Oh what do you do in the wintertime, when all the world is white....and freezing cold?

Kaden is getting spring fever...or cabin fever....or whatever fever makes you antsy to get outside. Back in the summer & fall when we would go to the park, I would literally have to drag him away (even after HOURS there). He would kick and scream the way that would make any parent happy if their child were being kidnapped. I was always so worried that that is exactly what someone would think I was doing. Anyway, I can't wait for the warmer weather in a few months coming up soon. :) In the meantime, here's some of what we've been up to this year.

We went to In-N-Out in American Fork with our friends Ben and Amy from England. It was just as delicious as I remembered! I love that place. :)

I found out that Kaden is for sure double jointed like me. This is how he sits to relax. I can't even tell you how many times Shane has made fun of me for the weird positions I sit in and don't even realize it. It's just comfortable! :)

Almost three months ago Lexi got her helmet. Feb. 2 is her next appointment where they will either say she's done, or she has another two weeks. Either way, almost done! Sometime in the last three months, look what happened:

Lexi's hair...curly on top (I had just taken it out of her pigtails, so it's a little crazy.

This is the look we have grown accustomed to for three months. I didn't realize what was happening under that helmet until after her bath this morning. I decided to play with her hair for a while and saw this gorgeousness:

The flash washed her out in this pic, sorry, but check out how much beautiful, curly hair this little woman has!!!! I told Shane when we got married that I only married him because I always wanted a little girl with curly hair. Apparently, he is a good listener. ;) I can't wait for her to be done with the helmet so I can do her hair almost every day!! For those of you wondering, Lexi is still not walking. She will take 3 or 4 steps, then drop down to crawl since that's faster for her. And no, she still has ZERO teeth. I keep telling myself everyday that I can feel her teeth cutting through....one of these days it will be true. (Hopefully)

Play date!

Kaden's BBBBBFF, Liz, came over the other day and (as always) they had tons of fun. :)

Liz was being funny and smiling....until she saw the camera pointed towards her, then she put on her serious face. hahaha

Hugging! Liz was acting very protective of Kaden that day and made sure to keep one arm around him whenever he was close to her. Maybe she was worried someone would beat him up since he was wearing pink glasses and carrying around two baby dolls. ;)

Kaden is so stinkin' cute in this picture! lol It makes me laugh every time I see it. He totally posed and leaned in closer to Liz and everything. It was adorable! Liz kept her arm around the back of him and did her serious "don't-mess-with-my-man" face.

Lexi had fun following the big kids around.

And sticking out her tongue. She has been a bit obsessed with it lately. haha

Lexi's favorite toy? The blinds. So glad Santa spent all that money on Christmas presents.

Peek-a-boo! :D

Happy New Year's!

Yay! I am all caught up on posting for the last year now! Woo! For New Year's Eve, we went to a friend's house and had a Rook tournament, ate tons, and just got to hang out. It was awesome! I didn't get any pictures ON New Year's Eve, but we went back a couple of days later and played again....

Kaden singing with Rock Band

Kaden is obsessed with Foosball. :)

Shane was tired and fell asleep while we were playing Rook. Jared (Stephanie's younger brother) tried different things to wake Shane up. We were all laughing so hard. I told them that once he is asleep he sleeps like a rock and that I literally have to punch him to wake him up. After many failed attempts, Jared grabbed his guitar and started serenading Shane. Jared is really good at freestyling (making it up as he goes) and made up a whole "Wake up Shane" song. He strummed very loudly next to Shane's face and THAT is what finally woke him up. :) I got this picture right after Jared had put the guitar back and Shane was laughing at his new song. :) I love having good friends.

Lights at Temple Square

On December 28th, we went to Temple Square to see the lights before they are taken down until next year. We went with our friends and their family (we love being adopted...haha). This time Kaden was forced to wear his gloves (the hardships I put my kids through....sigh) and I had warm gloves! Woo!

