We spend so much time touching up our photos and trying to get them perfect. Why is it so fun to make them look really old too? Check out Bakamatsu Koshashin Generator. You upload your digital photo, click convert, and a few minutes later you have a picture that looks 100 years old. Kinda fun.
Gavin's plaid and polka dot shoes
Coordinating elephant onesie
Tie onesies
Girlie shoes (they have matching heart onesies)
These were my very first pair that I tried. What I love about sewing is what you learn each time you sew. Each time you get a little better (hopefully!).
On Valentine's day we took the kids to the Arizona Museum for Youth. They held a special "We Love our Members" event that was a lot of fun. For Christmas this year, Grandma and Grandpa McMillan got us a membership to the AMY. It's always a good time. I couldn't take pictures of the actual exhibits, but I could take pictures of things the kids did. I wish I could have taken a picture of Myla looking at this exhibit of a large stone carving of a mother and child. She was fascinated by it. She said, "Mommy that's you and that's me!" in her very high pitched voice. It's so exciting to watch the kids get into art and actually apply to their own lives. I am learning that they are never too young to appreciate art -- in all of it's many forms.
We made Valentine cards.
I love the fun, age appropriate education activities the AMY has. One of the exhibits right now is an African theme, and here is a large puzzle of Africa. Cade just wanted to do this the whole time.
I call this the Ikea room. It seems like everything in it is from Ikea. Myla loved these little chairs that spun around. I could spin her for a half hour and she would still be asking for more.
We did some cookie decorating. I know what you're thinking, "Where are the aprons?" That's what I thought too. :)
It was really cool. They had edible ink markers to color on the cookies. Nice and tidy. I need to find me some of those.
Gavin was his usual sweet self, just watching everyone do their thing. 
Cade and Kevin love to build something out of the blocks just so they could knock them down.
Myla the Art-"eest"
Myla the Happy Tigress
Gavin the Patient Lion
Cade the Roaring Tiger
I cut out sponge hearts to dip in paint and sponge onto cardstock.
The kids couldn't get enough. I finally had to halt the sponge-a-heart operation. I later cut these up into 4.5 x 6.5 cards that the kids signed to include with a valentine that we sent out to grandparents and other family. Nothing fancy, but fun. (Yes, we are still in our PJs. We *heart* PJs too.)
Lots of paint on hands (and faces and arms and legs and...yikes...the carpet) and we went straight to the...
bathtub!
We also *heart* bubble baths.
I love little boys in ties. But have you ever tried to find one? Yeah, near impossible. Especially ones for little baby boys, like Gavin. I love this sweet blog Make It and Love It.
I really like this quote. We all have such different gifts and abilities and passions. What we have to offer the world is exactly what the world needs.
Gavin is an eater now. Any worries I had that he would always spit out his food and refuse to eat are put to rest. He still won't eat apple sauce, but that's okay. He is quite chatty now too. I like to think in this video he is telling me thank you for having to clean the dried biter biscuit slobber and squash off of him.
Nope! How can I wake up on the wrong side of the bed when I wake up to this face?
Myla uses specialized tools, such as a toy blood pressure cuff, to get to those hard-to-reach places.
She's not only hard working, she's dang cute too!
Her handy assistant, Cade, will take care of all the cosmetic needs of your vehicle.
Lollypops, apple juice, and trips to the park accepted as payment.
It isn't good enough to just watch Dora the Explorer on TV anymore...we've got to listen to the theme song on their FP3 players too. We got them these FP3 (Fisher Price 3) players for Christmas to help with the road trip to Utah. They really like them. We put their favorite TV show theme songs and primary songs and other Disney-type songs on them and they love to walk around the house singing at the top of their lungs. It's fun.
Here is Myla and Princess Paige. 
Any tea party is not complete without some handmade aprons by Maren, right? Maren made at least 11 perfect little aprons for each of the girls. Aren't they so sweet?! Myla is definitely an apronista-in-training. She made sure I hung it up right next to all of my aprons. I'm sure we'll be putting it back on again soon.
So, what do the boys do while the girls are "princess-ing?" We do boy stuff. We picked up James, Paige's brother, and headed off for our own morning-o-fun. First, we stopped off at Sonic for some blue slushies. Then we drove through the airport a couple of times to check out all the cool airplanes.
Any boy time involving James and Cade has to include trains. So we went home, put on their favorite Thomas movie, set up the trainset, and enjoyed two blissful hours of girl-free train time. And let me tell you, it was glorious. No fighting and no fussing.
After the slushies were purchased, the airplanes were seen, and the train was set up, Mom was no longer needed...so I enjoyed some Gavman time.
I was 13 years old when David and Richard were born, so I changed their diapers, fed them, played with them, etc. etc. I never did forsee the day when I would double date with them. Last night Kevin and I went on a double date with David and his girlfriend Rachel--who, coincidentally, used to be a student at Sequoia where I worked, and is the granddaughter of Kevin's boss. Small world. We went to see Yes Man and David, generous as always, paid for our tickets, after a little scuffle in line between Kev and Dave. We had a lot of fun and hope to do it again sometime! David and Richard are now almost 18 years old. They'll be graduating from Westwood this year and they are preparing for missions. They are pretty much adults and it's really fun to get to know them in this new phase of their lives. It's crazy to think that in a couple of years they could be away at college, or in the military, or married. I'm just grateful that they want to spend time with their super dorky older sister. :)
When I was a kid my mom couldn't keep candy canes on the tree. Of course, we were the type of family that liked to lick our candy canes to the sharpest point possible, and then poked each other with them. As a family tradition my dad would buy the big candy cane poles for each of us and then we would watch White Christmas and lick away on our huge candy canes trying to get it the sharpest fastest to see who we could draw blood on first. Well...we didn't draw blood, we did love each other. :) 
These were the road conditions when we got to Cedar City. Thank goodness Kevin was driving. It stresses me AND Kevin out when I drive in less than ideal conditions. :)
First, we spent a couple of days with Grandma Pat. We had a great time! We went sledding (see the following post), opened presents, played with our cousins, visited with family, ate yummy food, saw Christmas lights, played and got some great tips for my new serger.
We love Grandma Pat!
The kids LOVED this shaking ball thingy (yes, that's the official name) that Aunt Wendy picked out from them.
Well, at least Gavin got some sleep. :)
Cade and Aiden
Oliver has the cutest smile ever!
Then we went to Grandma and Papa McMillan's house for a couple of days. We played in the snow, ate more yummy food, opened more wonderful gifts, went to The Body Worlds exhibit, watched Wall-E, saw Aunty Caroline, visited and played.
Myla with Grandma Lynn
Papa pulling Kevin on a snowboard in the backyard.
My snow angel.
And my other snow angel.
Papa pulling Kev and Myla
Papa pulling Kev and Cade
We also got to visit our good friends Jared and Sienna. Poor Michelle couldn't come because she was sick. We missed her! Kevin and Michelle are cousins and Jared and Michelle lived in AZ for a couple of years while Jared went to school. We got to be great friends while they were here and we miss them now that they live in Utah again. Siena is their adorable daughter. We met at Temple Square and toured it a bit. When the kids got too rambunctious we went to a McDonald's with a playland. We had a great time!
