Crazy Hair Day

The girls have been talking for the last two years about what they would do for the next crazy hair day, and when I say they have been talking for the two years I am not joking, like constantly talking about what they were going to do in their hair for crazy hair day.  Last school year they didn't have it so they were really into it this year and were very ready to go over the top with it.

 So Nellie did a crazy orange spike in the front with her bangs and twisties all over her head.

 Since Lizzy had just cut her hair so it made it so we could actually do this style because with her long hair there would have been no way.  I thought pipe cleaners would hold the hair in just great but I put them in and they completely fell over so I was completely racking my brain trying to come up with how we could make this happen.  All of a sudden it came to me, ice cream cones.  So she has ice cream comes all over her head holding that hairdo in place.

Janie didn't want to do anything too extreme  but we had seen this done before and thought it was really cute.  They great thing was no one else at school had the same hair as the girls so that made it even more fun.  Plus they all won a prize so it ended up being worth all the work I put into it.

Gold Rush Days

Russ was pretty excited to dress as a cowboy for Gold Rush Days at Miss Patty's Place.  Luckily we have some friends that had some good clothes that we could borrow so it worked out pretty good and I thought he was the cutest cowboy I ever did see.

 I had signed up to help at his school for this but when I got there, there really wasn't that much to help with, but it was really fun to get to see Russ at school and interacting with others.  He really has grown up so much this past year.

 This was probably his favorite thing that they did, Sitting on this giant tractor with a big grin on his face.

They also panned for gold, although most of them just put mostly sand in their bags instead of the gold rocks. Russ was one of those kids even though I kept showing him how to do it with getting the sand. Then they went in and pretend roasted marshmallows over a fire and told ghost stories.  It was such a cute little day.

A Busy May

With my birthday, mothers day, the end of school and all the festivities that come along with it, it ends up being such a busy month. 

 I got to go to Mothers day tea with my favorite boy!  He is just such a sweet snuggly bear and I love to hear him sing his cute little songs to me. He has grown so much in the last year as he has gotten so big, its so fun!

 I spent a lot of time with these three monkeys at the park, especially the library park.  It was so fun to see Clara be able to start to play with the bigger kids.  She used to look longingly from her stroller and watch the kids, but now she can join in on the fun!

 Its crazy to think what my life would be like without these three!  After the htree oldest came, there was a time we thought that maybe we were only going to be able to have just the three, but then came along the next thee and man is our life so full and busy and crazy, but perfect now because we have them!

 Annie went to the dentist for the first time.  I was a little apprehensive after having a child who totally flipped out at the dentist,  you never know how your other children are going to act.  She did absolutely amazing.  She acted like it was no big deal and nothing out of the ordinary.  It was great!

 I always make the kids a special breakfast for their birthdays and since Kevin isn't a cook and happened to go to play basketball the morning of my birthday, my darling little kiddies decided to make me a birthday breakfast.  It was so sweet!  I am a lucky mom!

 We had ice cream cones for the first time this year and we decided to let Clara have her own.  Needless to say she loved it!

What can I say about these two!  They have the most special relationship, I love it so much.  Lizzy is like a second mom to Clara, and "Ziz" is one of Clara's first words.

 These two boys!  They went to Fathers and Sons together. They were soo excited to get to go.  Kevin has been looking forward to it forever.  He took Russ when he when he was two, and had fun, but nothing like he had this time.  I love to see them together and see the relationship that they have.  I am so grateful that we got our Russy so that Kevin could have a little buddy.

 Lizzy had been wanting to get her hair cut for a while, I made her wait because I wanted her to make sure that it was what she really wanted.  I took her to my hair person because it was too much off for me to feel like I could do it on my own.

 I think it turned out so cute and makes her look a lot older.

Oh these little climbing monkeys!  I love them!

