Funny Hat....

It got really cold here for a couple of weeks in January. We actually got into the low 20s during the night. And it was so cold during the day that our usual puddles turned to ice. We had to bundle the kids up really well. Here is Jake with his funny hat. This hat was Garrett's when he was a baby. Jake actually likes to wear hats. When he finds one in the house he will bring it to you and he won't leave you alone until you put it on him. Then he gets all happy and jumps up and down. You can see here that he's not real happy having his picture taken. He's at that stage now when it's really hard to take pictures of him. He does not want to sit still and doesn't cooperate. Garrett, on the other hand, will now pose for pictures. I love it!

The Juiceman......

Here is one of our Christmas presents. We got this from Uncle Jim and Aunt Kris. It's the Juiceman Juicer. We were so excited when we opened it. Aaron and Garrett made juice a few days after Christmas. It's great because you can put the whole fruit or vegetable in and get the health benefits. Garrett was very interested in the whole process but he wasn't too crazy about the noise that the juicer made. It really wasn't loud at all but I think Garrett made up his mind that it would be a loud terrible noise. Any time he sees that you have to plug something in, he thinks it's gonna be loud.

Lita's Birthday....

Here's a picture of Lita's birthday celebration in January. We had dinner at a Mexican restaurant and then went back to Lita and Lito's house to eat pie and sing happy birthday. We have a lot of birthdays to celebrate around the holidays. We love celebrating them but sometimes it feels like all we do is eat and eat and eat. This time of year is always a little fattening for us. The kids love getting together with the family and celebrating these fun times. We always take pictures around the kitchen table. It's neat to see how much we have all changed and "matured" when we look at past birthday celebrations.

New Years Eve....

This was how we spent our New Year's Eve. We stayed in with the boys and celebrated by watching movies and eating junk food. Jake wasn't feeling very well so we decided to stay in. We actually went to a very early dinner and then came home to take a long nap. We woke up at 8pm and started our party. The boys love to play with the sofa cushions almost as much as they love playing with empty boxes. The boys were asleep pretty early but we did wake Garrett up at midnight to hear the outside sounds and celebrations of the New Year. He wasn't that impressed and just wanted to go back to bed.

The Joys of Empty Boxes.....

These pics were taken a few days after Christmas. No, they aren't playing with all their brand new toys. They are playing with empty boxes! It's true that if you give a kid an empty box they will keep themselves occupied for hours. Garrett loves to play with my boxes whenever I get a package. He says, "Mom, can I have your boxes?". And now Jake is learning to enjoy an empty box.

Playing Dress Up.....

Marissa got a bunch of princess dress up clothes for Christmas. Somehow she talked Garrett into playing princess. He didn't want to put any of the outfits on because he said they were for girls. But she did talk him into putting on the princess shoes. He thought those would be ok to wear. He kept saying, "we are going to a party". I think this is one of those pictures that I can bribe him with when he gets older.

Santa Was Here.....

Here are a couple of pics of what our tree looked like after "Santa" visited our home. I was so proud of myself for wrapping the gifts 2 weeks before Christmas. We are always up waaayyy to late on Christmas Eve because of the wrapping but this year I didn't want to do that. Well, it didn't quite work out that way. I forgot that we needed to build Garrett's Big Wheel and Jake's Bouncing Zebra. So, we were up past midnight AGAIN! Maybe next year will be different.