SNOW!

We finally got a little bit of snow to play in. I never thought I would hear Chris complain from LACK of snow, but even he has missed it this year. The Day after New Years we went up to my moms house. They had a light dusting of snow on the hill across from their house and we took advantage. Kaden was thrilled to be sledding.

The tube we brought lasted about 2 seconds before it was flat. So we switched to Hunters sled.

Taycee didn't want to go down the hill unless Daddy went with her. Chris was such a good sport and climbed on. Mind you he had no snow clothes on and was soaking wet by the time he made it down the hill. Good Daddy.

This last Saturday we got our first big snow storm. We had all of the Clayton Family plus Jenny and Pete at our house, so at 8 oclock at night we decided to all go out and build a couple of snowmen. The kids were in heaven. Many snow ball fights occurred. Ben climbed up the tree in our front yard and created our own personal snow storm, and after all was said and done we had 2 awesome looking snow-people.

Check out the sweet nose on this guy.

Yea for finally being able to play in the snow.

A Sunbeam!

Taycee is now a sunbeam! She was so happy to be with the big kids and out of nursery. She (literally) marched right in and to her chair and didn't look back once.

I said "okay lets take a picture for your first day of Sunbeams" and she started singing the sunbeam song. I caught her right in the middle of a "beam!"

I think the word that more accurately describes Taycee is a FIREBALL not a sunbeam. :D She is full of energy, naughtiness, sass, determination, spunk, attitude, and every once in awhile she throws in some cuteness.

She is still singing lots and lots of songs. They are getting quite entertaining. The other day she was being a stinker and I grabbed her by her arms and made her sit down so I could get her pants on. She layed down and started singing ( in the same sing song voice she sings everything in)

"Sometimes my mom is mean....my mom use to be nice.... what happened to my mom?"

Another night we had broccoli for dinner and she didn't want to eat it. After lots and lots of arguing about it she went silent for a minute and then started singing. "Every one should share, it is good to share, we should share our broccoli. Mom and Dad, you can eat my broccoli."

She keeps me on my toes. She is obsessed with Addison still. We thought it would wear off as she got older. If anything it has gotten worse. I say a million times a day.. "Taycee just take one step back from her" She is always right in her face and kissing her hands. It is totally out of love... but man she can give rough loves.

Taycee Lynn Boo,

Mommy loves you. Despite our daily battle of wills I wouldn't trade you for anything. You are going to be a strong independent woman who knows what she wants and does whatever it takes to get it. I just hope I can point you in the right direction and hang on for the ride. :D You are a great big sister and I hope you always try to take care of your little sister the way you do now. You are excellent at helping me unload the dishwasher. :) You can keep that up too.

Don't grow up too fast. But feel free to grow out of this super naughty stage any time ;)

Love,

Mommy.

New Years Eve in a minute

This New Years Eve we had a "minute to win it" game at my moms house. The Claytons came back a little earlier than planned so they got to come with us. It was A LOT of fun. We divided up into four teams and battled out each round. 2 teams would play each other and then the winners of each round would play each other to determine the final champion. We kept track of points on a board and when all the games were over the team with the most wins got prizes.

I tried to get pictures of all the games but failed. I did get pictures of most of them though. They are all pretty blurry because we were in a room with terrible lighting and people were moving pretty fast.

Fishing game:

The player had to try and hook all of their candy canes onto their "hook" they were holding in their mouth. No hands could be used.

Marble Tennis Racket Game: Holding a tennis racket in between the knees the player must roll a marble around til it lands in the center square marked in blue. (no hands)

Straw Feather Game: The first player to blow the feather off the opponents side of the table wins.

Dice Stack Game: The first player to dice stack all 5 dice (and keep them there for 3 seconds) on the end of a popsicle stick held between their teeth wins.

Cliffhanger: The first person to blow a card to the edge of the table and have it hang without falling off wins.

Marshmallow Toss: First player to catch 5 marshmallows in a container on their head wins. Or the most marshmallows in a minute.

Feather Blow: The team to keep their feather in the air the longest (by blowing it) wins.

Marshmallow Jump: The first player to empty the bucket of marshmallows strapped onto his/her back my jumping up and down wins.

hahah. Does anyone else have a grandpa cool enough that he would do this??? AND WIN??? It was awesome, and a tad bit frightening.

Hanger Hang: The first player to hang all five hangers on each other without them tipping wins.

Sticky Nose: The first player to transfer all their cotton balls from one plate to the other by dipping their nose in Vaseline and then sticking the cotton balls to them wins.

Other games we did that I didn't get pictured.

