december phone picture dump!

for my facebook friends, these pictures will be a repeat, but i've got to get them on the blog before i delete them off of my phone.

caleb was asked to sing for our stake baptism day....he did a solo, sang two verses of a song and rocked it.  he told me he wasn't even nervous.  takes after his dad this way--definitely doesn't come from me.  we went out for a cinnamon roll to celebrate afterward.  i love his little face.

took the kids to home depot and thought i was in for another harrowing experience at a store that wasn't very kid-friendly.  what they lack in exciting things for kids to look at,

they make up for in awesome carts.  we were stuck in a line for about 40 minutes,

and the girls were occupied the whole time....

june with her road rage, 

leah with pretending all of the wood and tools were her dolphin friends.

caleb at his christmas program.  i knew he had a couple of speaking lines,

but was really surprised when he stood in front of the microphone 

and sang an entire song

with the rest of the 2nd graders singing in the background behind him.

during the night program, two of the kids in his group didn't show up, 

so his teacher asked if he could say their lines too.  

ben took videos of him while trying to wrangle the girls at the same time.  

{i was at my work christmas party that night & had gone to the morning show}

the shortest kid of the bunch,

but that doesn't let him slow him down one bit.  so proud of this boy.

leah displaying a half-moon while playing at the park.

the kids at the dentist.  cavity free!

one really fun saturday:

the most delicious breakfast i've ever eaten with andrea,

then lunch & shopping with my lovely cousin,

then a date night with benjamin.

i felt like i ate my way through the day.

leah after her preschool field trip to the fire station.

she told me she was never going to take off the hat,

then 5 seconds after i took this picture she snapped herself in the face

with the elastic and got so mad that she yelled, 

"I'M NEVER GOING TO BE A FIRE FIGHTER EVER AGAIN!'

i couldn't stop laughing, which only made things worse.

caleb wrote a story about a "bad day."

and it looks like he's pretty traumatized 

about one day leah scratched his face so hard it bled.

he conveniently left out the part of the story 

when he tried to drag her across the backyard by her ankles

which was why she scratched him in the first place.

moral of the story?  

my kids really love each other.

classic soap-spiked hair in the tub picture.

little miss sunshine.  and her amber teething necklace.

{which really does work, in case you were wondering.}

every morning i have a fruit & protein shake,

and these little mongrels come running as soon as the blender starts up.

we each get a straw, and drink down the glass

in about 30 seconds.

spent veteran's day with a surprising day off for ben,

and decided to make the most of it

joining some friends for a hike,

coming face to face with an enormous tarantula

where i tried not to wet my pants in front of everyone.

and where i finally admitted that 

arizona is kind of pretty.

june in the morning.  i love this picture.

leah in the morning.  i love this one too.  

leah is kind of picky about when she wants to show physical affection, 

so when it's offered i eat it up. 

and i love that she was wrapped around my arm and didn't want to let go.

when june wakes up from her nap in the afternoon, 

we spend time just playing in her room.  

her favorite place to play?  sitting in her toy drawers.

a couple of weeks ago we got together with two of my friends from high school, 

matt & marielle & their families.  

after they left, i realized how rare it is to not only keep in touch with people for that long,

{i've known matt since...3rd grade?  i think?  we've been friends since 9th grade.  and marielle and i have been friends since 10th grade.}

but also to genuinely like the people they have turned out to be.  

and like their spouses and kids!

it was a fun night.

we joined in a baby-sitting swap with some families in our ward,

so once a month we watch 13-15 kids for 3 hours.  

to break up the time, we took them to a park one night & a hot air balloon appeared.

ben had the idea to lay the kids down to spell out "HI" 

and they all started chanting

"LAND-RIGHT-HERE!"

caleb started physical therapy again,

we're trying to re-train his body to strengthen certain muscles that have been weak.

and then re-correct other muscles that have been compensating for the weakness.

you know that competitive nature he was born with?

this is where it's channeled & put to good use.

just an afternoon playing in the backyard with the kids.

the bottom right corner picture is where june randomly smacked leah in the back.

she takes out a lot of her aggression on her older sister, we're working on that.

my home-made version of this sign,

made out of a big framed canvas that i bought for $3 from a yard sale.

june's obsessed with sun glasses, especially mine.

she's also obsessed with sweeping,

she'll randomly pick up the broom throughout the day and go to work.

i do everything i can to encourage this to continue.

during one of our date nights, 

we brought june with us because the couple watching the other kids

just had a baby, and we knew june would be a lot on top of the rest of the bunch.

we had a great time going out to dinner with her, then decided to push our luck

and took her to target to shop for christmas pj's.

an enormous tantrum ensued, she was literally shrieking her way through the store.

so ben tried to console her, validating that he feels the same way 

whenever he enters target.

i laughed and took pictures.

the kids love the trampoline, 

i love their crazy, static-y hair.

leah's imagination continues to go full force.

one night i thought she was totally asleep,

when she suddenly came out of her room wearing a basket and some 

toy bungee things on her hands.  she announced that she was a turtle and  needed to go potty,

and she knew she needed to go because her "shell" 

felt like it was full of pee.

june's new trick.  i love her legs.

on another date, ben and i were grabbing something at a gas station,

and we found this "VOSS" water.  that word is an inside joke with ben's family,

so we snapped a picture with me trying to look sophisticated next to

what is apparently supposed to be some really delicious, extremely over-priced water 

and sent it to them.

one afternoon my friend lisa came over & did my hair...

and while it was setting i had to pick up caleb from school,

so away i went, shower cap and all.

i have no pride.

and here's my hair after the shower cap....

somehow i grew a unibrow and mustache during the ordeal.

took caleb on a date mini-golfing and out for pizza.

my favorite gift under the tree so far.

and that's it!!  

are you ready for christmas?

i know we are!