What Do You Mean Amelia Is 13?!

Thirteen years ago I was lying in a hospital bed, munching on toast, chatting with the sweetest labor and delivery nurse I have ever met. I had no idea how much my life would change in a just a few hours. 
Later that evening, at 9:11 pm, I was blessed with the most beautiful, caring, talented, loving, smart, funny, determined, and kind-hearted 8 lb. 6 oz. girl I know. And everyone else who meets her agrees with me. :-)  She went from this:

To this:

 While she weighs more than 8lbs now, not much else has changed. She still has an amazing smile, eyes that twinkle with happiness and at times mischief, and is an absolute blessing in our lives. She is dependable, kind to others, a confident little sweetheart and I'm blessed to be her mother.

 LOVE YOU, AMELIA!! Happy 13th birthday! Welcome to the teen years (although you've been adult-like your whole life) ! 😄 

Here she is over the years:

Where did the time go?!

I swear, the last few months have flown by--the days and weeks seemed to have dragged, but I'm not completely sure what happened to February and March! We are heading into one of my favorite times of year--spring and my kiddos birthdays! I'm always a little sad to be a year closer to being an empty nester, but that's drowned out by the fabulous-ness my children have become. Here's a few things we've been doing:

There was a potato bar at school for Idaho Day--Cooper doesn't care for potatoes unless they are cooked exactly one way so he improvised and drank his Sprite from a spoon. Crazy kid.

We've had a loooooong winter. A few weeks ago it warmed up to 43 degrees, so everyone was outside. :-) We went to the park and played some basketball, played on the toys, and ditched Amelia when she stopped for the 56th time to talk to someone she knew.

This is Cooper on picture day. I always make him wear a nice shirt on those days, so he thought he'd show off his "guns". He told me, "I hope the photographer isn't distracted by my awesome arms and focuses the camera on my face."

We also had the annual cake auction. Here's the cake we bought:

Cute, right? But is it FIFTY DOLLARS OF CUTE?!! I had it for $35 and a lady bid me up. I threw my cup at her to distract her when the bidding was about to close then raised my hand and won. It was pretty intense for a while there.

Finally, both Amelia and Cooper needed new bikes this year, so we bought them this weekend. It's mostly their birthday gift because they both needed adult size bikes. Whew. Hope they last a couple years!  That's it. I'll post more on my darlin's birthdays!

Bon Jovi Concert!!

Almost a month ago ( that's its already been that long is super sad in itself) I had the privilege to see my one true love (other than my children of course) AGAIN--JON BON JOVI in concert!

We stayed at the New York New York hotel:

We could see the T-Mobile arena from our hotel room window!

I was SO MUCH CLOSER this time, I could almost see him wink at me! :-)

Although we had a few fuddy-duddies around us, for the most part everyone was enthusiastic as we were and joined us in shouting mostly appropriate things. Mostly.

While we were in Vegas, I had M&Ms personalized to bring home to my darling children. Here's what they said:

We also went to a bakery that is owned by a famous guy and grabbed a couple pastries. Sadly, they looked better than they tasted. 

It was the BEST WEEKEND EVER, and I so grateful my family would watch my kiddos so I could go. Here's hoping the next concert is sooner than four years from now!  Rock on!

"I-Day"

This weekend Amelia and Cooper used their "I-Day" gifts they received from Nana and Grandpa Call for Christmas. We started off at I-Jump, and even had the place to ourselves for the first half hour!

Cooper is catching up in height. He already wears a bigger show size than Amelia, so I think sometime this year he may end up the same height as her!

The foam pits were their favorites. I posted a couple videos of them doing flips into the pits. 

From there we went to IHOP for lunch. It was fun to sit down for a meal, although Amelia and Cooper quickly realized sit-down restaurants are not "fast food". :-) They had to wait a whole 15 minutes for their lunch!

It was a fun break from the cold spell we've been having. We also have Monday off of school to make it a three-day weekend. It'll be hard to go back--our next break is President's Day!  We are looking for places to visit during spring break though--we'll have more time to travel then. Thanks Nana and Grandpa! We love you!

