This has been my January

Ada and I made cute headbands for cousins birthdays

My kids decided that shredding the junk mail was funner than any other toys

We visited the mall play place with cousins Aubrey and Devin

Ada's starting to decide what to wear by herself... I love the boots with the boy coat.  Looks like something I would have done.

Mommy got a new piano book and tried to try it out... still haven't been able to without someone taking over.

We went to both cousin's Grace and Anya's bday parties... unfortunately I didn't have a camera at the other one... but they were both fun and both Ada and I enjoyed going to both.

Evelyn got her first piggy tail.

Ada had her first cavity filled.  Unlike the x-rays... filling the actual cavity only took about 10 minutes.  They showed her all the tools and told her where to put her arms and that she needed to be as still as a statue... and she did.

We had cousins come play

We fenced with them... Ada and I also started the next mini-fencers class up at our fencing place.

We went to the Thanksgiving Point train show

We didn't really have any snow at all... so our cats decided to be flowers

Evelyn learned to pull herself up to stand holding on to things

I was made these by my Ecuadorian friend... I you don't know what they are... they are chifles and are made from plantains.  They make them to go in the soups or on the side like chips... I miss some of the foods from Ecuador.  Chiviche being one of them. Achotillos being another... and fresh pinapple and coconuts... etc...

Jer, Jim and I also got a chance to go to the Opera company's Rigoletto in SLC.  Very well done!  I really like the third act and an unexpected flub... Gilda's boat got caught on the doorway as she was trying to get off the stage... it took 4-5 tries to get it righted... and being the awful people that we are, Jer and I giggled as quietly as we could about it. 

Then on our temple trip last night we saw so many people that we love and we're glad to see in the temple.  We saw Mary and TJ Bronley, Mandy and Aaron Bristow, The Wheelhouses, Jane Allred, Larry Simonson, Alan and Rachelle Robertson, Tiffany Smith and who knows who else...  It was really neat to be able to see friends and family taking advantage of temple blessings... and again it was reiterated to my heart how the blessings of eternity are for everyone that's willing. 

My camera phone

Ada's been enjoying the camera on my phone.  She randomly will take pictures of anything at any time.   And she takes pictures of her feet and chairs, etc... but sometimes she gets gems... like the one of me and Evelyn in the hall.

Well....

I've been wanting to get caught up on the last week or two of fun things that we've been doing, but I can't get the Pack Family out of my mind.  I read about them.  They are local.  And I couldn't help but cry and hold my three babies extra tight.  I'm sure they were wondering what my extra kisses were from.  Here are their two sights.

http://kellypack.com/
http://packoffixations.blogspot.com/

The hardest one for me is that they struggled for so long (years... and even had IVF done) to have their two boys... and now one is gone.  I'm so glad that the other is okay and I hope speedy recoveries are in order for both Kelly and Ryan.

Issuing a challenge

Sammy and Devin were wrestling on the floor.  Devin started cart-wheeling around and making shooting sounds... Sammy was a little insulted that they weren't wrestling anymore.  He yelled,"Stand up and fight!"

New

Now Ada has been to the dentist before... but on Friday she had her first cavity.  Yuck... I feel guilty.  Do I brush teeth with her often enough?  Did I forget her flouride too often.... yada yada yada.  That is, I felt guilty until we had to get an x-ray of her tooth to see how deep it was.  It literally took about 40 minutes to get her to keep the bite wing in her mouth long enough to get the dang picture.  What ended up happening was one tech held the button, one tech held the bite wing, I held Ada, and Ada didn't even have to close her mouth.  After that I was just annoyed.  One good thing about it though.  Jer had stayed with the other kids until I could get home and by the time I had to get there it was late enough that he would have only had about a 4 hour day... so he took a sick day.  Bad news is that I have to take her in on Mon to get the cavity filled.  Not sure how that's going to go over. I've had some good suggestions though... put some favorite songs on an mp3 player, let her watch a movie on my phone... but I'd have to sign up for or buy something for that one... it might be worth it though if she'll hold still.  Well... we'll see how it goes.

On another note, I must be losing my mind.  Within the last two weeks... I've had $10 disappear from my wallet, a $15 itunes gift card disappear from my wallet, and today $20 disappeared from my wallet.  I usually keep my wallet in my pocket at all times... so I'm guessing that I'm dropping things or taking them out and not putting them back in.  Am I crazy or what?

Things I don't want to forget but likely will

Ada, I love how you always ask for "Cereal in my milk."  We all know how much you love milk.

