Christmas festivities

I just had to put this picture in because it was just so darn cute seeing these two out there raking the leaves. They just decided themselves that they would go out there and do it. so funny

Because we had our thanksgiving early we decided to decorate the house before the thanksgiving holiday. Getting out all the decorations is one of my favorite things to do. I love it so much. The other thing I love is when we take them down. I just am ready to have the clutter put away by the end of the season.

It is always fun to decorate the tree with the kids. This year we decided to get a new tree because our old one is so small. So we took it upstairs for the kids and let them decorate it with their decorations and we decorated ours with ours. The crazy thing is that we had plenty of decorations for both trees. which is crazy to think all those were on the small tree last year.

Dad has to always put the angel on top. It's tradition.

I try to have a different activity for the kids to do most nights during the christmas season. I just have such good memories growing up from all the activities we did, and I want to make sure I do the same thing for my kids.I saw this cute idea somewhere to make rice crispy wreaths and the kids could form them and then decorate them with m&ms. Sometimes things don't work out as good as you hope, but oh well. Nellie of course had to put 50m&ms on hers. Memories were made though I guess.

On Thursday Dec. 5th was the Annual Roseville Christmas Tree Lighting. I have always wanted to go to one of those, sometimes I feel like there is so much offered that we can do and we never take advantage of it. Well maybe we should have just stayed home that night. It was during the really cold snap that we had, and us California folk are just not adjusted to that. Especially because it just hadn't gotten cold yet. So 30 degrees for us was soo dang cold! But we decided to go anyway. The traffic and parking were insane and we almost got stuck in the parking garage where there were no spots but a million people trying to park. Luckily because Kevin works down there he knew where there was a hidden parking lot that was actually pretty close to the event. We missed the actual tree lighting but oh well maybe next year. They had a whole bunch of activities but the kids were just too cold to want to do any of them. So we got this picture by the pretty tree. It was really nice of a lady to take our picture of our family for us, but it was funny that Annie's hat was over her eyes and she didn't notice. Annie's hat was a little on the big side, but it was a really warm hat thats why I put it on her.

 

there was a choir there so we stayed and listened to it. After that they gave us some snow. Which was actually just bubbles that looked like snow, but it was fun for the kids. That was pretty much it for us. We just couldn't handle the cold. On the way back to the car we saw a giant possum and we told the girls how we had those all over the place in Kansas and they thought it was pretty cool. They were a little freaked out that it was going to attack us though.

One night we decorated gingerbread men. I decided that what the kids really want to do is eat the treats we decorate, so instead of decorating gingerbread houses that they can't eat, I found a really good recipe for soft gingerbread men and we decorated them. I am not a huge gingerbread fan, but these were good!

Daddy holding the baby girl. She needs to be part of the action too! She is getting so big on us so fast!

We had some friends invite us for family night to go walk around a neighborhood and see all the lights. It was pretty warm and so it was a really nice night to walk around. Russy really enjoyed looking at the lights this year. He is at that really fun age where he is starting to understand and everything is getting so magical!

I took cute little Annie around in the bjorn and she was super good. It was just the prefect size of neighborhood so it didn't take too long to walk around, then we went back to the Waldrons house for donuts and hot cocoa. It was a fun night.

Janie had a couple of programs with her two different preschools that she goes to. She goes to Miss Pattys on Tuesday and Thursdays and then she goes to Miss Wattys (our friends from church) on Fridays while I watch her little boy for a trade. So at Miss Watty's she did a little Nativity and Jane played Mary because she is the only girl. It was really cute.

Then that night Jane had her Miss Patty's program that was so darn cute, but there are so many kids that are there that it was really hard to see and even harder to get any pictures. I did record it and I did get this cute picture of her with Santa. She is such a cute little singer and she does such a good job. I love my little Janie girl.

We had such a good Christmas season this year. I love all the fun memories that we make as a family!

 

Ten Years!