Lexi was bundled up as much as humanly possible, yet she was still SO. COLD. One of the guys in our group carried her around (what is it with guys having insanely high body temperatures?!) and that helped. :)

We stopped in the visitors center for a couple of minutes to meet up with everyone. Kaden enjoys people watching as much as I do.

I love the architecture of the Salt Lake temple! And all the little details. It is gorgeous!

Kaden ended up being carried, too. So glad we brought the double stroller....

I like this picture because it has the angel Moroni on top, but I don't like it because of the people at the bottom.

I love this picture because of the reflection in the Reflection pond...or pool....or whatever, but it bugs me that the angel Moroni is cut out (thank you so much Shane for pointing that out....). This, ladies and gentlemen, is why I am not a professional photographer. :)

I think it was around 5 degrees that evening (literally-not exaggerating), so we stopped in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building to warm up for a bit. Kaden liked this a lot better than the lights. haha

Poor little Lexi

The day after Christmas (when we went to my dad's house), I noticed a slight rash on the back of Lexi's neck. I didn't think anything of it. I have extremely sensitive skin....if I itch my neck it looks like a cat attacked me for a good 30 minutes after. I just figured Lexi was poked or something else to cause the redness. The next day, however, it was all. over. From mid thigh up to her scalp. And a lot more red. Since it was a Sunday, we had to go to insta-care. You know it's bad when even Shane agrees to take her to the doctor. ;) I took some pics with my camera phone, so sorry about the quality, but I was worried they would have some magic cure-all and I wouldn't have proof later of her rash.

Oh look at that little face. :( Poor thing. They weighed her and then the doctor came in. She asked lotsa questions and when I said that Lexi was perfectly healthy (other than the rash) and hadn't had a fever in the last week, the doctor was perplexed. Doc said that the rash looked like Roseola, except that Lexi wouldn't have Roseola without a really high fever the last 2-3 days. Doc left and then came back with a specialist from another part of the hospital. I asked if it could be a food allergy and they asked what she had eaten in the last 1-2 days that she hasn't had before. I had thought about this already, and told them caramel. Doc told me that at Lexi's age, the only things she would be allergic to (food-wise) would be milk or wheat based products...not caramel. (That was a huge relief...a life without caramel isn't a life at all.) Anyway, the first the the specialist said when she saw the rash was, "Oh. It's Roseola. How high was her fever?" I smiled to myself as the Doc told her that Lexi hadn't had a fever. At which point they both just stood there and looked at Lexi. The specialist told Doc that she had a mystery on her hands. Doc did some more research and said that it must just be something viral that would go away on it's own in 3-7 days. What caused her the most concern, however, was that Lexi had lost over 1 lb since her 1 year appt. (which was less than 2 weeks before). Lexi now weighed 17 lbs. Not good. I was told to fatten her up. Yeah, right. Like this girl doesn't eat tons anyway! Now she gets pudding at every lunchtime (and sometimes dinner) and a chocolate protein powder with her milk (she is supposed to be on half and half, but that didn't react the best with her stomach...). Anyway, I keep weighing her about once a week and she is slowly gaining weight again. :) Oh, and the rash was completely gone about a day and a half later.

Christmas 2009!

Yes, I am finally posting our Christmas pictures. I think the rule is you have at least a month after, right? ;) On Christmas Eve, we went to Shane's parent's house for dinner, games, and (of course) presents! It was so much fun and of course I forgot the camera. Kaden got a train set (he refused to put it down for 24 hours. He took it to bed, to the bathroom, in the tub....literally everywhere). :) It was lotsa fun! Then, we came home and opened Christmas Eve gifts (new PJ's), which the kids looked adorable in.

