snowman?

it has been ridonkulously warm here this January, and all i have to say is HALLELUIA! I can count on one hand the times we've been able to play out in the snow here since we moved here 6 years ago, so needless to say we've been trying to take advantage of the global warming:) I was sick with some weird crazy virus this week, but we did venture out in the yard a couple times.

Ozzie wasn't overly thrilled about the snow blocking his path to the slide, but he enjoyed being outside none the less.

Greta was lovin it, going down the slide a billion times and making a stick garden with all of the twigs that fell off the neighbors tree.

and of course they both enjoyed a ride in the car! ( best outdoor toy ever)

Dick went out with greta on friday and began our first snowman ever. we learned from the death of the Cahoon snowman (RIP), and decided to make ours in the back yard instead. It was a bit of a process, and then we had to go somewhere, so we left him without a head. when we came outside on saturday to finish making frosty it was too cold to make snowman heads so this is what we ended up with...

nacho libre-man? i dunno, but it was all we had.

i like this pic

not sure why ozzie has 2 touques on and looks very cone head-ish


little miss greta looking disheveled and cute as per usual:)

all in all it was good times, except for an ozzie face plant in the icy hard snow bank, but i sure hope this weather continues, maybe we'll get to use our toboggans yet!

slow and steady

I dont know about everyone else, but I have a difficult time getting back into the swing of things after Christmas. I think something about the turkey, and treats, and veg-ing, and movie watching, and shopping etc. etc. physiologically makes me move slower, be motivated less, and actually feel like time is standing still in January. I'm not big on New years resolutions either(obviously), but that's for another post completely.

In light of this, I will be blogging Christmas in sessions, collage style. not the most attractive form of picture posting, but who am I kidding, posting pics on blogger sucks anyways, so this is best for now.

We did have a FABULOUS Christmas at my Mom and Dada house in Lethbridge. Me and the kids went a week early so Dick could finish exams, and then he joined up with us on our Anniversary, which was a pleasant surprise!

One of the great things about only having to do one side of the Family at Christmas is that its pretty low key, and you actually get to relax a bit. The perks of a small family I guess:) Speaking of perks, lets talk about a few this year... non-stop delicious food, the best Turkey dinner of my life(for real), babysitting at the drop of a hat, cousins to entertain the kids, trips to Great Falls for the BEST shopping, parties with good friends, generosity above and beyond anything I would ever expect, and of course lots of time to enjoy Family! Thanks Mom and Dad SO much!!!

Greta and Ozzie were both thrilled to play with their cousins, even though Ozzie swiped a few of them at times! It was cousin HEAVEN for Greta, she would have eat , slept, breathed, Kaiya and Jag every day if she could!
Here's a few pics of the kids playing, eating icecream, opening presents, dressing like ballerinas, being ninjas, and wearing cute Jammies from Grandma and Grandpa!

It was also the first time the kids have really been able to play in the snow this year because A) we had barely any snow in Saskie when we left, and b) it was too stinkin COLD to go outside! So Greta was so excited to make snowballs, and angels, and forts, and Ozzie beyond loved us draggin him around on the sled.

We also adopted a Jahn family tradition of eating the most delicious waffles of all time on Christmas morning, I haven't seen my Dad eat that much in years! Both Greta and Ozzie loved being with their Gandparents, even if it took Ozzie 2 weeks to warm up to dad:) Greta used her powers of persuasion to get everything she wanted or thought she needed from Grandma...especially Grandma hugs, and she loved learning to sing "On top of Old Smokey" with Grandpa! I'm so grateful our kids have such amazing Grandparents (on both sides) to learn from and make memories with!

okay, i'm spent.

to become like a little child

...only little children have the imagination to come up with brilliant names for their littlest Pet Shop pets such as these.

the puppy- Ulla
the iguana- Proneza
the canary- Rezella
the kitten- Rodessera (she is the cousin to Gretas My little Pony named Rodessero)
the turtle- Marsipelli

the list goes on...those are the only ones i wrote down. and its not like she just makes them up and forgets them 30 seconds later. she has it down to a science and really puts some thought into her naming system.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

dancing, walking, and grosstaches

finally downloaded some video off our camera tonite. its been awhile, and my kids LOVE watching "home movies" so thats how we spent our sunday night.
Greta has been going to a ballet class since September. Ironically enough its called "Studio One" and so far she seems to really like it. It is a bit secretive though, i dont really know what goes on in there most of the time, and they had parent observation night but Greta was sick, and she really wanted me to come watch. So i asked Miss shauna if i could sit in the class and watch for a few minutes last week, this is what i saw...






This week has also been a busy one for Ozzie. he's gone from scaling walls, furniture etc. at lightning speed, to crossing the hallway on his own, to crossing the kitchen, going down the whole hallway, and now he's a full out walking maniac. His first real venture away from the walls started on Tues. Nov. 24th, and now he doesn't even think twice about it, he barely falls, and is a pretty, stinkin, happy boy! Its like he totally just decided that he was gonna walk, and did it. He could have done it earlier, but he wanted to make sure he was good at it first(daddy trait).
This video is from his first day or real walking on Tues., the second video is from Last night. crazy what a difference a week can make:)







In other news, thankfully "Movember" is pretty much over. Dick and a bunch of his man-friends helped raise money for Prostate Cancer by growing some nasty "mo's." The Neilsons had a sweet party to commemorate the month long event; food was ate, awards were given, just for men was used, and all in all it was a great time! dick is already planning his stash for next year...oh and he won the "try the hardest award" or something like that. due to his ridiculous plucking of the top mustache hairs to make it look more 'greasy mexican' than ever.(no offense)

mid month stashe

yes those are all real. sorry about the bad quality

end of the month stashe...its pointy, sick.

