All About Lizzy-11 years

Wow 11 years old! This past year has been quite a year for my Lizzy! This is her last year in elementary school and her last year in Primary. That's just craziness to me! She has really grown up this past year. Even more so than any other year. It's like she is transitioning into a young woman rather than a kid. I would have to admit that I really love it too. She is just growing into such an amazing person. She has so much kindness and love in her. She is always trying to help me and make my life easier. Thank goodness I have one child who is doing that!! She loves helping with the younger kids and really has become like a little mommy to Clara. She is always helping me clean the house and helps me with dinner a lot too. She is becoming quite the good cook! She still is the best eater and has a hollow leg. She almost always eats more than I do at a meal. Some of her favorites are still salads and she often takes them in her lunch rather than taking a sandwich.

At school she has become quite the little leader, she always loves to run the show and that's how she is at school too. She decided to produce a little play at school and directed it and got a buch of kids to do it with her. The principal even came to watch it. And he recognized her after as showing great leadership. She has always had that sociability that it took me being an adult to get. I love that about her.

I really love how she is blossoming so much with her testimony as well. She is so strong and brave and has such a desire to be good and follow the spirit. I love how she is so contemplative too. If I say something about feeling frustrated with the kids, a little while later she will come back and apologize for not doing enough. She definitely got my apologizing problem. She is even apologizing if she didn't do anything wrong.

She has really started to grow out of the kid things as well. For her birthday and Christmas all she wants is clothes and jewelry and those sorts of things. She doesn't really play with the other girls anymore when they play with their dolls and other things. It's kindof sad to see that, but it was bound to happen. Lizzy is really getting into bigger kid stuff. Her favorite tv show is the Flash. She loves Star Wars And has recently been reading the Hunger games books.

She is just the perfect first child and I am so eternally grateful that she was sent to me first! There are a lot of days that I know I wouldn't be able to make it through the day without having had her around to help. I feel so lucky to have been blessed with such a great kid.

 

Lizzy's 11th Birthday

We didn't do a party for Lizzy this year which was nice after her crazy party last year. I had a little day date with Lizzy a few days before her birthday and we went shopping and out to lunch. There is a little bit of sadness as children grow, but so much good! I had so much fun with her, and love being with her and talking wih her, and just enjoy having this person that she is becoming around.

Grandma got her this darling outfit. As usual, grandma picks out the best clothes!

She wanted a chocolate mousse crunch cake for her birthday and man it was good! She had this one for her 8th birthday too.

One more year and she goes into Young Women!! I can't believe I have a child that old!

 

Russy's Birthday Party

Everyone knows how I feel about birthday parties. But for some reason this one was no big deal. We invited Russys little buddies from church, Andof course Cole and Mason. I think there are two reasons that this party wasn'ta big deal, one I had Lizzy come in and take over. She loves doing it so I let her. Plus we just did a few simple games so I didn't feel any stress. It was great! We let the boys make paper airplanes and then we let them decorate them and had a contest flying them. The boys loved it!

We did a piñata, which lets be honest is the best thing to do at a party. Kids love it! Any time you get to smash something and candy falls out of it, kids are on board.

 

We did a Dusty theme because Russy loves planes. He loves lots of thingsand would have been happy to do any kind of party really, but I had bought a buch of planes party decore a year or so ago for really cheap off a yard sale site, so I wasn't going to let that go to waste. I had an idea for his cake and it ended up turning out really cute and was one of the easiest cakes I have ever made.

He loved getting lots of new toys and having the attention all on him.

We tried to do the cake outside but the candle wouldn't stay lit because of the breeze so we had to take it inside. Russy isn't too sure about fire right now, but he was better than when we lit the candle on his birthday.

 

 

All about Russy-4 years

Russy is four!! He is growing up so much, this past year has seen some major development for him. He really loves to go to school and wants everyday to be school day. He loves playing with toys and I swear I have never seen a kid that could just play with toys for hours on end the way that he can, and he doesn't discriminate either. He will play with all of his toys! It's pretty awesome!

Probably the hardest thing with him right now is how he and Annie fight like crazy. When they are together they are at each other's throats! It is so frustrating. When he is on his own though he couldn't be better. We just love this crazy silly boy so much!! He is at the best age right now, where he still is little enough to snuggle and is so cute and says such funny things but he is big enough to start to really reason with and understand things. One of the things I love most about him is how snugglely he is. He wants to sit by me and snuggle with me all the time. He also really likes me again, so that's good! He went through a time where all he wanted was kevin and he would start crying in the morning of Kevin wasn't around and he wanted nothing to do with me, but thankfully that isn't the case anymore.

