Christmas Catchup....

Oh man am I way behind!  Our computer crashed with a virus and by the time we had her running again I was so behind it was overwhelming.  But, for my goals to be better at our 'family history' I will take this head on........SO, here is our Christmas in bullet point.

Our Christmas consisted in ALOT of:

***Bathing with the cousins

(close your eyes Grandma) *** Riding very unsafely to the park down the street (I think we had like 11 people in a 7 passenger car)

*** Crazy face making

***Cookie decorating contests

*** Auntie time

***Santa Clause (nobody would sit on his lap but Uncle Benny)

***Swimming

***Traditional nativity display (Isn't Mill rockin the baby Jesus part?  I'm not sure what Char was, the leotard was all she would put on.)

*** Hugging!!

***Present opening

***Smiles from these four

***Game playing

***Temple lights

***Creative Sledding

Even though we didn't have a lot of time with our Dad during the Christmas break, we made our time count when he was around and made some pretty awesome memories.  Thanks family!!

Happy New Year

We had a great 2010! It had it's ups and downs but we were fortunate to have survived it.  Our family is still in Arizona, never thought we would say that 6 years later.  We do love it here and can't imagine going back to the snow.  We take our winters seriously and get outdoors as much as possible.  It has been colder than most winters but we aren't taking it for granted, for the 100's will be coming soon enough.  We sneak off to Grandmas pool in the summer and that's how we survive.  

 Our kids are our life.  Literally.  We can't imagine life without them, they sure keep us moving and going ALL the time.  As much as they get at eachother they are just as much crazy for one another.

 Alex.  Our little star. Always shining.  She really seeks for everything good in life.  She started first grade this year and is reading at a high level.  She LOVES to read!  We see her more with a book in her hand than without.  Her kindergarten teacher looped up to first grade with her class and loves to have her and all the kids from last year.  She enjoys soccer and wants to start playing the piano soon.  She decided for Christmas she wanted her ears pierced. As much as daddy wanted to keep her little, mommy gave in and I knew she would be able to take care of them.  She's looking forward to getting baptized this year and can't wait until her birthday in September.  

 Jake.  He is our sweet and sour.  He is oh so sweet but just a little sour at times, it happens being smashed between two girls.  He makes us laugh at every turn and keeps us smiling when things seem down.  He started his second year in preschool with his teacher Ms. Candace.  He adores her.  He has started reading and is great at math.  He asks us to quiz him on his skilz! He can write his numbers and letters and has started to spell words.  He loves to ride his bike and jump on the trampoline and looking forward to start up soccer in the fall. 

 Oh Charlie.  That is what we say 90% of our days.  We just can't believe how much personality can fit into one tiny little girl.  She is spunky, crazy, hilarious and fun.  Her hair speaks volumes of her personality.  They are one in the same.  Crazy.  Her great grandpa Bob gave her those curls.  We love them.  She is starting to say lots of words and Da da is one of her favs.  She is a Daddy's girl through and through.  Once he walks in the door she demands all of his attention.  I don't mind :)

Cameron is starting his fifth year with Rowland Homes and is finding joy in doing some commercial jobs.  Between his calling and job we don't see him near often enough but make our time together count. 
He finds the time to play softball on the weekends with his buddies and is making it a habit of hitting some home runs here and there. 

Me.  I'm trying to keep the fort steady.  With three busy kids and the activites that come with them it gets crazy but I wouldn't want life any other way.  I enjoy running every day I can and I find it to be the best stress reliever.  I keep busy with cutting and coloring hair and love to have adult conversations while still being at home with my kids.

We are looking forward to the year of 2011 and hope to endure some new adventures.  With trials and experiences we have come to see the true importance of family and being together.  Me and Cam are going to try to fit in a trip with one another, as well as take the kiddos to Disney Land.  We hope the new year brings all our family and friends happiness and peace!   
(a special thanks to my good friend for taking our family pictures)

Jake turns the big 5!!

