Plugging along

There hasn't been much going on around here lately. We continue to stay busy and cold. (Does winter ever end?) I just thought I would give a quick update of what we have been up to.

C: Loves school. Talks about school. Wants to know what they are doing the next day at school. He is starting to read. It has just been a natural progression for his curiosity. Lately he has gotten into 'simple machines.' He tries to find them everywhere, and never calls something by its real name anymore, its a 'wheel' or 'inclined plane' or 'lever.'

K: Loves to copy her big brother. Its a constant battle to get her to try to think for herself. She is learning though. Her prayers have become more thoughtful and heartfelt. She loves anything girly and one day wants to be a 'ballallet dancer' I guess we need to think about some dance classes for her.

E: Can get anywhere he wants to go now and rather quickly crawling army style. He refuses to sit, although he knows how. He would rather lay or stand. Is not a huge fan of baby food. (can't say that I blame him for that one) He prefers real food. We have been having to give him a lot of food to get him to gain weight. He is still really small for his age, so we continue to feed him formula (with extra powder for the water amount) cheese, butter, oil. sour cream, etc. He still doesn't have any teeth (been waiting on the bottom two since Thanksgiving and they are stubborn)

D: Has one and a half weeks left of his master program. He has been such a trooper through it all and we couldn't be more proud of him for his dedication. He is currently occupied with SOS. He is a wonderful husband and father.

J: I have been keeping ymself busy with Primary, kids, food storage, finishing up details in the basement. Every once in a while I get to go to the gym, which the kids love and I enjoy the break.

We are so blessed to have all of the things that we do. I know it is hard for a lot of people in todays economy, and we are grateful that we are doing well. We have no health issues, and things are normal around here, and that is a good thing.

Before we move on to another holiday...

I thought I should post about Christmas. Just in time for everyone to have forgotten about it, but me to remember. This is a blog for me, remember, and I want to remember. :) So, we had a wonderful time in Dallas over Christmas. We don't normally go anywhere for Christmas, but if we had gone when we were originally planning on it, we would have missed half of my family, so we went at Christmas. Thanks to my gracious sister who let us crash at her place for almost two weeks. The kids had a blast. We had a blast. It was a well loved trip.

Our list of adventures includes:
Taking family pictures

Christmas Eve with the family, trying to convince Grandma it was a coincidence we were all dressed in matching colors
Christmas morning at the Rugg house
Christmas day at the Mabray house
Seeing the lights at Frisco square (one of the coolest things ever, I would have gone back for a third or fourth time if I had the time)

Late night Tiger Woods Golf on the Wii

Trips to the store with just me and my sister
A trip to IKEA (of course)

Helping to clean out the garage and finding lots of memories
New Years Eve bowling with sisters
Guitar Hero
Organizing Jess's craft room
New Years Day dinner with the fam (ham and black eyed peas of course)
we can't forget the bout with diarreah that everyone seemed to get
pink eye from K (this included a trip to Urgent Care)
E sleeping in the toy closet (it was the only place he would really sleep the whole time we were there)
Blue Bell Ice Cream
Getting to see Nana

We loved getting to see cousins and sisters and brothers and aunts and uncles and grandma and grandpa. We had a wonderful time and are looking forward to the next time we are able to make the trip down to the Lone Star State!

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the trip. Sorry, but they are out of order.

Jess rockin the Guitar Hero.

Bowling on New Years Eve

C and Reese enjoying a movie on a sunny afternoon.

K and Nana reading a book on Christmas morning.

Jody and Reese on Christmas day.

C and Ryan checking out the new wagon on Christmas morning.

K hugging her new dollhouse.

E hanging out with Aunt Jody on Christmas morning.

Christmas Eve with the cousins and matching PJs

Christmas Eve day we had family pictures taken. Here are a few of the kids afterward.

K and C on the trip down. They were tired of being in the car.

Sick Little Boy

After a bit of a scare and an over night stay at the childrens hospital, we are glad that E is finally feeling better. He had croup and brochiolitis which was causing his oxygen levels to go lower than what the docs wanted. He is finally on the upswing and starting to feel better. This picture is from one of his not so good, cranky moments.