We went over to "AubrieRobbie's" house (the Jensen's) yesterday for a fun barbecue. We brought the jumpoline with us and let the kids wear themselves out jumping and playing outside. It was so fun just to have the kids playing together, and it made me eager for the summer time. Except not too much, since Ryan and Amber will have moved by then :(  I have no idea how Olivia is going to survive without Aubrie practically right next door.

Olivia, Aubrie, Ivy, Robbie, and Rylie jumping around.

I must do Rylie's hair 4 or 5 times a day, but somehow she always

manages to lose her "piggies" and end up looking like

a bit of a ragamuffin. A darn cute one, though!

Tucker and Charlie had fun inventing their own rules to ping pong -

(making the game resemble more of a baseball/badminton combo).

The adults all had a lively game of round-robin ping pong, which nearly ended up being more running than my pregnant belly could handle. Pitiful, really. But super duper fun. :)

fashion shows

The girls' new favorite thing to do is head into their "studio" (as Olivia calls their bedroom when it's time to play) and dress up for their fashion shows. It's adorable - Olivia pretty much decides all of the outfits they will wear, and then plans short announcements before each prance into the living room. She gets pretty miffed when Rylie can't remember exactly what to say to announce her grand entrance. But now they know that this is a photo opportunity as well, so I'm getting a fashion show or two a day! :)

rylie loves the pink cowgirl hat

i think here we have a ballet dancer and a hula fairy

ready for some sun

i'm not sure what to call this ensemble...creative?

the scarf grandma jill made is always a favorite

Baby Campbell

I'm over a month late in posting this, but we have a new little cousin in our family! My little sister Lindsay had an adorable baby girl, Campbell Jean, and we just love her to death. I took the kids up to visit a few weeks ago, and I only took like three pictures! Anyway, this is my little tribute to the cutest new baby niece in the world!

The kids snuggled in Uncle John and Aunt Lindsay's bed to watch movies and make silly faces.

Baby Campbell was already making friends with her little-boy-cousin-to-be.

She snuggled right up to my belly and let him kick her all he wanted.

The kids are so excited to have a new cousin to play with!

Once there was a snowman...

So it was crazy, like Dan said, to have all of the snow here in Athens (and it lasted for so long!) It was fun to play in, though the kids are clearly Georgia kids now, and not Utah kids - they played out in the snow in 10 minute increments, trudging in snowy red clay footprints several times a day. But we made snow ice cream, played lots of games while the power was out for the day, camped out in the living room with flashlights (because we were scared that the power kept going off.)

Here are my favorite quotes about snow from my two oldest children:

"I never really LIVED until today!" - Tucker, driving home from church about 2 hours after the snow started falling.

"I feel so ALIVE!" - Olivia, throwing snow into the air and then tackling the backyard snowman.

Snow in Athens

Once again this is Dan making an entry to the blog. We have been slackers again when it comes to making regular posts on here but we're going to do our best.

Anyway we were hit this past Sunday with 7 inches of snow here in Athens! I was in Lexington, KY at a track meet and got regular updates from Shell. When she said that it looked like a Utah snowfall I knew I was going to be stuck for an extra night in Lexington. Driving back on Monday as we drew closer to Athens it looked more and more like I was in Utah than Georgia. I had forgotten how beautiful the fresh snow can be. The kids had a field day and made a snowman and did some sledding. I was greeted by Tucker with a snowball when I finally got home. Of course the elementary schools were shut down for 2 days and the power was lost for awhile, the folks down here are just not equipped to handle that kind of snow. It was a nice change of pace and brought back a few reminders of our years in Utah.

That being said, it's now Friday and currently 70 degrees outside. I'm wearing shorts and enjoying the warmth of the sun. Amazing how the world works! We'll get some pics of the snow soon.

time to potty train?

So this morning Rylie came into the living room and said, "Oops - my diaper is falling off!" So she unzipped her jammies, took off her diaper, and said, "Hey, where are my wipees?" Then she found the wipes, took one, cleaned her own bum (she was just wet, thankfully!) and grabbed a new diaper. Had it been a pull-up she might have been able to complete the process all on her own.  Too bad she's terrified of the toilet...Do we really want to start this before the new baby is born? Do I put her in pull-ups during the day and "test the waters"? Or do I chalk it up to a smarty pants who likes to be independent, but don't push the potty training yet?

New pictures, finally!

Ok, so I've updated our picasa web site with lots of pictures (remember: the link to the website is on the right side of this blog, just below my "profile,") but I wanted to put a few pictures up here. Hopefully  I've got this done in time for Cam and Kym to see on their once-a-month trip to a computer there in Africa!

I've included a picture of my little birthday party that we had this evening when Dan was home. It was a great little party, and the kids made me sweet cards and I got some cute presents from Grandma Jill and Auntie Doone.

Also, after a few snafus with the swingset company, we finally got all the parts to put together the swingset that both Grandmas and Grandpas got the kids for Christmas. And Dad was here this past weekend to help us put it together (which I'm sure Dan appreciated as well, since he won't have a free weekend for some time to come!) It's been super cold here, but the kids have bundled up at least once a day to go play on the swings and the slide. (And the day we set it up, they used the slide to stop the wind as they huddled in their little makeshift blanket tents to wait.) I love having it, though, and we're all so thankful for our sweet, generous grandparents!