Catch Up

Our new year started out a bit more chaotic than we planned. I began having left sided pain and went through several doctors appointments and tests before they finally figured out what was wrong last week. (A para ovarian cyst, incase anyone is wondering.) I didn't handle it well mentally at first, and had a pretty major anxiety/depression relapse. After tons of prayer and blessings from Mark and tons of time on the phone with my sister, mom, and dad, I decided to switch medications and change aspects of my life. I am doing better than ever right now! YAY! Anyway, it wasn't a great January, but February was fun and I'm looking forward to all we have coming up this spring and summer!

Ok so back to playing catch up. While other parts of the country have been having blizzards and ice storms, California has hardly even had a winter. It's been in the 70's almost consistently since the beginning of February. It's crazy! So we've been doing all sorts of fun spring things!

Like picnics at the park with friends and climbing on rocks 

 And going on a whale/dolphin watching cruise with Tyler's preschool class.

The whales were pretty boring, but the dolphins were awesome! There were tons of them and they played with and raced the boat, jumped out of the water, and played in the boat's wake. So much fun to watch!

 Soooo excited!

Getting ready to cast off.

 It was warm on shore, but not out at sea! Tyler with his best bud, Brooks. 

 Clara is a regular sailor. She loved it!

With our friends, the Clowards

 Later that month we met up with Aunt Heather and her boyfriend Ian at Downtown Disney. We ate at the Rain Forest Cafe and had tons of fun. Except, our table was right under the monkeys and every time they went off Tyler freaked out and every time the thunder/rain storm went off Clara freaked out and covered her head thinking she was going to get rained on! 

Waiting for our table and playing with the bug masks in the cafe store

 We also spent some time at the lego store. And yes, my kids were very overdressed. It was much warmer than I thought it would be. It was still early enough in the month that I actually thought winter would one day show up. I've given up on that now. 

 We pretty much have a picnic lunch outside every day. Yep, it's warm enough for a underwear picnic outside. Don't worry, I kept my underwear covered. 

 During one of our picnics I noticed that our baby peach trees were blossoming! Yes, blossoming in February. Like I said - no winter.

 And a random picture of Tyler and Clara showing off their new jammies.

 And Clara showing off her pretty church dress from grandma Lerman. Clara LOVES froofy princess dresses!

 If it's warm in February might as well play in the mud

 And put on mommy's mascara. Yeah, totally unrelated, but after the hair cutting fiasco and this mess I obviously need to start locking all my bathroom drawers.

Clara can count to 10

We took the kids to see Frozen in the theater and have officially joined the Frozen craze. We listen to the soundtrack daily and are counting down the days until the movie comes out on DVD. Tyler can sing every song word for word and if Clara could talk more she'd be right there with him.

Tyler wanted to put on Clara's jammies by himself and I thought it was so cute, so like any good mom, I recorded it.

We did have one rainstorm in February. I can't believe I actually post about rain, but since I can literally count on one hand the amount of times I've seen rain in the past year, it's a pretty exciting moment for us.

Christmas Day

I didn't get any pictures of Christmas Eve, but for memory sake, we had a yummy breakfast for dinner with the missionaries, watched the Living Scriptures Nativity, and had a little lesson about the birth of Jesus. We also made sure to leave Reindeer food in the grass and cookies and milk for Santa. 

Christmas morning was magical as usual! Kids just make everything so much more fun! Almost all of Tyler and Clara's present requests were fulfilled by doting grandparents, so Santa only had to fill stockings and find Ironman and Princess slippers. I don't think my kids could have been more spoiled! The sure loved every present they received. 

 I was able to sneak out, after Santa left, to take pictures of the living room. So beautiful!

Merry Christmas my adorable children!

 Present time!

 Santa gave Clara this tiara in her stocking and it never left her head!

 BEN 10!

 Scripture heroes!

 My TV head got his very own DVD player!

 And my princess got her very own Elsa dress and wand!

 We can't forget the awesome Ninja Turtle costume

 Cool moves, Leonardo!

 Watch out Izzy and Jake - Clara is the new pirate in town!

We had Christmas dinner at our house. Mark's parents, his brother Kyle and Tanya and fam, and his brother Scott and Stephanie and fam, and his brother Nolan were all able to come play with us. It was a blast! We even sang Christmas carols! If you know the Andreasen family, you know that was quite an achievement! Speaking of an achievement, Stephanie was somehow able to get a good picture of all the cousins!

December

To be honest, I can't remember much of what went on during December. I guess that's what you get when you wait until March to blog about Christmas. Mark had just gotten called into the bishopric and was staying busy at work too, so we kept it kind of quiet. But it was still Christmastime, and still wonderful! 

Both Tyler and Clara fell in love with hot chocolate during the month of December. They asked for it almost daily!

 One day after church, while I was helping Tyler change his clothes, Clara found some scissors and cut her own hair!! Fortunately, a good friend managed to fix/cover it up well enough no one could tell.

 We went back to Thoroughbred Lane with some friends to see the Christmas lights again this year. It was REALLY crowded and the toddlers refused to stay in strollers or in arms. Needless to say, we didn't make it as far, nor was it as fun. But, Tyler sure liked the Ninja Turtle house!

 Between work and church meetings, we had several nights where bedtime came and went without Mark. The kids and I had begun falling asleep together telling stories. Usually we fell asleep in my bed, but one night Mark took this picture of us on the couch when he came home. I love my babies!

 The primary sang a few songs at the ward Christmas breakfast while dressed up as the Nativity. Tyler and the cute sunbeams as sheep.

 The ward Christmas party isn't a party without Santa! Clara did pretty well. At least, she isn't screaming!

 Tyler LOVED it! He still tells "Santa" what he wants as random things come up. He'll just stop in his tracks and whisper, "Santa, can you get me a _____." Kind of like a prayer. haha it's pretty funny.

Bathtime at our house is always an adventure. Sometimes I have to resort to dumping water on a certain child's head to get him to stop bugging his sister!

Clara started ballet dancing to The Nutcracker. But before any dance, she HAD to but on your ballerina costume. Tyler, as usual, had to copy. No scratch that, he had to steal her thunder! He is such a camera hog! (wonder who he got that from??)

We learned a new Christmas song this year and sang it constantly!