Mr. and Mrs. Surtees

On December 30th, my little sister, Lisa, married Larry Surtees in the Twin Falls temple. The weather was super nice, there was no snow, it was 60 degrees, very unusual for December in Idaho. Then later that night, when we were getting ready to leave the reception, there was a total blizzard outside, it was nasty. Everything was beautiful and turned out great. I'm very proud of her, and we're all pretty fond of Larry.

Christmas 2011

We went to Chad and Tasha's house for Christmas. We had our traditional prime rib dinner and it was delicious. Randy, Danielle, and Addy spent Christmas with Danielle's family. Randy also proposed to Danielle! There's also a picture of Tasha and me showing off our growing baby bumps. 

Thanksgiving

This year we went to Randy and Danielle's house for Thanksgiving. Chad and Tasha weren't able to come because they couldn't get time off work. We really missed having them there. Addy was missed also, she was at her Mom's this year. There was tons of great food, Shanghai of course, and fun. No major meltdowns from anyone, kids included, so that was nice. It was a lot of fun getting to spend so much time with family and getting to know Danielle better. Me, Danielle, and Mom went Black Friday shopping at 5am...we opted to skip the stores that opened at midnight and get a little bit of sleep. Of all the stores we went to, we ended up in line at Joann Fabric for 3 hours! It was crazy! Once we figured out a system, we rotated through the express line to get our fabric cut and made it out about 2 hours sooner. It was a lot of fun and very productive. That evening we took the kids to Jump Time where they got to play on big trampolines and bounce houses. It was a perfect way to wear them out at the end of the day. Chloe is getting so big and loves to be able to play with the big kids now. I forgot to take my camera with us, so sadly I have no pictures to share :(

Rob's 30th Birthday

Rob turned 30 this year! I like to remind him that he's an old man, I'm sure he appreciates it :). We had a small party at our house with a few friends and family. Everyone brought appetizers and we just hung out and talked. It's always fun to spend some time with the ones we love!

Halloween 2011

Brooklyn and Tyson were at their Mom's house for Halloween this year, so it was just the 3 of us. Chloe dressed up as a pumpkin because I always call her "punkin'. I made Chloe's tutu and the pumpkin topper in her hair. I was a pregnant skeleton, with Hailey! I made my shirt myself from an idea I saw on Pinterest. Rob dressed up as a surfer for work, but it was so cold and windy that he didn't want to stay in his shorts and flip flops, so he just left his wig on. We went to the neighborhood trunk-or-treat across the street again this year. It's perfect for Chloe because she doesn't need a TON of candy...and she doesn't really care. We got her to say "trick-or-treat" and she was really good about saying "thank you" after she got her candy. It was lots of fun!

It's a girl!

Just after Chloe's birthday we got to have our ultrasound. We found out we're having another healthy baby girl! I couldn't be more excited! Rob was hoping for a boy...but he's happy too. We've decided to name our new baby Hailey. We haven't come up with a middle name yet, but we have some time.

Chloe's 2nd Birthday!

I can't believe Chloe is already two! I don't know where the time has gone! For her birthday we went to pick out the stuff for her party and went to the mall so she could play on the toys. She had a lot of fun. She's getting so big!

We had and Elmo birthday party for her, she loves Elmo. Lots of friends and family came over for a bbq, it was a lot of fun. I'm glad everyone could come help us celebrate!

Moving to the toddler bed

We decided it was time to move Chloe to the toddler bed. She needs to get used to sleeping in a bed so that when the new baby comes she doesn't feel like the crib is still hers. I asked for advice from my friends and family and decided we should do it. Her crib converts to a toddler bed, basically you just take off the front rail. So that's what we did. She helped us take apart the crib and seemed excited about it. Then when bedtime came, she wasn't so happy. She doesn't like to go to bed anyway, so it was a fight. She didn't want to stay in bed. We kept putting her back in bed and telling her it was time to go to sleep, after about an hour, she went to sleep. The next day when I laid her down for a nap, she fussed a little because she didn't want to nap, but she never got out of the bed. Since then, she stays in bed and sleeps great! She still doesn't like going to bed, but I'm pretty sure that won't go away until she's my age.

