snow days...

Well, it finally snowed here in Spokane. After weeks of being well below freezing, the snow finally came. I always look forward to the snow, I think it's fun to be in and it is beautiful. For the first 24 hours. I forget how much I hate it after that! It snowed about 9 inches in two days. On the first day the kids were SO excited to get out in it that as soon as Ben got home from work and started shoveling the drive way they wanted to go out and help him.

Taylor reminded me of the little brother from 'A Christmas Story'. She was the one who was most anxious to get outside.

Got to put them to work early. They looked so cute out there shoveling...

The next day Garret came over to play and they wanted to go outside again...

Of course, after a long morning outside in the snow there is nothing better than a nice big mug of Hot Chocolate!

I love these kids!

And I am already sick of this snow!

Quincy...

Just a few days after getting home from Alabama, we headed down to Quincy for my nephew Keyton's birthday. He had a party with his little friends and we couldn't miss that! :)

We stayed the night Friday night before the party and got NO sleep, the kids stayed up until like 10:30; but we still had a great time! :) We also tried making that new recipe going around the internet right now, the one that is Saltine cracker toffee. It was OK, it wasn't great, but it was OK.

Anyway, grandma came up for the day for it, too. As always, she was a big hit with the kids; they couldn't get enough of her. :) It was a fun day spent together.

She even took us out to dinner that night before we made the trek home, and they gave Keyton this sombrero and sang to him for his special day! He thought that was pretty cool! :)

{What a cutie!}

Drew's B day...

Tucker went to his buddy Drew's birthday party at good ol' Chuck E Cheese. I had to post this picture of the two of them. They are good buddies! :)

Bama extra's...

And here are some extra's from our trip down south. The kids did so wonderful on the plane rides. They were awesome, and the trips went smoothly.

Thank goodness for modern technology:

This little princess took naps on our bed the whole time we were there. It took me a while to wean her of that one when we got home! :) I went in to check on her one day and found her like this on our bed; it's a rough life! :)

One never knows what one will find in grandma's attic. Hence the lion hat!:)

We were there a week without anyone else there. I have never been down to Ben's parents house when it's been just us. It was a little bittersweet. On the one hand it was great to be the only ones there to spend one on one time with them, but on the other hand, it was kind of sad to be all alone in the big house with no cousins to play with. Especially on the days that both grandma and grandpa had to go back to work! Both of them work so hard to be able to spoil their grandkids the way that they do and we are so grateful for them and all of their hard work!

We got spoiled by being taken to lunch and dinner, and one day we went to a Mexican restaurant. I don't know if they believed me how Taylor eats the salsa by the spoonfuls, but sure enough, she did just that while we were there! Silly little lady!

We went and visited grandma at work one afternoon and brought her lunch. She is the head librarian at a private school in Montgomery. Her library is so beautiful! Taylor had fun playing at her desk.

We also got to go to the zoo.

Tucker snuggling up to daddy on the train ride:

Ben made a new friend while we were at the zoo. This Rhino came right up to him and Ben fed him this branch (shhhh...don't tell anyone!). Then he kept coming back for more and more!

Then sadly, it was time to head home. I bought these window clings on the after Christmas sale at Target. Best .20 cents I've ever spent. It kept them entertained for hours on the plane! :)

Both kiddos looking out the window...

Another great purchase, .50 cents worth of foam stickers, also at the after Christmas clearance at Target. These were a great time passer as well...

Once we were home I was a little overwhelmed with all of the cleaning and laundering I had to do, and I think Taylor had the right idea:

I found her like this the day after we got home. It seems we were all feeling the same! :)

Ben at the Chic-Fil-A bowl...

Ben got to sneak off (on New Years Eve, no less) with his best friend from High School, Jesse to go to the Chic-Fil-A bowl. It was the bowl game that Auburn played in this year. Auburn is his team, and Jesse's too. So they drove to Atlanta, without tickets, and just ended up buying them there. I gave Ben the camera hoping he would take just one picture of the whole event, and he surprised me and came back with a lot of pictures.

