"Blah" Remnants

January has been a "blah" kind of month for us - coming off of holiday highs to cold, early, dark mornings... way too much snow... snow... more snow... trying to get back into routines and failing miserably... getting the flu and being completely knocked out for a week... I vote that we get rid of the month of January entirely. Despite feeling somewhat "blah" all month, we have had some fun here and there. I've posted most of it already, but here are the remnants of the fun we've had during this "blah" January. :)

Ha ha! Love these two kids. I have no idea what they were watching, but Laura pulled herself up to watch with Cayden. (No, we don't let them watch TV this close. But it was too cute and I had to get a picture.)

This girl has awesome hair. And it leads to awesome bedhead. I love getting her up from naps to see what her hair is going to look like. This bedhead is hands down the best I've seen yet.

Visits from Uncle Greg. Cayden and Laura love having him come over! Laura is modeling Greg's hat here... a hat he actually wears?!?! He doesn't wear pants, but he'll wear a goofy hat. Love that kid. :)

Celebrating Uncle Greg's birthday! We're going to miss him when he leaves on his mission in May. (Xalapa, Mexico... so excited for him!)

Gym Class

Since the end of September Cayden has been going to gym class every Friday. I'm not actively trying to teach Cayden gymnastics, but it has been helpful in teaching him to listen and follow directions and it has helped him become more confident. A few weeks ago the kids did a mid-season showcase to show off some of the things they have been learning the past few months. Cayden was quite the ham and still thinks he needs to say 'TA DA!' after he does something.

Coming out of a roll.

Using the springboard to jump onto the foam blocks. Now the kids are working on jumping and landing on their feet instead of their knees.

Doing flips on the high bar. Cayden never would have done something like this four months ago.

My little monkey. Cayden tries to do lots of flips and things at home now.

More flips.

Being a goof on his favorite thing at the gym. Cayden loves the rings and would spend all day playing on them if he could.

Being a cheeser and posing for Mom.

Playing on his second favorite thing at the gym, the air mat.

While Cayden was showing off his mad skills, Laura had fun crawling around and getting into mischief. She wanted to do everything the big kids were doing. Maybe when she gets a bit older I'll have to enroll her in a gym class. :)

Laura was sitting on the air mat as it filled up. She thought it was pretty cool.

Crawling around on the floor while watching the kids.

Trying to climb back on the air mat.

Sledding!

Over the weekend Chad took Cayden outside to play in the snow. They started out building a fort and ended up sledding. Cayden loved it! I went outside to check on them after about an hour and despite the fact that Cayden's nose and cheeks were bright red, there was snot running all over the place, and he was freezing cold he refused to come inside.

Now to be completely honest, I think that this was the first time Cayden has ever played in the snow. Seriously. I don't think we've ever taken him out. Before this weekend he had never built a snow fort, or a snowman, or gone sledding. Ever. (Sadly, Cayden STILL hasn't built a snowman. We might have to fix that.) I guess Chad and I get the "bad parent of the year" (or years...) award. Regardless of the fact that we've been slacker parents, Cayden loved sledding and playing in the snow. Laura... not so much.

The snow fort Cayden and Daddy built. I think Chad was more into it than Cayden.

Yay for sledding! Laura had no idea what she was getting herself into.

Laura and Daddy on the way down.

By the time they got to the bottom of the hill, Laura had decided she wasn't a fan of sledding. Maybe next year. :)

Cayden was a much bigger fan of sledding than Laura. Chad and Cayden went out a few days later and built a mini jump on this hill. The first time Cayden went off it, he totally wiped out. He had some sort of road rash/snow burn on his face for the rest of the day.

2,192 Days

That's 6 years.

Plus 2 leap days. :)

***

As each year goes by Chad and I both say to ourselves, Wow! I can't believe __ years has gone by! And we mean it. Every single time. In some respects I feel like Chad and I have been married forever and it's hard to remember what it was like before we were married. But then again, I feel like we're only just beginning and I am so excited to spend the next 60+ years together. I'm grateful, and lucky, I get him forever. Not a day goes by that I don't consider myself lucky to be married to my prince, my best friend, the best husband I could ask for. You were and still are the perfect man for me. When you know, you know. :)

We celebrated our anniversary this year on a much smaller scale than last year, but it was perfect. Time with just Chad, sans kids, is always perfect no matter what we do. This year consisted of dinner at Red Lobster followed by self-inflicted torture... or a ropes course. Whatever you want to call it. I didn't think I was scared of heights (and I wouldn't say I'm terrified), but walking on a thin rope high above the ground tends to make one a little nervous and slightly nauseous. (Or maybe that was because I ate way too much food...)

Love this handsome man!

Kissy face. By the way, it was F R E E Z I N G cold outside.

A view of the ropes course. You walked on the light brown obstacles. Some were thin ropes, others were like railroad tracks... lots of different ways to get your heart racing.

Christmas Wrap-Up

We had a wonderful Christmas filled with lots of food, family, and fun! Here are a few of the pictures I was able to steal from Chad's phone and my sister-in-law's Facebook page. I have been so horrible at taking pictures lately!

Hall Family Party

Santa came to visit and Cayden waited so patiently for his turn to sit on Santa's lap and get his present.

He was so excited! He crawled all the way up to Santa.

"Hmm... I think I will eat that."

Laura got bored shortly after Santa arrived and spent the next hour playing with wrapping paper while Santa went through the insanely long list of people.

Higgins Family Party

Cayden getting a ride on Corby's chair. Cayden was afraid of Corby at the beginning of the night, but by the end they were best buds. Cayden loved riding on Corby's chair and has asked for one of his own. Oh goodness.

There were eight babies born this past year (one not pictured and one more on the way VERY soon, making nine)! We figured out that every married couple that could have a baby did. Kinda neat. Here they are in age order; Laura is the oldest by about 10 hours. :)

Each family decorated a gingerbread house. One of my favorites is in the bottom left corner... it's the house from Up.

Our family's house - AKA Cayden's house.

Cayden showing off his house during the gingerbread house parade.

All the little kids acted out the nativity for the adults. At this point in the story there shouldn't have been any kids on stage, but Cayden felt it was necessary to point out the star. No idea what he was doing. Goofy kid.

Cute kids wearing their hats that Great Grandma Higgins made for them. I love the pom-pom on Laura's hat.

Christmas Eve/Day

 Cute kids in their Christmas jammies. Clearly Laura did not want her picture taken.

Sleepy boy got what he had been talking about for months - a Talking Thomas!

Santa had to take a wild guess as to what Laura wanted. I think he did a pretty good job. ;)

Laura was almost more interested in the wrapping paper.

After her morning nap on Christmas Laura woke up with the best case of bedhead ever! This girl's hair is out of control.

Cute kids playing together with new toys. So sweet.

Later on in the day we went and visited Chad's grandparents. Chad's grandpa loves trains! He has a whole room in his house that has a massive set up with three separate trains that run. Cayden was in train heaven and loved getting to control the Thomas train. I think Cayden and Great Grandpa could have stayed there all day.

We had a mini second Christmas the day after Christmas. We had planned on buying a tablet for Christmas, but the one we wanted was out of stock everywhere and so we were planning on waiting several weeks to buy one. Chad called me early Wednesday morning to tell me that the Orem Walmart had ONE left in stock and that if we wanted it we had to go then. So I packed up two kids and drove through the nastiest, slushiest, snowiest weather to Walmart to pick up our tablet. It was a horrendous experience getting there, but I love the tablet, so I guess it was worth it. Merry second Christmas!