Winter Children

I feel like time is flying by so fast.  Heck, I'm a mother of three and I still don't feel like a grown up.  I sure don't act like a grown up some times, that's for sure.  Thank goodness I have a very patient husband who fills in the gaps.

Ellie

Ellie is such a sweet girl.  I am so happy to have her as a big sister to both Chris and Ivan.  Since Ivan has been born, she has been such a good helper.  She is always willing to help me out by getting a diaper or a burp cloth when I am detained.  She dotes over Ivan all the time, which is so different from baby brother #1.  She loves to show him his dinosaur toy that she and Chris got him for Christmas (a triceratops named isosceles).  She also still loves to read him stories.  I think it is so sweet when she talks baby talk to him.  It's just so cute. 

Ellie and Christian get along for the most part.  It's good they can occupy themselves because of how much time it takes to care for a baby.  She does get her feelings hurt easily.  She also doesn't like it when she doesn't get her way.  But she just finds the trusty pink blanket and the thumb automatically pops in the mouth to comfort her.

Christian

Christian is all boy.  He loves trucks, cars, tools, and his specialty is knowing perfectly how to bother his sister.  He loves to play with his "Site Trucks" (construction site has been shortened to just site).  It is a good thing he is so darn adorable.  Because, since Ivan arrived, he has taken the terrible twos to another level.  But when he is not pouting or yelling or evading clean up, etc. he makes me smile.  He is at an age where he is often in a fantasy world playing and everything he says is extremely cute.  One of the cutest things I have noticed about him these past few months is his attempt at trying to understand time: yesterday, today, tomorrow.  He just gets so confused that tomorrow is now today, and that today eventually becomes yesterday.  He actually has gotten quite frustrated on occasion when trying to figure this quandary out.  

Ivan

I know it is cliche, but this boy is just getting so big so fast!!  No, he has not figured out his sleep/wake schedule yet, but he sure loves to smile!  It is amazing to see the difference in personality from the other kids even at such a young age.  Ivan is definitely his own person.  And we love him so much.

Anyway, sorry for the kid post.  I just love these 3 little monsters so much I had to share.  

Grandparents and Blessing

The day after New Year's Grandma and Grandpa Hooper came out to visit us!!  The kids were sooooo excited, they had their noses up against the window looking for them for most of the day.  Because we missed the annual Winter Nerf War back in Utah, Grandpa was good enough to bring a little nerf war to us.  Chris was in heaven.  I think he could spend every minute of every day shooting Grandpa.  On Saturday we went to the Newport Aquarium.  We all had a blast.  Then Sunday we were able to bless our handsome little Ivan Alan.  My (Brad), great uncle Lloyd Colvin was able to join our little circle.

Two Nerf Warriors ready for battle!

Grandma made a very good friend while here.

This is his "serious, pensive pose"

Our proud priesthood men.

Such a happy family!

Having fun at the Oregon Coast Aquarium

Christian's absolute favorite part was the shark tank

Chomp! Chomp!

This little man is getting too big too fast

New Years

New Years Eve is definitely different when you have young children.  We celebrated with Ellie and Chris early in the evening.  We had a year in review scavenger hunt, a craft, ate chocolate pudding (by Christian's request), the Netflix count down, and they were in bed by 8:30.  Brad and I stayed up until midnight with Ivan and watched a movie.  

I printed some pictures of different events throughout 2014 and hid them around the living room.  The kids had fun with the scavenger hunt and also had fun looking at and talking about the pictures after the hunt to remember all the fun things we did last year.  

Brad was lucky enough to have New Years Day off of work, so we took advantage of the opportunity and drove to the coast.   I got the idea from my friend, but I got nervous about cold weather and Ivan. Thankfully, Brad was around.  I am not very good at being spontaneous, so it was good that Brad was there to push us out the door.  If it were up to me, we would have spent the whole day at home wishing that we were doing something exciting.

Here is Ellie getting her warm gear on in style!

Ellie and Christian had fun on the beach with Dad

Ivan spent his first new years day relaxing with mom in the car watching the ocean waves.

We were really spontaneous and braved a restaurant as a family of five.  We went to Mo's, THE seafood restaurant in Newport.  It was a super fun to go to dinner with the whole family, and it was a very family friendly restaurant.  They even got a shark toy presented to them on their straws.