Sledding

Jason is an awesome dad. The current proof is that he took the kids sledding in nearly zero degree weather because they really wanted to. The upside was they had the hill all to themselves:)

Someone had built a jump and the boys had fun catching some air!

Love

She loves books almost as much as I love her (not really, there's no comparison, but she does REALLY love books).

Fun Eli

This boy makes everything fun, even simply eating lunch. I just love that about him.

Book Worm

Jake still likes to read. One of his favorite things to read is the family books in my room while he's waiting for me to get ready for the day.

 Or the scriptures while he's eating:)

Tie

This young man ties his own ties for church, and was particularly pleased with how this knot turned out.

Peek-a-boo

He was playing peek-a-boo though this little house and giggling all the while.

Finger knitting

Ali has been enjoying a new skill: finger knitting. She spent some time one Sunday recently making quite an impressive chain. 

Dress Up

Every once in awhile my big boys dress up like they used to all the time!  Ah, nostalgia!

Goofy

He's so goofy!

Gymnast

Alison has been enjoying taking a gymnastics class this fall. They had a day recently to show off what they've been learning and give the kids a medal. 

She was pleased to finally have a medal/trophy to show for a class.

We're liking her coach, Paula. Way to go Alison!

Springfield

How lucky I am to have the kid of husband who goes along with my family-fun whims, like over Christmas break when I said, "Hey let's go to Springfield for a night!" and he said, "Let's do it." We'd never been, and heard good things, and it really was worth a trip.

The first day we drove out and went right to the Lincoln Museum which was very cool. Jason's favorite part was a sobering five-minute video that showed the battlefronts changing and the casualties going up during the Civil War. I loved the movie they had that had some cool visual effects, including turning our guide into a ghost and then making him disappear. Jake loved running and trying to escape the building.

We thought this display of Lincoln's boys making a total mess of his law office while he totally let them (something that apparently happened often) was funny, and Eli wanted to pretend he was in on the action.

Jake loved the Old Fashion Santa that was there and had to talk to him or give him a hug every time was passed him.

The big kids' favorite part of the museum was the souvenir shop, of course. Here is Eli, reporting for duty!

We walked a few blocks (in the 0 degree weather) to the Old Capitol Building where Lincoln used to argue his cases and wandered a bit.

We had to stop and take some pictures in front of some cool statues:

Including this one that was in front of Lincoln's old law office (we're reenacting this one!)

Then we went to the hotel where we ate pizza for dinner, swam in the hotel and hot tub, watched silly cartoons and generally had fun. Alison said her favorite part of the whole trip was the hotel.

The next day we went to Lincoln's tomb. It was very impressive. Logan and I had recently read Lincoln's Grave Robbers, a nonfiction book that outlined a plot to steal Lincoln's body shortly after he was killed, so he and I were interested to see the tomb where the whole book was set.

We also toured Lincoln's home. Jake and I only made it through about five minutes of the tour before we had to leave because Jake was very good being two the whole trip, but even the little I saw was cool! Jake is throwing a tantrum in this picture, which perfectly captured his behavior on most of the  trip, and I was ignoring him which kind of captured my behavior during the trip...I had a great time in spite of him! I'm glad we went!