Visit to VA

I am a little late at putting these pictures up. They are from our visit to VA for Dan's Change of command. We had a great visit with everyone. The kids really got along great and were so tired by the time the end of the weekend came along!

Alana checking out the inside of a helicopter

Alana and Madeline playing together
It looks like Christopher is trying to lock up Madeline in the dog cage...or if you look more closely is she closing herself in and Christopher trying to free her? hmmmm
All dressed up in their uniforms.

As you can see Alana and Kate have a great time together. We all got to a point where we didn't care anymore about them jumping on the bed. And boy did they enjoy that!

Let it snow....

We had the kids playing out in the snow the other day. They really wanted to build a snowman but it just wasn't the right snow for one. That didn't stop them from having a good time. Watch out, I'm gonna get ya

Though you can't tell by the serious look on his face, he was actually enjoying himself.

Kids being silly

The kids actually decided to sit in the chair together, which is why I had to jump quickly to get the camera. It's not too often that the kids will sit next to each other for a couple pictures. I didn't bother getting the ketchup off of Tyler's face, I figured it was either take a picture or wash his face..... so here are the pictures :)

Our sleepy kids

It still surprises me that the kids can just lay down somewhere and fall asleep. They take after their daddy I guess! Alana feel asleep on the floor in our family room the other day. We made a fort out of the kitchen chairs and a blanket and she wanted a picnic under it. So while Tyler was down for his nap she was sitting under there eating her snack....or so I thought. I noticed she was very quiet so I went in to check I found her asleep, she had covered herself up and everything!

Tyler had his first night of sleeping in his toddler bed. We had to take the side off of the crib because he has discovered how to unlatch the sides of the crib and have the side go down. So rather then have him climb out of the crib (like his sister used to) I decided to try it out with the side off. This was the first night for it. The moment I put him down he sat right up and realized that he could get out. Sure enough he opened up his bedroom door. I picked him up and put him back in bed and this time I held the door handle so he couldn't open the door. He tried a couple times and then I heard him playing a little, he never cried and didn't try to get out of the room again. But instead of crawling back up in bed to go to sleep he decided to just lay on the floor! I went in and picked him up to put him back in his bed and he stayed asleep. We'll see how this goes! It is happening much sooner than I have expected. I wasn't really ready for him to be out of a crib yet!

Valentines Day cookies

Here are just a few pictures of the kids decorating some heart cookies for Valentine's day. Tyler was more interested in eating the plain cookies then anything else. Alana had a great time putting some heart candies and gummies on to her cookies.

Christmas

We had a very nice Christmas. We decided to celebrate on Christmas Eve this year since we were going over to Grandma and Grandpa Olson's on Christmas day. The kids had a great time with all of their presents. Tyler was starting to really get the hang of opening presents. Alana was an old pro so when Tyler was 'done' with the present thing she opened the rest of his. He was pretty typical and when he found a present that he liked nothing else mattered!

Christmas 2

We had one last surprise for the kids.

Alana has been asking for the Rose Petal Cottage for months

and we had it all set up in our family room for her,

She was very surprised and happy that she got it!

You can tell she was surprised about it in her first picture!

We weren't able to get her everything for it since most stores were sold out.

We surprised Tyler with a ride on Thomas the Tank engine. Though he looks

very serious in these pictures he was pretty excited about it.

He had to go right up to it and get face to face with it!

He also figured out how to push it around pretty well.