Next Up: Ice Skating!

 I have been wanting to go ice skating for sooo long. Deep down inside a dark secret of mine is that I want to be an olympic ice skater. It's true. Ok not really, but how cool would it be to be so graceful on the ice?! To be able to turn and spin and do a dance really?! I want to do that. And I think it'd be cool if my kids could do that. My next thing to cross off my wish list is to take my kids. This was so much  fun (and more work) to do!  Talk about dreams coming true. Eden and Kael were not so much into it at first. It's hard, how could something hard be fun? I picked Eden up and we skated as I held her. Yes, we got in trouble and I put her down, but I think that was the ice breaker she needed. All of a sudden she loved it. The cool air on her face and gliding. I held her arms and she would move her feet. Sometimes she would kind of march others, she would just glide her feet. Kael wanted everyone to watch him go. By the end, I could hold just one hand and he would put the other on the wall. He was so proud of himself! I want to do this again sometime.

 I was shocked they actually had skates in Eden's size. They were the smallest they had too! Aren't they cute?

Our Thanksgiving Weekend So Far

This has been an amazing couple of days. I have loved having Derek home without homework and school and any other obligations other than just being with us and having fun! We get him home for 5 whole days just to ourselves! To start out Eden had to be super cute of course.

 We made some yummy mississippi mud pie for our Thanksgiving treat at home. We celebrated Thanksgiving with Derek's family and ate so much yummy food and just expanded our stomachs! Then, we came home and crashed because the kids didn't nap that day. Kael was so sad to leave. He kept saying, "one more Grammy's house" over and over.

 This was Derek getting to spend some quality time with the kids while I got stuff ready to go for Thanksgiving. The kids love their Dad so much and these moments seem rare lately that they get him all to themselves. They built all kinds of animals out of the play dough. Kael would demand something and Derek whipped it right up. I believe there was an elephant, horse, turtle, snails, dog, cobra snake, zeebra, and some others I can't remember.

Pictures from my phone, July to present.

Outside is the best here at the village.  You are never short on friends. Eden loves to play with Sidnie and Jacey! Eden is so brave and will go down the slide by herself now. She loves p

 Kael and Eden are such good buds even though Eden looks a little terrified here.

 Playing at the neighbors house, Eden and Kael can entertain themselves so well...

 BOWLING! We had a free bowling day for the student housing and we couldn't pass it up. Kael and Eden had a blast and so did Derek and I. I haven't bowled with bumbers up since I was a kid. I didn't do much better than usual. I forgot the camera of course so all the pictures are with my cell phone and didn't turn out great. But, we sure had fun! This is a definite must do again. We were pretty exhausted after one round though because helping two kids is like having 2 turns each!

 Eden's goblin face. This is a "say cheese Eden" face.

 The kids really were having fun, Kael just gets spaced out like his Mom sometimes... Should I admit that?

 Kael's hair at its longest. This was right before I cut it back at the end of July. His hair takes forever to grow... I am excited for his hair to get long again. I miss his curls so much. 

 I think this was in September. We went to a get together with some medical student families and we put the kids in their Utah shirts because I think it was the homecoming football game day.

 Eden and Jacey hugging outside. They really are good buds. When we are outside Eden walks to Jacey's door to see if she will play and Jacey has come to our door too. It is pretty cute!

 Eden and Miller. These two are pretty cute. I totally love it when Eden plays with him because he is such a sweet boy.

 The swings. The kids have an obsession with the swings now that they learned how to do it on their stomachs. It is awesome! Less pushing for me and they have a blast!

 Kael and Eden were sticking their arms out like superman at the same time. It's hard to catch that on a phone.

 Kael playing with his favorite dinosaurs. His imagination goes wild with these guys. I love seeing how he thinks things should be. He is so creative!

Sometimes we just have to go to another courtyard to try out some different playground equipment. The kids love going in the tunnels.

 An Eden goblin face. She loves being on the big kid swings like Kael.

Cha Cha Cha Changes

I don't even know how to describe how I feel about this post. I have been loving every minute with these two amazing kiddos. Lately, we have been loving the leaves. We have made the biggest leaf piles I have ever seen and it has been more fun than I can describe. Today the maintenance guys came with leaf blowers and vacuums to get rid of the leaves. They piled them so high and there were about 7 or 8 huge piles. We had to take advantage of the piles and jump in. It was so sad though because our leaves are now gone. I don't think the kids understood that those men were taking away their weeks of fun. However, we are ready for changes and it is snowing outside and we say, "bring on a new fun"! 

I keep telling myself to not post every picture I take, but it is hard because I want every small memory to be in my blog book. I want to flip through the pages and remember every detail of what the kids have done. And then my lack of money screams back stop blogging so much about the little things. I just can't help myself.