Look Mom!

This morning I had a good laugh. I was running around getting things ready to take Ryan to the train station. I put Eliana in her car seat and ran to the next room to turn off the Christmas lights. As I was walking back toward the hallway, I heard Eva say, 'WOW Mom! Eliana can do fish lips!" Hmm..I know what that means! I picked up my pace and saw Eva sitting next to the baby, forcing Eliana to do "Fish Lips" with her fingers. Eliana didn't seem to mind...poor thing. It's probably a drop in the bucket as to what else Eva has done to her. :-) Eva chose not to put her shoes on for the car ride to the train. I let her face the consequences of the cold garage floor. She started howling about how she wanted her shoes. Ryan told her to stop crying and she said, 'NO...I WANT to cry...wahhhhhhh!" We both laughed. I bet the next time I ask her to put on her shoes, she will run to it!

Regan's surprise

Regan surprised us yesterday by making us lunch. He was really pleased to have four plates of nachos ready for us. He was so sweet to surprise! I love the look on his face..and Kyla's as she is about to take some of the nachos. :-)

The family bed

Our kids love piling into bed with us in the mornings. Even Eva's scary Pillow makes an appearance. They love capturing their newest sister asleep...but usually isn't asleep for that much longer after they come into bed. The kids are happy as clams to be with their sister. The only one missing from the picture was Maile.

I told the kids to do a silly face.

After kicking the kids off the bed, I snapped a picture of Eliana smiling. She is loved!

Ryan and some of his girls

Ryan took Ariana on a date to get one of her absolutely favorite things in the world: HOTWINGS! She LOVES hot sauce! Here she is polishing off her hot wings.

Ryan started to shovel the snow in our front yard when Eva came to me and said, "I want to help Daddy!" I got her dressed up and sent her out. She grabbed a shovel and hung out with Daddy. She really likes being with her Dad. I often hear her say, "I love you, Daddy!" When Ryan put her down for bed the other night, he came into our room and asked me if she tells me how many kisses and hugs she wants before going to sleep...nope...she doesn't do that to me...she saves it for her Daddy. It is really cute to hear her tell him that she wants 7 hugs and kisses before bed. I love how she loves him...most of the time...as in I don't love it when she is mad at him for making her do a job or pick up her things when she would rather be playing instead. :-) He is the world's best daddy and husband!

Ariana and Ballet

Ariana loves doing ballet. She is such a graceful ballerina! Ryan, Eliana, and I were able to attend her last ballet class before the Christmas break. They demonstrated some things that they do in their class. Eliana started to get fussy, so I was only able to capture her barre work with the camera while Ryan captured it on the video camera. She is the most beautiful ballerina! She is the best ballerina in her class!...or course we aren't biased or anything! :-) but she really is!

Here is Ana with her teacher.

It literally made me tear up to watch this little girl of ours dance before our eyes. I can't believe that she is 8! Where does the time go?! She makes us so proud! We love our little ballerina Ariana girl!

A trip down memory lane

Ryan did a presentation on his missionary work in Micronesia to the young men's group in our church. When he went looking for his memory box to pull pictures for the presentation, he found other things from his youth. One of these was this adorable little hat. I have no idea the story behind this hat...who made it, etc. other than it was made for him when he was an infant. We put the hat on Eliana to see how it would have looked on Ryan. She was in a fussy state at the time...not even this fun hat changed her mood. :-)

Here is the front of it. So cute! I can only imagine how adorable Ryan looked in it as a baby!

First snow and how we go

Well, this is funny that I am typing about our first snow when we are experiencing a much colder weather right now. Last week, we had our first real snow fall. The kids were super excited to go out and play. Here are Ariana, Annabelle (our neighbor), and Eva playing in the snow.

They loved making snow angels and ramps to slide down. It was a balmy 30 degrees at the time. Wish it was like that now...

This is how the girls go to the bus stop. I dress them like this when the temps get really low...like today. The wind chill is below zero right now. The weather channel issued a statement to us that read: "Wind chill readings will remain at dangerously cold levels from Monday morning through Tuesday afternoon. Wind chill readings will be 10 below to 20 below zero over much of the area... Even during the daylight hours. Frequent gusts in excess of 45 MPH...blowing and drifting snow...bitterly cold wind chills to around 25 below zero." I don't think we're in Hawaii, Oregon, Arizona, and Utah anymore, Toto!

Eva heard me snapping their picture and was angry she wasn't in it...so I snapped a picture of her coming fresh off the stairs from waking up.

How school has an effect on us

Eva is really excited about going to big kid school someday. We still can't believe that she has 2 more years before she enters kindergarten due to her birthday and missing the cut off date. She does attend what she calls, "pretty school aka pre-school" once a week with a group of moms and kids. One morning, she came downstairs and was dressed in a pair of wings, backpack, and a wand. She said, 'Mom...I am the pretty school fairy!"

I laughed so hard. She is quite creative! I have never heard of the pretty school fairy...but I think she is really cute and adorable!

Maile absolutely loves middle school. One of her favorite classes is her facs class formally known as "Home Ec." She has been baking up a storm during her school days. She told me on Saturday that she wanted to make breakfast for everyone which of course I was excited about. Chef Maile spoiled us with her puffed apple pancakes.

It was delicious!!! Love this girl's cooking!

She was so cute! She had the table set and called the kids down to eat. It was super nice to be able to stay in bed a bit longer while she prepared breakfast. I tell everyone that they need to get themselves a Maile in their family....she is the best!