Getting older isn't too bad if you are with the right people

Last week we took a walk together as a family and the fresh air was amazing. This little guy insisted that he only walk on the snow, not matter how high or uneven it was.

 We have seen a very welcome change in Lyza since she turned 4. She has always been a good girl, but she seemed to mature over night when she turned 4. Of course she is still a 4 year old, but she is much more helpful and reasonable lately. It is especially fun to watch her try and help her little and much less reasonable brother

 She gets excited to help her mom with different projects and activities and is really good at helping make jam

 This little guy loves getting all his winter gear on and whining to go outside. That usually means he has wicked hat hair from putting his toque on and off all day

 Kim had an ultrasound appointment on Thursday and we found out baby #3's gender. Kim found out at the appointment and surprised us with gender reveal eclairs later in the day. Pink filling means a girl and blue (or slightly green) filling means a boy

 I don't think Nixon understands what is going on and about to happen, but he sure liked the eclair

We didn't get great pictures from the ultrasound, but here is my favorite of our squished little boy

I said before that Nixon loves getting his winter clothes on and I meant it. Looking at this picture you would think it is 20 below in our house. Silly little boy. 

 This train set sure has its moments

 Kim made some bubbles for the kids to play in one day. Lots of fun...

 ...until Lyza got some in her eye. Sad

 I had my birthday yesterday. I got a yummy breakfast and then told the kids that I would take them outside to play while I did a fence repair, cleaned the yard up, took down the Christmas lights, and replaced the headlight bulbs for my car. Kim suggested that I open my gift first

 I got a new tool set that came in handy for that repair and yard clean up (the drill for the fence repair and a reciprocating saw for the yard clean up). Thanks!

 Kim and I got the kids a babysitter and went to a movie together in the afternoon. We saw The Finest Hours and loved it

Kim and I need to go to more movies. We watch lots of movies at home, but there is something different about watching a movie in a single sitting during the day versus watching it in 3-4 nights because we are too tired to watch more than 20-30 minutes at a time.

We came home and shortly after this little guy woke up from his nap. So cute!

 I requested pizza for dinner and this fine group was up to the challenge

 They are a well oiled pizza making machine and made the most amazing Hawaiian pizza ever

 Later we had Skor trifle (death by chocolate) 

Kim had a hard time getting the candles lit because Nixon kept blowing them out

 Lyza also made me this adorable birthday card. She was really concerned that I wasn't having a dinosaur birthday like she did.

Thanks for the birthday wishes, I had a great day

Take care

Good-bye January

January hasn't been that exciting. We all got sick at least once and I have been super busy at work. We are all hoping February is a little different.

The kids have had some fun here and there. Like brother and sister tea parties with Elmo.

 There is a Laurie Berkner song called "balance beam" and when it was on last I pulled a piece of wood from the garage and put it down on the floor for us to use as a balance beam. We were surprised how much fun the kids had walking on the balance beam.

 Even with a mustache she is beautiful

 Getting out of the house for a walk has been a big deal...Nixon is still wearing his pajamas

 Nixon pulling a dinosaur around in a wagon

 Lyza pulling a dinosaur around in her wagon

 These moment don't happen enough

 Lyza has been enjoying her preschool activities

 The day they learned about the letter V they made volcanoes

 Lyza's best friend has been letting her borrow different toys each time Lyza visits. This last time she lent her two elephant stuffed animals. Lyza had to come home and watch Dumbo to celebrate

 This Mega Blocks set has seen a lot of action

 Kim got a sewing bug and made Lyza this little dress to wear to the beach. I had to tell Kim that making this dress wasn't going to make summer come any faster ;)

 To make this boy happy you either give him milk, peanuts, or a banana

 If you really want to make him happy you let him go outside and play in the snow

 The kids also love to watch our Video 365 video over and over

 Lyza got a special date with her mommy yesterday. They went to the library and got dinosaur books and a movie. She told the librarian about her love for dinosaurs and the librarian found two different dinosaur stamps for Lyza. After that they went and saw The Good Dinosaur at the movie theater. Kim said it wasn't that good, but Lyza didn't agree ;)

We have two birthdays and an anniversary coming up, so it should be a fun month. Take care

January slump

It is hard not to get into a bit of a slump in January. We just had Christmas, time off, fun times with family, and a month of sugar overload. Add to that cold weather and sickness and it can be pretty bleak.

That aside, we have still managed to have a little bit of fun. We got a lot of snow in December and it is slowly melting. That means we have had some crazy icicles 

I painted our main bathroom over the Christmas break and for some cheap artwork Kim did a photo shoot of the kids in the tub and we will put a few of the pictures up. Here are a few of my favorites.

 Unicorn?

 This is not the sight Kim wanted to see when she got Nixon up from his nap. We think he had a diaper malfunction (maybe he got the velcro undone) and he was also not impressed with what he found. He just kept saying "yuck!"

 I got Kim's plate hung up (she got the plate from her grandma Bullock) and Nixon likes it

Lyza got her 4 year old doctor's appointment, which meant shots, and she was one horrified girl. I told my boss about it and she bought Lyza a package of dinosaurs as a late Christmas gift/condolences gift. Lyza loves the pterodactyl  

 Imagine our horror when we open up our newly delivered Amazon Subscribe and Save packages and find these critters inside!

 The biggest news at our house recently was the moose that we had in our yard last Sunday. We woke up to this guy sitting in our backyard (I forgot to shut the gate the day before)

 Nixon checking out the moose while wearing his moose pajamas. It took a while to teach Nixon that what he was watching was a "moose" and not a "sheep"

 We thought it was cool at first, but when he started doing things like eating the branches of our apple tree or pooping everywhere we wanted him to go

"I know there is a moose, but I am trying to finish my cereal"

 We didn't mind too much when he decided to eat the broken branch that fell into our yard from our neighbor's broken tree

Eventually he left and it was a bitter sweet moment. Now I know why I am supposed to keep the gate shut. Sorry you had to clean up all the poop honey:)

Kim has gotten her craft on and made this nice valentines decoration

 Nixon raided Lyza's costume chest

 He also decided this week that we were waiting too long to get him changed into pajamas and took matters into his own hands. Who cares if your shirt is backwards or if you put your pant leg around your waist?

 Kim also made this inviting sign to spruce up our front door (they are actually pine needles, so using "spruce" was not really a pun)

To end things off here is a video of Lyza singing "the biggest dinosaur"

Take care

Happy New Year! Welcome 2016

We have had a great year and hope you have too.

Last year one of our friends made a video compilation with one second video clips from each day of the year. Kim really liked it and tried the same thing in 2015. Lots of our videos are longer than one second and we definitely missed some days, but it has been fun putting them together and watching the year go by in a (relatively) short time. This video is 15 mins so you have been warned. Enjoy our year and Happy New Year!