Update on Evan

Evan, weighing in at 16 1/2 lbs. 4 months old and seems slightly tall. In 9-12 month clothing and is my first child to keep on socks! He cooes and talks to his siblings, giggles loudly when anyone puts his hands on their face. Will sit quietly and observe his surroundings. Has learned how to put his own binky in and blow spit at people. He has also found his fingers and thumb...which work great when the binky is unavailable. He poops out his clothes daily, with great assistance to the Bumbo he sits up in frequently. He is easy going, mellow and such a joy to have in our home. He sleeps great, only waking up once in the night to nurse. He can put himself to sleep, but at the moment, is sick and almost falling asleep watching me type this. Gotta run.

3 going on 16....

3 Years Ago, I was holding my first daughter in my arms, just days old. She came out with red fuzz and quite the personality. She has grown up so fast (i know, i know). But seriously, I wouldn't trade her for all the world. Those blue eyes that see others with love (or enemy). That redish brown hair that we've cut and she's cut, and that she hates to brush everyday. But how pretty it looks when its done. Those red plumpy lips she adornes with "lippy" everyday of her life....that also speak words far beyond her years. And those freakles...oh those freakles. They remind me that she's still little, cause someday they will be covered with makeup...but for now, she's only allowed that on halloween. The fingernails she bits polish off of; those toes she asks to be repainted day in and day out. And of course that soft little belly button; when you poke it, she giggles like crazy!

PRINCESS PARTY: Taelin's House on January 8, 2011

Pink appetizers and juice served on Great Grma's china along with fun princess games

Christmas Vacation!

Our original plans: L.A. and San Diego for post Christmas. Ride roller coasters, walk piers and ride boats, stay in hotels and go swimming. We got San Diego Cards which are super great deals for doing a lot of activities for one low price. We were sooo excited.! Then, California was under water, flash flooding and dangerous. With California declaring a state of emergency, we decided to get our money back and change routes. We stayed in Idaho an extra few days and attended the temple, went bowling with the family (sorry, no pics), and got sick (especially courtney). So we stayed low and got better to make the most of the rest of the week.

Here's our post Christmas Vaca:

Salt Lake City and Park City, UTAH

They are all out of order but here was our trip:

We stayed at the Shilo Inn, PERFECTLY placed in the SLC downtown area. There was a New Years Eve Snowboarding/skiing show and concert just across the street from our hotel...and 2 yummy restuarnts. It was perfect.

Taelin, Courtney and Evan; Man they love her!

Trying to get a pic before we left...but she was bashful (taelin is NOT good at goodbyes)

Ice Skating in Park City: Taelin kept yelling: "I'm skating, I'm skating!" As her feet were anything but on the ice. Good thing Courtney rocks at skating.

Kelton got really good. He fell a few times and said it really hurt, but we were proud of him for getting back up and skating some more. He is super excited to find a rink around here so that he can go skating again soon.

Kyle letting Chase do some "tricks". He'd do one foot and was so proud of himself.

TEMPLE SQUARE:

Us at the Conference Center. It was decorated for a Christmas program...but it was fun (we did get the quick version of the tour). We especially loved all of the art work.

Temple Square. We wandered around and found the nativity. It was breaktaking with all the lights on the fountain floating. It was freezing...but the kids warmed up at the visitors center and conference center...I think Evan slept the whole time.

I think I'm going to make an album of these two. Taelin is always at her side...and when Courtney uses the bathroom, taelin is asking/looking for her within seconds. :)

They have this really cool model of the temple and all the rooms, just like a doll house in the new Visitors Center. It was neat to see all the upper rooms and show the kids. They kept calling it a castle.

The girls went to the outlet malls a few days and realized we're making it an annual trip, the sales were CRAZY; ate out at some yummy places, and the kids did great; the boys found an amazing arcade and chose to spend their time there; we went swimming and jake got a hugely bloody nose from Chase; listened to the "concert" of some guys dressed like KISS; saw scantly clade girls walking on New Years Eve; lost Kelton in the hall to sleep walking @ 10:30 pm; went to a tubing hill down in Park City where it was seriously FREEZING or below many degrees; Got TONS of videos of being silly; Didn't get lost once (thanks to droid); and altho there were stressful moments...we really had a lovely time. We've decided we travel best when we take our time. With 4 little kids we can't rush things anymore. We're learning to enjoy the moments. We are striving to let go of our perfectionist ideas and enjoy the silly moments with them, before they are gone. Thanks Kyle and Court for being our extra hands. We love you!

Christmas Morning 2010 -

What special moments we've had this year. I love this one of my little Evan, with sleep still in his eyes, and sitting so quietly....ready for the fun. After our morning at home, with Oma and Opa on the computer....and playing with some of our toys...we headed North. To the Jansen Kids, Love Santa.

This is what my mom got rylin and Taelin...taelin wore it for days straight. she got pretty good at shaking those hips! :)

What a good lookin' man. I love this guy. Admist all the chaios the day brings, he stayed chill, opened/put together presents, changed diapers and kept sane. We had a yummy soup bar (we all brought crock pots) and had yummy bread bowls. What a great relax day!

Christmas Eve 2010

I have decided, that since we have a big enough little family, we should try to really get going on these family traditions. This was the first EVER Christmas Eve spent at our house since Jacob and I have been married. That day, I knew there were some things that I wanted to do at the house, 1)play in the snow/build a snowman (which turned into a snow fight) 2) open gifts from eachother 4)bake something yummy. I REALLY wanted to make donuts...but that will have to begin next year. We went to my mom's house in Rexburg and played some fun Minute to Win It games...SO funny! and altho we kept it NON-competitive (anyone who knows a Choffin knows we are competitive)...it was so fun! definitely a repeat!

We came home, got the house all ready for Santa, and the kids even set out their favorite (no egg or milk) cookies. Next year, we are definitely making donuts for him...the kids were so excited to do that...good thing they roll with it. They all signed the letter and were very excited. It was nice to have Christmas Eve be a good night of sleep too.

So here's to some new traditions, some old traditions and one great Chrsitmas Eve.

Early December

Chase has become the smootherer lately...but this was cute. Chase wasn't really asleep, and we can't do this with Evan anymore, since he's so wiggly, but thought I would snap a quick one with an ideal moment like this. Maybe I'll remember my children young like this instead of the busyness that I feel! :)

daddy got a new phone...so they've been playing angry birds all the time.

love you sweets.

Ok. So I'm REALLY behind here...but this is early December and the kids just hanging out. We went to Rexburg a few times and hung out with our cousins, attended all of our activities and kept pretty darn busy. I do admit that I have gotten used to Kelton being at school all day, so the break was nice, but a little tiresome trying to keep everyone busy and playing nicely. I do miss him being home eachday tho. Its bitter sweet. Maybe I'll just keep him home on his sweet days. :)

Between shopping the sales and getting our Needy Families done for Christmas, I was really super glad that we did a "mommy store" for the kids getting each other gifts. It saved a TON of time and requests while walking down all the isles. I admist, I didn't take a ton of photos...we saved that for our vacation time! :)