We Love Snow!!!

(especially when we don't have to cancel school for it!!!)

Friday evening it started snowing here at our house. By Saturday we had roughly 5 inches of snow. North of us got WAY more snow, but we were happy with the amount that we got. The kids had lots of fun playing out in the snow all afternoon. I love that Amber is wearing this cute little snowsuit that we got for Weston when we lived in Utah, over 9 years ago. Not only that, we but we got it at DI, so it was already used!! :) It has gotten a lot of good use over the years. I had to practically drag my family in yesterday, they had so much fun outside!
While the kids played, Barth worked hard shoveling our driveway!! :) It reminded me of the days when he used to come over early in the morning before classes to help me shovel my hall when I was the RA. He is a good man and works hard for our family! I am thankful to have him.

And of course, it wouldn't be a snow day without lots of sledding! And snowball fights. Barth and the boys had an all out snowball war after all the shoveling was done. They even decided to throw some at me when I was out trying to take pictures. Aaron missed and got one right in the house on the kitchen floor. :)

I liked this picture because you can see how the snow is all piled up on the rose bush and trees. One of my favorite things about the snow is when it covers the trees and bushes and looks beautiful, just like a winter wonderland.

Doesn't all that snow just make you want to go build a snowman or make a snow angel?

We are supposed to be getting more starting tomorrow night! It should be fun!! Hooray for snow. We love it!

Mmmmm....yummy!

We decided to take the plunge today and start Evan on cereal! It was well received!!! He thought that it was very yummy indeed. :) By the end of what I had made up, he was gobbling it all down!!!!!
He made a mess for sure, but seemed to think that it was fun. I can't believe that he is already big enough for cereal. The time is flying by!

And, true to baby form, he really wanted that spoon!!! I did let him have it toward the end of the feeding. He thought that it was a fantastic toy!! It looks like we will be doing food now! Hooray for Evan!!!!

Evan

It is so hard to believe that Evan will be 5 months old tomorrow!! It is sure flying by fast. I just wish that Evan would roll over at other times than just in his sleep!! I know that he will be sooo much happier when he gets to moving around!!! :) He does love to sit up and look around at the happenings of the house. He loves his big brothers and sister!
Isn't he just so sweet? I love those cute little chubby cheeks. :) I have started all of my other kids on solids at about 5 months, but am not sure if I am ready to start Evan yet. He is still just soooooo very spitty that am not sure that I want banana spit up on the carpet. Hmmmm....we'll just have to see!!
Evan doesn't really enjoy being laid on the floor. One funny thing is that he knows that if I am in the room that I will pick him up and so he cries. There will be times when Barth has him and he is perfectly happy and content with him but as soon as he hears my voice, he cries and squirms! He likes his Momma!! :) I feel needed to say the least! and I love it!

Little miss Amber thinks that she is the second mother around this house and gives me lots of great help. If she even hears Evan peep on the monitor, she runs upstairs and is halfway in the crib before I even get there! It makes me smile. I am thankful for all my sweet little ones! I am blessed!

Glad to be back

....to feeling almost normal again that is. About a week ago I started getting sick. Thursday I felt my head getting congested. Friday and then into Saturday I had laryngitis. I thought that was the worst of it. I was wrong. Sunday I spiked a fever. Barth and my mom kept telling me that I should go in to the doctor. I don't like to go to the doctor, and since I can count on one hand the number of times that I have fun a fever since I left for college, I can usually get by without going. But, when I was still running a fever on Wednesday, I bit the bullet and went in. The doctor said that it was most likely the flu that I had had, that had now turned into a sinus infection. Lovely! Anyway, within about 8 hours of my first dose of antibiotic, I was already feeling so much better. The world doesn't stop when moms get sick. I must say that not much got accomplished at my house this week. I am finally feeling well enough to be getting all the things back in order that got left by the way side this last week. Hopefully I can get up some new posts too. Even though I am not a fan of my kids watching much television, I do say that there is a time and place for everything. This week, the time and place for that TV had come and I think that my kids have seen enough of Dora and PBS kids to last the whole next month! :) It doesn't matter though because it gave me some much needed rest. I am glad to be feeling almost back to my regular self!!! Hopefully this will fill my sick quota for the next 5 or so years!!!!

A cute blast from the past!

This popped up on my computer the other day and it reminded me of days gone by! It is hard to remember when Weston was just in Kindergarten! Enjoy our little blast from the past!

