Snow Day!

It snowed one Sunday.  So after church, Nels dressed up the kids in their winter attire and out in the snow they all played.

I took a few snow pictures. :)

They played for a long time in our little patch of a front yard.  Nels shoveled our driveway and the neighbors driveway so they didn't run out of snow.

Nels helped build a snowman too.  They were pretty happy about it.

I think the snow was a big hit at our house.

December Wrap Up

And now for the last post for December.

I bought these little window stickers for the kids to play with.  Boy, did they love spending time decorating the window over and over again.

One of their favorite toys from Christmas was from Aunt Kierstin.  It's Kinetic Sand.  They do really well at keeping it in the box and they play and play with it.  It's easy clean up and a good time.

We made lots of chocolate covered pretzels.  We gave them to Nels's home teaching families and then we ate the rest.  Everyone liked them...even Kira. :)

Something I've been working on...a quilt for Isak.  It took a lot longer than I thought, but it's finally done as of the end of March.  Now I am working on a quilt for Kira.  I am hoping to get it done before the babies come...30 days from today (today being April 11).  

A pregnancy photo.  I think I was around 15 weeks here.

After potty training the kids, this is what my bathroom always looks like.  A Car stool and a Minnie Mouse stool that both light up.

Hanging out (or torturing) Dad.

The kids went through a phase where they would dump all sorts of toys in a laundry basket, put a blanket on top and sit on it.  I guess that's fun...they sure thought it was and spent hours rearranging their toys in the baskets.

On one of Nels's days off, he went snowboarding at Brighton.  I challenged him to take a few pictures. :) And he did great.  I think I asked him to take a selfie, ask someone to take his pic, a photo of nature, a photo of a sign and then one of anything he wanted to.
So here's his selfie...all ready to hit the slopes.

Here's the photo of whatever he wanted.

Bonus selfie.

He asked someone to take his pic.

Nature photo.

And a picture of a sign and bonus points...he is in the pic too.  :)  He had fun snowboarding and the weather was awesome...snowy all day.

Just relaxing together!  I don't think this lasted long.  But I thought it was cute how they were close together.

Kira went through a very short dress up phase.  She dressed up at Nels's parents house.

Christmas pj's!

Sometimes I look at these two little miracles and I'm in awe that they are 3.

For New Years eve, we went sledding with my family and spent time at my sister Melissa's house afterwards.  We had coats, mittens and hats but we had yet to buy boots.  Apparently, if you don't buy them when they first go on the store's shelves, you're out of luck!  Nels went into a ton of stores during the week after work.  Then we tried again on our way to my sister's house.  We finally found boots at a Payless Shoe Source.  They were $30 a pair.  We got them a size too big...because that's all they had and hopefully, they will last another year.

So we finally got all decked out in our warm clothes and enjoyed our first sledding experience.

There they go!

It was cold...I think it was in the twenties.

Nels did awesome going up and down the hill with the kids.

My sister Kari and I were pregnant with boy/girl twins at the same time.  Here we are together.  I think I was 19 weeks and Kari was 33 weeks.  We were 14 weeks apart.  She had her babies January 29th.  And they are oh so cute.  I think I have pictures later of them.  Anyways, so we took this picture and I made her hold up two fingers...you can tell she is thrilled to be taking this picture.  :)

But it's not everyday two sisters are pregnant at the same time with twins. :)

And left to right...Kari, Mandi, Melissa and Me...we are missing our youngest sister Jenny.  We missed you Jenny girl.  It was a fun New Year's Eve.

One day...I sat down to rest for a bit and Kira sat on one side of me and fell asleep.

Shocking right....

and Isak fell asleep on the other side.  I didn't know what to do...oh wait...I fell asleep too.

And so everyone remembers that life isn't perfect even if I post lots of happy, smiling pictures...This is what happens lots of times.  Two crying toddlers.  Right now, when they get upset (usually because I said "no.") they run to the stairs and cry.  When they are "happy" again they get off the stairs and tell me, "I'm happy now."  Okay.  And we move on with our day.  Everyone needs a good cry.  

And that wraps up December and the year of 2015!!!

Our Date In the City

Nels was able to take work off a lot of days in December.  So one day off, we dropped the twins off at Nels's parents house and drove to the big city...Salt Lake City.  It was so wonderful to be alone together for a while!  We both enjoyed it.  Our first stop was lunch because we were starving.  We went to The Cheesecake Factory.  We shared a plate of steak because their servings are huge and we shared a huge piece of cheesecake.  

Here's Nels waiting for his lunch at the restaurant.  Isn't he handsome?!

And here's the Hershey Bar Chocolate Cake Cheesecake.

Together we barely finished it off!  During this time in my pregnancy I was craving chocolate cake all of the time.  So this definitely satisfied my craving. :)

Then we did a session in the Salt Lake Temple.  I loved being in the temple together.

I think I was about 16 weeks pregnant here.

The temple is just beautiful and ornate.

And Tall.   I barely got the Angel Moroni in at the top.

After attending the temple, we shopped around City Creek Mall.  We found this little fireplace and sat down and relaxed for a few minutes.

The lights came on.  We invited Nels's parents to come with the kids to walk around temple square.

It was freezing.  And Kira was pretty much not happy the whole time.  Poor girl.

Not the best pictures...but you get the idea.

Walking through the lights and seeing the different nativities was incredible.

Nels with the strollers.  I ended up carrying Kira most of the time to help her to be warm...and happy.

At least Isak had a pretty good time. :)

It was a wonderful Christmas date.