gear.

First stop--the gorilla house.  It was warm (and smelly) inside.  

 We spent most of our time in the reptile house/small animal house, where Maggie stripped off all her snow gear one by one because it was so warm inside.

This particular snake was active and saying hello to all of us.

The tiger was my favorite animal this time.  I love this picture with Maggie in it.  

Evy and the leopard

I was sad that the African animals weren't out (zebras, giraffes, and lions) but really, I think we got to see everything else, including the elephants!  Alan even admitted that he had fun and was glad we went.

We had a fun Christmas break.  Besides going to the zoo and playing in the snow, we went to the aquarium twice, played with cousins, and had a fun New Year's party with the Curtis family.  I never heard the kids complain that they were bored.  :)

...However, this mommy is a little ashamed to admit that she was glad when school started up again.  :)

Christmas Day

Christmas this year was magical.  Jared and Maggie were both into Santa whole-heartedly.  Maggie was so proud to add some of her own homemade ornaments to the tree this year.  We enjoyed spending time with family, playing games, and eating delicious food.  Our kids got exactly what they wanted for Christmas this year and were happy with their gifts.  A few days before Christmas I felt like I had overbought for my kids and decided to set aside some things for their birthdays this coming year.  I feel really good about that decision.  We missed Grandma Stout, who was out of town this Christmas with her own mother, but we were lucky to have Aunt Marilyn come to visit from New York!  

Maggie by her Santa gifts

Maggie FINALLY got her Elsa doll.  She also got an Anna doll from Grandma C. 

Jared with his Santa presents (and mismatched jammies?)

Santa brought Evy a new car seat and a stuffed bunny.  I seriously think she liked the car seat as much as her other presents!  She was sitting in it all morning and trying to buckle her stuffed animals into it.  The next day she was asking me to get it out of the car and bring it inside for her to play with!

Evy with her presents from Santa

Jared opening our last present to the family:

I didn't take any pictures from the rest of the day, but we had a wonderful brunch with the Stouts and then a yummy dinner with all of my family at my mom's house.  Two of Alan's sisters were amazing to do all of the Christmas shopping, and my mom, of course, has wonderful taste and generosity with her family.

Alan and I didn't get each other anything huge because we spent a lot of money this year on painting/redoing our front room and basement.  We also just got back from our anniversary trip a few weeks ago.  But we got each other some small things and were very pleased with everything, I think.

A few days after Christmas we got a special package from Grandma and Grandpa Smith.  There were some very thoughtful gifts for all of us.  The kids loved having more presents to open!

Merry Christmas!!!!

Just before Christmas

Alan's sister Rachel got married a few days before Christmas!  I loved dressing my kids up fancy for the wedding reception.  

Daddy, Evy, and Grandpa Stout

Maggie and Jared in front of the fancy cake.  Jared's shirt HAD been tucked in.  :)

 This is me attempting to get a picture of my beautiful children before we left for church on the Sunday before Christmas.  Evelyn was not cooperative.

Boy, this is sure a great picture of Maggie, isn't it?  :)

"Cheeeeese" 

We spent most of Christmas Eve with the Stout family.  We played tons of games (Encore!) and at yummy food.  We had dinner at our own house, and then we went to my brother's house for Christmas Eve.

Evy and Grandma C.

Santa jammies

Jared and Maggie and their cousins put on their annual nativity.  This year they both wanted to be wise men.  Jared tried to tell Maggie that wise men are boys, but there just really aren't enough girl parts in the nativity story, are there?   

Jared's Elementary School Christmas Sing

Sorry so fuzzy.  Jared is on the right in the middle row.

Maggie's Preschool Christmas Program

Beautiful Maggie.  She picked out her own clothes.  :)

Our whole family got to attend Maggie's Christmas program for preschool.  It was fun to see the songs she has been working on.  She has awesome teachers!

Class nativity.  Maggie was an angel.

Looks like the boy next to Maggie is slugging his neighbor.  Ha ha.

Another attempt at a class photo.  Maggie's teacher is blurry in the background.

 The following videos are mostly for my kids' benefit (they will want to watch them over and over) but will probably be quite boring to others.  They are Maggie's songs and Christmas poems:

Visiting Santa

Maggie colored this PretendWear dress for our ward Christmas party.  She got to play a Christmas fairy with some of the other little girls in the ward.  She is such a careful colorer lately!

We visited our local aquarium when Santa was there one Saturday in December.  Neither Maggie nor Jared had any trepidation about talking to him!  Evelyn was a little scared, but we were able to snap a quick picture.

Maggie wanted anything Frozen for Christmas

Jared asked Santa for a calculator (???)

"Who are these people?"