Audrey and Kate go to a charter school, so they get to wear these cute uniforms.

Simon didn’t want to be left out of the photo ops and really how could I refuse him when he looked so awesome in his high water Lightning McQueen jammies.

This is Audrey and Kate’s first year of going to the same school and it has been so fun listening to them make plans of meeting each other “on the bridge” at recess.

We had so much fun with our own little Amazing Race and Minute to Win it games.

The women-folk got some much needed R&R with some delicious breakfast, pedicures, and shopping.

A few weeks later, we headed to Stanley, Idaho for the Baldwin family reunion.  Each family stayed in our own little cabins.  We spent most of our time outdoors which was kind of tricky with temps in the 30′s at night and 80′s during the day.

This picture was taken right behind our cabin.  We had the most beautiful view.

We spent one day at Red Fish lake and had so much fun playing in the water and canoeing around.

Somehow we talked Audrey into doing a dive off the dock and swimming back to shore.  We told her we would canoe right along beside her in case she was tired. She got her goggles on and got all ready to go.  She dove in and then came up screaming because of the freezing water and jumped right back into the canoe.

She inspire Mason and Uncle Stephen to dive in too.

Audrey and Kate participated in the Provo tri on Saturday.   When I first told them about the triathlon, Kate told me that she wasn’t going to do it.  Audrey was game, but Kate was quite emphatic about her decision.  So, not wanting to force Kate into anything, I only signed Audrey up…. until Kate saw that Audrey was getting a new suit that would work better for all three events.  Then, she said, “I think Audrey’s right.  I’ll be sad if I don’t do it.  So, I guess I’ll do it.”  Luckily, there was still time to sign her up.  Being the nice Mom I am, I told her she could do it and get a new swim suit, but if she whined at all at the race, we would put her old suit on and take the new one back.

Kate did really good not to whine until we put on her swim cap – which she usually loves.  I think she was just getting nervous about things and it was coming out in the form of complaints about the swim cap.  I threatened the whole swim suit thing again and she snapped back into shape.

The temperature outside was mid 60′s.  The temperature of Utah Lake averages 60 degrees this time of year.  I’m pretty sure, it was no where close to that.

Originally, Scott and I were both planning to swim with the girls but once we got there we convinced ourselves that one parent (Scott) would be enough and that way they other one (me) could stay with Simon and take pictures.  Audrey started out great.  Look at her awesome freestyle in those pictures above.

Apparently, Kate was having a hard time getting started in the frigid water, so Scott picked her up and put her on her back.  I had just enough time to take this picture of her screaming before I saw Audrey begin to come back toward Scott and grab onto him because the cold was finally getting to her.  So, I ran back to the stroller, stripped down to my swim suit, ditched Simon, and jumped in the water.  It was a good thing I went out there.  Scott had already run eight miles that morning and was feeling like he’d be lucky to finish the swim, let alone helping two panicking girls.  They both finished with a backstroke – well, more like floating on their backs and kicking, but hey, they finished.

While I helped them dry off and transition to bikes, Scott dried off himself and ran off after them.

The girls came back looking great and full of energy.  Scott, however was spent!  Audrey got back a little before Kate, so I sent her off on the run and then followed along with Kate a few seconds later.

Audrey finished her run a couple of minutes before Kate and was able to cheer for Kate as she crossed the finish line.

I was so proud of both of them.  They worked so hard and did awesome coming in, in the last two spots.

I think Kate may have been the youngest one to do it.  They rocked!

Way to go girls!

They learned tae kwon do.  In the first picture, they were meditating which Kate has told us is said, “Moy-en” in Korean.  They did such a cute dance showing off all of their martial arts and I must say, that I am quite impressed with Kate’s push ups.

At the end of this portion, their teacher brought a board for each of them to break with their foot and then they were presented with a new belt.  It took Kate a few tries, but she did it in the end.  Their teacher told us they had never done this before so it’s pretty impressive that they were all able to do it.

The costumes for the dancing and singing were so cute.

They did a few more songs once they were dressed in their gowns.  They sang, “I’m proud to be an American,” and someone may have got a little teary eyed in that one.  Scott would have too if he hadn’t been so busy making fun of me and trying to catch the teary-eyedness on camera.  When they got to the line, “And I proudly stand up next to you and defend her still today,” they jumped into this defensive pose that just cracked us up.

Each of the kids got to go up to the mic and tell what they want to be when they grow up.  Kate said she wants to be a mom.  Phew!  I haven’t completely ruined it for her.

Before the whole thing Kate was giving me a run down of how things were going to go.  She said, “After Miss Cynthie gives me a piece of rolled up paper, I’ll stop on the X and in case you don’t know why I’m standing there, that’s your opportunity to take my picture.”  She gave me ample time to get her picture.  I had to give her thumbs up a few times before she realized she could move on.

Congrats my little Grad!

Audrey and Kate started a month ago and Audrey caught onto everything really fast.  She’s on the swim team now (not a competitive swim team) and doing awesome. She’s even learned how to do the butterfly stroke.  Something about Audrey is she inherited her dad’s confidence and she believes she can do things which I really think helps.