Sammy, I love you absolutely delightful giggle that you only get when we tickle you.

Evelyn, I love how you follow me around the house.  Anywhere I go, you crawl along with me.

It was one of those "you had to be there" moments

We went on a family "date night" last Friday.  I let Ada choose the movie since Sammy didn't really get what we were doing... (I asked him and all he would say was, "I want Angry Birds.")  So, we went to Puss-n-boots.  Fun movie, but in no ways amazing... We got there with enough time, they had seats for all of us together, but they were all in the front row... The kids were really good.  And after packing up and getting up to go, I couldn't move.  I tried walking across the floor and my shoes were stuck.  It didn't help that I was wearing some of those flats that come off really easily anyways.  Jer and I just laughed while I tried to peel my feet off the floor across half the theater.

Picture dump

So, I miss my camera ALOT!  Here are my favorite pictures from the holidays, but unfortunately they're not the best because I used my phone and my sister in law's extra lens (70-200mm) for most of them (thanks Becca!  I'm glad to have any pictures at all!), which means that I had to stand way far away... I wasn't sure how to compensate with my flash... and I couldn't get those cute close up shots very easily... but happy holidays anyways!  And again... I'm sorry, this is more in case my computer crashes than to show everyone my pictures. 

"My girls" playing with a little Nativity set (my mom, Ada and Evelyn)

My sweet and only living grandparent.

Devin, Ada and Aubrey... as always, the three musketeers.

Accompaniment to Jingle Bells

My "rough and tough" military brother painting his daughter's fingernails

Reading Christmas stories before bed

Visiting Temple Square

Waiting for Santa Claus at The Shops at Riverwoods

Undeniably the best Santa ever!

Aubrey and Ada at the Kangaroo Zoo

Ada, Aubrey and Devin had found my Grandpa's old canes and we "practicing being old"

Yes, our Jesus this year was dressed in pink.  At least her socks were blue.

Making cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve... Thanks Aunt Sharon for coordinating all of us!

"Sleepover" on Christmas Eve. 

Sammy and his flock.  He carried them all over and kept counting them all day long.

Ada and her sea ponies.  Happy girl!

I love EBAY.  Ada loves the old My Little Ponies... and is okay with the new ones... so I got an old My Little Pony castle on Ebay for $35 and it came with about 15 new ponies that she didn't have yet. I was very proud of this find.

This was a cardboard castle that my kids wanted to buy for Grandma and Grandpa... Evelyn didn't want to miss out on any of the fun.

Coloring the castle.  (side note... Ada's Christmas dress is one that my mom made for me when I was 4.)

What's a good Christmas without Aunts and Uncles?

She's just a sweet baby!  Love this little girl!

I love the "perpetual motion Samuel" pictures... He's like that.  I especially love the missing sock.

Not an amazing picture... but I swear that I'm at all these events too...

Evelyn has been playing with our cats through the window... too cute.

The Robertson Nativity.  We acted out the signs of Christ's birth in the America's.

Fencing... this particular one is James and Emily and two of their boys in the background

The New Years Eve tree.   Judy put jokes and money in the balloons for the kids to pop right before midnight.

Evelyn and buddy Joshua.  He kept pulling himself up next to her and bouncing her up and down.  She thought it was awesome!

Yep!  They're mine!

This was Grandpa Wilcox's Christmas present... They put it in their unfinished basement in the kids play area.  Ada and Sammy had an absolute blast!

Coloring the castle

You can't color it and not play in it right?

Ada at the Children's museum

Sammy at Children's museum

Cuddling with daddy

New Years Resolutions

Last year I didn't even bother to make any, but honestly... I always have something that I'm trying to accomplish... the difference is that I'm usually trying to accomplish something rather than better something.  So I will have the "to accomplish" list that I always have, but I want to make some "to better" goals too.

To accomplish
1. Official potty train Sam  (He has already peed in the potty, but I haven't tried to put him in underwear yet... I kept saying, "After the holidays." Now it is... so now is the time I guess.)
2.  Teach Ada how to write the whole alphabet. (She knows about a third...)
3.  Finish at least 4 projects before I start another one


To better
1.  How we manage finances
2.  How I clean the house (I keep it okay, but I'd like to step it up a notch)
3.  How I explain things to Sam. 
4.  How well my family eats.  (we don't eat junk, but I want to get them used to a bigger variety of things.  Especially my picky Sammy... the girls will eat pretty much anything I give them, but Sammy... we need to work on that a bit.)
5.  My cross training.  (I do a lot of the same exercises, but I need to cross train so that I can stop putting my hip out.)
6.  The kids scripture reading.  (We already read scriptures together, but we've missed the last couple of crazy weeks... I just want to get back in the habit.)