He loves boy stuff and wants nothing to do with anything that is girl at all! I can't give him a girl cup or a pink plate or anything. He just laughs at me and says "mom that's pink!" Like of course I can't have that. He loves superhero stuff and Star Wars and sports stuff, pretty much anything boy. It was fun on his birthday because instead of buying him a present we took him shopping so that he could pick out what he wanted himself, and oh boy did he love that!! He was in heaven picking out toys.

He is pretty emotional for a boy, so I am hoping it's just a phase, because I really have enough emotional people in this house already. When we lit his candle on his cake he totally freaked out and wouldn't blow it out because he was too scared. Such a silly guy.

Right now he is really into the chanting thing and he loves this commercial by geico where they sing the final countdown, and he sings it all the time. He even named his stuffed dog, the final countdown.

His favorite food I would say is popcorn. That kid can down some serious popcorn. He actually has quite the appetite lately and has been eating everything in sight, which I have to admit I have been loving!!

Probably my very favorite thing about this cute boy of mine is how often he tells me he loves me. Randomly he will come up to me and say "mom I just love you!" And then give me a big hug. It's the sweetest. And he does it ally he time which makes it even better. He sure has a special place in my heart. I am so glad I was blessed with this amazing sweet boy!

 

 

Clara- six months

Oh my sweet baby! Oh how fast the time passes. I though I wouldn't be sad to see her getting big, but the truth is I am! She has become a very sweet baby. Very good natured and sweet. So far she seems to have a passive type of personality, which will be a good thing for when she has to deal with her big sister Annie. Man is she adored by all of her older siblings. They just love her so much! Russell is really rough with her but he isn't doing it on purpose. That is just the way he is loving her. annie is very loving to her, and Lizzy is just like a little mama to her.

She HATED taking baths when she was first born. She screamed bloody murder every single time! But now she seems to really enjoy being in the tub and loves when her siblings join her.

 

I waited to start baby food until she was six months becuase honestly it's a lot of work and I am a busy lady, so I figured she would survive. She did do really well when I started her. She loved trying new food a lot!

She still loves to be swaddled and has to be completely wrapped up to go to sleep.

She started sitting up a couple weeks after she was six months. She loved it and you could tell she thought she was so big when she started doing that. She started playing better on her own at that point too.

I seriously want to eat her cheeks!! She has gotten pretty chubby for one of our babies, which means she isn't tiny, but I think she may have gotten the best cheeks of all! They are really more like jowels right now. :) I love her little dimple chin too, it's so unique.

She has gotten pretty good about being dragged around, because with the craziness of Annie and Russ we have to get out a lot so I don't lose it.

I just adore this sweet girl! I'm so glad that we dared to have another one! Oh how our lives would be imcomplete without our Clara Bell!

 

Our Disney Adventure

For quite a few years now Kevin and I have been wanting to get the kids back to Disneyland. The last time we went I was pregnant with Russ so our youngest three hadn't been, Jane didn't remeber it, and the older two barely remembered. But it just never seemed to work out financially. But we decided this year would be a great time to go, since we had been saving up for a while, and we were just really dying to go. It really was a pretty big deal for us to go because we never really spend much money on trips. We were counting down the days for months, we were like little kids at Christmas.

We decided to drive down on a Sunday and leave pretty early so that we could get there early in the day and have the afternoon and evening to relax a bit. Well that plan got shot out of the water. I woke up feeling not so good, and had some yucky guts right before we left. Then we got about an hour In and annie started crying that her belly hurt. I was feeling a bit better so I thought annie would too. Nope she started in on the diarrhea. Then we stopped for lunch and Clara had a blowout, so I had to change her, clothes and all, then we went in to the restaurant to eat lunch and wouldn't you know Annie throws up at the table. We ended up stopping about three more times because she had diarrhea and everytime she managed to get it on her clothes so we had to get clothes out of the suitcase multiple times. By the time we got these I was a wreck and exhausted. She threw up and had diarrhea again when we got there. It felt like our whole vacation was going to be runied with it cycling through everyone. Kevin and I said a prayer and he gave her a blessing and I felt such peace that everything was going to be fine. She slept through the night and woke up fine the next morning and no one else got it. It was such a tender mercy from Heavenly Father.