Its been a whole decade since I married this guy! It is amazing how fast time can fly! In some ways it feels like it was just yesterday that we met, and in other ways it is like we have always been together. I know everyones lives are full of ups and downs, and we have had some but these last few years have been awfully great! We have had our fair share of trials but we have gotten along so well together that we helped strengthen each other through those trials instead of being the trial for each other. It is so amazing to me to see truly how Heavenly Fathers plan is so right! He knew how much we would need a companion to help us through the tough spots. Even though there are tough times having an eternal companion to help me makes the journey so much easier. I feel like I can face any difficulty that comes along because I have Kevy by my side. I love him so much and I feel so grateful that Heavenly Father knew who was right for me so much better than I did. I am so glad that he saved us for each other! I sometimes still can't believe that Kevin wanted me. I still feel that giddiness when I look at him and realize that he is all mine!

For our anniversary my parents were kind enough to watch our kids for us overnight so that we could have a night away. It has been almost five years since we have had a whole evening away and I was just a little excited. It was pretty much all I thought about the whole week. We went out to dinner at Ruths Chris, the last time we went there for dinner was when we were in Hawaii five and a half years ago. We decided that it was time to splurge again. After dinner we went and saw a movie and then went and stayed overnight in a hotel. The next morning we went and did some Christmas shopping. It was nice to have the evening together and not have to do Christmas shopping because that is pretty much what we have done on every anniversary so far. The only thing that wasn't absolutely perfect was that Russy was sick with a bad cough and we hadn't ever left him overnight and he didn't go to bed well and really worked himself up so that his cough was really bad, so I was a a little stressed about that, but I knew my parents could take care of him just fine.

It wa a pretty darn good Anniversary and I am looking forward to many many more with my love!

 

 

 

Thanksgiving

For probably the first time that I can remember we had a different than usual Thanksgiving. My parents decided to go to Utah for Thanksgiving so they wanted to have a big Thanksgiving dinner with us before they left. We had one the Saturday before the actual holiday. It was really weird because even though it wasn't thanksgiving it really felt like it, and the actual day didn't feel like it at all.

Janie wanted to help me make the pies, and she really did. She has had a real interest in helping me bake lately and she has really done such a good job! I really love that she is showing an interest in helping me in the kitchen. She is my little buddy and I love it so much!!

The day of Thanksgiving I took this picture of my two little cuties. They are so cute together! We have had such beautiful days and that day was no different. We sat outside for out dinner because the weather was so perfect!

The boys of course decided that they needed to find a game to watch since they didn't have their usual football games to watch.

On the actual holiday I took the big girls to see Frozen with Joe. It was so nice to go on a day that there were no big crowds. The theater was actually pretty empty and it was nice. I was hoping that Kevy would go too, but he didn't think the two little ones would do okay. He was probably right and it was really nice to not have to try and entertain kids the whole time. I appreciate Kevy taking one for the team. Janie sat by me and she was absolutely glued to the show. I was actually hoping she would want to sit on my lap for at least a little of the show but she was too mesmerized.

The girls loved the show and they had so much fun going. We then went home and I made a yummy pasta dinner, which felt really weird on Thanksgiving but it was actually really fun to do something so out of the ordinary.

 

All About Lizzy-9 years

I don't know if it is like this for every mom, but for me I can remember so vividly the days that my children were born. Almost everything that happened is still so vivid in my mind. Including my Lizzy. It was nine years ago, but I still remember like it was yesterday what it was like to see her and hold her for the first time!

Lizzy is the perfect first child. She is such a pleaser and such a helper. She loves to help me and I know I can alway count on her if I ask her to do something. She does get a bit bossy at times with the other kids and I have to remind her that I am the mom not her. She is really good at helping clean the house, which is so nice to have with this many people making a mess!

Lizzy is really starting to grow up and this makes me so happy and sad at the same time! She is such a beautiful girl inside and out! She loves to go to church and I can tell she is really striving to choose the right and feel the spirit. It sure makes a moms heart happy when you see your child make these good choices! She is so fun to talk to and visit with, I love it!

Lizzy did so well with the move and just picked up right where she left off with her old friends! I love how social she is! She never has a hard time being a freind to everyone!

