Tuesday, January 27, 2009

BRRRRRRRRRRRR!

Just to let you know what a champ Ben is, I needed the car today to take Evelyn to dance and Ben needed to be to work early, so he walked KNOWING it was -20 F outside. Yes, that is NEGATIVE 20 below! I had no idea, I was pretty asleep when he left.
Luckily about half way there some good angel friends of ours spotted him and gave him a ride, he arrived at work only partially frost bitten. What a dream.

A Long Long Time Ago...

Well, it wasn't that long ago, but long enough. I have been meaning to post this for awhile. Santa came to Evelyn's dance class before Christmas. You can hear Evelyn laughing almost the whole time, she thought it was great fun, so did we!


Monday, January 19, 2009

Spanish Lady

It seems like right before we have a baby, Evelyn finds imaginary friends. She did before we had Hannah. There were lots of animals. I remember a bird named Burris, a monkey named Trash, a pig that lived on the playground, and a giraffe that lived right off the back deck who enjoyed eating lentils (our poor downstairs neighbors were constantly sweeping lentils off their deck).

Recently she has a friend that she endearingly calls "Spanish Lady." Her real name has been at times "Wizzy," "Lizzy," and is currently "Dizzy." But she prefers Spanish Lady. She is 4 years old, likes oranges, lives in Spain but gets to stay with us the whole time we are in Rexburg. Evelyn says they look alot alike.

Today Spanish Lady came bowling with us. She had a chair of her own that we had to be sure not to sit in. She had a fun time watching. After we finished bowling, we went to McDonald's for lunch. The girls had a fun time and it wasn't until we were on our way home that we heard a loud cry from the back seat: "OH NO! Spanish Lady is still at the bowling place!!! What are we going to do?!!!"

We assured Evelyn that her parents would be able to give her a ride back to our house. Sure enough, within minutes of arriving, there was a ring at the doorbell and Spanish Lady had found her way back! Phew!

When Ben was a child he had a pet Gopher. An imaginary one. His name was Sam. His primary teacher had to move from her chair once because she was sitting on Sam. Sam ultimately got eaten by birds. I hope Spanish Lady has a happier fate.

What a special family I have!

Monday, January 5, 2009

Where to Begin...

Where do you even begin when you've taken a month off of blogging (not that I blog that much anyway!) and that month happens to be December?!
Well, here is a bit of what's been going on:

~My (Jessica) Grandma had a peaceful passing away and I got to go to her funeral in Seattle

~I was stranded for a very long day and night at the airport because of all of the Seattle snow, they said I wasn't going to be able to get a flight until after Christmas! But with nothing short of a miracle and answer to prayer, a seat opened up while I was standing at the help counter on the ONLY flight that did not get cancelled Sunday out of Seattle to Idaho Falls.

~We had our first Christmas at home and made sweet memories

~Snow, snow, snow, snow, snow here in Rexburg

~Enjoyed Ben's 3 weeks off of work!

~A memorable week long trip to Driggs, ID with Ben's family which includes his parents, 8 children, 4 spouses, and 6 grandchildren. So much fun!!!

~Now it's back to routine...kind of, we had an exciting day with Ben's sister, Nicole, having a beautiful baby girl today! So Rexburg is enjoying a visit from Ben's mom as she helps with the new babe.

~Getting ready for baby boy Wyeth to come in 7 weeks!

Here are a few of the many many many pics that we have to post!


Hannah with Baby Olivia Grace

I think we have some good big sisters in training!


Nicole and Jon's baby girl, Olivia Grace.


FUN in the snow!

Evelyn and Carter really enjoyed playing together (Carter is Evelyn's cousin)

Fun New Year's Eve games with Grammie, this was London Bridge
Carter and Evelyn making cookies with Grammie

Some of the little ones jumping downstairs (Addilyn, Blake, and Hannah)

Sunset in Driggs

This is what the girls woke up to, well, except their stockings were full, on Christmas morning.

Christmas Eve presents (pajamas of course!)
Queen Evelyn
Hannah got a turn being queen as well
Gracefully eating the gingerbread house

A rare moment of Evelyn outside playing!
She thought it would be so fun to sit in the snow, but I think she regretted not putting on her snow pants and gloves!

We have some good helpers when it comes to shoveling, which we do a lot.

Working hard!