That first day was super fun we got in pretty early and got on a few rides almost immediately. We were so excited to see how Russy would like it because we thought he would be so excited, but I think he was a little overwhelmed becuase he was kindof quiet. He never had actually experienced anything like Disneyland before and I think it was just such a different experience for him.

This was out first ride Buzz Lightyear. Russy just didn't really know what was going on.

Nellie thought it was pretty cool to drive the car on Autotopia. I stayed with Clara becuase she was too little to go on that ride, but it was fun to watch eveyone pull in and see how they liked it.

Russy was starting to warm up to the whole experience when we went on Alice in Wonderland, and he told me immediately that he wanted to go on that one again.

The little ones loved its a small world, and honestly I love it too, it's just such a cute little ride.

In toon town we tried to take Annie and Russy on the little rollercoaster but Annie was just an inch too short. It was so sad becuase she wanted to go so bad and cried to whole way back through the line. It was fun to ride with Russy though because he really enjoyed it.

Janie had a really fun time and something we learned about her is that she is qutie the little daredevil! She loves the scary ride and had no fear at all! It's so cute because she is just this little tiny girl.

The first day I took the three youngest back to the hotel in the afternoon to take a nap so that we could come back and watch the parade that night, it was a good thing too because we had to sit for hours so that we could have a good spot for the parade and the kids were so done at that point. I can't imagine if they hadn't gotten a nap how that would have gone. Yikes! I don't want to know!!

Russell really loved the parade. And seriously how could he not? It was so dang cute and well done!! I was worried after waiting so long for it that it was going to be a huge disappointment, and that I would wish we didn't spend the time waiting, but it was the opposite! I ended up feeling like it was one of my very favorite things about the trip, and the kids did too!

 

The girls really loved seeing all of the princesses in the parade and Jane said that of course Elsa and Anna waved to her!

 

Even cute Clara liked the parade. Although she was Sooo ready to go to bed at that point.

The second day we decided to do Disneyland again so that we wouldn't have to stay too long because after such a late night, we knew we wouldn't want to have another late night, and we wanted to do World of Color at California Adventure. So we just decided to stay the whole time, not go back for naps and then head back to the hotel early. One of the funniest things about the second day, was that we realized thatnRussy was big enough to go on Splah mountain so we thought hat he would surely love it, so we should take him. He ended up freaking out and totally crying about it. We had wished we had brought our phones so we could take a picture of the pictures of they take of you one the big hill at the end, becuase Russ had the most terrified face in it. It was way too funny. He also loved going on Star Tours and it was way too cute to watch him in that ride with all of the guns shooting etc. Janie's favorite ride was the Matterhorn, which I hadn't been on since I was a kid and I forgot that it was a little scary! But fun!

It ended up being pretty hot the whole time we were there, so when we were waiting for the big girls to go on a ride and annie and Russy saw this little water park they were all over it. They were soo drenched! It was a good thing we were headed back to the hotel after that.

Clara was the BEST baby! She was so chill and just hung out. She napped in her seat and went on the rides with us. She was so good! She also slept amazing at the hotel. In fact when we got home she didn't sleep nearly as well in her own bed as she did in the hotel. It was crazy!!

When we got back from naps we headed to the cars ride because we had fast passes. Russy was super excited to go on it but then he was kind of scared when it went really fast. He had the option to go again with our stroller pass with Grammie and Papi but instead he just wanted to go into the gift shop and buy something. So the big girls got to go on that cars ride twice in a row, which they really enjoyed. We tried to go on tower of Terror right before world of color becuase we had fast passes for it, but there was some kind of malfunction and they told us we would be another half hour before we got to ride and we would miss world of color. We wanted to make sure we saw that show because we missed it the last time we went to Dis eland so we had to ditch Tower of Terro, and don't worry nellie let us know for the next two hours how it was her favorite ride and she was heartbroken that she didn't get to ride it, even though she said earlier that it was really scary and she didn't know if she even wanted to ride it. Ha ha!

These three are just too cute!!

The last day we were there we went to a Dodger game. It worked out that there was a day game and Kershaw just happened to be pitching!! It was just too perfect. The only problem was it was a really hot day and the kids were just beasts!! They didn't want to watch the game at all and they were up and down wanting to move around. It was awful!! I tried to take the little ones out for a while so that Kevy would be able to see some of the game, But even the big girls were pretty bad. We were able to see a grand slam by the Dodgers though which was pretty dang awesome so overall it ended up being worth it.

 

We were lucky enough to be able to sit in the shade so that was was good because seriously it was blistering!!

