This week.

We had a night where we were able to teach our spouse how to drill and fill. Jenny did a great job and enjoyed it. Although she couldn't stand the noise of the drill when she first started. "I hate the dentist."

An hour of hard work during a volunteer clinic. I'd like to recognize Steve Van De Graaff for letting me join him in this venture.

Last Sunday night I was holding Claire and started sticking out my tongue at her. The next minute she couldn't keep her tongue in her mouth! It was so funny!

Selling hot chocolate to save the penguins with the Van De Graaffs!

"Do we have to say the prayer?"

Ashlyn's new look! She's growing up!

Mom took the girls to Home Depot for the Saturday kids craft!

 Blanket fort!

Lazy Saturday morning on the couch! We love touching Claire!

Yummy raspberries!

Sometimes Ashlyn and Brinley play so well together. Jenny and I sure love those moments.

In the mornings Jenny and I work out at 5:45. Ashlyn gets up with us and sits on me while I do push-ups. Then after we are done Ashlyn likes to do "Cosmic Kids Yoga".

I try and do interviews with the girls (well, just Ashlyn so far) 1-2 times per year. Here is this years.

It was dinner time and we had avocados with beans and tortillas. Ashlyn likes to have me (Derek) tell her, "Don't smile Ashlyn." Then she laughs hysterically. Well she was laughing so hard that she barfed. What do you know? Guacamole! I was a little late getting the picture. She sure was a good sport though cleaning up her own puke.

This picture helped me realize how bad I needed a haircut (got one yesterday). Wednesday morning snowed a lot and school was delayed three hours. It was fun to have a morning with my girls. We sat in front of the window and watched the snow fall.

Ashlyn loves writing in little books! Well, this one was mine for school and I told Ashlyn she couldn't write in it. Later I found this and asked her what it said.

This is how she explained it, "Dad I L(heart) YU"

January Fun!

Ashlyn got a haircut this week!  I have been threatening her for months that we would have to cut her hair if she doesn't brush it and take care of it.  Well she decided to experiment with some scissors after Dad showed her some pictures of little girls that have cut their own hair.  

It has been fun to get back into our routine of going places around Omaha.  We went somewhere new called the Joselyn Museum.  They had a lot of fun activities.

This is like a giant ipad and the kids can paint pictures.

Drawing on the pottery

This little girl loves to draw!  Her new skill is drawing pictures of our family.

Making patterns (or destroying them)

We are loving our sweet Claire Bear!!

Who do you think she looks like? Brinley or Ashlyn?

She is our chunky monkey!

Look how much she has grown in two months

When we came back from Christmas Break, we went to the doctor and found out that Claire had a yeast infection and thrush.  She had to get treated which resulted with a purple month!

Another one of our favorite places to get into our routine Mud Pies

The girls always have a blast!!

Brinley has a best friend Penny Van De Graaff, which is Ashlyn's best friend Hailey's little sister.

We love our neighbors the Van De Graaffs!!

It has been so fun to see our kids grow and become such great friends.

It is funny how much Brinley and Penny look alike.

 We love having tea parties at our house (thanks to Nana for the Tea Set that the girls got for Christmas).

Another time we decorated our window for Valentines and had a tea party outside with the 60 degree weather in January.

Brinley loves laying with Claire under the Sesame Street set.  (Thanks Grandma Martinson).

 The mornings are my favorite with these three little munchins!

( I am going to put this picture in Brinley's wedding video.  She is going to love me. haha)

Warm weather 

I was updating my preschool blog and this is a picture of Ashlyn I found.  

I love this girl!

If you are interested in checking out my blog: missjennyspreschool.blogspot.com

We do lots of fun stuff!

 

This little one is into EVERYTHING!

She is just so darn cute!

Christmas Pictures

This week: Ashlyn's turns 4!

The Omaha weather has been quite surprising! On Monday we hung outside with the Van de Graaf's (I never spell their name right). It was beautiful and probably 55-60 degrees! So different than our winter last year... so far.

Ashlyn, once again, getting her groove on.

ASHLYN's BIRTHDAY! She was given many gifts and was so happy!

She was nice enough to share this big coloring book with Brinley. On the left is the camera that she was given that Jenny used on her mission. She has loved taking lots and lots of pictures!

We went bowling with the Van de Graaf's. Unfortunately this is the only picture we got.

Ashlyn and I got some one-on-one time and went to the Gardens. They had a Lego exhibit going on (we didn't know about it) but we had so much fun! Ashlyn and I built this snowman together.

A lifesize Lego gardener!

We all love birthday cake!

We love to play a game that I played in my family  growing up. One person goes out of the room and changes something about their appearance. Then they come back in and everyone else has to guess what it is. Ashlyn has really grown to love this game. She is actually pretty good at it. She even figured out what was different about this picture below when I came back in. (I unbuttoned my shirt...jk).

Silly faces!

Our cute Claire! She is smiling more often and has become a fun little baby. I've even got her laughing a couple times. We felt like she was spitting up more and possibly had acid reflux. Jenny asked for a prescription from the Dr. and she has been so much better since then! Yay! She has slept through the night the last three nights!

Brinley and Ashlyn were arguing about who got to sit on the storage bucket. Ashlyn was nice enough to go and get the Bumbo to solve the problem.

Here's my fun case for the week. I posted this on dentaltown.com and got some great feedback. I am realizing that I need to spend more time learning about clinical procedures rather than developing my business plan. I definitely have a passion for both but will let business take the back seat for the next year.

And last but not least we found out that Maren has become engaged to David! Congrats you two! Welcome to the family David!