p12 February pictures

Our first real snowman of the season.  They had fun decorating him!

At breakfast one morning.  Dallen was upset and was saying, "I don't want Hannah to sit by me, she smells!" It made us all laugh, which didn't help because Dallen was serious about it.  Hannah got a good laugh too.  And the smell was from perfume, not really stink.  She is my little perfume girl!  

Rylan so proud of his huge tower that was taller than him!

I broke down and bought the kids all snowsuits.  I was trying to wait until next year.  This year we bought snow boots and gloves.  But when the snow kept coming and not leaving, I needed them to be able to go play outside once in awhile for recess.  So they got snowsuits and they are awesome!  They would stay outside for a couple hours at a time, and not get cold.  So worth it!!

Bryleigh doing that self entertaining thing again!  Except this is not so good.  She likes to get different random things out of the pantry and the stool, and sets up her own "picnic" the other kids call it.  She thinks it's funny!

On our way home from our sledding field trip.  We had a good time!

Bethany finished up basketball!  She had a good season and made 2 baskets.  We are so proud of her!

Another field trip to the state capital building.  I forgot to take a picture until we were on the other side where we needed to be for a good picture.  But it was freezing cold, so this had to do.  We got to go on a tour of the building and then had lunch there.  

Kyle's mom watched the two little kids for me, so I could focus on the other three.  Also it was nice not having to carry Bryleigh around that place!

It was interesting and we had a good time.  All the kids feet were hurting by the time we were done.  There was a lot of walking.  We had to park about a mile away, behind the capital up on Cortez street where I used to live. It brought back a lot of memories being up there again!

Our last field trip of the month was to the zoo.  It was a free day, so it was kind of crazy, but it was fun to get out and see some animals.  It made me the zoo in Albuquerque though!!

Bethany's 9 1/2

Bethany celebrated her half birthday!  She is that much closer to hitting the double digits, which kind of scares me.  How can she be growing up so much!!  She had a fun day, and didn't throw any big fits this year about not getting enough attention.  So that was good!!  She chose a cinnamon roll cake for her cake. 

This girl is such an awesome kid!  She is such a good example to her sisters and brothers.  She is a great big sister!  If I ask her to help me with one of the kids I know it will get done and done right.  She is mostly willing to help out and is fun to be with!  

Her favorite color is still purple {I don't know if that will ever change!}, Her favorite food is pot pie and tofu,  she learned how to crochet and really likes it.  She likes to play volleyball and basketball.  She loves to swim, ride her bike, scooter and roller blade.  She enjoys jumping on the trampoline   She is so happy being home and is loving homeschooling.  She is a great student, and is a smart girl, we are so proud of her! She loves to play with her girl cousins, and of course Drew! 

Happy half Bethany!  We love you, thanks for being so great!

valentines day

Happy Valentines Day!!

The kids checking out their valentines baskets.  The usually get some little toys and some chocolates and candy.

We had a valentines party, with some of our friends.  We played some games, decorated cupcakes and exchanged valentines.  I think the kids had fun!

Bryleigh with her fun valentines hair.

We always end our valentines day with chocolate fondue for dessert.  They kids love it and look forward to it.  We all end up a little sick afterwards though.  Once a year it's ok!

no kids allowed

Kyle and I got to have a extended weekend away by ourselves.  That hasn't happened since before we had kids.  We had one overnight date when Hannah was a baby, but that was it.  We had some other nights away, but there seemed to always be a baby that needed to come along with us.  So this was a real treat for us!  The first two days were awesome and relaxing, but then the last 2 days, I was really missing the kids and wished they were with us! 

 This trip came about in a round about way.  Kyle had some meetings he needed to go to in Orlando Florida.  So we decided to have me tag along and we could do a day at Disney World.  After we had bought my plane tickets, his trip got canceled. We didn't want to be out the money we had already bought, so we decided to go anyways.  Then the week before we were going to go, I was kind of freaking out about being away from the kids for such a long time.  It was going to be 5 full days of not seeing them.  We would of left Tuesday morning before they woke up and got home Saturday night after they were in bed.  So we decided to change our trip to California and do Disneyland, to save on the travel time.  We had just as much time playing, and a lot less time traveling.  It was a good choice, and I felt so much better. 

