What I learned in December

Toddlers love the snow and are amazed that mom can make a "Frosty"

Lizzie really enjoys chocolate frosting

Christmas is still magical for an 8 year old

Watching the guy put carpet in our basement is pretty exciting.


A trip to Temple Square with 4 kids is still insane. This picture is a good representation of our evening

Afton loves her yellow pumpkin from Halloween and her backpack (it always holds a baby named Afton, a turtle and a yellow ball).

Lilly does not like clothes unless it is her froggie boots and her Jessie hat. She usually always carries her pink pumpkin filled with various "treasures". I don't know why she didn't have it at this moment.

Matchie clothes are still really cute. Notice Lilly's pink pumpkin. Plus it breaks my heart that in this next year these girls will be 3. My "babies" are growing up way too fast.

The Family

A sample of some of the pictures from our photo shoot...

Lizzie 6 1/2 years old

Afton and Lilly

Ethan 8 3/4 years old

Our beautiful children

Lilly 2 1/2 years old

The first picture taken. I love this one because of how Afton is holding on to Lizzie and how Lilly is cuddled up with us not quite sure yet of picture taking.

Afton- 2 1/2 years old

This boy

I love this boy! He has always been extremely caring of others ever since I can remember. He has such a tender heart.
Tonight was Ethan's piano recital. As a side note it was also my first piano recital EVER. I was extremly nervous and was really surprised how nervous I got for a simple duet. Ethan and I did a duet of Jolly Old St. Nicholas and then Ethan did a solo of I Saw Three Ships.

- He endured very patiently all of the times, and I really do mean ALL the times his nervous, paranoid mom wanted to practice at home for our duet
- He took charge and led the way up to the piano at the recital with our music in hand
- He put his arm around me and said "Good Job Mom" when we we were done playing and back in our chairs.
- He never seems to get nervous.

Trouble with a capital T

For a girl that always gets in trouble and is the most curious girl I have ever met... all I can say is Afton you are lucky you are so darn cute!



We decided to not use our self timer this year for a Christmas card and had someone take our picture. It was easy, painless and Jim and I didn't even lose our patience:)
I can't put more up since they will be used as presents for parents :) Sorry for the spoiler parents.
But here is a sneak preview of one of my absolute favorites! We actually got a good family shot and some great kid and individual shots! It was amazing to accomplish that with four young kids.
I will post them after Christmas.

Dogs Love Christmas too...

We have had our Christmas tree up for a couple days now. I keep finding Lucky either sleeping under the tree or right next to it. I guess even dogs like to soak in the Christmas spirit :)

I like to think he remembers it was just a few days before Christmas last year that he joined our family.

Plus laying down looking at Christmas tree lights is one of the coolest things ever!

Happy Birthday Jim!

I love this guy!

* his birthday was actually the 10th but we celebrate as long as we can in this house :)

Christmas Prep

Why does it seem like once November 1st hits it feels like Christmas is upon us? Each year I try to get everything done by the first part of December so that the rest of December we can just spend time celebrating the season and not worrying about lists to do. Of course that does make for a busy Novemeber as I have spent a lot of time the past few days researching and buying gifts. Can I just say how much I love Amazon, Target.com and overstock :)

I have it on great authority that Santa has already chosen his 3 special gifts for each of the children.

Jim and I have done our part and will be ready to present the kids their yearly gift of pajamas to open Christmas Eve and also another Caldecott book.

Next..... the impossible task of trying to get a family picture of six for a Christmas card :) Thank goodness for photo shop. Then we will work on extended family gifts.




Oh and in case you were wondering I now have two kids in the house that can read what I type on the blog :)

Halloween festivities

PUMPKIN CARVING

Here are some pictures of us carving our pumpkins. My parents came up to help which always makes things more fun for the kids. I had forgetten how excited the kids get to draw and then cut out their "creations".

Step 1- Draw your face first



Step 2- Everything is funner when Grandpa helps


Step 3- finished products






HALLOWEEN

Pictures before trick or treating

Harrison week

We have spent a lot of time with the Harrison family this past week (thanks Nate and Liz for coming in town). Here are pictures from our 1st Harrison Halloween Party.

Indiana Jones aka Ethan (for like the 3rd year in a row.)


The typical Hawaiin tourist (Jim) with his Hawaiin lady (Alisha)


Bumlebee Afton



Chef Lizzie. Lizzie hates her picture being taken so I had to do it secretly.



The Hippies (Nate and Liz)


The Monkey and the Ladybug (Vince and Lilly)


The cousins


The family. Ethan was taking the picture and Lizzie refused to be in the picture :)

Kanab

What do you do in Kanab?
The only thing there is to do in that place..... you hang out with family of course.

