Daddy's little helpers!

Brielle & Dean love helping Chris with the shoveling....which we've had lots of this year! Every time we get in or out of the car--Dean scrambles to get his shovel and run out to the driveway.
A week or so ago it snowed so much that Dean could barely walk in our backyard! He kept falling over and Brielle would try to help him up but instead she would pull off his gloves!

My Guy!

My little guy is such a pill when it comes to eating! He NEVER ate baby food or cereal--he would not part his lips--so I gave up and figured eventually he would be in to eating...he is a Rueckert boy after all! Brielle has always been a champion eater...she ate at least a full jar of baby food at every meal, ate nasty 'gerber graduates' meals and now when I ask her what she wants to eat she says "what do you want me to have mommy?" Dean on the other hand has not really gotten any better! He still purses his lips when I try to give him a spoonful of something, hands food back to me that he does not want (which is an improvement from when he just threw it on the floor) and shakes his head 'no' constantly! Half of the time he does not even put new foods to his mouth to taste it, he just gives it back or drops it off his tray! The kid eats chicken nuggets (NOT baked or grilled chicken...drop, drop), pasta, pizza, edamame and fruit (especially berries & melons)! And he often refuses this stuff too...it is ridiculous! Oh yeah, I left off pretzels and cookies/sweets...and SALTY LICORICE!

He loves the fridge and 'rushes' to get in every time it is opened. I keep these grapes at his level because it keeps him from pulling out all the other stuff. One day I decided to take a picture of him inside the fridge grabbing his grapes but while I went to put the camera away he decided to make things a little more interesting...

He took the bowl over to the table and climbed up on a chair to enjoy his grapes....I thought it was cute that he wanted to sit at the table and enjoy them, so I let him. A couple of minutes later I noticed he and the grapes had disappeared...

I found them in the playroom... It reminds me of Goldilocks "this chair is just right"!
At this point he realized I was taking pictures and decided to pose (I can already hear my sister saying "he is SO your child").
A week or two later...I made Brielle a sandwich before preschool, she ate a few bites and then got distracted. Dean had been watching her and trying to climb up on the chair with her, when she left he decided to help himself!The amazing thing is that this is the first sandwich he has ever eaten! I had to take a picture because it was such a major event...I am not joking...the kid won't eat anything! But he wanted to be just like his sissy!
I love this little guy and I love that he loves to say 'ma ma, ma ma' all day long unless Chris or my dad are around and then I'm chopped liver!

New Years Eve 2008

We spent New Years Eve up Provo Canyon at the home of our close family friends the Losee's. Many of my childhood memories include the Losee family, one common thread among these memories is late nights...like falling asleep on a restaurant table in Las Vegas (late at night) while listening to German folk music...I'm thrilled that my kids will have Losee/Asay memories too!

11:15pm--I gave Brielle & Cash exactly what they wanted...giant sugar cookies! New Years Eve only comes once a year! No surprise they made it far past midnight with all that sugar! Brielle & baby Grace...her absolute favorite little person! She told me that night that Baby Grace was 'so cute' and she just 'loved her so much' and that they were going to be 'bestest friends' when Grace gets bigger! Chris rung in the new year (not with me) but with his 'game night boys'...these four are pathetic little x-box players!

Everyone else played 'Battle of the Sexes'!

My two best buddies! I can't think of better company to ring in 2009! We had a wonderful Prime Rib dinner, homemade eclairs, amazing brownies and lots of fun! P.S. There are no pictures of Dean because he went to sleep at 10 and missed out on all the action!

Temple Square & Brielle's 1st Ski!

We packed as many activities into the week that Nat & Ty were here! We had so much fun! Two of my favorite activities were a trip to Temple Square in SLC and taking Brielle skiing!

This might just be one of the only family pictures we have!

Oh the memories of Temple Square! Seven years ago, we were engaged outside the Temple and then we went to dinner at the Joseph Smith Building...where my family was waiting to join us!

