Beginning of 2016

First: New Year's Eve!

First thing that morning, I came downstairs to the sound of hammering. Collin had gotten out the extra Build and Grow kit they'd been given last time they were at Lowes, and was building a car for his brothers.

We spent the morning at the library for their kids New Year's party. They had snacks, crafts, and a countdown to noon.

Elliott

And then a trip to Krispy Kreme. We weren't planning on this. We told the boys we were going out for ice cream since we had coupons that expired that day. But when we got there, it was closed. We couldn't go home empty handed, so KK was the next best (and cheapest) treat. (I feel like I have to justify why I have so many pictures of us getting doughnuts.)

New Year's walk behind our neighborhood

The rest of January:

Cafe Rio opened up in Kent and we got VIP tickets for free meals! It was well worth the trip.

Polar Bear day at Play to Learn

Now we occasionally have a 4 man tub.

The sweetest baby around!

Truman trying on my boots. Have I mentioned we've been potty training for months? I don't want to talk about it.

Camels at the zoo. We've definitely gotten our money's worth with our zoo membership.

I asked Elliott what a seal says, and his face plus the sound he made was pretty hilarious.

The sharks are the favorite every time.

The peacock was waiting for us by our car after the zoo. 

Brothers making a chair fort

We got to go on our first temple date since having Bennett. 

Birthday party at the Hands On Children's Museum in Olympia. Truman getting his face painted

They both wanted a ladybug

So many fun toys at the children's museum!

The boys loved this police car!

Collin's favorite was the impression needles, or whatever they're called. He loved seeing kids hand and face prints from the other side.

Collin and Bennett matching

Collin's preschool has a mouse from "If you give a mouse a cookie" and each kid gets to take him home for a weekend. We took pictures of him doing things with our family and wrote a scrapbook page about it.

Collin made him a cookie and milk out of Legos

Collin and I went on a roller skating date, since we had signed up for a "kids skate free" program. Shortly after getting our skates on, I fell down hard and sprained my wrist. Since our skating date had just begun, I didn't want to quit, so we laughed about it and kept skating. My wrist was killing me the entire time and I was just praying I could keep from falling on it again while holding Collin's hand with my good wrist. He was falling all over the place too, and fortunately didn't want to skate very long. I think he had a fun time though! I was pretty helpless the rest of the weekend and couldn't use my right arm at all, but fortunately it's been getting a lot better. 

The whole family loved having mouse for the weekend.

Bennett learned to sit up on his own!

Doing tricks with Rob. 

Happiest baby

Rob took the twins to "the doughnut store" while Collin and I were skating. (We had a coupon for free doughnuts, so they had to!) They regularly talk about the doughnut store while playing.

Bennett and Aurora at Play to Learn (Grimmer and Otto babies Generation 3)

We borrowed an exersaucer from a friend for Bennett, although it would appear that it was entertaining for everyone.

We let the boys play in the backyard one day, not realizing that around the corner was a frog sandbox full of MUD! A midday bath was in order.

Another birthday party at a fun jump place. This huge slide was so tall and steep!

I just thought this party photo was funny because the twins are mirroring each other.

Another day at the zoo. We love it there.

Collin and me with the leopard.

I told Collin once that I like peacocks, and every time he sees one, he says "Look Mom! You really love those!"

I didn't realize until this blog post that we went to 3 birthday parties in January. This one was Asher's Inside Out party, and Rob read the "Anger" book to all the kids.

Bennett turned 6 months, and we celebrated by feeding him food for the first time! Oatmeal cereal. He did great and already eats a lot now!

Just a bunch of shirtless kids eating homemade ice cream. 

Christmas 2015!

We had a great Christmas with family. We traveled to Tri-Cities and Sunnyside to spend time with both Rob's family and mine-- Reuben and Dana live in Richland now and Katie and Justin drove up from Utah for Christmas. It was nice to be able to easily go back and forth between houses. It's been a while since we've spent Christmas with family and we had lots of fun!

Action shot of the boys playing with Uncle Justin. They'll take advantage of anyone who wants to throw them around.

The boys opened up books for Christmas Eve at Grandma and Grandpa Grimmer's house. They opened a set of "If you give a mouse a cookie" type books and Pout Pout fish books, and those have been read every day since. 

Santa Came

                                                       

Snug in their bed

Christmas Morning!

The boys were most excited to look in their stockings on Christmas morning. (Elliott)

T,E

Truman. He and Elliott just wanted to open all their treats right away.

Collin got a few Lego sets and crafty things, and really just wanted to go to the table and build them all as soon as he opened them. It took some work to get him to come back and finish opening presents.

Santa brought the twins this big dinosaur set and it was a hit.

We loved spending Christmas morning at Grandma and Grandpa's house. 

I took each of the boys on a date to the dollar store before Christmas to choose a present for each of their brothers. Truman and Elliott went on different days and chose the exact same thing for each other without any prompting: they both went to the big bin of random animal figures and chose the same toy shark.

His model butterfly he built from Gma and Gpa

Back to Reuben and Dana's. . . they had huge puzzle the adults and Collin were working on. I was surprised Collin kept interest in such a difficult puzzle, but he spent hours at that table and actually helped with it quite a bit.

Grumpy Truman and cutie Scout

Story time with Aunt Katie

Christmas baby

Christmas dinner

Elliott

Scout and Truman

Group shot

Bennett and Sam with their Santa bums 

Movie night!

Back to Gma and Gpa's house the day after Christmas. Elliott and Bennett worn out from all the fun. We apparently didn't get any pictures of the group, but we spent the day with Gma and Gpa, Tiffanie, Cory, Dan, and Amber and their families.

So when we woke up the next morning at Rob's parents' house, Rob got out of bed to get Bennett, and was startled and said "Oh my gosh. There is a dead rabbit on the floor!" His old cat, Greg, had killed it and brought it inside our bedroom for us. It was the morning of our anniversary, so we're convinced it was a gift. I'm just glad it was Rob who found it and not me, or worse, the kids! 

Back to Reuben's house. Photo shoot with the three babies! Sam, Piper, and Bennett. Born in that order, all within a couple months.

Me and my twins. Reuben also took some family pictures for us!

T and E

My big handsome Collin

7th Anniversary 

Finishing up the big one!

The kids' table 

We got a chance to see my favorite Young Womens' leader growing up-- Vanina! Katie and I loved visiting her with our families.

Bath time with Scout

The kids got to play in snow! One thing they don't see much of around here.

Tru

Collin

Snowball fight!

Elliott

Another highlight was the game nights we had each night. Werewolf with the Grimmers and card games with the Grothauses. Such a fun Christmas with family!