January 2011

January began with a hair obsession. At first, Austin was only concerned with doing his own hair. Then, he started doing his brother's hair. It only lasted a few weeks, but it was entertaining while it lasted. January is always our worst cold weather month of the year. The kids had several snow days off from school, and they took advantage of them. Here is Danielle taking her turn down our backyard luge aka the deck stairs packed with snow.

Here is Austin trying out the snowboard he got for Christmas.

In between trips outside and waiting for their snow bibs to dry, the kids spent much of their snow days playing with Wyatt's Christmas present. It entertained all four of them for several hours...no joke. This waterway/lock system is one of the best presents ever.

Jeff's Grandpa McEntire passed away in January. He was able to fly out to Utah for the funeral and spend time with his family for several days. It was a sad occasion but a great opportunity to renew relationships with his immediate and extended family. Here he is with some of his siblings and McEntire cousins at funeral.

Here he is with some of his siblings and McEntire cousins way back when. Jeff is the blond furthest to the right.

While they were together, he and has family had a great time hanging out and looking through old photo albums. Below are two of my favorite family pictures he made copies of while he was there. Is it just me or does his Dad look like Chevy Chase in this picture?

Jeff is the one in the brown vest.

Austin's smile became even more toothless in January. He is now missing four teeth up front. Once any tooth seems a little shaky, Austin can not rest until it is out. Austin also participated in his first pinewood derby. He learned a lot. The best part was spending time with his Dad making all the choices for the design and color of his car. His car is number 68 in the picture below.

Here is Austin "modeling" the fancy 4-lane race track used for the derby.

At the end of the month, we celebrated Luke's 4th birthday. Luke's best friend, Ryan, and Ryan's family came over so we could celebrate with Spiderman cupcakes and ice cream.

Our family also celebrated the day before at the Amazing Pizza Machine.

It was a fun weekend. I can't believe how fast he is growing up. Some of the things I love about Luke...he likes to argue with me about who loves who the most, he loves to talk about anything and everything, he calls marshmallows "smarshmallows" (I'll be so sad when he stops saying that!), any event that happened in the past is yesterday to him whether it was last week or last year, he still asks me to hold him every once in a while, he always notices when I have on something new, and he tells me I am beautiful almost everyday. Here are a few of Luke's favorite things:

Color: green & blue

Animal: giraffe

Sport: basketball and track (He loves to race!)

Food: Annie's white cheddar shells

Dessert: chocolate chip cookies and brownies