Lizzy is the best eater! I love that she loves things that most kids wont even touch! She is alsways so nice to tell me how good the food I make is too! She always tries to say nice things to me and I really apprecaite it.

Lizzy has gotten into making bracelets with the rainbow loom. It is really cute, she will come home from school and get out her loom and get on youtube and watch it to learn how to make new ones. Sometimes she doesn't want to play with her sisters anyomore. I think she thinks she is getting too big to play with them. :( She still really likes Taylor Swift and has gotten more into things like music and bigger kid stuff.

One thing that she has picked up this year is she loves to run! And she is really good too! She tells me how she beats everyone in her grade except one boy. She even ran a half mile in 3:31, which is pretty awesome. I guess she got the good running genes from my side of the family!

I sure love this girl! I am sure blessed to be called her mom!

 

Veterans Day

Back on Veterens Day, Kevy and the kids all had the day off, so we wanted to do something that would be a little out of the ordinary. I am always trying to stretch us and get us out of our comfort zone instead of always doing basically nothing. I was looking online for things we could do for free and found this cool park that was only about 15 minutes away from our house. It had a huge pond with ducks and even had some horses there too. We brought some bread to feed the ducks because, sad as this is to admit my kids have never fed the ducks that I can remember. We took a picnic lunch and headed there. It was a beautiful fall day. Honestly I dont know if it could have been a prettier day. All of the trees were in full color too, so it made it all the more beautiful.

Russ and Annie rode in the stroller, and Russ would say "Wait Sisters!" I love the way he says sisters, its way too cute! They ran way ahead all the way over to the other side of the pond. Little punks!

 

 

Russ thought watching the ducks was pretty neat. When we first started feeing them there were only a few ducks but by the end there were probalby thirty or more. Once some saw there was food they all came over. It was funny to watch them flying in and practically crashing to get to the bread.

There is just something so special about watching your kids do something that they have never done before and the wonder and amazement of it. I want to feel that way about things!

I got a picture of all the ducks, but something I didnt get a picture of was the geese. There were a bunch of them and they weren't exactly nice. They were actually kind of scary! They almost attacked us. We started walking up close to the water and they started coming at us so we started walking away and they started chasing us. It made me a little nervous. The girls were scared but a little excited about it too.

Janie sometimes has a hard time keeping up with her sisters. And they aren't always the nicest to remember to wait for her. Its fun to watch these kids of mine. I sometimes can hardly believe that they are mine!

We went over to the horse and Kevy taught the kids the right way to pet the horse. Nellie wouldn't do it. She was scared. She is scared of pretty much everything!

Lizzy got in on the action of petting the horse.

This is one of my favorite pictures I have taken in a long time. First of all it has my favorite people in it, and I just think it is a really pretty picture. I just need to crop out that girl.

I love Nellies smile when she isnt trying to smile too hard. She is so pretty. :)

It was just such a pretty day and so much fun to have a day off with everyone. Its so great to think that Kevy gets a lot of days off that the kids do. I love it!!

 

Annie-8 months

I was reading back through my blog a bit and I realized that I did more posts of the other kids as they were babies and I haven't done many of my sweet little Annie girl. I guess that's what you get when you are the fifth baby!

Annie is just the sweetest baby ever! She reminds me so much of Janie it is crazy! I was looking at Jane's pictures from the same age and they look a lot alike too! She did go through a little rough patch for a couple of months where all she wanted was for me to hold her, which was really difficult! But thankfully she started sitting on her own and got really good again! She is really cute because she is starting to roll around like crazy and she is now starting to try and army crawl a little bit. Another thing that she loves is to do is to jump in her jumper. She LOVES it! Kevin loved his as a baby and he has been waiting to see if any of his kids liked to jump like him. Well he got it on his fifth baby!! She jumps like crazy and is really content to do it for like a half hour!

Annie started eating solids a couple of months ago and she is just like all of my other kids, she likes to do it herself! It seriously drives me crazy to feed her because she doesn't seem to care very much and she kind of just messes around. But if I give her something she can feed herself she is all over it.

