In's and Out's for the last 2 months...

the kiddos in pj's having fun

Mario sledding with the kids

the kids playing dress up, even Ethan wearing an old jacket!

Eve eating cereal for the first time... And not sure about it!

Elise and our fat cat Anne are napping buddies...

Elise usually can be found wearing a tu tu!!!

Having four kiddos is such an incredible blessing but it does keep a mommy busy! I wanted to take a moment and give an update on our sweet family. Ethan who is a big Star Wars fan has become an even bigger Batman fan. He now has us watching the ol' Adam West Batman tv show which is ridiculously cheesy. But it is great fun  for an 8 year old.;) Ethan and Emma have been taking piano and ice skating lessons which shockingly Ethan loves both! It has been a challenge for us to find extracurricular activities that he likes! And now he wants to go to a hockey game. He has great balance on the ice and is really interested in learning to play hockey. We have an outdoor ice rink in the park that is walking distance from our house but unfortunately it has not been cold enough for a long period of time to use it. Maybe next winter! Emma is the lead out in her ballet recital scheduled for April. I got to take a sneak peek at her hard work in progress last week and was amazed at how well she is doing! She wants to open up her own ballet studio. She just takes ballet, when she was younger she took a tap class but didn't really like it. Ballet is more her style. Elise is more girly than Emma if that is possible! She is into dress up, Rapunzel, oh and of course her play kitchen. And Eve she is rolling over now, trying to sit up, and experienced cereal for the first time last week and well she ate it! She puts everything in her mouth and makes all kinds of sounds. She is really getting a personality on her, the goods news is she is very relaxed and mellow more like Emma! Elise is still our firecracker and keeps us on our toes but I wouldn't change it, she is also our comic relief in our family. She loves to make us all laugh. She loves to sing. And well Max and Ruby is her fav and she loves to read the books and watch the tv show! We have fun and boy do we ever stay busy. Mario and I are planning a garden a real garden with lots of veggies so that has been keeping us busy! He is going to make me some raised beds with his new saw! Can't wait till spring. But for now we're enjoying the cold winter days with our kiddos... Here are some pics of well a sum up of what we have been doing the last few months...

Eve Angeline at 8 weeks...

Well Eve is 8 weeks old and is doing new things all the time. I forgot how quickly newborns change. She is a very happy baby. Smiling at anything. I tried to take a picture of her many looks. She tries to hit her toy now, she hit it a couple of times and let out a loud coo! We are really enjoying her!

Elise,caught red handed...

Elise keeps us on our toes that is for sure. Today while I was cleaning she found a small Polly doll toy that she obviously knew she wasn't supposed to have or she wouldn't have found this hiding spot between the bookcase and wall to admire it. When I found her she actually hid the toy in her sleeve so fast that she pulled her shirt up with it. My camera just happened to be close by so I snapped a quick picture. Sneaky girl, she loves to look at all Emma's Polly doll stuff but she sometimes just can resist the urge of putting them in her mouth. So we don't allow her to play with them unsupervised. But every now and then Emma leaves a small Polly purse or shoe out and Elise always finds them. She is so sneaky. :)

Lazy Days...

 Elise napping...

 Ethan playing a little Donkey Kong on the Wii with Mario...

Emma playing with her dolls in my dining room...

January brings some crazy cold temps in Iowa. Today when we went to church it was 5 degrees. You would think after living here going on 5 years I would get used to it, but I haven't. We stay at home a lot playing games, watching movies, and just hanging out with each other. Come March we will start to venture out and do outdoor activities again so until then we will be having a lot of lazy days.

Mario and I made a pizza recipe with all fresh ingredients. The crust turned out pretty good but the pizza sauce needs some tweaking still. We really enjoy cooking together these days. We really don't ever  eat  out anymore. We find it is more fun trying out all kinds of recipes in the comfort of our kitchen. We made a chili recipe a few weeks ago that was delicious.