Fairy Tale Town

Its always fun to introduce more of my kids to a fun place that we love going.  We went with Russells preschool class like they do every year and had lots of fun, although maybe I didn't have as much fun as they did.  This is still just such a hard busy time for me with my kids!  I keep thinking it should be getting easier by now!  And it is, but it is still really hard!  Clara has reached the VERY busy age.  You think they are their busiest but then you throw in the walking and it seems to multiply by 100!
The day we went ended up being very overcast and a little cold, but it was a lot better than roasting to death.

Annie really loved going with the preschool kids because she always thinks she is as big as they are.  Man that girl has the BIGGEST personality!

My little monkey baby!  She is so busy and contrary to this picture she didn't stay in her stroller much at all.  And of course for some reason the shoes I had for her one wouldn't stay on her foot so she was walking around with one shoe the whole day.

Yeah I tried really hard to get a picture with them all looking but it didn't happen.  Right now I can hardly ever get Clara to look a the camera.

I thought it was funny after I took the picture I realized that Russ was in Maid Marian and Anne was in Robin Hood, so I had them switch, but They looked much cuter in this one.

  Still one of the favorites is the crooked mile.  I tried to get a picture with them on it but they went too fast and with wrestling Clara and trying to get a picture it just didn't happen.

These pictures make me laugh because thy show their personalities.  Annie was all over the tall fast slide and didn't show any fear and Russ was really nervous and made sure he went down nice and slow.

See Clara holding the shoe? So frustrating!  It was an exhausting day but I think these cuties had a good time.

Cousin Time!

Great Grandma Smith passed away.  She had just turned 89 and had lived a long great life. Near the end she wasn't doing well so it was a blessing when she passed away.  With the funeral happening we got to see a lot of cousins and family that we wouldn't have gotten to see otherwise. We got to see my brother Jarom and his family that live in Germany, which was an awesome surprise because we didn't think we would see them the whole time they lived there.  It was so fun for the kids to spend some time with cousins that they don't get to see enough.

 Jerry brought his walkie talkies and he and Russ had the best time playing with them.  They used them the entire time pretty much nonstop.

 Little Freddy was just about the cutest thing ever.  I sure love that boy and am sad that we wont get to see him again until he is big.

 Annie and Lucy were little buddies together. they share such a love of baby dolls it was really cute to see them playing together.  I am sure it will only get more so as they get older.

                                                Here were all the kids at the viewing. 

 It was hard to say goodbye to our cousins because they all love each other so much and get along so well.  I think it was especially hard for Russ.  He just loves his boy cousins so much.

A Little Getaway

Kevin had a conference in Phoenix this year and with Clara turning a year old, it was a perfect time for me to go with him.  It was a much needed break and chance to have some relaxation and time together.  I sure love being with this guy and I'm grateful he seems to like being with me as well.  The first night we got there we went to the Diamondbacks baseball game, which is fun because we are big baseball fans.  Kevy especially.  Anytime he has the chance to go to a ball game, no matter the teams, he is there.  It was fun to go with him without needy kids. we found a really good little pizza joint that night and then went to the game after.  I was a little tired and when the seventh inning stretched on forever I was done. I just wanted to head back to the hotel.  We watched a movie and then slept in until 10 am!  It was crazy to just sleep and relax for a few days.  We spent that just hanging by the pool and reading before we decided to head to the Gilbert temple.  We thought it would be fun to go to do sealings at another temple that we'd never been to.  We had planned to go out to dinner and were headed to the restaurant on the freeway when  Kevy spotted a sign for Café Rio.  Of course we had to go there for dinner.  Mine ended up being gross but at least Kevy got his beloved Rio.  The temple was absolutely gorgeous and ended up being one of our favorite things about the trip.

After two days together we headed to the conference, which is still fun but not as fun because Kevin is in classes all day.  We at least got to eat together. but the meals were a huge disappointment compared to the last conference we went to, and the big event was really lame with really bad food.  We did however get to stomp grapes which was a new experience.  But honestly it didn't matter if the conference wasn't that great because I got to have a little break from reality and spend some much needed time with the man I love.

