We got a nice surprise this morning when Bruce's mom called and said they were coming to visit. The kids sure were excited when we told them that Grandma Debbie and Papa Ron were coming over. They both screamed and said "Yeah!" They played dress up while they waited for them to get here, but every few minutes would run to the bedroom and look out the window to see if they were here yet. As soon as they saw their car pull in the driveway, they yelled "They're here! They're here!" and ran to the door to greet them.

"I got wots and wots of nekwaces and bwacewets on me"

Hailey made a bed for Jack out of their chairs. She layed him in it and covered him with his blankie. She tucked him in singing the songs that I sing every time I lay him down. Then she made herself a bed right next to him. I think Jack was pretty comfortable cause he layed there for quite awhile without moving.

Jack cuddled with Grandma Debbie for a long time.

He ended up falling asleep.

When he woke up, Grandpa Ron took a turn holding him. Jack kept looking up at him and giving him smiles.

And Jack put Grandpa to sleep. Too funny!

Hailey and Grandma had fun playing with Snap n' Style dolls together.

Hailey got a hat and a pair of shoes for each of them and asked Max if he wanted to be the daddy. She helped him get the shoes on (a pair of dress shoes from her closet). He was so happy to have a hat and shoes too. He said "Haywee give me dese. Well, dat was nice of her." They walked around the house together like this as she pushed her doll in the stroller.

Running from me as I was chasing them around the house.

Reading books while waiting for mommy to finish feeding Jack and tucking him in bed. The Three Bears" is his very favorite book right now.

Jack is getting much better at sitting, and he loves to play while sitting.

Hailey drawing people.

Max pretended to build a fire. He got the Bumbo seat and put it in the corner. Then used a pillow for the gate. He used the toy dust pan as a shovel to scoop out the ashes. Then filled the Bumbo seat with baby toys saying it was his wood. He said "I won't get burned cause I a daddy. I just betendin (pretending)." It was funny cause he copied everything daddy does when he makes a fire in the woodstove.

The kids just love this song, "Yellow Submarine". As soon as we get into the van Max starts asking "Can you turn da wewo submawine nugics (music) on?"

While I was feeding Jack and putting him to bed, Max took some books to our bedroom and layed on our bed reading. He read to himself for quite awhile. Once I had Jack in bed, I decided to get the camera and took this first video before he noticed I was there with the camera. Then I went in and took some videos while he read his books to me.

This is Max's new favorite book, "The Three Bears". He picked it up a couple days ago and has asked me to read it to him many times during the day ever since and also every night before bed. And I'm sure we'll be reading it to him every night for the next few months until he picks another book to be his favorite. He still brings me other books sometimes during the day to read, but his favorite at the time is the one he wants to read before laying down to go to sleep at naptime or bedtime.

As soon as we walked into church this morning and Jack heard the music, he started clapping. Max sang along for most of the songs. And when he didn't know the words in parts of the songs, he'd just sing "I love Jesus" to the tune of the song we were singing. After church was over, Kenzie picked up Max. He noticed her dangly flower earrings, pointed to them and said "I wike yours of dese (these)." We came home and had pizza for lunch. Then I put the boys down a nap. About an hour later, I heard Max talking so I went in to get him thinking he had just woke up. I found him sitting in a pile of pullups and books. He had taken every pullup and diaper out of the diaper stacker and also all his books off his shelf. He was sitting there in the middle the pile looking at books. I should have taken a picture. I was kind of funny. I loved how he looked up and gave me a big smile when I walked into the room. Since Max ended up not taking his nap today, he was getting very tired and grumpy by 6:30. And Hailey was getting grumpy too and crying over every little thing. So I started bedtime routines earlier tonight and had Max and Hailey both in bed by 7:30. Then I read some books to Jack and put him to bed. They all fell asleep so quickly.

"I make fireworks!"

"What dose ones are, mommy?"

Hailey drew a snowman.

Jack loves to sit up and play now.

Max loved this truck ice sculpture.

And he liked this big dog too.

The hairy alpaca.

Max was really excited to get to see Elmo.

Watching them make fudge.

Trying to decide which cookie she wants.

Hot chocolate at Starbucks.

"I all dirty."