Locked out...

Chloe and I were hanging out at home just like we do everyday. I went out to move the sprinkler while I was talking to my mom on the phone. Chloe always stands at the front door and watches me move the water. When I went to open the front door, I realized that she was playing with the door while watching me and locked the dead bolt! I went around the back of the house because the back door is usually unlocked. Just my luck, of course it's locked. All of the windows that are open are too high for me to try and climb through them. So I stood at the front door trying to get Chloe to unlock it. She didn't understand what in the world I was talking about and just stood there giggling and waving to me. Then she disappeared for awhile, and came back with a green crayon. Awesome. She went to work coloring up the stairs and all over the front door. I stood there yelling for her to stop, but she thought it was hilarious. Luckily I had my phone with me, so I called Rob and he was able to take his lunch break early. So I sat on the doorstep for about 20 minutes while Chloe ran amuck inside. I just finished cleaning up her art work. Thank goodness for magic erasers!

Last weekend of summer

This was our last week having Brooklyn and Tyson with us for the summer. I was able to get Saturday off so we could do something fun for our last weekend. We took the kids to the new water park in Rexburg and they had a blast. Chloe thinks she's one of the big kids and loved going on the slides.

After the water park we went to my brother's house for dinner. They were busy painting their house all day so my parents and sister were there too. Randy wasn't able to come up though. After dinner Chad and Tasha announced that they're having a baby!! I'm super excited for them, and we're due about 4 weeks apart! It will be so fun to have little cousins born around the same time!

Appendicitis

Last week while Rob was at work he started not feeling very well. He came home, took something for the pain and I went to work. I ended up coming home early because he still wasn't feeling well. By about 11 o'clock that night, we decided he needed to go to the hospital. Our friends Andrew and Irene came over to stay with the kids. It ended up being appendicitis. So about 2 o'clock in the morning my mom left Rupert to come up and stay with the kids. Rob went into surgery about 7ish the next morning. Everything went great and he was able to come home that evening. He still hasn't fully healed, but he's feeling much better.

Our 2nd Anniversary

Rob and I celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary this year. We left Chloe with my mom for the weekend and went on a mini vacation. We spent the weekend in Utah. We went to Lagoon, which was much easier without all of the kids! We went to Rodizio for dinner, went to a movie, shopped, and mostly just relaxed. It was great to get away just the two of us.

Expecting again

In June we found out that I'm pregnant again. I'm due February 27th. Here is the first ultrasound of our new addition. The doctor says that it has a very strong heartbeat and everything looks great!

Fun in the sun

Build-A-Bear

After visiting Grandma Winkler, we went to the Gateway Mall. They were doing some sidewalk chalk thing while we were there. A bunch of people had drawn these amazing pictures just using sidewalk chalk...I wish we had taken a picture of one. We also went to Build-A-Bear.

Tyson picked a puppy and named him Murray.

Chloe picked a bear and named him Coco.



Brooklyn picked a bunny and named her Rosie.

Visiting Grandma Winkler

Thanksgiving Point

We went to Thanksgiving Point, which was really cool. The kids got to build their own dinosaurs, and see a lot of dinosaur bones. They also got to dig for bones and play in the sand. While they played in the sand, Chloe played with Grandma Astle with some dinosaurs.

After the dinosaur museum, we went to the farm section. There were a lot of animals for the kids to see and they got to ride a pony.

Then we went to the huge flower garden. This was my favorite part, I think the kids were tired of walking by that point and didn't think it was as fun as I did. There were a bunch of pretty waterfalls too.

Train Ride

We also got to ride on a real train. That was pretty cool. They even had a point where we stopped and they had a train robbery...it was cute. I think the kids really enjoyed it too. On the way back to the station Chloe and I fell asleep...a much needed nap for both of us by that point!

Lagoon

Our next adventure was Lagoon. I was probably more excited about this than the kids were, because they didn't really know what Lagoon was. They loved it. They went on lots of rides and Rob and I even snuck away to go on some of the roller coasters. It was a very long day and by the end, Chloe was so exhausted. She didn't get a nap all day and was tired of being in the stroller.