Christmas 2016

Wow, what a Christmas! We had it all--family visits, celebrations, tons of snow, and lots of fun memories were made. We started off with our traditional Christmas Eve party with our entire family. EVERYONE was here this year so that made it extra special. We've grown so large in numbers we ended up having the party at the church house--we wouldn't all fit in Mom and Dad's house--and next year there will be even more!  We had tons of yummy food, a short program in which Amelia played her violin:

Cooper told a few jokes, followed by the other cousins--of which Matthew thought his jkoke was hilarious. Then we ate some more!

We left just as the "Big Storm" was hitting Blackfoot. We arrived home just in time to get tucked into our home and the storm blew in. We ended up having a constant snow fall from Christmas Eve eve until December 26th! When the skied cleared, we had about 12 inches of snow. Let me tell you, it made getting to church on Sunday an adventure. Let's just say my children were super impressed at the drift busting their mother could do in their tiny car. :-)

Here's some pictures of Christmas morning:

Cooper finally got his membership to the online game he'd been waiting for: 

Amelia and Cooper had $10 to get each other gifts. Amelia is bracing herself for Cooper's known exuberant reactions:

See?

They loved all their gifts--from the complete haul from Santa; to the "I-Day" (tickets to I-Jump and lunch at IHOP) from Nana and Grandpa. 

The rest of our vacation was spent sleeping in, playing with new toys and games, relaxing, and gearing up for the looooong few months with no break in sight. :-) We have New Years Eve celebration tonight, so I'll post that later. Happy New Year!

Nutcracker

Sigh. The Nutcracker  is over. Finished. The season has passed. I don't know who feels more relief--the moms or the dance teachers. It may be a tie. In addition to Andy and Desiree wedding (which was lovely) we had the first of two performances last weekend. Saturday went well, and I didn't mind the late night. Monday however, was a little rougher. I had taught all day, was fighting a cold, and exhausted. Cooper and Amelia did a fabulous job as always. Cooper behaved himself and Amelia didn't fall as she danced on her pointe shoes. Everyone was tired and by the time we got home, 2/3 of us were in tears. I'm hoping it gets better with each year! Here's a few pictures:

Cooper and his "manly" candy bouquet.

On Wednesday Amelia went to the dentist to have a "surgical exposure of impacted canine tooth" procedure done. It took an hour an a half. I didn't understand the severity of the procedure, but it became clear when the dentist cut her gums away from the tooth, folded it back up, and stitched it in place. Let's just say I'm certain my decision to NOT become a dentist was a good choice.  Amelia did an AMAZING job. I talked her into happy gas and I think that really helped. That, and the dentist remembered her and numbed her from her eyebrows to her chin. :-)  She will go in later this month to have a brace attached to the uncovered tooth so they can start moving it down.

On less grotesque note, Cooper had his science fair yesterday. I'm proud of the work he did and how well he presented. It was one of the perks of him being in the same school as me that I got to see his project.

Next up: Amelia's orchestra concert and Cooper's school Christmas program.

Holiday Season

Wow, holidays certainly make time move fast! So much has happened in that month. Thanksgiving, Amelia's first festival performance, a wedding, and gearing up for Christmas. The most exciting thing however, is that this girl got her braces on:

She. Did. AMAZING. No tears, no crying, no "flippin' out" as Cooper would put it. The whole hour and a half she did so well! I don't know who was more surprised--me or the her orthodontist! Amelia is now the proud owner of pink braces, and I'm the proud owner of monthly payments!

We also had Thanksgiving in Blackfoot--it was especially fun because every single person in our family made it! That hasn't happened in a few years! It was a crazy day, with lots of food and tons of children running around. Amelia was in heaven with so many babies to hold and play with. Cooper had fun playing with his "army of boys". Next year we'll have at one more addition, can't wait!

Only rolls for this picky eater!

Only soft foods for this poor girls mouth!

Joey and Lynnli were having a pouting contest. 

The boy loves his Oreos!

A rare picture of Linus with his eyes shut. 

I loaded some of the cousins on the rolling tray and took them for a spin around the room. 

The Friday after Thanksgiving we decorated our home. We had so much fun unwrapping our ornaments and looking at each one! Each year we choose one that represents what we accomplished or experienced that year.

Gotta have that funny one:

We had the first performance of the Nutcracker last night, and the second tomorrow. I'll post pictures later this week! Merry Christmas!