Jay's Blue Room

DANCE

I snapped a quick picture of the girls warming up for dance class. Haha. They are the two in the far back. These girls sure love dance and gymnastics class... but boy is it expensive! Haha.

GAME NIGHT
We are still trying to clean out the basement so we can finish it. I found some games that I had saved from when I was a kid so I pulled them out for the kids. Eat at Ralph's was a big hit. Haha.

FHE FUN
We went to DQ for a treat after family night this week! The kids were SO excited!

ROSCOE

It snowed all through preschool Thursday and Roscoe, who has to spend preschool outside, refused to go inside the heated garage. He was SOAKED and had balls of snow hanging from the hair on his legs. He couldn't even walk right from the weight of them. Haha. He was waddling around the kitchen. Nothing a nice warm bath couldn't fix... but seriously, why does he have to be so stubborn!?!?

HOME IMPROVEMENTS
Well I've had plans to paint the whole house for a while now. I finished the preschool room just before preschool began in September. Jay's room was next on my list. I sanded down all the trim a few months ago. All the trim in the house is wood and I prefer the crisp look of white trim... but sanding is such a pain!! Once I was finished, I didn't want to go back up there to paint it. Lol. But Jay was growing out of his toddler bed and we didn't want to set his bed up without finishing the room first, so we spent Ty's holiday Monday painting! It definitely helped to have the company! I love how it turned out! I love the color which is good because it's the same color I'm painting our room ... assuming I ever get that far. Haha. I was all fired up to keep going when we finished Jay's room, but then I remembered I was going to have to pick up that darn sander again... and I just can't bring myself to do it. Haha. Maybe in another few months we'll get the girls' room done too... haha.

Jay would kneel at the doorway and just watch the painting going on in his room. He was so excited that we were painting his walls blue! And even more excited to have his own 'bunk bed.' Once we got things set up and bought him a new mattress, he spent the whole day asking if he was going to get to sleep in his 'blue room' and new 'bunk bed slide.' Haha. At 6 pm he looked out the window, runs to me, jumps on my lap, and says, "Mom! It's dark now! Can I go to sleep in my new bunk bed now?" Haha. He was so worked up by bedtime that he had a hard time falling asleep! 

Baby it's cold outside!

We celebrated our last night of freedom before going back to school with hot chocolate (with our new hot chocolate mugs), chocolate, cookie dough, and a movie! Turns out back-to-school was all quite temporary. Wednesday Crystal walked through the door at 2:10 and said, "School has been cancelled!" "What?" "Our principal said school has been canceled because of the cold." "Uh....you mean it might be canceled in the morning?" "No it's canceled." After further investigating turns out she was right. First time in the history of school in Idaho that they canceled school before actually witnessing the -20 degree temperatures. Haha. Well they weren't wrong. Winter has come in full force this past week. Thursday had wind chills of over -30 (and the wind was barely blowing). Friday they didn't cancel until 6 am. But when the text came my phone said it was -22 (realfeel -34)! Grandma and Papa Cook picked the kids up and took them to their house to play all day while I stayed home and caught up on laundry! Haha. 

It warmed up at least but still snowed all weekend and it got so warm that it started raining Sunday night. All the snow decided to fall off my roof at the same time around 4 am! Scared me to death! I thought the kids bunk beds had fallen it was so loud! Then it decided to freeze... thanks to Late Start Mondays the roads had started to melt again before I had to go out on them. Now everything has melted so fast that it has started to leak into the basement. Oy. We thought we had fixed that problem. It's nothing serious ... just a little damp on the edges in some parts... still not good since I'd like to finish the basement at some point. Oh well. Good to know now before it gets done! Haha.

Sure Facebook... Or maybe not. It was even too cold to enjoy it through the window! Haha.

Our Last Week of 2016

CHRISTMAS PRESENT FUN

We spent the week lounging and breaking in new toys! 

Crystal got a cake pop maker and a chocolate treat maker for Christmas, so of course we had to try them out this week. I didn't want to make a recipe from scratch so I just took a cake mix and put less liquids in than it called for... wasn't sure how well it would work but they turned out great! Then we used the chocolate treat maker to dip the cake pops in melted chocolate and topped them with sprinkles! I love this little baker!

Ty and I got a SMART TV from my parents for Christmas. It's also 15 inches bigger than the last one! Haha. We managed to get it to fit! lol. 

Santa... the genius... gave all the kids silly putty in their stockings this year. Didn't even make it a week without a disaster. One certain little girl/middle child decided to sleep with it and ruined her brand new jammies! Ugh. I've still got it set aside somewhere hoping I can work miracles with it, but the odds aren't good.

The kids LOVED that they had cash to spend from Gigi and Papa Joel for Christmas! Jay got a dinosaur truck. Lily a dog/doghouse set. And Crystal got a cute little stuffed dog. 