All About Annie-3 Years

Oh Annie girl, I knew from about 4 months on that our Annie was a feisty little one and she has only gotten more so as time has gone on.  She has definitely hit the difficult three stage. I know it is called the terrible twos, but I have found that three is much harder than two.   There are times lately where I want to just lose it with her and the crazy fits that she throws. Potty training with her has been a 6 month process.  It didn't even take Nellie this long to potty train. She still has accidents all the time and it is just because she doesn't care.  She will wet her pants and then go up and change herself. Thankfully she doesn't do it with pooping. She is a stubborn one that is for sure.

Annie really loves babies.  Like more than I can even say.  She has a ton of them and she names them and  treats them like they are real.  She will put a baby in the high chair and then she will give it bits of food.  She pretends that they need a diaper change and she talks about them like they have real feelings.  I just love it about her so much that she wants to be a little mommy. 

 Annie has a best friend named Piper who is the daughter of one of my good friends.  The crazy thing is that they have loved each other from the time they were really little even though kids that age usually don't care that much.  They love to play together and they talk about the other one all the time. In fact I can almost always use Piper as a bribe to get Annie to do something.

Annie can also be really sweet too.  one of my favorite things that she does is I will be sitting like on the couch and she will come up and kiss me on the arm or some other random place.  It is funny but really cute too.  She makes this super cute noise too when she is excited about something and I just love the way she calls Clara "Crarabelle". She almost never calls her just Clara.

Annie has a bit of a problem being a bully to Russell and Clara.  She really is the instigator. She will be teasing Russ and bringing him to tears and then she will turn around and do the same thing to Clara.  Its pretty maddening!  She also has had a problem biting lately.  Russ has had some serious bite marks on his back from her.  Although she may have been cured of that little problem because Clara bit her pretty good and the next day she told me that "I'm going to be a good girl today and I'm not going to bite anyone."

Annie is going through a bad eating phase right now.  She doesn't want to eat her dinner and if she does she wants me to feed it to her.  She is totally into fruit snacks and I seriously think she would try to live on fruit snacks alone if I let her. We had to move them up into our bedroom closet because she was eating 10-12 a day.  It was ridiculous!!!

Annie has the most beautiful hair. I have never been attached to my kid's hair until hers. It goes all the way down her back and it is super blond and thick!  It dries so pretty all on its own.  So many people have commented about how pretty her hair is and its true! I would die to have hair that pretty!

Annie is such a little firecracker.  She adds so much spice and life to our home.  Even though I want to pull my hair out a lot. I know that part of it is the age and she will mellow out some soon.  I am so grateful to have her as my daughter.  She is a little sunshine in my life. I love my Annie girl!

Annie's 3rd Birthday

Our crazy Annie had her birthday.  It was fun for her to go to the store and pick out her presents, she picked out six babies of course.  Her birthday fell on a Sunday so it worked out perfectly to do her party that day.

 She liked these babies because they don't have cloth bodies so she could take them in the tub, which is a pretty big deal for her.  She is really into her babies.  None of the other girls had very much of an interest in baby dolls so I think it is just about the cutest thing ever!

 I love decorating the kids cake and trying to make them something extra special for their birthday.  I let the kids use the extra frosting and decorating bags and practice decorating.  They absolutely loved it.

Annie wanted an Ariel cake so I looked online to get some ideas. And while it definitely is not perfect I was really proud of how it turned out. And Annie was absolutely thrilled, which is really all that matters.  She was napping when I made it so when she woke up and saw it she was so excited.

 We decided to buy Annie a present that she didn't pick out so that she had something to open and she was pretty excited about it.

 She also got a present from Grandma and Grandpa that she got to open as well.  She was really excited about opening presents this year.  It's always so fun when they really start to understand the whole birthday thing, and get so excited about it. 

 She got some pretty necklaces and stickers.

 And she got a cute new outfit that she loves.

 Man do we love this crazy Annie girl.  She gives us a run for our money but our lives would not be the same without her!