Noodle Carry: The first player to transfer 6 penne noodles onto a plate on the opposite end of the room wins. No hands can be used and the noodles must be transferred by a spaghetti stick held in the mouth.

Marble Roll: The first player to knock down a pencil at the end of the hall by rolling a marble into it wins.

Peanut Butter Ping Pong:Two pieces of bread covered in peanut butter are laid at the end of long table. The first player to bounce a ping pong ball and get it to stick on their bread wins.

Hex Nut Stack: 6 hex nuts are put on a pencil. The first player to stack all the hex nuts using the pencil wins.

We ended the night by making home made ice-cream using liquid nitrogen. We made 2 different flavors. Oreo and Banana Caramel. They were both delicious. Jenny was super excited about the whole thing.

The quote of the night went to Kelsey who saw the can of cashews getting hit by the liquid nitrogen fog and handed them to Ben saying "Careful, this is going to freeze your nuts!"

It was a super fun night, and a great way to welcome in 2012!!

6 month stats

Our little miss is 6 months old. I hate saying that. When people see her they always say, oh you have a little new one there and I just smile and pretend like they are right and that she is still my tiny little newborn. However she seems to be trying extra hard lately to remind me that she is getting bigger and older and is not a tiny newborn.

She is now rolling both ways.

She reaches for and grabs toys now.

She eats quite well off of a spoon.

She is a drooling queen, I think she must be cutting her first tooth.

She has great leg muscles and loves to stand.

She loves baby Eisenstein.

She still isn't sitting at all. She has very little muscle in her core area. The Davis Learning Center came and did an evaluation on her and she is testing at about a 3 month old level for most of her skills. They said that is not too bad considering the early and rough start that she had. We are going to start having someone come to our house and work with her to see if we can't develop some more muscle tone and motor skills.

We went to the doctor last week and she weighed in at a WHOPPING...

11 lbs. ha. She is still below the 5th percentile. The doctor said he was hoping she would start to catch up a little but she seems to just be following her own curve. A lot of that is due to the fact that she doesn't eat much. She averages about 24 ounces in a day. ( 4 ounces every 4 hours) Dr. Silas said that is what a lot of newborns are eating. He would really like us to feed her more but with her acid reflux if we feed her more than that she spits most of what she eats back out. So we stay at the 4 ounces and she stays content and doesn't spit.

She is 21.5 inches long. Which is actually tall for her weight. She is in the 10th percentile for height. Head Circumference was 16 in. 5th percentile

All in all she is a little tiny thing, but she sure takes up a BIG place in our hearts!

Taycee 6 months old

Weight: 16 lbs

Height: 26 inches

Kaden 6 months old

Weight 20 lbs 14 oz

Height 30 inches

haha every time I look back and see how huge Kaden was I think, "HOW in the world did I carry him around everywhere for 18 months?" He was such a HUGE baby. Fat and Happy.

Little Miss is 6 months old

It's true... she is 6 months old. (A moment of silence please) Will someone please tell me how to keep her this little forever???? Or at least til I can have another little one.

Here are some of her 6 month pictures.

Doctors Stats will be posted soon.

We struggle daily to keep her safe from all the love her sister gives. I have a new understanding of "kill them with kindness"

She is tiny. She is precious. She is LOVED.

Christmas Part 2

Christmas is always a day full of fun and surprises and this year was no different. The kids actually let us sleep til about 6 before they woke us up bursting at the seems with excitement. When they saw what was in their stocking they both squealed with delight... the best part is that Santa stuffed their stocking full of fruit snacks. They are easy to please I guess. Kaden was such a sweetheart and passed out all of his fruit snacks to everyone in the room.

Mom and Dad bought these coaster cars for the family. They were a hit. All the kids big and little spent most of the day racing around the island in the kitchen on them.

Grandma helped Addison open her presents.

This girl has AWESOME bed head

The kids all ready for church. Grandma Clayton bought the girls matching dresses. Too bad Addison was not happy about pictures.

Grandma Sharp won the best present award this year for Taycee with a Rapunzle wig. Taycee had to immediately put it on and go look in the mirror.

Her 2 favorite presents. The kitty and the wig.

Kadens favorite present this year was his laptop. (which was actually Chris's really old crappy laptop that we wiped and but a few games on, it is no I-Pad but the kid was happy)

Santa kind of forgot about Addison this year but promises next year he will have a few things to fill her stocking!

Chris got a hydrolic lift, and some much needed clothing.

I got a sweet coat, a vacuum, and a toaster oven.... but my FAVORITE present by far was Chris taking a few days off of work after Christmas to stay home with our family and play.

It was a great Christmas!