Over UEA we went with Jim's family to Kanab. Despite the open spiral staircases at the house, it was an amazing place with our own swimming pool, hot tub, pool table and plenty of room to relax and explore!
It was great just to hang out with family for a few days. It is always fun to watch cousins interact. We had an explosion of grandchildren in the last two/ three years (five born within about a year)so now we have a lot of toddlers all around.

Here are the Kanab highlights....

The family (minus Steve and Michelle and kids)


Lilly took a extra shining to "Aunt Liz" and still talks about her. Liz helped Lilly make this awesome foam hat. Lilly insisted on wearing it to all the errands yesterday like Macey's, Spoons and Spice, Target,etc. :)


Sandbox play




Decorating sugar cookies


Our pool


Line up of kids for each meal


Playground fun (with Uncle Tom)

2 1/2

These are pictures of pictures but still cute...


Lilly and Afton.
Lilly as a 2 year old of course has to include her pigtails.She requests them every morning when I ask her how she wants her hair done. Of course they only stay in for a half hour or so before she pulls them out.
Afton and her hair matches her personality- crazy and adorable.

Afton- I think this is my absolute favorite picture of Afton as a 2 year old.

Balance

"Balance is not giving equal time to each element of your life. Balance is knowing where your attention is needed the most and giving that area attention."

Right now my attention belongs to my family. House, laundry, photo albums, and the list goes on and on..... take a back seat right now. It is my time to enjoy these four precious souls and one amazing husband that I have.

I always find it humbling that everyone is "busy" with their own stuff every day. Everyone deals with different challenges at different times of their lives. My time right now is raising this family. I barely get through each day putting out the most pressing "fires" of the day. My life is busy. Never in my life would I have been able to imagine how busy a family with four kids and a dog could be. Every one of my kids on a given day has different needs. Just look at this picture- Just by their face expressions you can tell they all have their unique style :) Plus two year old twins add their own spin to everything.



I have resigned myself to the fact that I will probably not have a clean house for a long, long time. No matter how much I try. There is a season for everything and it is not my time to have a clean organized house. If you come to my house it will never be as clean as I would like. I try though :)

BUT

my kids will know that they are loved and that is what I keep reminding myself. I spend my days for them, Jim and our family.

My kids will know
- I helped out in the their classrooms and went on fieldtrips as much as I could
-I am always trying to match socks for them because I am always behind on the wash
- the kitchen is always my nemesis with cleaning
- that I laugh at silly things they do including my two year old getting a Yogo stuck up her nose :)
- How much I love it when the same two year old says "Hi Mom, missed you" even though I only was out of the room for five seconds. I hug her every time.
- They will have memories of their mom reading books to them at night before bed.
- They will know their parents loved them and enjoy them.




Maybe this post is just for me to remind me that even on those insanely busy days it is worth it. After all President Thomas S. Monson said...

"If you are still in the process of raising children, be aware that the tiny fingerprints that show up on almsot every newly cleaned surface, the toys scattered about the home, the piles and piles of laundry to be tackled will disappear all too soon and that you will to your surprise- miss them profoundly."

Travel Guide

Here is a travel guide for a family of six to be able to spend 3 fun filled days at Disneyland.



#1- Paperwork

This trip was brought to you by a boy doing lots of work and paperwork to pay for it :)

#2-Four little monkeys sleeping in a bed

We used Hotwire to book a hotel in Vegas for our 7 hour sleep over. All four kids shared a bed. Our hotel in Anaheim had bunk beds, a pull out sofa and a king bed so they were more spread out later.

#3- Looks of absolute happiness (mom included)







#4- Meeting your favorite characters including Ariel who is like the best thing ever to a two year old girl. We were able to meet a lot of characters but I won't include pictures of all :)






#5- Be prepared for at least one melt down a day/ per child.



#6- A quick trip to the beach. Our kids had never been to the beach before. THEY LOVED IT and we need to get them back soon.



#7- If you have an 8 year old boy the Lego store in Downtown Disney is almost just as exciting as Disneyland



#8- Cute pictures of the little ones while you take advantage of the "rider swap"





#9- Goofy's Kitchen. This place was great. Even though it was a buffet the chef was nice enough to come out and walk around to every entree with Jim and show him what he can and can't eat. Also he made Jim a special order gluten free pizza, browines and cookies. Other places we ate at were so nice to have gluten free items for Jim. He had a hamburger with bun! Here is Jim with the chef and Goofy!



#10- Tired! Sometimes the "happiest place on earth" can be pretty exhausting too!


We had an amazing time and it was a lot of fun!