 We went to Disneyland on Thursday and Friday.  Thursday was awesome!  The park was so empty and we had so much fun doing our favorite rides.  It was so weird though, not having the kids there with us.  I felt like we forgot them somewhere.    

 The one bummer was that splash mountain was closed.  One of our favorites   It just doesn't feel like you've done Disneyland  if you haven't been on Splash.  We didn't go over to that end of the park more than once, it was too sad!

 We treated ourselves by eating at the blue bayou.  It's the restaurant you see when you are on pirates.  It was  such a fun environment, and the food was good too.  They have some yummy gumbo.  But my favorite gumbo is the one outside at the little stand.  They have a vegetarian gumbo that is awesome!  I look forward to it every time! 

 

 One of our new favorites!  We did the single rider line and only had to wait about 20 minutes to ride.  We got in the same car every time except for once.  We love it!!

 We had fun watching the parades and having a break from being on our feet.

 

 The park is so fun at night!

 

We stayed for fireworks on Friday night!  It was so much fun, and the weather was perfect!  It was so nice to actually see the sun and feel a little warm!

Our flight didn't leave until later on Saturday, so we explored a couple beaches.  It was a fun trip and a nice break from life.  I think we were ready to go home and be a mom and dad again!!

{A side note:  The kids didn't really care that we went to Disneyland without them.  While we were away I made the comment that that was so weird that they didn't care or throw a fit.  But when we got home and showed them pictures and some videos we took for them, they got so mad at us that we went there and went on the rides.  It was a little humorous for me, what did they think we were going to do?  I think what happened was they were excited to have their grandma's come and stay with them.  Then after the fact when their excitement was gone they got upset.  They are so funny!}

p12 January pictures

For this year, I am just throwing all my monthly pictures into one random post.  I am already having a hard time finding time to blog, so hopefully this will help me still get the pictures and stories out that go with them.  So here is January's random pictures!

 Dallen graduated from nursery!  He was so excited to be too big for nursery.  He is so used to always being too little or too small, so he was very proud to be big enough for once!  He was so proud to say, "I'm too big for nursery!"{This has mostly resulted in going to Disneyland too many times, and him not being able to go on the big rides with the big kids.} But this helped him so much in leaving nursery, and he has been doing great in sunbeams!

 Dallen all ready for his first day in primary, a big sunbeam.  He was being silly as usual and was wanting me to take pictures of his behind.  

The girls in their Christmas dresses, that santa brought them.  Nice a sparkly!

 Bethany is playing on a Utah Jr. Jazz basketball team.  They give the players a ticket to one of the jazz games.  So her and Kyle went to the game.  They were way up high, and I think Bethany was a little scared. They left after half time.  They had fun!

 One morning Dallen broke out with a rash all over his face.  I gave him some benadryl and it went away.  Kind of weird!

 More snow.  I think the kids still liked it then.

 I love random flowers!  Sometimes I know when he is going to surprise me with flowers, but this one caught me totally off guard, which make them that much better.  And their purple!  It was a nice surprise after a long hard day!!

 We bought new couches, since we sold off our old ones before me moved to Utah.  We kept one of the boxes and the kids had so much fun playing in it.  It lasted about a week, until it drove me crazy enough to get rid of it!

We celebrated Grandma's birthday!  It was so fun to get to spend her special day with her!!

 One of my kids favorite snacks are ants on a log.  Celery sticks with peanut butter and cranberries.  They beg for them!  And Bryleigh makes such a mess!

 Harry Potter night.  We finished listening to the first book on tape and the kids wanted to watch the movie.  I figured the first one was probably ok. Then they talked Kyle into letting them watch the 2nd one.  They got halfway through with it, and wanted to finish it another day.  But between those times Bethany and Rylan were complaining about nightmares from H.P. So they have yet to finish number 2.  We'll see when I think they are really ready! They really want to watch all seven of them, but that's not happening anytime soon!!

 I guess I took too long to get her out of her crib in the morning.  She took off her pajamas and was waiting for me.  She loves to get dressed first thing in the morning, so she was just helping me out!

Our 2nd to last big snow storm.  It just kept snowing and snowing.  We were running out of room to throw the snow off the driveway.

 This little girl is growing up.  She is starting to play by herself and entertain herself.  It's fun to watch her and I often wonder what is going through her head!

 Basketball continues.  Bethany has been getting much better and a little more aggressive. We are proud of her trying something new!