Well since I'm behind...

The end of the year holiday's are the busiest time of year for everyone... including us... followed closely by the 4th of July time.... but before I catch up on everything here, just a funny side note.


We were trying to put Evelyn down for bed at the Robertson grandparents... but since there were two other families there and we were too lazy to run and set up the port-a-crib we just made Evelyn a makeshift bed on the floor in the corner while we played games.  Put the other two in bed, put Evelyn to sleep and laid her on the floor... and of course she woke up and started looking around.  We thought maybe she'd go back to bed if we just left her... we heard some wiggling and then it was quiet... success!  Or so we thought.  When we went to pack her in her car seat we found her happily chewing the edge off of a kids book.  Luckily the book had been taped together and only really had two pages left in it... but I still felt bad.  I wasn't quite sure what to think because neither of my other two demolished things like books.  They liked cords and toys. 


As for the holidays.  It was a blast!  Jer's sister Marg and her family (3 kids, one on the way) came to stay for Christmas as well as Jer's brother James (3 boys), Jay and his new fiance (yes that happened over the Christmas vacation), and of course John and his family (8 kids, one on the way), and Becca (2 kids) came.  And all 5 of my brothers and sisters were around as well. 

Every night for two weeks there was some kind of party, game night, etc...   The most memorable ones.... Watching Sherlock Holmes 2 with Seth.  My parents moving and getting settled in.  McKay and Sophie moving back to Utah.  Jay and Emily getting engaged.  My camera lens breaking.  Games with James, Emily, Emily, Jay, John and Diane.  Movies with Jim.  Chocolate dipping with the our friends and my family for Jer's birthday, and then again with Jer's family when everyone had come into town.  Taking James, Em, Henry, Wesley, Jay and Emily fencing with us.  Rock climbing with Jer.  Seeing the lights and Nativity at Temple Square.  Performing both the Nativity Story and the Nephites story.  Taking cousins Joe and Eli to the Children's museum.  Caroling with neighbors on Jer's birthday.  Sing along at Jer's parents.  Hearing Jim tell about his mission.  (Jer and I scanned and restored all him mission slides (he went to Japan and Okinawa... I'm sure that's not how you spell it.) about 5 years ago for his birthday/father's day present and finally we get to hear all the stories behind the pictures!)  Singing at the Messiah Sing-in at the Orem library.  Having Jer home for a whole week and a half!  A cousin game night with my Wilcox cousins and Aunts and Uncles.  And of course... the  most fun of all.  Christmas Eve. 

We went to my Grandma's house for a Christmas Eve party.  We tried to do it like we've always done.  Family news, caroling, dinner, etc... but it's different when she can't remember who you are but is just pleased that you're there. It was still fun though, just different.  Then we went to sleep over at my parents house.  That was fun because all the kids got to sleep together... It was also a lot harder to get them to go to sleep but they finally did.  Then we stayed up to play games with McKay, Sophie, and Seth.  In the morning we did Santa presents (Ada didn't realize that the My Little Pony castle was for her... she just walked right by it... but when she figured it out, her face was spectacular, and Sam saw his new Lego's all built into a tower and said,"Yay!"... went over and smashed the tower to pieces... so for him, success... for me... not so much.)  Then we went and all got ready for church and opened a couple more presents until it was time to go.  Church was exciting because Sammy was extremely wiggly compared to what he usually is in sacrament.  Came home, made the traditional Wilcox Christmas breakfast, yum... and finished opening presents.  After that we played my mom's Christmas game... you do races at different things like stacking plastic cup towers, putting together a 25 piece 3D puzzle, throwing balls into a hoop, etc... and winning prizes.  Anything from a $1 bill or a picture frame that was laying around the house to a dinner voucher.  It is a fun game... And she has activities that the little kids can participate in as well.  Then we said goodbye, packed EVERYTHING and went to see Grandma and Grandpa Robertson for an hour or two before we went home and crashed. 

Jer made me a shadow box this year.  I'm not sure about everything that I want to put in it... but I have enough stuff that I think I can fill it without too much thought!  I have a piece of my Great-grandma Hardings' china, or doilies from my Great-Great Grandma Brooks... or I can help kids make paper machete things to hang in there... we'll figure something out!  Love you Jer!  Thank you for being thoughtful and creative!  I never would have thought to ask for a shadow box, yet it's something that I could definitely find a use for!  Love you!