Max woke up at 7:30 saying he had to go pee pee. I took him potty and then brought him to my bed to cuddle. I had the heated mattress pad turned on, so he loved the warm bed. He said "Are I gettin warm up." Jack woke up shortly after and we listened to him talking on the monitor. Max was laughing at all the sounds he was making. At 8:00, Hailey came and crawled in bed to cuddle. She was laughing too listening to Jack talking on the monitor. After about 5 minutes though, she asked me to go get him so he could cuddle too. Hailey and Max both took a turn holding him. Then we went out to watch Curious George. Daddy came home while we were eating breakfast. He went to bed right away so he could wake up on time to go to the ice festival this afternoon. I got out the easel for the kids to draw on. They took turns using chalk and the dry erase markers. I also got out the magnet letters for them. Max liked when I spelled his name. Then he kept holding different letters up to me asking me what they were. He'd hold two at a time up and say "What dose ones are, Mommy?" Hailey liked using the numbers making her address and phone number. Then she made up different combinations of numbers telling me they were her friends phone numbers. Max drew on the chalkboard and said "I make fireworks!" Then I got some big pieces of construction paper out for the kids to draw on. Hailey picked dark pink and Max picked yellow. He also only wanted to use the yellow markers on his yellow paper. After they were done with their pictures, I gave them each a black piece of construction paper and they drew on them with chalk. Hailey made a snowman. Max always says "You Mr. Nodo and I'm going to toot on you." I don't get it but he says it often. Jack tried peaches for the first time and loved them. He would get excited opening his mouth wide for each bite. He also loves applesauce and bananas but doesn't like pears very much. After lunch, I put Jack and Max down for naps. Then I got things packed for going to the ice festival. Hailey was very excited and kept asking when we could wake daddy up so we could go. I set the timer for her. She lined up all her dolls on the table in the living room and asked me if I wanted to adopt a baby. She had me come look at them to pick one out. After I picked one, she wrapped it up in a blanket and handed it to me. She told me to take good care of my baby. She kept saying "You want to adopt just one more?". After I had four babies, she said "Wow, now you have lots of babies." She had laid another one by three of my babies and I was holding one. I said "Yep I have five babies." Then she said No, you have four babies. This one is mine." She picked up her baby and said "See you have three right here and your holding one, so that makes four." Max woke up at 3:45. I got the kids a snack. While they were sitting at the table eating their snacks, the timer beeped. Hailey screamed "We can wake daddy up!" Her and Max got down and ran to the bedroom to wake daddy. They were so excited. We got ready to go, and Nana and Papa came over to go with us. It was very cold. We kind of hurried through looking at the ice sculptures. I didn't take many pictures because my hands would freeze without my gloves. We went to see the animals. There were camels, goats, sheep, and lamas. Before heading over to the warming tent, the kids went on a pony ride. Hailey went on by herself. I walked along side Max. He was smiling and saying "Dis is fun". Hailey kept looking back at me smiling. Daddy was going to walk by her but the guy put her on while daddy was waiting for his change. I was afraid she was going to start crying but she did good and was very proud of herself for going by herself. She kept talking about how big she is now. The big warming tent was packed full of people so we couldn't get through with the stroller. We went to a smaller warming tent which wasn't near as packed. We got hot dogs, pretzels, and hot chocolate. My dad took my gloves and warmed them up by a heater. My hands felt so good after that. Even though it was so cold, Jack stayed nice and toasty in his car seat in the stroller. We had him bundled up good and then threw a fleece blanket over his car seat. His cheeks were so warm and he was quite happy riding in the stroller. After warming up, we went to look at some more sculptures. Then we stopped in the fudge shop to warm up again. The kids, including Jack, loved watching them make the fudge. Papa bought us all some chocolate fudge. Yummy! We stayed and watched the fireworks. Daddy and Papa took Hailey and Max outside to watch them while Nana and I stayed inside with Jack. He was happy to get out of his car seat and also enjoyed watching the fireworks show out the window. The kids started getting cold so Daddy and Papa brought them inside to watch the finale through the window too. As we headed back, they were lighting up hot air balloons. The kids loved watching that. They were so pretty. Max started getting cold again and said "Can we get hot chocolate, daddy, to warm up. I cold. We gotta get warm up." We decided to stop in one last store to get our favorite cookies and a cappuccino. Their coffee machine wasn't working so we just got some cookies. Bruce said he would stop at Starbucks on the way home. When Hailey heard him say "Starbucks", she said "Ya, I want to go to Starbucks!" (She doesn't even know what Starbucks is. She just thought the name sounded neat.) Max said "What is Starbucks daddy?" Then Hailey said "Ya, daddy, what is Starbucks? Can we go there, please, please?" Then Max said "Please, daddy? Can we go dere?" So daddy decided we'd all go inside and got the kids a hot chocolate and us a cappuccino. The kids loved their hot chocolates and thought it was cool that they had "coffee cups" just like us. Hailey said "This is really yummy hot chocolate. It even has this like a hot fudge sundae on it (whip cream). But this is kind of a boring place, isn't it Daddy." I don't think it was quite like she had expected. (She had expected something with stars because of the name.) We didn't get the kids in bed until after 9:00. Jack and Max have been doing so good going to sleep together since we put them in the same room together. At first, I was afraid that they would keep each other up, because Jack usually talks for quite awhile before falling asleep. But it doesn't seem to bother Max at all and they both fall asleep pretty quickly. I just turn on the monitor so I can listen and hear if Max gets out of bed. (I don't want him throwing all the stuffed animals in to Jack which is something he likes to do during the daytime while they are awake playing.) Once in a while I'll hear Max talking to Jack which is very cute to listen to. And if Jack starts to cry, I'll hear Max saying "Shhh, Jack, you gotta go to sleep."