We have the best backyard for little boys. They were bringing dirt back from the Chili Bowl and an array of dirt moving machinery made the tallest dirt hill we've ever had. This particular day we were babysitting Ezra and Levi. All 4 of them stayed out there in the cold north wind for and hour watching with jaws on the ground.

Kinley has continued to have a low grade fever so we went back to the doctor. They ordered a lot of blood work, a urine culture and, due to a heart murmur, an ultrasound of her heart. We did the blood work last week. They had to draw 4 viles of blood from her arm just like they do an adult. I was scared to death of how badly she would thrash and scream. My dear friend Alicia met me at the lab and helped me hold Kinley down so the tech could get the blood. Much to our surprise, she did not wiggle a bit! Right when the needle went in she closed her eyes and cried a really pathetic cry then after a second she started watching the blood fill the viles and she was calm. I was so proud of how brave she was. The hardest thing we had to do was get her to pee on command. She had four suckers in one hour because I was bribing and rewarding her for everything. We should know results next week. Due to the cost of a pediatric cardiologist we have decided to go back to our pediatrician for a recheck on her heart. If they are still concerned about the murmur then we will probably go for the echo next week.

Mallory is officially sitting up. She still topples occasionally but is doing really well balancing and grabbing toys. She needs to start sitting and rolling more because she is starting to get bored and telling me about it!

Last weekend Josh and I got to get away to a cabin at Big Cedar, thanks to Nana and Grandad! We were scheduled to stay Saturday through Tuesday. Once we heard there was going to be a winter storm we decided that we would stay because the weathermen often hype things up and we just didn't want to cut our vacation short. My parents had the kids and they said to go ahead and stay and see what happens. Well, it was snowpocalypse 2011, so we got to double our vacation! We ended up having to stay 6 nights! We loved every minute. We stayed in a cabin for three nights, a suite on the top floor of a lodge for two nights, then an end room on the top floor that had beautiful corner windows for the last night. We didn't mind all the moving, it kept us from going stir crazy and we got a clean room every couple of days! We played games, watched movies, read books, played Wii, and reveled in having cable TV. We did nothing of worth and it was bliss! The 9 hours of white knuckle driving to get home took a toll on the relaxation but we are home and unpacked and still refreshed from our break.

Bop and Gigi kept the kids for our long vacation. They loved being snowed in together. Above they are zoning out to a movie - I love the TV zone face! They did all kinds of fun things...the kids are going to think real life is so boring.

The pictures don't do it justice but these are pictures of the views at Big Cedar in the snow.