Category Archives: Four of us

New Year’s and Nerf Guns

“And thank you that we could stay in Utah longer than seven days, and please bless the twins that they will grow healthy and strong, and bless all the people of the world and bless Daddy’s eye and mommy’s lip that they will get better…” (Ava’s bedtime prayer tonight)

We drove home from our trip to Utah today. We pulled up to snow drifts up to our waist, a walkway shoveled by our kind neighbor, and a warm house that didn’t stink (no hidden diapers or smeltering garbages! 🙌) Jake hauled everything in from the car while Ava and I started unpacking inside. We cooked up some food from the freezer, snacked on Christmas truffles, and unwrapped the package of 200 nerf bullets that Jake ordered from China over a month ago (we just got the package.) And since we realized after ordering that they wouldn’t arrive by Christmas, Jake ordered another 200 from Amazon so we could all play with the four nerf guns we got on Christmas morning. 😂
So, we piled the new 200 with the other 200, strapped on whatever glasses we could find, piled up the suitcases and laundry baskets, and teamed up to shoot at each other.

I soon learned that those little foam bullets pack a punch!! I told Jake we should’ve just gotten those little guns that shoot soft, colorful rings but we settled on these eye poking, lip numbing, red mark-making foam bullets and had so much fun regardless. (After Hyrum shot Jake in the eye and he lost his peripheral vision for a while [somehow it got him WITH his glasses on] we decided shooting targets at the laundry basket would be a better way to end the night. 😬👍) It’s good to be home.

Cheers to a happy new year!
#mamanotes #welcome2017

Update: I ordered safety goggles! It was funny because when I was browsing on Amazon for some, many of the items in the “frequently bought with” section were nerf guns and nerf ammo. Haha! Why didn’t I see any safety goggles on there when we ordered our nerf guns!?

Well, we have them now. 🙂

The kids really like them, except Hyrum’s pinch his cheeks in half and cover over half his face so he doesn’t like to keep them on long. Totally ok, I don’t last long in nerf gun battles anyway.

Christmas in Utah

Why I wear my hair up all the time ^^ haha

At the Provo LDS Temple–one of the most beautiful I’ve been to!

We spent the week between Christmas and New Year’s in Utah! It was so nice to be with family (although so hard to figure out how to split our time between both of them!) I won’t overload this post with pictures, but I will say that we sure packed in our time there—lots of dinners, visiting, movies, games (you know that hungry hippos game you’ve probably seen circling pinterest–the one where you actually roll people across the floor to gather balls in a basket? We did that! Well I didn’t with my pregnant belly– but it was so fun to watch!), shopping, lunches, skiing, relaxing, EATING (so. much. food!), going to the temple–even a family wedding! and staying up way too late. I even got to visit with one of my dearest friends that I hadn’t seen in so long. It was as though things never changed–grateful for friendships like that. We had a great trip!

Talking about the funky hair-do’s we had as kids. Poor Mom got a lot of flack for those bangs!

Also, Christmas was so fun this year with the kids–they were both so happy and excited. At the end of the day Ava said to us, “This was the best Christmas ever!” and made sure to thank us with big hugs. How did we get so lucky?  I was also excited to finally empty all those boxes that I’d been stuffing in the front closet all this time. I couldn’t wait to give them their gifts!

 

You can fly

The other day I put Disney songs on Pandora for the kids to dance to and the “You Can Fly” song came on.  They’d never seen the movie so I told them what it was about and they spread their arms, racing around the room (and jumping off the couches.) Ever since, Ava has wanted to see what it was all about.  So, the other night we all went downstairs and watched Peter Pan.

When I brought down popcorn, the kids were so excited.  It’s funny how they can get excited about the smallest things.  They both squealed, “Popcorn! Yay! Popcorn!” Hyrum giggled and “hmmed” with the most satisfying grins while he stared at the popcorn and crammed handfuls into his mouth. Later he picked out orange after orange to have us peel for him (eating all of them in no time). When we told him no more, he went off and peeled them himself.