Jake's birthday is the 16th of December and so he kinda gets lost in the midst of Christmas chaos.  I was determined this year to make it special because turning five is pretty huge, I think.  We had a party, I'm not a huge party person, I like to keep things simple but we came up with some fun things to do.  We had some yummy snacks because some of the kids were just getting home from school. 

 I made red velvet cupcakes, red velvet is Jakes favorite!  I fancied them up with some legos.  The theme of the party was Star Wars and Legos. 

 I didn't have to entertain them much, the trampoline did the hard work. 

 Little sister was sure diggin' the doritos! 

 We had a lego building contest where they had so many legos and had to come up with something to build.  They all got medals for their creativeness!

 Jake's true, happy smile!!

 Little sister still enjoying the food!

 We played Duck, Duck, Goose and Red Rover.....It was classic!!!

 On Jakes real birthday we went out to Red Robin for dinner.  We sang and blew out candles at home, I have been using my video camera alot lately so I didn't get any pictures of that. 

Some fun facts about Jake:

*loves anything Lego

*has a super sweet side

*he misses Alex a ton while she's at school

*loves his pre-school teacher Ms. Candace

*starting to read

*great at math!

*super silly

*loves playing with Dad when he gets home from work

*tolerates Charlie a little more each day

*favorite color is orange and blue

*learning to ride his bike without training wheels

*Halloween*

I LOVE Halloween!  My kids really anticipate Halloween all year.  They talk about what they want to be, and change their minds at least a few dozen times throughout the year. 

 Alex settled on being a black cat. 

I mean, with Charlie's crazy hair what else could we have her be but a clown!  She was the cutest clown ever!  Her costume was pretty easy to make and I must say it turned out pretty cute. 

I'm still not sure why Jake wanted to be Luke Skywalker, having never seen the movies, but he was insistent and it must just be in the male gene pool that at some point in your life you will want to be a Star Wars character.

I was pretty sure Charlie wouldn't understand the concept of trick or treating but after the first house she understood loud and clear that if you hold your bucket out, you WILL get a piece of candy. 

I tried to get pictures of the older two, but they were way too interested in getting their candy and moving on to the next house.  SO, I settled on taking more pics of my sweet little clown and her first Halloween trick or treating experience.  Who could tell that face no?

Every time we would get back in the car, she would hold up her bucket and jibber jabber with a huge smile on her face, like she was saying, "Mom, look at alllll this candy!!"



Fall Happenings.....

Our Fall has been quite the warm one.  We are finally out of the ninety degree weather but juuusstt barely.  Our little Alex became a girl scout and has had some fun adventures so far.  We went to a corn maze for one activity and I think Jake had more fun than anyone.  He was pretending to be our guide and was swinging corn stems all over the place. I would have taken more photos of Alex but she was off with her "daisy troop" friends. 

Mr. Guide

Alex is having the time of her life, learning about all sorts of new stuff. 

These are some of her good buddies in her troop.

For FHE we had some friends over for some pumpkin carving.  Some took it pretty seriously. 

As I was making my way to get a picture of Cameron and the older two kids carving our family pumpkin, Jake came out of nowhere with a HUGELY puffy eye from a serious allergic reaction to something when the kids were all playing in the back yard.  I didn't ever get a picture of our pumpkin but did get one of the poor boy that had to wear a pirate patch because he would not stop rubbing his ever swelling eye.  It didn't seem to slow him down much.   

Charlie, just having a good time!

Alex enjoyng the yummy treats....

Jake has an awesome preschool teacher who has some pretty cool craft ideas.  They made these spooky Halloween haunted houses for their Halloween party. 

Soccer has come to an end.  It was really fun to coach this season!  It was a bit warm some of those games, but we had a blast nonetheless.  My little Alex keeps asking me when the next season starts because she 'thinks' she might miss kicking the ball.  I must say she has improved a ton in the last year, it was great seeing the difference between the smaller kids games than these 7-8 year olds.  They really started to catch on and understand the game more.