you can lead a horse to water...

but you cant make him walk. Ozzie turned 14 months last week and he has definitely been busy this past month, FINALLY learning to crawl (sort of, actually he scoots and 1 knees it but whatever, he's mobile) taking his first REAL first steps. I say real because he's been scaling the furniture and walls and everything for quite a while now, but he is pretty wussy venturing out on his own. if i'm walking with him, as SOON as i think about letting go he sits down. what a stinker.

we lowered his crib this week, which makes me laugh actually that it was up high for so long, we lowered Gretas at 7 months. other than that he is still such a funny little guy, and so boyish. hitting everything with a hammer as hard as he can, chucking balls at my head, teasing his sister cause he knows she'll get upset(seriously, he does) and dancing lots, but only to music that has a good beat. If i put on kid stuff he screams. which leads me to my next point. SCREAMING!!! ozzie has quite the temper. he can light up about nothing and go into a crazy screaming outrage in t-minus last year. also, he picked up a brilliant trait from mommy called holding his breath when hes mad. now i know almost all kids do this to an extent,but Ozzie holds his for so long, until the point where you think you should start shaking him so he'll take in some oxygen so he wont have brain damage long. its scary. and yet, funny.

this month also brought on our dreaded trip to the allergist. we figured Ozzie was definatley sensitive to a few things so we had our doctor refer us....4 months later we had our appointment. Ozzie was already super tired when we got there cause it was right during his morning nap, then he had a weird new doctor trying to be his friend, and giving him a scratch test. so all in all he wasnt happy. neither was I. So far(cause thats all they tested for) hes allergic to egg whites, egg yolks, milk and peanuts. BOO! times a million. I know lots of kids are allergic to things these days, and yes, theres a good chance he'll grow out of some of it...But heres why i'm annoyed.
a) I LIVE for all things dairy..milk cheese yogurt icecream...did i mention cheese? and it bothers me not to share these delicious gems with my little boy
3) So much for nursing him until he was pracitaclly saying "mommy milk please" okay, just kidding. but he was a year old and that is good in my books, and isnt that supposed to help with allergies?
q) and last but not least..WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO MAKE FOR DINNER??? for real. just about everything we eat on a regular basis is riddled with milk or eggs, and i'm sorry but SOY milk is barf in my mouth. i consider myself a pretty tollerant person when it comes to food tastes, but i cant do it. in baking, fine. but in cooking..gag.

Anyways, its worse for me than ozzie, and i'm totally ranting here, but obviously hes doing fine and is growing and eating like a maniac, so life goes on.

speaking of, today was the first time i've attended Relief Society in approx. 5 years. no offense, but it was brutal. Not RS itself. everything was great, the music, lesson, talking with adults for a change, the old ladies vibrato etc. i love all of that. but I was DYING in the back feeling like i needed to be somewhere doing or teaching something. its gonna take awhile to adjust i think. It didnt help that i had so many Primary kids come up to me today and give me hugs and say we miss you Sister Jahn, and make me pictures in sacrament meeting. It was so cute. I am enjoying my new calling though, its just so different being behind the scenes, planning, meetings and such. i'm sure there's lots i need to learn.

okay, that's enough.

october

phew...what a MONTH!!! i thought september was nuts until october came around. Between Joy school at our house, Ballet, Halloween, halloween parties, Primary presentation regular life, i felt like i was running a marathon.... and then poof! look! its already November and I busted out a Christmas CD today!

I had my turn teaching Joy School this past month and let me say..it was so FUN! Crazy at times, but fun. Our unit was all about the body and we played lots of games, talked about bones, used our senses and ate healthy food and exercised. The kids were great, and they all really do play well together which helps. Greta is constantly saying " look mommy i'm using my sense of tongue" (taste)when she eats food. Still working on that one, but at least i know a few things sunk in.

After all was said and done it made me very grateful to be home with my kids. I LOVE teaching, i love kids, i loved being a full time teacher, but it is SO much work and prep. and constant bombardment of the brain. I know i could not be both a mom and a teacher at the same time successfully. so i'm truly grateful to be at home, even if i feel like pulling my hair out some days:)and sorry, i have no joy school pictures, my camera was lost for awhile and then it seemed like i never had a spare second with all the kids here to snap a pic.

Halloween week was as crazy and fun as the rest of the month. Greta wanted to be a Bee this year? dont know why? she also wanted to be a lemon, couch, and a diaper...so BEE was clearly the only option. I had some leftover tulle from various Tu Tu's i've made and so i decided to make one for Greta and throw some sequins on a body suit and call it a costume. Turned out pretty cute!

We also had a party at the church and a joyschool party with other friends too this week that turned out great! the kids got to wear their costumes lots and had tons of fun and so by my books that makes it all worthwhile. I love any excuse for a party, i just wish my place was bigger so thanks Laura for the Hospitality:)

Halloween day finally came and we spent most of it chillin cause the kids were sort of getting little coughs and sniffles. Greta went trick-or treating with Elias for a bit and it was perfect, we cleaned out the whole block in like 20 min. Nobody was out, it was weird. kind of creppy...very halloweeny.

Primary Pesentation coming up this week, should be a gooder. I cant believe how big our primary has become! there were like 5 kids in primary when we moved here. now there are close to 50!!! Crazy town. And then moving on to other things like deep cleaning my house, rotating toys, trying NOT to Christmas shop, and figuring out what i'm supposed to do in my new calling?

sorry this post is very journally, and i cant cut and paste the pics, so they're all at the top. annoying! good nite.