Birthdays!!!

It has almost been a couple of months, but B and L still turned 9 in October. This was the first year I let them each have their own birthday party so we had quite a bit of celebrating!

B's party was first. We did about a week before his birthday. He got to have some friends come and we roasted hot dogs, then went down to the park for some fun night games like Sardines, and Capture the Flag. After the games, we came back home for s'mores. All in all, I think he had a good time.

Opening presents:




With his Birthday marshmellow


L's party was held just a couple of days before the big official day. Her's was definitely a girl party. She requested to have Nacho's for dinner. After dinner, Mariana came over to help me give the girls pedicures while they watched a girlie movie (The Last Song).




Her cake was actually a bunch of cupcakes (leftover from school :) )


On their actual birthday, we had a big family dinner over here. Of course, it was also Max's birthday so we go to have Andria, Ethan, Lisa and Kelvin over as well and so it really was fun.

Here are the kids opening some presents.




This was the same day as our primary program. It was also the same day as my brother's. In his ward, each of the kids got a bag of M&M's. Kyle decided he wanted to give his precious bag of treats to B&L for their birthday. Here he is pridefully, yet still humbly watching as they opened his special present. He was so excited to give it to them.


Here are the 3 birthday kids blowing out their candles on the cake that Andria made.

Fall Football Season '10

This year's football season has come to an end. The boys had a lot of fun and would have loved for it to continue forever, but as we all know, all good things must come to an end. B played flag football again. His team did really well and were undefeated in the regular season. Unfortunately, they lost in the semifinals in the tournament. It was quite a blow to the boys, but they rebounded and are looking forward to another great season in the future. I'm quite embarassed to say that I somehow never managed to take a picture of him! The picture below is a picture of the ref chasing him down as he scored a touchdown. Sorry, but it isn't much, but it is the best I've got.

Here is the video of him scoring that touchdown.

I finally caved this fall and let D play tackle football. This fall. It has been a dreamed for so long and he just wore me down. It was a huge time committment from all of us, but he loved it so much, it is hard to regret all the work. Still, I told him that he couldn't do it again this next season. A heartbreak to be sure, but still... I just don't have the time for a round 2.

Some of these pictures are pretty blurry, but still, they are of him in action.

Here he is in a huddle with the coach and some of the other players.
There was definitely a size difference. :)

One of their games was played at night and about an hour away. We had a tailgate party before hand which was a lot of fun. Here he is waiting for his food.

We didn't have enough room to bring L or CK because we took some of D's teammates, but those of us who went had a lot of fun that night. It was a chilly night, but still fun! B was excited because he got to be a water boy and run out on field to take in water during the timeouts. However, he realized half way through that that job wasn't as fun as he had anticipated. He quit for the lure of playing ball on the sidelines with the other boys.

Daddy and A

KL had lots of fun pushing A around in the stroller.

Sleeping Beauties

When KL was just 5 months old, we were preparing for Grandma Shirley and Grandpa Allan to come for a visit. Naturally, this preparation consisted of quite a bit of mad cleaning on my part the last day before they arrived. The night before they came had been quite crazy and I hadn't given KL much attention at all. It was dinner time and the kids were eating take out Chinese picnic style on the floor in front of the fridge because the couches were where the table was because we had just had the carpet cleaned. I had put KL in the Bumbo next to the kids while I was running around the kitchen trying to keep some amount of order and keep the dinner mess contained to the 10ft square blanket I had laid down to eat on and no where else in my house I had spent all day cleaning. Eventually, I turned to check on the baby who had been so patient with me, despite my neglect. I found her like this:

I took this picture with my phone and it has always been one of my favorites. She was totally sound asleep and she looked so sweet.

Well, about a month ago, we were having a crazy day again (ok, probably a normal day) and A was set in the bumbo to be ignored while I tried to take care of the rest of the kids. Again, I eventually looked over to her and found her asleep like this:

I just couldn't resist taking the pictures since reminded me so much of KL doing the same thing at the same age. There really is just something so sweet about a sleeping baby! When ever I see one of the kids just fall asleep in the middle of something I always just laugh and have to take a pictures. Here is another set of pictures of these 2 little girls falling asleep in similar ways (can you tell which is which?):

In the high chair

(Baby 1:)

Baby #2):

Just in case you couldn't tell, #1 is KL and #2 is A. I love my babies!!!

Here is just another cute picture of A asleep.
I'm pretty sure this one is from one of the other kids who got a hold of the camera.

Woodworking

Recently, B completed all the requirements for him to earn his Wolf Badge in Cub Scouts. It was sort of a mad dash at the end, but we got it all done. One of the things he had to do was complete a wood working project. It was a little upsetting for him to have to spend time during Fall Break working on it, but the bitterness was lessened when his 2 buddies were able to come and work on it with him. In the end, all the boys had lots of fun working with my power tools (we used the drill, hammer, miter saw, and palm sander)--especially the saw. I also had fun using my tools and I've been itching for a big project ever since. It has been awhile since I've used some of my fun tools. It may have to wait for the new house, though.