I put together one of the puzzles Santa left. I meant to start it one night and let the kids help me the next day (they really wanted to help), but I finished it in a few hours. Oops. Gonna have to do it again with the kids now. Haha.

All three kids have also been sporting their snow hats they got for Christmas all week. I think it's adorable... especially when Lily's attitude comes out, and she's wearing a hat that says Diva. Makes me laugh instead of getting angry. Lol. It's been good for both of us! Haha.

NEW YEAR'S EVE PARTY
My parents always have the best family New Year's Eve Parties involving snow crab, shrimp, butter, oysters, cheese ball and crackers, chips and dip... pretty much all good foods on one table. Haha. I almost took a picture of my delicious plate but ate the food on it instead. This year the menu also included lobster tail!!! YUM! We also enjoyed playing cards even though I lost miserably and watched a lot of Star Trek Enterprise. The kids pulled a bunch of games out to play too! Everyone had a good time! Those of us that made it till midnight watched the ball drop and went home to bed! All 3 of my kids made it this year!!! They were all VERY grumpy for 9 o'clock church! Haha.

CHRISTMAS WEEKEND 2016

CHRISTMAS EVE

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve with Ty's side of the family. We even did a nativity program with the little kids this year! And I loved it! The kids loved it too! Little Jayna Jo made the cutest baby Jesus of all time! Jay chose to be a Wiseman. Lily a Shepherd. And Crystal was Mary. Masahero was Joseph and Sam was our Angel. Everyone did great considering there was no rehearsal! Haha. I posted the video of it, but it's 10 minutes long... 

When we got back to Grandma Leslie's, Jingle the elf had found us there! He left the kids pj's and slippers! Then Uncle Ryan read us The Night Before Christmas before we got into bed! The kids were pretty excited to sleep together in the 'king sized bed' Dad and Grandma had made for them with the couches. Haha. So excited that it took them an hour to fall asleep... We were worried, but Santa still seemed to find time to come!

CHRISTMAS DAY
Well Dad, Grandpa, and Uncle Todd went to shovel at the church at 7 am. We thought they'd be back soon so we told the kids to stay downstairs, so that Daddy didn't miss anything. Well it was probably 830 before they got home. It was snowing so much and blowing so hard, Grandpa (who is also Bishop) wasn't sure people would be able to get in and out of the church parking lot unless they owned 4 wheel drive. In the end everyone (including our ward in town) had decided to cancel church. there was a foot of snow on the roads and unless you had 4 wheel drive you weren't going anywhere! I'm so glad we have our Expedition or we may not have made it to my parents house later in the day (for which I took no pictures!!! ugh!!).
Anyway as soon as Ty walked through the door we let the kids come running up. They were so excited I had a hard time getting good pictures of them! Haha. Santa brought Jay a dinosaur castle set, Lily a barbie pool set, and Crystal a baby alive doll. We then spent a good hour or two opening presents! Spoiled little kids!!! 
On our way to my parents we stopped at the house and there was so much snow Ty almost missed the driveway. Haha. Our porch was nonexistent! Again I'm so grateful for our 4 wheel drive vehicle. We plowed through the snow like butter to the other side of town and back! At my parents' the girls each got a toy pet and the boys got paw patrol toys! Jay and Lily have played paw patrol non stop all week! 

THE DAY AFTER
We had family pictures with Ty's side of he family while they were all here for Christmas! The sun came out just in time so we didn't freeze too badly in the 27 degree weather. Haha. Jay was pretty whiny though but hopefully we got some good ones!  After pictures, we piled in 2 vehicles and went to see Sing in 3D! It was a really cute movie and I think everyone enjoyed it! The kids did a great job with the 3D glasses... better than I expected! Then we all went to the Cooks' for sushi! We made it with our new sushi bazooka's we got for Christmas! They worked great! I'm so excited for it!!!! 

 THE DAY AFTER THE DAY AFTER CHRISTMAS
Today was Ty's brothers' last day here. And thanks to the snow we were able to go sledding! I hadn't brought proper attire for the kids to sled because I knew the 4 wheeler wasn't working... but I forgot they had 2. Oops. So the kids went out in what they had. Jay only had a thick jacket so we put a sweatshirt over him too. And knit gloves all around. Haha. They aren't super warm, but better than nothing! The kids all got a turn sledding and had a blast! My brother and sister in law live in Arizona so their baby wasn't sure about all this white cold stuff. We also finally got a picture of all 4 grandkids!!! Later on Leslie set up some minute to win it games! We had a quick dinner with everyone and then it was time to say goodbye!!! We had a good time! It just passed too quickly! 
When we got home, Dad had gotten home from work. Jay had been begging to play with his marble game Uncle Todd and Aunt Brooke got him for Christmas, so we pulled it out and after many failed attempts, Daddy finally came over and showed us how it was done. Haha.