Curlers

Yesterday before church I was hot rolling my hair in an attempt to tame my crazy frizziness that comes when it rains. Amber came in and decided that she wanted some curlers in her hair as well. She looked so cute in hers curls. :) Her hair is so fine and straight that the rain made it all fall out before we even got to church. Perhaps we will use sponge rollers next time.
So, this is not the best picture of Amber, but here she is with the curlers in her hair. Lately she thinks that when I say to smile, that it means to close her eyes and smile. So this picture was obviously taken as she was in the process of closing her eyes. Oh well! She is cute anyway!!!

Released

Today the bishopric in our ward was released and a new one was put in. Since we have known about it all week long, I have had lots of time to reflect about this calling that Barth has had. I must say that I think that it has been one of he best callings that he has ever had. He has learned so much from Bishop Fedders. Our old bishop was (and still is) one of the kindest, most caring and giving people that I have ever known. His wife is the same. Barth has grown so much and learned so much from the hand of this fine man. And our family has greatly benefited from all that he has learned. You know how when you are young you say, "When I grow up I want to be..."? If I were to say that these days, I would have to say that I want to be like the Fedders. I can't tell you how many times when Barth was out of town and the kids were sick that he would call and check on us every day! And he did that sort of thing for everyone, not just us. Bonnie, his wife, was always doing things for us as well. She made us goodies all the time and brought them over. She was always genuinely concerned about the things that were going on in our lives. And with a grown autistic son of her own there at home, she had plenty to do on her own, but always had a smile a kindly deed of service for others. I don't know how they did all that they did. We are truly a better family from having known them. :)

I must say that I am so excited to have Barth back by my side and helping out on Sundays!!!! I am thrilled to have him home all day long on Sundays with us!!! :) I know that our new bishopric will be fantastic. They are all great men as well. I look forward to seeing what new calling Barth will be getting. Whatever it is, I know that he will be happy to serve where he is called.

Hair

Evan is really losing his hair these days. But, what a cutie he is!! And he is filling out nicely too I might add!! :) See, you can barely see his hair on top in this first picture. (but doesn't it look kind of red to you?)
Here Evan is telling me that I am a tad bit too close with my camera!! But, my how I love that double chin.
And check out that bald spot!!! It isn't from laying on the floor and cooing nicely at toys either. He is soooooo not that kind of baby. I am sure that he is wearing his hear out from riding in the car seat to go all the places that we have to get to. :)

Evan has so much less hair than he did. I love that he is finally starting to like toys a little bit better. He really likes this dog blankie thing that we got from one of Barth's co-workers when he was born. He really like to sit on the floor (or I guess I should say that he likes it better than laying) with me next to him and see what all the other kids are up to!

Aaron got a hair cut this past week. It looks so much better and is finally out of his eyes.

Brian got one too. Where did all the curls go? Must be the winter time when all the curls disappear!! :)

And lastly, a picture of Amber. Not because she got her hair cut, but because she is cute. I took these tonight while Weston was at his academic team match. He got to be the captain again this week!! I will have to get one of him later.

Random

Not too terribly much going on here to report, but don't you just love this picture of Aaron? It is one of my favorites. His bug lasted almost an entire week, but his fever finally broke on Sunday! Thank goodness. :) He has been his happy and energetic self lately and I love it!
Amber love to lay next to Evan on the floor and talk to him while he screams! Soon, this hard stage of not being able to do anything will be over and life will get much easier!! :) I will have to take a picture of Evan's ever receding hairline. It really is quite funny! Oh, and Amber is talking so much these days. The other night she wanted something after I had put her to bed. On the monitor I could hear her, but didn't really think that I needed to go up for anything. She called, "Mommy! Mommy!" for quite a while. I really had to laugh when I heard her say, "Mommy! 1, 2, 3! Right now Mommy!" Hmmm....I wonder where she could have learned that one?!! :D

New Bike

Brian got a new bike for Christmas from Santa. Today it finally got up to 50 and so it was warm enough to try it out!! :) He and Weston had a great time riding all around the driveway and up and down the street!
He is so glad to have a bigger bike! He is such a big kid. How did he get so big so fast? :)

And I thought that I would include a picture of our little Amber all decked out in her pink gear! This is how she loves to go around the house. The only thing missing is her favorite baby doll! :)

And here she is "talking to Grandma" on her pink cell phone. Ever since Grandma and Auntie M came to visit, she loves to call and talk to Grandma on her phone. :) So cute!!

News from our zoo.....

