Bow Maker

Ali was making these bows one afternoon and made me one, then was quite pleased when I wore it until she went to bed--but of course I did!

Banana

Snack or hat? Why choose just one!

Kissy face

I let Ali put on some lipstick one morning, then she went and kissed Jake and got a great surprise: lipstick leaves kiss marks! Soon Jake had kiss marks all over his head!

Hammock

"Look, mom! I make a hammock!"

Prizes

Eli was playing some sort of game with Jake and from the other room I kept hearing, "Good, job Jake! You won another prize!" Apparently Jake was a natural at the game, whatever it was, and he won all these prizes! 

Sunday Best

I thought all my kids looks especially cute this Sunday morning so I took a picture.

They kept looking at Jake so for the last shot I told them to go ahead and look at him:)

Crafting

Over the winter break the kids made a bunch of crafts from, ironically, a Halloween craft book. We had some festive monsters:) Mummy pins, alien necklaces, vampire hand sanitizer (you dye the sanitizer red and the pumps are his fangs, cute!) and floating eyes.

Big Sister

Jake absolutely loved all the extra attention he got during the winter break because the kids were home all day. Ali would often even take him around with her when a friend was over. I am getting more and more comfortable with her doing that because she is quite good at making sure there are no tiny things around Jake that he could put in his mouth. Take this for proof: she created a circle of his toys around him to keep him safe.

Picture This

For Christmas I got two special paintings, ones that meant something special to two of my boys. Eli loves the painting by Greg Olsen "Take my Hand" because he thinks the boy in the picture is him--so sweet!

Logan saw Howard Lyon's painting "From Fear to Faith" in the Ensign years ago. He was drawn to it and wanted to know the story the picture tells, and then spent weeks after talking about it and drawing it. It seemed to me to be one of his first experiences really feeling the Spirit.

I am grateful for those whose talents help me and my family feel the spirit and grow our testimonies! 

Angelic

Ali snapped this selfie and I thought it made her look like an angel with the sun behind her:) 

Nesting

I'm not sure why but the kids like to make nests for Jake, and he doesn't seem to mind.

Happy New Year!

We had a fun family New Years Eve. We watched The Christmas Carol (which the kids were terrified of until after it was over and then loved it and played it all the next day), and set the timer for our "new year."

We rang in the New Year with toasts to a great new year:

Noise makers and goodies:

Homemade confetti:

And kisses all around!

Happy 2016!