She is a great sleeper and she loves her bed. She will go down really easily and not make a peep. The only thing is she wakes up kind of early. It is like clockwork, I can hear her on the monitor at 6:00 am everyday. So I go upstairs and get her and bring her down in bed with me, and she falls asleep with me, which is awesome because she is the first baby of mine that will sleep with me after the first couple of months. I love it, although it would be nice if she would just sleep in a little later.

She is just so pretty! i know I am biased, but I cant get over her cute cheeks and eyes!

She and her big brother are buddies already. I have so many pictures of them together because they are together all the time! Russy really loves her so much! I love to see him with her. Just today in the car he was talking to her. It was darling!!

She really loves her baths now that she can sit up, but she is not a huge fanof water on her face. In fact she pretty much acts like she is drowning if any water gets on her face.

I always like it too when kids get big enough to sit up in carts and you don't have to lug them around in those heavy seats.

She has also learned how to clap which I just think is the cutest thing that babies do.

THis was a picture from a couple months back when she learned how to sit up, which was such a milestone. She was so happy once she could do that.

I just really cant believe how fast time has gone by! My little baby is growing so fast! I just adore this little girl! We all do!!

 

Halloween

Halloween was fun this year. I actually remembered to get the pumpkins before the day of halloween, so we carved them for family night on Monday or I should say Kevin carved them after I put on the patterns because the patterns the kids wanted were much too complicated. Although Lizzy did carve part of hers. So pretty much all the kids did was dig out the guts, but they did have fun doing that.

This was the first Halloween Russ remembers so he enjoyed getting out the guts.

Russy had the fun face and Jane had Happy Frank, Nellie had the witch and Lizzy had the Spooky

It was fun to pull out old costumes and get good use of them again. Nellie wanted to be the Cheerleader that Lizzy was back in Kansas. It was a little smaller but it still fit. She made an awfully cute cheerleader.

Lizzy wanted to be a pirate this year, so I figured that I could dream up a costume for her. I found this really awesome fabric that I made a skirt out of. And then I found a pattern for a vest that I made look like a pirate. I thought it turned out really well.

I wanted Jane to be little Bo Peep last year but she didn't want to be, but it worked out well because this year Annie fit into the sheep costume, so I am actually glad that it didn't work out last year, because they were just too cute together!!

Annies little face was just so darn cute in this costume!!! I love this sweet girl!

No we didn't get a picture of all the kids together because Russ would not wear his costume for more than about 2 seconds and definitely not long enough to get a picture.

Yes this was the only picture I got of Russ before we left for Trick-or-treating.

But once we got going I told Russy that he couldn't get candy if he wasnt wearing his costume and he was glad to wear it from that point on. Kevin took Annie home after a bit because she was so darn tired and I thought that Russ would want to too, but he was going to have none of that. It was cute to see him trying to carry his bucket once it got full, but he was bound and determined to.

See how happy he was once he got his "condy" I had so much fun taking the kids around! We have such a great kid friendly neighborhood so it was so fun to be out with tons of other kids. It was a really great Halloween.

 

Lizzy's Birthday

This pretty girl turned 9 on October 26th. It was such a fun weekend for her! My mom came and stayed with us because my Dad was out of town. So it made her birthday even more fun to have her grandma here with her. For breakfast she wanted scones so I made her some with some yummy honey butter. Since we weren't giving her a party this year we told her she could pick where we went for her birthday dinner and she wanted to go to The Cheesecake Factory. Oh darn my favorite! It was really fun, she and I shared a really yummy Chicken Madera and Steak Diane. She and I are huge mushroom lovers so it was perfect!!

She is such a beautiful girl inside and out! I love her smile, it is so genuine, it lights up her whole face!

She was really exctited to have her own piece of cheesecake and to have a candle in it and have them sing to her, It was her first time for that and she really loved the attention! She picked the new Smores cheesecake.

For her birthday cake she really couldn't make up her mind and didn't know what she wanted so I suggested that she instead have one of her favorite desserts, the raspberry dessert. It was so yummy! It is one of my favorites too! I am a bad mom and had a piece before everyone else. :( I deserve it right for how hard I work?