swimming in January

Over the weekend we meet Bill's family for some swimming fun. We met at a hotel that had a water park in it, very fun for the middle of winter! As we are on snow day number two, there is lots of new snow on the ground and the temperatures are well below freezing once again, I kind of wish we were back there swimming!

There was a walk in shower in the room, Mikayla thought it was the greatest thing ever! Especially if someone was showering and left the bathroom door open, this girl is one fast crawler! Jennifer and dad getting ready to go down the slide at the same time. Jennifer did amazing on all the slides, she thought everything was great!
Going down the big slide.
One happy girl to be swimming.



Of course we tired to get the girls to sit so we could take their picture together, as you can see, not a lot of luck on our part. Jennifer kept spraying Mikayla with water.

Mikayla was loving the water too, of course she didn't go down any of the slides but she had fun watching everyone else.
Jennifer crawling around in the water.
All of the kids together.
Another happy girl to be swimming.

Our girls had a great time, thanks papa Jim and mama Sue for a fun time together!

one last Christmas

We had one last Christmas over the weekend with my family. It was great spending the day with everyone.

Of course there were a few presents to open.

And Mikayla of course just wanted to play with the paper. She could care less that she had presents to open.

Once again the great grandparents got all the great grand kids a something Hawkeye. Mikayla got a cute little sweatshirt.

Jennifer and the boys got some pretty cool shirts. Jennifer was pretty excited because whenever Bill puts on an Iowa shirt she wants to put one on too, now she can!

The kids showing off their shirts. Seriously why is it so hard to get four kids to sit still and smile for a picture? In our case three of the four kids are pretty wound up and the fourth could really care less about any kind of picture being taken.

Giving a front and back view.

The whole family!

We ordered pizza for supper and afterwards Jennifer was walking around taking orders, it was very cute.

And to top a fun day off we got to go swimming! To this girl it was a pretty great day.

my cowgirls

Even in the cold of winter with inches of snow on the ground Jennifer wants nothing more than to ride a horse. But because it is literally freezing out and there are still inches of snow on the ground her little pony in the house will have to do.

Here is one of my cowgirls with her horses. The pink pony, that has been seen before, is just called "Pony". The horse Jennifer is holding is "Sally". J got Sally for Christmas and for the first few days after getting her that horse went everywhere that Jennifer went. It was very cute. On this day I think Jennifer was really wanting to ride so she was holding Sally and had Pony right by her side.

Then she decided to put her helmet on and go for a ride in our living room. The picture is blurry because this is an action shot of her riding Pony as fast as she can in a circle. It was very funny to watch and she got Pony going pretty fast!

Holding onto Pony's reigns.

Showing off her helmet for riding horses.

After Jennifer was done on the pony it was my other cowgirls turn. Very cute to watch her move her body to try and get the pony to rock. She was loving to get to be like her big sister!

Of course Jennifer couldn't be out done and had to get one last ride on Pony after Mikayla was done.

My smiling cowgirls, it is hard for them not to bring a smile to my face too!

kitchen help

Jennifer has loved helping in the kitchen for quite some time now but just recently Mikayla has started showing some interest in helping as well. Although I'm not so sure that her help is really all that helpful.

Here she is "cleaning" out the cupboard. We have a cupboard that has all the girls' bowls, plates, cups and our storage containers, this is sort of their cupboard to play in. However, I have found myself picking up the contents of the cupboards at least once a day for the past few weeks. I am starting to find it a little annoying I must admit, Mikayla on the other hand thinks it is kind of funny. If you look close enough at the picture you can see the big smile on her face!

Here she is surrounded by all her treasures.

When she is finished playing things end up all over the kitchen. She usually takes a few items with her to where ever she is going next.

The newest place that Mikayla has found is the dishwasher. If she sees it open she comes crawling as fast as she can, which is pretty fast. As I was putting things away the other day she decided to help out.

Taking things out that really needed to stay in.

"This looks like a great place for these to go."

Maybe in a few months my sweet helper will be a little more helpful for now I will just let her play, after all she is pretty cute even while making a mess of the kitchen!

she did it!

We had been waiting and cheering Mikayla on for a long time and finally last Thursday it happened, she did it! She pulled herself up without any help! As you can see the girls were getting ready to take a bath when it happened. Mikayla was crawling into the bathroom and I was helping Jennifer get some clothes. When we walked back into the bathroom this is what we found!I must admit I went crazy! Which then made Jennifer go crazy. The two of us clapped and cheered for Mikayla. Mikayla just looked at us as if to say,"Mom I stood up now will you please just let me take a bath, that is really all I want."

Then I was a mean mom and I sat her down just so I could watch her stand back up. Lucky for me she really wanted to take a bath so she stood up again and this time I got to witness it! Again Jennifer and I cheered like crazy, we were so proud of her. It was sweet to see Jennifer get so excited for her sister. Again Mikayla just wanted to take a bath.

Just let me in please!

After all that hard work the little sister was so tired she feel asleep on the living room floor about an hour later.

Mikayla is still working on pulling herself up all the time but she is getting there. She did it again later in the day for Bill to see and since then just a few times. She is getting there, someday soon (or maybe a few months yet) she will be walking!