Here are him and Jesse in Downtown Atlanta before the game:

Pre-game:

I'm glad Ben got to go to the game and spend some time with his best friend. I had fun on New Years Eve having a girls night with Ben's mom and sisters. We rented a movie and got Chinese take out; and had a wonderful evening together! :)

Christmas...

At last it was time to celebrate Christmas, Pyper style. It was a blast! On 'Christmas Eve' we did the Nativity Story. Grandma read/spoke about it and the kids put all of their pieces in the stable. We were going to act out a live Nativity, but somehow that fell through.

Then that night after the kids were in bed, Santa's elves went to work helping Santa wrap the last few remaining items and getting all of the stockings filled before the big day. The new room was temporarily turned into the North Pole! :) It was fun just being with the adults, hanging out and enjoying time together!

After we were finished, we were pretty proud of ourselves:

The next morning the kids were delighted to see that Santa had infact come to Grandmas house!

Taylor eating her chapstick from her stocking...

Beautiful Elia with her new headband:

Kira with her new hat:

For some reason, Taylor was afraid of Uncle Jeremy. She really liked him when he had treats to give her, but other than that she wanted nothing to do with him.

Luckily he has three girls of his own who love him! :)

And Ben with his little man...

After the stockings, was present opening time.

Elijah eating his new shoes:

Kaiya LOVING her new pillow. All this girl asked for for Christmas was a pillow and candy canes. Funny, huh! :) She had a great Christmas! :)

And here she is in her new bling:

Elijah attacking his new elephant. It was so funny to watch him wrestle that thing! :)

Rock Star Josh and his new electric guitar!

Another big hit was Tuckers remote control airplane...

Even the big kids got in on that action!

Still a favorite of the week was playing with the DS...

All the girls singing and dancing to the 12 days of Christmas...

Of course, Christmas Carols were played by grandma and sung by all of us. Taylor was grandma's big helper on the piano...

And Joshy again with his guitar. When he is a famous rock star one day, I will have this picture to brag about! :)

Cousin time...

We left for Alabama on Christmas day for TWO weeks of fun! The one nice thing about Ben's job being seasonal is that he actually gets time to do things like this and we could be gone for two weeks, no problem. The first week we were there all of Ben's siblings were there which means lots and lots of cousin time.

These two are as thick as thieves. I love it. They were playing outside (oh, to be in 60-70 degree weather again! *sigh*) one morning and I told them to look up and smile, and they together, without knowing, made this same face!

Taylor also had a BFF cousin, Kaiya. She is about 4 months older than Taylor and they were finally at that age where they would play together. Here they are in the room that Ben finished for his parents, playing with grandma. They both LOVE LOVE LOVE their Brama-as Taylor calls her! :) This big empty room was perfect for the kids to just run run run around in.

Kaiya loved to feed Taylor...

Aunt Lynlee reading a good night story to the boys...

And Aunt Lynlee also reading to the girls, looks like they were having a good time!!!

Aunt Meg brought these mustaches home from work for the kids to play with and they had a great time with them!

They made random appearances throughout the week...

This year each family was in charge of dinner for one night. On our night we decided to have a hot dog roast. It was a hit! We had so much fun. It's too hot to do stuff like this in the summertime down here, so the winter time it is! :)

Noah & Jonah...

Even Elijah got in on the action...

The grandkids that were there (missing 5)...

Tucker & Jonah...

Here are me and Kaiya. I took their family pictures one afternoon. I love me some Kaiya, she is the cutest thing ever-so social and friendly and talkative. We got along really well! :) And notice what my hair does down there; The humidity makes it curl and frizz!!!

A day in the life of Taylor and Kaiya while we were there. First, run around in just our diapers for a while in the morning after breakfast. Playing in grandma and grandpa's couch...

Next, eating lunch together, teaching each other bad habits. Here they are licking the applesauce off their plates...

Next, watching a movie with Brama (looks like a good one!)...

And finally, after a ton of playing and nap time and dinner time; taking a bath together and getting into matching pj's. We had to take the annual matching outfit picture. This year it was jammies...

We love us some cousin time!!!