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Although the coverage of the Olympics hasn't been great for our viewing hours this year, that hasn't stopped the kids from getting into it as usual, evidenced by the following in-home competitions:  

The skeleton (thank goodness for the helmet, right?!)  Also love the starting gun…

  

Ice skating in Great-Grandma Jessop's slippers on the wood floors (Carter was convinced that this would adequately prepare him for our trip to the real ice rink.  :)

And of course some Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games!  Go, USA!  

Q:  Why is the roll of toilet paper on the counter?  

A:  this is why.

Playing battleship for nearly 2 hours was not on my to-do list for the day… but it turns out it was exactly what I needed to do this morning. 

(For the record it was amazing that Meg happily took pegs in and out of the bottom of my case the whole time, we actually finished the whole game before we had to go to K, and Carter beat me!!)

Meg is in a serious (Frozen) princess phase, and lately has been insisting I wear this crown all the time.  (Like whenever I take it off she makes me bow down like Elsa in the movie so she can put it back on…)
If you see me wearing it to pick up the kids from school it's because I've grown so used to it I don't realize I'm leaving the house with it on.  Please draw my attention to this fact!

Someone in our house has decided the best way to get totally dry in a hurry is to run 4 laps in the hallway in his birthday suit after ditching his towel on the bathroom floor.  I am usually laughing too hard to lecture on the impropriety of it… also, he is convinced he is so fast that noone can see him, so I'm not sure anything I say would make a difference.  

Feeling so incredibly grateful for these munchkins.

Yes, Eleven.  Eleven years of this boy teaching me something new pretty much every single day.  

 (love that Emma made him relocate to the "birthday chair". )

These years just keep creeping up on me!  It was a difficult thing for me to process that he couldn't count the years with fingers this year… his suggestion to "just add a toe" made me laugh instead of cry though – thanks Zach.  :)  

 

Meg of course had to get in on the action as well.  :)

On his birthday we took donuts into school, he got to see both sets of grandparents,

 

and we had Culver's and Jazz cake, and built some Legos. 

 

Since this was his "friend party" year, he chose a couple of good buddies to take to a U basketball game.  (It was a blackout game, and they were lucky enough that Nate got to take them even though he was on trauma call. )

These boys crack me up.  I am grateful he has such good kids for friends.  And I am hoping this next year goes slowly… I cannot believe that his next birthday will bring young mens, the priesthood, and middle school soon to follow!!   You are one in a million, Zach – and we sure love you!

I hate missed opportunities – perhaps to a fault.  (for better or worse, Zach has inherited this trait from me.)  So when I heard that the BYU art museum had an exhibit of several famous religious painters that was unprecedented, it went right on our to-do list for Christmas break.  

The excerpt from the article that got me was this:   

And this new exhibit is making history.

"These paintings have never before been out of the oratory [the King's Oratory at the Frederiksborg Castle museum] since they were installed … in the 1860s-70s, and they will not be loaned again," castle director Mette Skougaard said in a press release.

  
And so that is how I happened to take a 2 year old to an art museum.  All in the name of not missing out.  (Me, or the other kids, or her!  Will she remember it?  Of course not.  But she can say she went.  :)  Although I admit that in the short film they had us watch before entering the exhibit (during which she climbed on and off of her chair ten times clanking her lip gloss in it's tiny metal carrying case) I thought I may have made a grave error.  :)

Once we borrowed a stroller from the museum and entered the gallery, however, it was all more than worth it.  They had an ipad app that the kids took turns using that told about the paintings (and kept them from losing interest!),  and although I had seen reprints of most of the works the originals were so much more beautiful.  It was really, really neat. 

AND, to make the day even better, we met one of my oldest friends at a McDonalds on our way home, where the little kids spent hours in the germ-infested playland, Zach managed to have a conversation (with eye contact) with her darling daughter his same age (he is terrified of pretty girls) and my friend and I talked and laughed like we were in 6th grade again.  Just without the big bangs and with 4 kids apiece.  :)

Nate + a couple of days off in a row + being left alone with my phone… I laughed so hard (and left it up for a while, because every time he texted me it looked like the text was coming out of his mouth 🙂

Extended Adams family Christmas party (none of our kids are in this pic, but Zach took it, and it's the only one I have…)

It is amazing that she still fits in her bed with everything she insists on sleeping with.  (Notice the glass slippers that have to be worn to bed?)

Just because Christmas is over doesn't mean you can't play "elves"…

And after a trip to Target Meg put all of her stickers from a generous checker on me… I had to laugh because after a trip to Target with kids, I feel like I've earned that many stickers.  :)

And a "winter survival expedition" for the younger kids at the cousins' while Zach toured the HAFB museum with people who like museums as much as he does (namely Grandpa B and Uncle Joe).

Despite the fact that he was feeling a little under the weather, Carter was beyond excited to have his night out at the Jazz game with Dad.  

I am not sure anyone enjoys their popcorn more!