I realize that I haven't been blogging much this week. It has been a bit of a crazy one. Nothing too out of the ordinary, but busy none the less. Aaron had his well check last week (albeit 6 months late) where he got his booster shots. On Saturday I noticed that he had a huge welt of sorts on his upper arm. It was swollen and red from just above his elbow to almost his shoulder. Come to find out, it was a reaction to his DTaP that occurs 1 in every 1000+ kids. I went to get Evan's ear rechecked at the beginning of the week. It was fine. Tuesday night Aaron spiked a nasty fever. I took him in Wednesday morning to find that he had an awful ear infection. His fever of 103 to 105 has continued all week long though, hence the reason that I haven't done much blogging. Hopefully the fever goes away soon so that we can be back to normal over here. :) I am looking forward to the long weekend and having the kids and Barth home! :D

On the upside, Weston and Brian had great weeks at school. Weston had an academic team match this week and got to be the captain!! He was very excited about that. Brian loves being back at school. He was thrilled that he has already met his accelerated reader goal for this month of 5 points and we have only been in school for 7 days since Christmas Break!! Amber continues to help out around the house and can always be found with a purse in one hand and her baby in the other! Evan is growing by leaps and bounds and is now starting to roll over!!!! Life is good! Busy, but good! Hopefully soon I can get up some new pictures of the comings and goings over here!

Because they are cute!!!

Oh Evan, I do love you so!!! :)
And Amber, I am glad to have such a fun little girly girl! I am so lucky to have such great little ones! They may be hard work, but they are SOOOO worth it! :)

And since we've no place to go.........

Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!!!!

Since school has been in this week, we have had as many days off as we have had on! :) School was cancelled on Tuesday as well as today for snow!! Tuesday we had about an inch of snow, and today we have had about 4 inches here at our house! The boys had a lot of fun this afternoon playing out in the snow! They all think that it is great fun to shovel the driveway. Barth had to work, but made it home safe and sound around 3. The forecast calls for another 1 to 3 inches tonight, so I guess that we will see! :) I have really enjoyed the cozy fireplace today and am glad that we have one!
There really is nothing like sledding in the snow! And I have to say that I am so glad that we have this house with an awesome hill in front!!! It makes for hours of fun in the winter time.

We got Aaron a different kind of sled than the other boys, but he is too light to get it to go, so he mostly just sleds with his brothers! Weston and Brian look like they are having lots of fun don't they?!

I had to watch out! Weston just wanted to pelt me with one snowball after another while I was out taking pictures! :)

This was the perfect snow. Nice and powdery!

Weston is such a nice brother. He is nice to take Aaron on rides on his sled down the hill again and again!

The boys also enjoyed racing over and over again down the hill.

It is a beautiful winter wonderland out there.

Three fun brothers!

And, of course, my kids think that it is so fun to eat the fresh snow!! :O

More than likely we will be off of school again tomorrow too! But it is sure is fun when there is all this snow to play in!

Static!

With highs right around 20 lately, I am so thankful that we have a nice basement playroom!!! :) The kids had a lot of fun playing downstairs this morning, and they looked so funny with their static-y hair that I had to snap a few pictures for your viewing pleasure.
I think that this one is my favorite! Aaron and Amber kept sliding down the slide, side by side! Then they took turns jumping off the slide onto a kid futon. All in all, it was a fun morning.

Amber and Aaron both have such fine hair that it looks totally crazy when it is full of static. Don't you just love that hair?!!

Evan slept for part of the time that the kids were playing. When he woke up he was smiley!! Days like this make me SOOOO thankful that I get to stay at home with my children. I am always thankful, but the good days are like sheer joy!!! :)

4 months old

It is hard to believe that Evan is 4 months old today! Time has sure flown by fast!!! He is feeling better, but not quite back to his regular self yet. Here are some pictures from this morning. Evan is by far my leanest little guy at just over 16 lbs. He is also my longest. He is smiley and has a cute little laugh when you can get it out of him.
He prefers to be held, which makes it more difficult to get things done around the house, but I realize that it won't last too much longer. Before I know it he will be rolling all over the house and getting into things! :)
Evan LOVES his hands and fingers. He is my first one to really like to suck on his fingers. He likes his binky to go to sleep and such, but when he is awake, he loves to have those hands in his mouth. He still has no interest in toys really. He prefers people to toys!! He lifts up quite high on his tummy, pushes up on those arms of his, and I know that it is just a matter of time before he rolls over. (It might help if he was set down long enough to get some good practice in!!)
He LOVES having his brothers and sister talk to him! And they love him so very much. It is so sweet to see. Amber loves to help me with him and makes sure that he gets lots of kisses everyday. We are thankful for our little guy! Happy 4 months little Evan from Heaven!!

It was bound to happen.......

Evan has his first official ear infection. :( Poor little guy. And true to Yorke form, he is not running a fever. But he is sooooo sad, and doesn't want to nurse. Hopefully the antibiotic will do the trick and he will be back to his regular self soon!!! Too bad my extra helpers left today. :( We will miss you Momma and Melissa. I am so glad that you were able to come!!!!!