Growing Little "Oom-Bob"

HA! - The nicknames we come up with in this house (and I'm probably the author of most of them...he he he). Austin has grown so much, and they change so much so quickly at this age - it's crazy. He is just a couple days away from being 4 months old. So, some things about our little Austin:
*He loves to be standing up (I think it's so that he can look around at everything that is going on). He has wanted to stand almost since birth.
*Because he is so social and loves to be a part of everything sometimes he can't relax, so all we do it put a light blanket over his eyes and he'll instantly calm right down.
*He is a good little sleeper: 10 hours straight at night and 2 good naps a day.
*He is a serious spitter - he might just be the winner in our family (and that is really saying something).
*He coo's and caah's and giggles, and when he smiles he whole body shakes.
*We gave him his first little taste of something besides mommy milk the other day - a pickle. He sucked right on it - no turned up face or anything.
*I got a little johnny-jump-up toy and the kids love to swing him in that, which he also enjoys (as long as he isn't left alone).
*He is a finger sucker...actually, more like a hand-muncher. He gets his whole fist in there. I keep pulling out his fingers and replace with a binkie, but when he wants his hands he WANTS his hands (and he'll spit that binkie right out).
*He is such a fun, cute little guy. We love him to pieces and bits.

Well Done Santa

Santa really came through this year with the big gift - a trampoline. The kids LOVE it, and therefore the parents also LOVE it. Plus this winter weather has been lovely lately and so the kiddos have spent hours out there jumping all their energy out.

On another note - look at these cute matching girls.

Winter Wonderland

We got three good sized storms during the month of December. The one with the most snow came the week of Christmas, so although it didn't snow on Christmas Day, we did have a white Christmas. The snow brought all sorts of fun (and other not-so-fun) stuff with it:
*Snowmen - we built a couple good ones (Bruno kept wanting to steal their body parts or eat them, but we managed to keep them alive for a day or two)


*Sledding - we went back to the great hill we found when the Sorensens came and went up and down that hill over and over again.



*Uncle Corbin even made a little snow cave




*Snow Days - the kids have already had several days in which school started late or was cancelled altogether
*Icicles that were over 4 feet long
*Beautiful scenery - After the storm that literally DUMPED on us it looked absolutely beautiful outside.
*Snow cones and plain snow to eat - Nathan had to grab a handful almost any time we went outside


*And horrific conditions in our driveway. I am not exaggerating when I say that our van got stuck literally EVERY time we got in it for almost a week. Even our Suburban got stuck a couple of times.


(Luckily we got our heater working this year, so even in this chilly weather we are staying toasty and warm in our house)

Merry Christmas

Christmas Eve had come. We were so excited that the Sorensen gang (Grandpa, Grandma, Corbin, Kyra, Preston and Jesse) were going to come down to spend Christmas with us. They were going to leave on the afternoon of the 23rd, but the roads were so icy all over the state of NM, so they didn't want to chance driving through the night with roads like that. They left super early Christmas Eve. And then the fun began: they ran out of gas, then the battery died while they were waiting for Grandpa to get back with the gas, then they felt a vibration so they had to stop to get a new tire, then something blew in the engine which eventually led to them getting a rental car (a little 5-seater Prius for the 6 of them and ALL their stuff). They finally made it at about 11:45 Christmas Eve night. Meanwhile we were at home getting regular updates on their progress. When we found out they were going to have to rent a little car I knew I was going to have to go out and shovel the driveway down to our house as well as a little parking place for them in front of the house. The van had been stuck in the same place for almost a week (we got some serious snow earlier that week), so we tried to move it...and it got stuck. We finally got it going again and it got stuck in another spot. We resorted to buying chains so that it could get some traction on the ice and snow. While we went to get the chains we decided to check out a hill that friends had told us about - a great one for sledding....and it was. We spent an hour sledding down the hill (fun). Then we got home and tried to get the snow chains on, which became a bigger project than we anticipated since the van would not move at all. When our fingers were frozen (and Sean's toes) we decided to let it sit for the night and next day and we went in to do our Christmas Eve festivities. I had decided earlier that day to save the nice dinner for the next day when the family was all here. So that night we had appetizers for dinner: 7-layer dip, little smokies in barbeque sauce and deviled eggs (not the fanciest meal ever, but it was fun). We ate it all together in the living room and then had our Family fireside reading scriptures and stories and singing songs and ended in the bearing of testimonies. The kids got treats put out for Santa and they all dressed in the matching PJs and then we put in "Muppet Christmas Carol." We sent them off to bed when it was over and they were all asleep within a half an hour. The excitement of the Sorensens arriving woke most of them up, so it was a pretty late night for the adults, but it was great. Christmas morning came and the kids waited anxiously for the music to start and then they hurried into the living room to see what they had gotten. The big gift was a spring that Santa left in each of the kids' stockings, which went to a trampoline that was in a box covered in the back of the room. I'm sure Santa wished he could have put it up, but it just didn't quite get done in time....he he he. We ate breakfast casserole and then got ready for church (we were saving the gift opening for after church). I led the choir, which sounded WONDERFUL (there were lots of voices and the spirit was there and strong), plus all my family got to sing with us. Kyra and I sang with two other women in a rendition of "O HOly Night." I was so happy Kyra made it so that I didn't have to sing the high notes. We came home and shortly after had a phone call from Caleb, the missionary, which was wonderful (especially since my dad can get a conference call going with the whole family). Then we opened presents. We ate a tasty dinner that night: ham, funeral potatoes, sweet potato casserole, raspberry jello, Gullivers corn and sparkling apple cider. It was a wonderful day filled with music and worship and family and good food and fun.

4 Main Food Groups

"We elves try to stick to the four main food groups: candy, candy canes, candy corns and syrup." - Buddy from "Elf" (one of our favorite holiday movies).

Even though our holidays were a little more hectic and out-of-sorts with the surgery and such, we still managed to get in all of our sugar eating. We spent one of the kids' Snow Days making and decorating tasty treats: chocolate covered oreos with peppermint (SO GOOD), dipped pretzels, chocolate dipped cookie dough, spritz cookies, sugar cookies. Plus we still had tons of fudge left from the double batch Sean made a couple of weeks earlier, not to mention all of the goodies friends and neighbors brought over. YUM!

Surgery and Stitches and Staples

This is how Sean spent much of his holidays this year. His fall on Thanksgiving ended up being a crushed bone and a fracture in his leg. He got a nice brace to wear (which should have been made out of GOLD for the money they charged for it), and then he had surgery the weekend before Christmas. The surgeon went in and put a plate in his leg and a handful of screws into his bone and then sealed him up with 23 staples. He stayed in the hospital overnight. The surgeon said everything went well, and he came out of the anesthesia with no problem. He came home and spent most of the next week on a mattress in our front room. He went into work 6 days after the surgery for a little while (I guess it's good that it happened around the holidays because he already had several vacation days). He was able to be up on it more and more by the time Christmas came, and the pain was under control as well. He went in this last week to his doctor and got his staples out and was also allowed to take off his brace here and there if he wanted to. Things are healing up just fine and he should be able to walk around on it again in another 3 and a half weeks.