Happy Birthday Philip

 Philip celebrated his 31st birthday on the 10th. He prefers pie over cake, so I made peach pie which is his favorite. He really enjoyed having his family over for dessert and a couple games of Monopoly the card game. I am determined to beat him at this game one day.

For his birthday the kids gave him a new wallet.  I wanted to give him something special just from me. For the last month or so I have been putting together a set of dates for the year of 2012. I got the idea on pinterest and added my own dates and twists to it. I researched places in the area that we have not been to or that we would like to do. I wanted to keep the dates fun and outside of the box. After compiling all the date ideas I had to get them onto a card or something to put into each envelope that he would be opening at the beginning of each month. I don't have photoshop so I had to resort to powerpoint and clipart to be creative. I still think they turned out pretty good.

Philip loved the gifts and was very impressed with the time and the ideas he now has for at least one date per month. So I have fulfilled my duty of setting up a date each month for a year plus a few bonus dates. Now he has to come up with the rest. I also have a set of family outings we will do with the kids once a month.

I am so happy to be married to this amazing man. He always does his best to keep our family happy. He is very caring towards others and I love that quality in him. I am glad he had a great birthday and that we could share it with him. Love you Philip.

Earning Their Keep

 Recently the realization has hit me that Summer is old enough and quite capable to help out around the house with chores that are not so baby friendly. I put her right to work one day after school when I was not in the mood to vacuum the rug that has to be tediously cleaned with the hose because our vacuum doesn't work well on it. Ususally it takes me what seems like 20 minutes to get this thing cleaned right. It was fantastic to watch Summer vacuum the carpet for me. She enjoyed it quite a bit too. I know that won't last long so I will take it while I can get it.

Next on the older kid chore list is helping me do the dishes. Again not wanting to clean up myself I rinsed all the dishes out and then set Summer to work washing the dishes that could not go in the dishwasher and a few extras like the glass she has. I had to explain how she needs to wash both the inside and the outside really well. I think she did a pretty good job because she spent so long on each dish I had to make her get a new one. 

She is a big help with Brayden. Usually she entertains him while I am cooking dinner which help tremendously. She is easily grossed out by throwing diapers away or things like that so instead she has started helping me feed Brayden a bit. I only let her give him a few bites, but she is getting better at getting the food in his mouth and not all over him. He loves her so much. She is his best friend. 

Brayden's job is basically to look cute. He is a super happy baby for the most part. He really only fusses when he is tired or hungry. He is full of smiles. As long as he keeps it up he is fulfilling his duties around the house. 

 Oh, and of course he has to eat his food which he loves. His favorites are bananas, and also anything he can eat from his own hand. This is very limited of course so he eats a lot of baby mum mum rice crackers. Keep up the good work Brayden. Maybe you will be my less picky eater.

Christmas in Idaho

Finally I am getting around to posting about our trip to Idaho for Christmas. This is very late and I hope to do better about updating our blog in the future. Anyhow, here it is. Mostly pictures. 

Now that we live a little closer we decided to take the long drive and enjoy our cram packed car for 15 hours. The kids both did really well on the way there and did pretty good on the way back. I can't complain. I sat and crotched since Philip refused to let me help him drive. 

 This is why I love the Northwest and this isn't even the grandest. The scenery is super amazing through Coeur D'Alene, Idaho. Very nice and I wouldn't mind living there. We were fortunate to avoid snow for the most part. For this time of year we had great roads.

Brayden had his first ride in the cart. He was a bit wobbly, but I strapped him in good and he enjoyed the ride. 

I had promised to take Summer to visit Santa because she missed seeing him in Vancouver. On Christmas eve we found him at the mall visiting with the last few boys and girls who still needed to report to him. She was pretty excited to tell him how she really wanted a lump of coal and some foot pajamas. I think Brayden was just content to be held. 

A couple of weeks before Christmas my nephew got into a bad snowmobile accident. He was in the hospital over the Christmas holiday so we went to visit him on Christmas eve and bring him a little cheer. Poor guy he is going to be recovering for a very long time. We are just glad he is alive and that we could see him for a little bit. 

Christmas day we slept in until about 7:30 I think. Nothing like when I was little and we would set our clocks for 5:00am. I think there were even a few nights that I never even fell asleep because I was so excited. Either that or I was scared to death because my two older sisters told me Santa Clause was an axe murderer. I know they were very nice weren't they. Anyhow, we haven't got to the point where our kids are begging to wake up that early so we just let them sleep. 

It was no surprise when Brayden opened his first gifts that all he wanted to do was eat the paper. Here Summer is trying to prevent him from scarfing down the brightly colored paper. 

He enjoyed his new toys and especially likes this one my mom gave him that goes crazy with the shakes. It is like a hand held earthquake. 

Summer was beside herself when she got her feet pajamas from Santa, and real coal just like she wanted. She really did want coal. She kept asking me if I thought Santa would let her have a piece of coal not for being naughty, but just because. The only problem is that Santa didn't quite get the size right on the pjs and therefore we had to take them back and get different ones.

Summer watching Grandma open up a gift. 

Some of my nieces and nephews. I can't believe how old they are. It is so crazy to see them as teens and tweens. 

I remember when they were just babies. Shawnee use to pull my hair and I would freak. I also remember being a germaphobe. I wouldn't let my nieces and nephews touch me unless they washed their hands. I will say that was after taking a microbiology class, and thankfully that phase only lasted a couple of years. 

My cute nephew. I so wish I were closer to them so I could get to know these little ones more. He is so funny. 

More of my nephews. The one on the left is a little twerp. He can do something to irritate, and then give you this smile that makes you melt like butter. He is so cute and I love him. 

Hanging out with family.

My two sisters and my mom. Wish I could hang out with these girls more often. 

We really wanted to take the kids sledding because Summer has only been pulled on the ground in the past. She has never been real sledding down a hill/mountain. Since there was no snow in Rigby we had to drive to my sister's house near the mountains. She took time away from being at the hospital to take us. We are so glad she was willing too because it was so fun. 

 She had this sled that was perfect for Brayden. It had a strap to buckle him in. Philip took him down the hill a few times and he seemed to enjoy it so much that he fell asleep. 

 He must have been tired because I took him to the car where he stayed asleep for the rest of the time while we finished sledding. 

Summer loved going down the hill on the sled. She was lucky to have older cousins to entertain her the whole time. She was not a fan of walking back up the hill so after about 5 or 6 times down the hill she decided she was finished. She sat and ate packed dirty snow the rest of the time. 

Eating the snow.

Summer got the game Headbands for Christmas. We decided to break it out and make my mom play it with us. Usually she is not the game playing type. 

She loved it so much she laughed her self to a cry. It was hilarious. I am glad she had a lot of fun playing it. It made the game much more interesting. 

We had an awesome time and look forward to going back soon. We hope to go again in March for Summer's spring break. I hope it works out. It is always nice visiting with family and being in my home town for a bit. We really are happy to have had the opportunity to be there during Christmas.