January

V is for victory. Rob and Dad beat us so badly over and over and over again in hand and foot. I finally stopped playing because it was so pathetic. So we changed to other games, but it was a sweet run for the boys there...

We bought a piano off Craigslist...so exciting! Grace is loving learning simple songs and the other kids love to play it and so do I!

While I wasn't feeling great, we worked on some puzzles. Each one we thought wouldn't be as hard as the last, but it was! 1,000 piece puzzles are no joke!

 We were sad to say goodbye (at 4:30 am!) to my parents. They were such an amazing blessing to have around to help me out while I was feeling yucky!

And it wasn't very long after they left that my sink that had been clean for the past month (thanks to them!) looked like this again... :(

 

It was even warm enough a few days to play outside and enjoy the sun!

We finally got to meet with the midwife and see the little munchkin, so we announced to the world that we were adding two more feet to our family...

And we found out that Rob's sister is expecting right around the same time! 

 Grace's healthy snack for a school challenge

 House-fixing man!

 Sweet snuggling kiddos. Benji has recently been climbing into bed with Grace recently. Somehow he always ends up in the better sleeping position. It melts my heart that the kids love to be with each other so much!

And that, friends was January!

Ruby's Joy School - Fall

 Ruby has had so much fun with Joy School this year. Malia, Zach, Addison, and Lincoln are all her classmates and they have all sorts of fun. See?

The Christmas program was especially sweet. They sang us some songs then acted out the Nativity. I just adore all of these kids and their moms!

December

 December started off with Rob's 31st birthday. We had a great time celebrating with him after work.

Maybe the best gift of all that day was finding out that we were expecting baby #4! We were so thrilled, but it was the start of a hard month for me...thus the lame/no-posting recently :)

Rob and I went on a date one night, but had to run back to the house because we forgot something. He totally surprised me by driving right onto the lawn and over the sidewalk...that's door-to-door service I guess!

 We made a big push to get a couple projects done before my parents arrived for the holidays. We finally refinished our nasty old chairs (as seen above) to a pretty blue color. It had been on the to-do list forever and it was great to finally get it done!

We got a free shed that turned out to be a huge project. It's great to have now, but it took Rob days and weeks to finish that thing! haha...so much for free and easy!

Grace loves to help with the cooking and she's really good at pancake flipping!

We got our little tree up!

We experienced a sad loss in the family. Bella the fish died. We had a nice memorial for her and buried her with our little tree to help it grow.

 

Bella 2012-2014

 Grace's class Christmas Party. She made a pretty ornament and it was fun to get to be in her class!

Happily, my parents arrived on the 14th to stay for 4 weeks. It was such a blessing that they came for as long as they did because I pretty much laid on the couch that whole time. They were amazing and took over all the household responsibilities, cooking, cleaning, laundry, dishes, everything. It was amazing to have them here to help while I worked hard on growing a baby :) Sadly, though, I have hardly any pictures from that time...I was pretty much out for the count!

 A Christmas card Grace made for our elf, Buddy.

Ward Christmas Party photo booth fun

 Santa at the ward party. Ben wouldn't go anywhere near him and would scream or run the other way if he even saw him. Poor kid!

 I made Christmas jammies for the kids. They melted my heart and looked like the cutest little eves! Ben loved his so much that he would refuse to take them off the next morning and would wear them all day long :)

 We made cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning...Ruby was a really good taste-tester :)

 

Grace drew the whole family as elves

Christmas morning was really fun. Brian and Eila and their baby Faye came to stay with us for a week and were there Christmas morning. The kids were up and at 'em at the crack of dawn. Needless to say...there were naps that happened later!

Benji, Brian and Rob built an awesome train track that took up the whole dining room that afternoon with all of Ben's new trains and tracks. Best.Day.Ever!

 We visited a train exhibit. It was really neat and detailed. It was Ben's dream come true. They should have had step stools for the kiddos though, because by the end my arms were about to break off from holding my sweet, big boy, Benji!

Before Brian and Eila left, we got a new family picture, which was much overdue!

My parents watched the kids for a night so Rob and I could get away to a hotel downtown. It was so nice to get away and relax. I even had enough energy on the way home to pick up a fun New Year's Eve activity for the kids. They got to pop a ballon at the time shown on the balloon and each one had a clue with a present hidden somewhere in the house. I think it was a success, judging on Grace's sweet New Year's card she made us the next day.

Happy New Year everyone!