Brielle did such a great job on first trip to Sundance...even if she did only take one run! As soon as we got off the ski lift she said..."I want to go on the ride again!" She loved it!

We could not get her to snow plow! She just kept her skis together and headed straight down the mountain until she crashed! Most of the time Chris had her between his legs, holding on to her...but she would just go limp and let him hold her up!
I tried to catch her...but it didn't happen! Nat, Tiff & daddy Bob!

Merry Christmas 2008!

We had a fantastic Christmas! Brielle and Dean gave each other 'big Mickey' and 'big Minnie' (Brielle has been playing with the 'big Mickey' I gave her for her 2nd birthday daily for two years and considering he was already 25 years old--it was mine when I was little--he is showing some 'wear') Brielle saw these at the Disney store and begged me to let her give it to Dean for Christmas. She was SO excited for him to open it...Dean liked it but moved on quickly-as you can see!
Dean loves to push around Brielle's stroller---so Santa brought him a boy stroller!

'The Doll house' that Brielle asked Santa for---she wanted a big one so Dean would not sit on her or knock it over to get to it (like he did with her Barbie apartment).

Chris wanted basketball shoes for Christmas--I searched high and low for the perfect 'it' shoe and decided both boys needed the new "Lebron's"! I'm so proud of this present because this was the best gift reaction I have ever gotten from Chris--he'd never seen the shoe (b/c it is impossible to find) and he said it was the coolest basketball shoe he'd ever seen!

Dean has pink dribble down the front of him because the first thing he did when we came out to open presents was grab a candy cane and try to eat it through the wrapper...which resulted in a dirty shirt (and if you know me...it gave me serious anxiety the rest of the day...b/c he had to wear his matching Jammie's with Brielle!) I gave this little rascal his own bowls and measuring spoons because he is always stealing mine and I had to get new ones because only he knows where the old ones are!

Jasmine & Superman!

Dean started to get in to opening presents...he's figured it out a lot earlier then Brielle did...maybe because he can see (by watching her) that it is exciting & fun! Brielle got the cutest red dress from her Grandma & Grandpa Rueckert which she wore to church on Sunday, but I forgot to take a picture! She kept telling me "pretend that I'm holiday Cinderella at Disneyland and you want him to take a picture with me!" It was adorable!After we opened presents at home--we went over to my parents for round 2! I told my sis that Brielle liked the 'Fancy Nancy' books...so she put together a bunch of 'fancy' stuff for her...she 'bedazzled' a bag that says 'Miss Brielle's Fancy Bag' and it was full of boa's, jewelry, gloves etc...and she made this adorable little hat that Brielle has been wearing ever since! Nat is wearing the 'fancy Happy Birthday' crown I got her! Poor Christmas birthday girl...I'm sorry you have to share your day with all of us!

Chris got this hat from Nat & Ty...but Dean thought he looked way better in it! It was so cute because he kept showing my dad that he had a hat too!Brielle got a fancy Cinderella dress to keep at Nana's house (since we spend so much time there!)And for the grand finale...

Dean is smart...he is very afraid of Brielle's driving!

Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve with my family and my Gledhill cousins. We had a HUGE meal (we had enough food for twice as many people), it was wonderful! Brielle & Nana with the ginerbread house they built a few days agoNat, Nana, Brielle & Tiff...in our holiday aprons (I thought it would be fun if we were all matching and had cute aprons to do our all our holiday cooking)!We always read/act out the Nativity...Dean was the cutest camal ever!

Make it STOP!!!!

It snowed & snowed & snowed & snowed ALL day today! My poor dad snowplowed his driveway 2 1/2 times today and Chris did it once too! I think it must have snowed at least 12''! If you look back a week you can see that Chris helped the kids make this snowman...frosty looks pretty rough now...you can't even see his hat anymore!I had to take this picture of Dean tonight when I walked past the the playroom and he was sitting here bouncing Ken around on the table! The funniest part is that when he saw I was taking a picture he started posing...I guess it runs in the family!