We had such an amazing trip. We feel so lucky that we got to go and that Kevy's parents got to come with us. It made it really nice to have the extra help!! The kids especially Russy talk about Disneyland all the time and how bad they want to go back. Hopefully it won't be four more years before we make it back.

 

Circus Vargas

Kevy was able to get us free tickets to the circus that comes into town every year. I have heard really good things about it and the tickets are normally over $25 each!! So of course we went! We always try and take advantage of free stuff. That's the nature of having a lot of kids, you have to be cheapskates.

My Mom wasn't in town but my dad was so we invited him to go with us. He is so good with the kids, and Russ and Annie just love him so much. It makes me so happy!

Russ just HAD to get this light sword. Silly guy, we just used some of the money that he would get for Disneyland so that I could justify doing that, because I am not that aren't that has to get everything for their kids.

The circus was seriously so amazing, the performers were awesome, there really wasn't a ton of them, they just did everything. They were seriously so talented! The only problem was we were told that we had to be there at 6, so we made sure we were there right on time. The only problem was we really didn't need to be there that early because the show didn't start until 8! Sitting waiting for almost two hours in a hot dark circus tent with six small kids one being a six month old and all of them out after their bedtime. Not a great idea!! They did pretty good all things considered. I had to leave with Clara a couple of times because she was kindof freaking out with the noise. It was SO loud! Plus she was totally exhausted but of course wouldn't sleep.

It was really cool and I am glad we went, but there are some things that I am really looking forward to about the kids getting bigger, and trying to do things like this is one of them!!!

 

Back to School

We were so grateful that we were able to find a house in the same area so that the kids were able to stay at the same school.  I really didn't want to move them again, even though I know they would have been great sports about it.
I really didn't want school to start this year!  It was so hard because we moved a couple weeks before school started so we had spent so much of our summer trying to find a place and showing a house, etc.  Pretty much anything but doing summer activities. I really hope I can make it up to them next summer, because this one stunk. We didn't even go on vacation this summer!  In fact we didn't even leave the Sacramento area!  Now that's just sad!  But alas school started and the kids were still excited to get back.  I personally loathe the first day of school, because I have to try and get the kids there and we have to leave WAY early and I have to cart my other kids with me, which this year was three additional little ones. yikes.  I decided that since we can't park remotely close to the school on the first day and since I wanted them to ride their bikes home from school that we would all ride together.  Not a good idea.  It took forever to get there because Russy was riding and so we got there just before school started so I had to try and get everyone to their classes and  take the obligatory pictures.  Its just nice after the first day when they can get themselves to school.
 Lizzy lost her best friend to Middle school and another one of her friends moved.so in a lot of ways it was starting over for Lizzy.  But I don't worry about her, she always has made friends so easily!  She has Mrs. Donahue and she just loves her.  She comes home and talks about her all the time. She even tells me that she is her favorite teacher she has had, and that is really saying something because she has loved her teachers.  Nellie didn't have any of her friends in her class either, but she has Mrs. Rodrick the teacher that Lizzy had last year, so that was good to have a teacher we were already familiar with. And Nellie now has her best friend down the road so she can ride to school with her and she still gets to play with her at recess. Janie has Mrs. Williams and she was lucky enough to have her favorite little friend Maxim in her class, so that made her a lot less nervous for the first day. 

 I just cant believe how big these girls are getting! It is so crazy to watch the time zoom by and she these gorgeous girls growing into such amazing people.  I am so proud of the people they are turning into!

 Maxim found Janie immediately when we got to school.  It was niced to not see her nervous at all.

 I could tell Nellie was pretty nervous the first day because she didn't know anyone very well in her class.  But she did great!

 I walked into Lizzy's class to take a quick picture, and she was looking a little scared, but then she saw me and gave me her great smile. 

By the time I got back to Jane's class she was already doing great at her table.  I am so proud of these girls and how well they do in new situations!  We are so excited for a new school year and to see them all learn and grow even more!

 Russy was beyond excited when it was his turn to start school a couple of weeks later at Miss Patty's Place.  He got all ready in his new shoes that he said make him run really fast. 

when we got there though I could tell how nervous he was.  He went though without crying or anything.  I was a little nervous to go pick him up because I was worried about him, but I didn't need to be.  when I picked him up he was beyond happy.  One of the happiest I have ever seen him.  He loved it so much!  In fact when he learned that he didn't get to go every day at first he was pretty upset.   but now he is just super thrilled when I tell him it is a Miss Patty Day.  He is growing so much there too.  I love watching him mature and change.