On Christmas Day, it was hands down the BEST Christmas I have had in a long time. It was such a relaxing day! The kids slept until 7:30ish, then I got to use my brand new Belgian waffle maker (YUM!!!!!) and we had a delicious breakfast with eggs, sausage, and WAFFLES!!! I LOVE waffles and the waffle maker we got when we were married (5 years ago) broke somewhere along the way (from overuse...*cough*). I have been wanting a nice one for foreva and when I saw one at the Black Friday sales, I knew Shane would love his gift to me. ;)

Note to self: 6' trees are a whole lot shorter than they sound. I put it up on a box, which accomplished two things: 1) make the sad lil' tree look bigger, and 2) get the ornaments away from Lexi. :)

I was so excited for Kaden to finally have a basketball hoop!

Christmas morning-I wanted a picture of Kaden's face when he saw the bball hoop. Instead, we get this confused-just-waking-up look. "Why are they taking pictures of me walking??"

Can you see the huge smile on his face? :) We had to raise it up as high as it will go because he could just walk right up and dunk it. Which, even at it's highest, he can still do, but at least now he has to get on his tippy toes and stretch just a bit.

Me opening presents with the kids. Lexi is obsessed with paper and loved being allowed to rip it.

Santa brought Kaden bath bubbles and Lexi got bath numbers & letters. I put her in the tub after our yummy breakfast and she kept eating the bubbles. lol That's why she has a bubble goatee. :) Dang-she's ADORABLE!

Kaden played with his train set ALL. MORNING. My mom and siblings came over later to exchange gifts before heading to my grandparents house for dinner (as we have ever since I was born...). The next day, we had dinner at my dad's house. Someone at church asked me how I was "so lucky" to get three separate Christmas dinners. I told her, "Well, my parents are divorced." I could see the instant regret on her face, so I tried to make a joke out of it. "I guess there are some benefits of divorce, right?" She just kind of chuckled and murmured "yeah." then walked away. hahaha I thought it was hilarious. :)

Where do I start....?

Ok, so since the last time I posted was after Lexi's birthday (a month ago) and we have had two major holidays since then.....I will be posting a lot today. :) K, I think I will start with when we went to Christmas Village in Ogden (it was Dec 4th). I forced asked some friends to come so that Kaden could have some company. :) It was absolutely FREEZING and Kaden refused to wear his gloves. I didn't have any, either, so I could feel his pain. (Don't freak out, we both got a couple of pairs for Christmas.) On the way home, though, I could tell when my hands were warming up because all of a sudden there were a hundred needles stabbing them. Major ouch. I knew Kaden's hands were probably more numb than mine, so, being the total genius that I am, I decided the fastest way to warm him up is a nice, hot bath. Um, yeah. Numb hands on the verge of frostbite + warm water = burning pain combined with the stabbing needles. Poor kid. He is okay now, but he wasn't the biggest fan of putting his hands in water for a couple of days after wards.

Liz getting all sorts of bundled up.

Kaden and Liz were loving the trains and Mickey and Minnie Mouse

Kelly was lucky enough to have a bun in the oven to help keep her warm.

Ooooo.....trains.

Julee's little girl, Maddie, warm and cozy.

Shane showing Kaden baby Jesus.

Lexi enjoyed the whole thing....

Kaden looks terrified, but Liz is having fun. haha

Just kidding....

Ok, so I had over 500 pictures to sort through this past weekend. I didn't get around to a blog post since I didn't think you guys would want to see 500+ pictures. :) One coming soon, though....

Fo sho

So I learned that you are NOT supposed to yank really hard on a laptop cord if your husband's foot is on top of it (or ever....whatever...). I have been without my precious laptop (I named her Shirley) foreva! I mean, like, almost two weeks. At least that is my excuse for still not blogging about all of our Christmas fun. Since I now have my laptop back, I promise that I will post a TON this weekend, so check back for lotsa pics. :)

Great way to start the new year...

This morning we have get to go to a ward primary breakfast to "meet our new class." I have been watching these sunbeams for the last 3 months that we have been in Primary and, oh wow, are we in for a real treat. The meet-n-greet this morning was advertised as a "light breakfast pajama party." No one specified, but I am thinking they are expecting me (and the other women) to be wearing bras. Lame.