Kate made some awesome progress right from the start and then when they started focussing more on technique with her, she started getting feisty and wanting to stick to what made her feel secure (flipping onto her back).  So, sometimes we’ll go to a lesson and the teachers will be like, “She’s totally ready for swim team.”  And then three minutes later, they’ll say, “Maybe we should do another week of lessons with her.”  Something about Kate is, she didn’t inherit her dad’s confidence. She’s more like me and second guesses herself a lot.  She’s told me that she doesn’t really want to do swim team, but she does want to continue with lessons.  She really is doing awesome though.

Simon started lessons this week.  On day one, he floated on his back on his own for an entire minute.  His teacher put her hands up to show me she wasn’t helping him and then started counting out loud.  When she got to 30, she looked up at me with big eyes.  Then at 60, she finally grabbed him to move onto something else.  Afterwards, she said, that just doesn’t happen in a first lesson.  He’s made a lot of progress in just a few days.  This video is of day three.  He knows how to make his way to the surface and flip onto his back.  He’s still working on making his way to the side on his own, but when he gets to the side, he knows he’s supposed to flip over and grab on and pull himself out.

It is a good feeling knowing that all of my kids would know what to do if they fell into the water.

Audrey and Kate started up piano lessons again today and Scott came up with this great incentive to get them to practice in preparation for these lessons.  We now have a practice jar.

Every time either one of them practice piano, or when Audrey practices violin,  they get to put in a spoonful of M&M’s.  So, after the first full jar, we made cookies.

Yes.  Simon is in great need of a more manly apron.

After the second full jar (of marshmallows instead of M&M’s) we made rice crispy treats.  And now we’re ready for M&M cookies again.  I don’t know what we’ll make next yet.  Audrey has requested  something healthy.  She and Scott are on a no sugar kick after they both had several cavities filled at the dentist this week.

On the drive to our destination, they kept asking where we were going, but my lips were sealed.  When we got to the doors of the Energy Solutions Arena, the ticket man asked if they were there to see the monster truck rally – trying to throw them off a little.  They finally figured it out when we walked in and saw Disney paraphernalia everywhere.

I got the cheapest tickets possible which equals super high seats… I’m talking so high I felt dizzy for the first 15 minutes up there.  The arena wasn’t very full, so once it started the usher told us to move closer.  We ended up being able to see everything great!

She started on a Monday.  This is Miss Honey (just like the teacher in Matilda -Audrey pointed that out).

When we went back on Wednesday, Miss Honey flattered me by telling me how smart Kate was, going on and on…. “No, I mean, she’s really smart.  You can see her thinking things through.”  Anyway, she told me they had a kindergarten at this school too and asked me if it was okay if she had the kindergarten teacher test Kate.  So, when I picked up Kate that day, both teachers informed me that Kate would do great in kindergarten.

So on Thursday, Kate had her first day of kindergarten.  This is Miss Cynthie.

Here she is in her karate clothes.  This school has been so good for her.

While we were visiting with him, Kate whispered to me, “I’ve never met the REAL Santa before.”

We visited Temple Square with Grandma Jean and Grandpa Gramps.

It was pretty cold, but so beautiful.

Kate was determined not to let go of Grandma and Grandpa’s hands – even when people got in the way.

We had our annual Christmas program

complete with Joseph, Mary, the donkey,

the angel,

and Baby Jesus.  Mary was nice enough to give up her spot on the donkey when Joseph got tired.

Christmas morning led to some fun surprises!

Simon spent all morning playing at that kitchen while the rest of us opened presents.

He broke away long enough to line up some new cars.

Scott and I (mostly Scott) made this awesome car town.  Scott added some Texas flare by putting a Rudy’s and an HEB on it.

After Christmas, we headed up to Brad and Chanda’s to have some fun on the wii, eat tons of good food (Brad is the best cook ever!), and get super addicted to American Ninja Warrior.  So awesome!

Then, we headed to Jodi’s to celebrate Grandma Baldwin’s birthday.

Everyone had fun with the cousins.

Audrey and Lily had some fun getting pulled on a sled behind the snowmobile.

Okay, by “nutshell”  I meant lots of things combined in one really long post.

The end.

We played in the snow!

I mean really!  What says sheer happiness more than smiling so big you can’t contain the spit from spilling out onto your lip!

Ready for some snow shoeing!

Unfortunately only three of us truly got to enjoy the snowshoeing.

For some reason we got on this crazy jumping kick and took TONS of pictures jumping but these three are some of my favorites.

The guys all went snowmobiling and got some awesome pictures of them jumping, but they’re all on Scott’s phone, so he’ll have to add them later.

We went on a hay ride,

singing Christmas carols,

got stuck, unloaded the kids, pushed until we were unstuck, ambushed the husbands – tackling them in the snow, but just like we knew we would, the wives all got the worst of it… except for maybe Jeff… I think he ended up the worst of all.

We warmed up with some hot chocolate and took a nice, big family picture.