On Labor day we had a fun morning hanging out with Mamama, Stevie, Krista, and Tim. Then later in the afternoon we decided to enjoy the warm day and head to Bridal Veil Falls. Apparently a lot of other people decided to do the same thing. We still had a great time though. We finally got a new camara so here are some pictures of the fun.

 

   

Today DJ and Brandon start preschool. They are going to the same school just at different times. They are so excited. I think it will be really good for both of them. Brandon is pretty young, but it will be good for him to have a teacher give him directions. It will be good for him to have a social interaction with other children his age too. We don't get out much here, so his friends he plays with are Anna and DJ and that is about all. He is smart enough, but it is the social and listening skills I think will be the best for him. DJ's is starting to read words and he is getting excited about that. He will see a word and figure it out and then he is so proud of himself. For instance he read on the refrigerator that it said "on" and "off". They work on reading for his age level at school so it should be interesting to see how fast he picks up on words and sounds. He is very excited to get back to school. He loves Miss Konni.

Anna is growing up too. She is starting to say a lot of words. Some of them are more clear than others. Some of her favorites are shoes, outside, mom, no, thanks, ouch, milk, hello, hi, hot. She can say a lot more, but those are definitely her favorites. We had such a fun time this weekend. The boys went to Fathers and sons. Anna and I hung out. I decided we are going to start a new tradition for Fathers and sons. We are going to go buy new pajamas and watch a movie in our new pajamas. Then the next moring we will go out to breakfast in our new pajamas. Anna got new pajamas this year. They were so cute. I think I will join in the fun of new pajamas next year.

 

Well, I decided to take the kids to get pictures today. Brandon is always a trick but he did pretty good today. Here are a few of the pictures. The edited versions are better, but here are the originals.

   
 

       

This has been a whirlwind of a year. A lot has been going on this year, and I can't believe my little Anna is 1 years old. She is such a cute little girl. We feel so blessed to have her in our family! She brings us so much joy. It has been amazing to watch her grow throughout this year. The boys just love having a sister. She has the best smile and the cutest laugh. She is getting really good at walking and practically running to keep up with her brothers. I keep telling her to stop growing up so fast, but that doesn't seem to be an option. Here are a few pictures of Anna growing up this year. I love you sweet girl! Sorry I don't know how to do the slide show so I will have a bunch of pictures instead.

                   

We have been trying to keep entertained around this house while it has been so cold. Here are some things we have been up to lately.

  Dj goes to Preschool

  Dressing up in Costumes. Can you tell which one is DJ and which one is Brandon?

 Paint a Magnet Board

Potty Train

Go to the circus

 

 

Celebrate DJ's 4th Birthday and make a race track cake!

     

How about this style?

 

Paint Rocks and Hide them in the house like Easter eggs

 

All in all we have had a pretty good winter, but we are so tired of being stuck inside! We can't wait for the Spring. Unfortunately it is pooring snow right now, so it might not be for a while. 

 

We have already had such an eventful New Year. Anna fell while holding on to one of our kitchen chairs and she got a black eye. It is hard to see it but I tried to get a picture of it. She has figured out how to turn around and go down the stairs. She is so proud of herself. Also, she has decided she can stand up in the middle of the room without pulling herself up on something. She can bend down and pick something up and then stand up again. Then tonight she took her first couple of steps. It is not going to be long until she is running around with the boys. Watch out boys! Here are some pictures of her.

Yes she is standing up right at the top of the stairs. She was scaring me to death. Here is a picture of her black eye.

It looks worse when her eye is closed.

Also, DJ is going into Sunbeams tomorrow. We will see how that goes. Brandon won't know what to do without DJ in nursery with him. Also, we took the plunge and put the bunk bed together. It has been good so far. Here is a picture of the boys all excited about it.

 

For those of you who check our blog occasionally, I just wanted to let you know we are still here. We have been busy lately, and we haven't taken the time to sit down and post on our blog. Michelle recently started up school again. She started a Masters in Dietetics a couple years ago, but stopped when she had Brandon. She decided to try again to make a push to get her Master's degree.

I have been working on starting my own small business on the side. King Analytics is officially in business. I haven't had any official clients yet, but I just got my business license in the mail on Saturday. You can check out my website at http://www.kinganalytics.com. The site is still a work in progress as is the company, but I am excited about it. 

The boys have been busy finding slugs and other fun things in our backyard (see pictures). Anna has been busy learning how to crawl (see video below). She is a full on crawler now. She moves pretty fast too. She gets from one end of the room to the other pretty quick if she sees something she wants. The boys have been finding out that their train tracks and cars are no longer safe on the ground when Anna is in the room. So all in all, we are doing OK. We will see if we can remember to post a little more often.

Brandon's pet slug.

Here is Anna crawling with DJ wanting to get in the video.

 

To top off the busy weekend in AZ we decided to have a private blessing for Anna in Arizona. We thought that would make it easier for all the family to not have to travel up here. It was very special. We only invited our immediate families and Papa and Mama (Anna's Great Grandpa and Great Grandma). It was nice of everyone to come. Anna wore the dress that I wore for my blessing. She looked like a little doll. We sure love our little girl. She is growing up way too fast!

Through the years our kids have liked to be wrapped up in their blankets burrito style. We have taken pictures of each of them wrapped up so I decided to put them all together into one to compare them. When I first decided to do this I thought they were closer in age, but Brandon is quite a bit older than the other when his picture was taken. They are cute little kids. You may need to click on the picture to get a bigger image to see it in more detail.

Anna continues to smile a lot. We finally caught a couple smile on camera. In the picture you can't see the outfit she has on, but it says, "Nobody's perfect...but me." She looked so sassy in it. I hope she turns out to be a perfect little girl, but I hope she isn't so sassy about it.