We turned on the kids’ Christmas tree and tucked them in bed, hoping they would settle and fall asleep in the same room (totally hit and miss with this).  In her bedtime prayer, Ava   mentioned, “…and please bless Hyrum that he can fall asleep and not refuse his naps, and please help him to not refuse new food, and please bless me to try new foods…and thank you for our warm house and helping us drive safely…”   I just love her prayers.

Later when Hyrum got out of bed (for the fifth time) and came downstairs, he picked up two little oranges and held them right up to his nose, just smiling at them. Jake and I just laugh, it is so fun watching them.

#mamanotes

Making Christmas in Our House

 

Ava waited all day to get out the Christmas tree and the Christmas decorations. We cleaned the house and waited for my hard drives to finish backing up before we could move the desk and computer for the Christmas tree.

Then Jake put on a coat and his super tall boots and trudged through a few feet of piled snow drifts to the garage to get the tree and all the fun Christmas stuff.

 We’ve been hibernating the past few days in our warm little townhouse while a true North Dakota storm has been piling snow and blowing it all around us. No school and work from home means a lot of together time and we really like that.

I’m supposed to drive to Bismarck tomorrow for an important ultrasound  that needs to be done no later than this week so we’ll see if we can make it out there. School is closed again tomorrow.

 We put up the Christmas tree, broke a few ornaments, and noticed that some chunks of lights weren’t working on the tree. So we decided to hold off on the ornaments and ribbon until we could get those working again, and tucked the kids into bed.

 Ava sat up in her bed marveling at the little Christmas tree we set up in her room, the same one I had in my room when I was young. Her bed time prayer went something like this:

 “Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank you for the Earth and for Christmas. Thank you that we could have Christmas and make Christmas in our house today. Thank you for our bodies and that we could have a nice home to keep us warm. Please bless Mommy and Daddy and Hyrum and the babies and help us have a good day tomorrow. . In the name of Jesus Christ Amen. “

 She fills my heart this little one.

Thankful

Sunday, November 6

Earlier in the day I was feeling kind of crummy, and focusing on it too. Made me feel even more crummy. But then the afternoon came with its golden hues and unusual warmth for November, and I sat in a camping chair wrapped in a fluffy blanket basking in the best sounds I know.

It changed everything.

The kids were squealing and giggling as Jake rolled around in the burrito blanket playing steamroller. Jake and I were laughing too, the kids were so funny as they tried to jump and dodge him. They loved it. Then I’d hear Ava yell, “A car’s coming!” with Hyrum’s echo of “Car’s coming!” just as dramatic as hers. And with that they were quickly inside Daddy’s blanket where they all huddled until it passed.

In those moments I was entirely focused on some of my greatest joys, and nothing else could fit. No negativity, sickness, or whatever was so consuming before. I was so happy.

I brought out a pan of orange jello Ava and I made earlier, the kind that is packed with delicious mandarin oranges. The four of us sat together on the trampoline with our forks and blankets, and cleared that whole pan in five minutes flat. Doesn’t get better than that. #mamanotes

Monday, November 7

I had a painful headache for most of the day today. I was lying in bed at the end of the day with the 15th (or what seemed like it) movie on for the kids in the next room, and called Jake to ask when he would be coming home. I told him how I was feeling and he said he’d come right home. I felt like saying thank you and I love you ten times over to him for saving the day. When he walked in the door I could hear the kids SO happily yell, “Daddy!!” Then it was quiet until a quick, “Rawr!” and little giggles when the kids found his hiding place. I smiled from under my covers, imagining all those happy faces. And I just love hearing his voice when he comes home.

It was funny as they made their way upstairs, Jake asked them if they wanted to watch a movie and they both said no without any hesitation. 🙈Haha! That is so rare, Jake and I both laughed. Obviously they had movie overload today… He made a quick run to the gas station for a drink for me, then we whipped up some macaroni and cheese and frozen veggies and went around the table a few times saying things we were thankful for. We have SO MUCH to be thankful for. I was amazed at Ava’s responses. She talked so much about how she loves Heavenly Father’s creations and this beautiful Earth and probably mentioned being grateful for her family at least three times. Hyrum just chomped on his popcicle, but when we asked him if he was grateful for all these things too, he said, “yes,” with that cute lisp of his.

We really have so much to be grateful for.
#mamanotes