I had explained to the boys that using a saw or a sander or anything that makes sawdust fly, it is important to wear something to protect their eyes. Naturally, I didn't have lots of safety goggles, so they proudly wore my sunglasses.

The boys using the sander

Naturally, L felt a little slided that this was a boy project and wanted to get in on the action too.
Here are the girls trying to do a project of their own, while A calmly sits in the bumbo, where she was from start to finish.

Here they are with the final product. May be had to tell, but they are bookends.
Carson, Zach and B

First Solid Meal

About a month ago, A was introduced to Rice Cereal and had her first solid meal. You can see how much she loved it! We eventually gave up trying to make her eat rice and tried carrots. That went a little bit better, but not much. She has warmed up to the idea and all her big brothers and sisters love getting in on the action when it comes time for her to eat.

Everyone's Favorite Angel

I decided I just wanted to post some pictures of our sweet little baby. She is such a fun baby to have around and she has all of us wrapped around her little fingers. This weekend was Youth Conference and so I was gone quite a bit and I can say that I really did miss her. It makes me feel good to think she missed me too. She certainly has been acting a little bit more attached to me now. Dave took her from me this morning during family scripture study and she started crying until I took her back. She's never done that (well, unless one of the kids take her) and it is just fun to know how much she really does know me!

Here she is laying/playing in bed with her Daddy

Just after bath time...clearly she isn't starving. She is still measuring off the charts and despite being only 6 months old, we have had to give some of her 6-12 month clothes she has outgrown to her cousin who his 8 months older.

With previously mentioned cousin (lily) who is 8 months older. Lily is so funny with A. She can spot her from a mile away. She always comes running whenever she senses A has entered the same building as her. Yesterday at Church, she found us and gave A her bottle, then gently tucked the blanket around her.

One day, Dave laid her down on our bed while he was getting dressed and a minute later she had fallen asleep.

Helping mom in the Kitchen

Puppies!!!

My good friend's dog had puppies a few months ago. Just before the babies went to their new homes, she let us come over and play with them. They were so cute! I think I had more fun that then little girls, still... It was hard to resist the urge to bring one of these little dolls home. They were all Chocolate Labs While they were still so amazingly playful, they weren't overly hyper. They were just so fun!!!

CK and KL playing with some of the puppies while Evelynne fearfully watches on.

Me with the puppies.

They really like chewing on the ties on my pants...

...and my hair.

The other thing the girls really liked (even my niece since they were in cages) were the big turkeys. They just laughed and laughed at those guys!

Fall Decorations

I know it has been a while since I posted. It isn't for lack of trying. Part has been that I've been keeping pretty busy (and now I have a TON of catch up on this blog) and the other is that I have been having some technical difficulties with my computer. I'm hoping that I've got the problem resolved (or at least on the way to being resolved), and now will spend the next few weeks trying to cover all that we have been doing over the last few weeks. And so... without further adieu...

A few weeks ago, I went to pull out my fall decorations, but was more than a little disgusted when I opened my box that has been sitting in my garage for the last year. Everything was very wet and there were dead black bugs EVERYWHERE (as is evident from my once lovely fall wreath--yes, this was a werath).

Well, as I took each thing out piece by piece, I finally found out what had happened. Last year, I bought some decorative corn, small pumpkins, and other small gords. Without really thinking, I packed those up with my other decorations. As what is now very obvious to me, these sorts of fresh produce don't do so well sitting in a hot garage for a year.


All I can say is that at least it wasn't my Christmas decorations.

Rain!!

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Growing up, I was always being read books that would say things like this: "It was a sad rainy day." or " It was a beautiful sunny day." Living here, that just never seemed to make sense. Since rain is so rare, it is like a holiday around here. As soon as those clouds roll in, everyone just sits in anxious anticipation with their fingers crossed just hoping against hope we get that ever elusive rain.

Well, after a very long, hot, and miserably sunny summer, we got rain last week! It was such a fun couple of days. There was lots of rain, thunder and lightening and we were out enjoying every second we could!

here are the little kids bundled up under the umbrella

KL, Sam, CK, Lily

It amuses me that no matter what I say to my kids, rain =cold weather. This is even true when it is 100 with rain. It is so rare here, that it really feels like everything should be cold! So, as soon as the first drop falls, the girls go running for the coat closet and get out their heaviest winter coats. Here is KL walking over to Sam's house in the rain, all nicely bundled! (in her defense, the temp did go down to about 75. Not cold, but quite a change from the 109 the week before!)

Dance Class

KL got to start dance class this fall. The teacher who has taught L and CK the last couple of years decided it was too much for her to try and do after school classes (I can't blame her! She has 6 kids including a 1 year old baby), but she decided to do a morning class for preschoolers. Kl was so excited! This was her first day. I got her all dressed, then when I wasn't looking, she decided to put make up on. Hmmm... Still... she is just loving it and just loves to show off all the new dance moves she is learning!