round two

What a spoiled little girl..... she got TWO birthday parties.  On the day of her birthday we went to Logan and went shopping for a little while, and then met all of Ryan's family at the movie "the Lorax"  I couldn't tell you if it was good or not because I was out and going crazy with Adison.  But I think that everyone else said they thought it was cute and liked it.

Our second attempt to making the hello kitty cake.  This time we used chocolate instead of frosting and at least it didn't run.....

this is what I did during the movie.  I chased her around the theater and tried and tried to get her to fall asleep on my shoulder because she had skipped her nap and was so tired.   But she was not going to even try.  We even took her little baby car seat and put her in that for a while and she was just not going to fall asleep.  But when I finally took her to the car and started to drive she fell asleep in 10 seconds.  I really don't understand why none of our kids would ever just fall asleep on us.....

After the movie we went to Golden Corral for dinner.  All the kids really like it because they get to choose what they would like to eat and and I really love it because I don't' have to make it or clean it up!

Adison was loving feeding herself.  She had a spoon and got most of it in her mouth. 

this is the face she gave me when I said "cheese"  she is so funny and really LOVED the cotton candy

she dove right in again.... I love all the kids faces they couldn't believe it

Brytlee thought it was so cool she had to try

You can tell that Adison is saying "cheese" in this picture.  Such a cute little girl

Alexis is so lucky to have such wonderful family and friends in her life.  I am also so grateful for that.  I could not imagine life without all the love and support that our family gets from everyone. 
Alexis was so excited that she was able to go and have a sleep over at Grandma and Grandpa's house on her birthday.  I know that they let her do whatever she wanted, they probable stayed up really late and had a great time!!!!  It still doesn't really feel real to me that I have a ten year old.  I swear I just blinked and she grew up.  I love this little girl so much and I am so proud of her.  She has done so well in school and it really hasn't been super easy for her, but she works really hard until she gets it.  She is a great sister and such a great helper for me.  I love watching her in everything she does.......she really enjoys sports and has done very well with her first year of Violin.  I know that this girl really can do anything she wants to when she puts her all into it.  I feel so blessed to be the mom of this wonderful young pre tween!!!! I love you Alexis

Double digits

A

Alexis is now a 10 year old.  I am really starting to fell like I am getting old....  Alexis really wanted to have a friend party this year and I still don't know how she talked me into do one...... I think it is because she is so cute.  (And because she helped clean the whole house and has been such a good little helper for me) 

 

The cake we made for her friend party..... I made the pink icing a little thin so it started to run

All her friends couldn't believe she just put her mouth on the cake and took a bite.... but she said..."it is tradition"

All of her friends that could make it.   We had them play at our house for a couple of hours and then when they got board we took them swimming at the gym.   They all had a really good time and it was funny because Lex and liz had to leave a little earlier than everyone else for softball practice so everyone kept asking "where did everyone go?"  

Alexis has really been making me happy the past week.  I am loving how helpful she has been and willing to do her chores.  The other morning when I came home from the gym she had waffles made for the girls and had them eating and had cut their food for them and she even cleaned up the mess when she was done.  I was in heaven.  Then the next morning when I came home she made Crepes!!!!!  I think she is going to start making me look bad.......

the best part about her making waffles is they are not a mix or a easy thing to do.  She made them from scratch and made them perfect!!!! 

Alexis and the girls did all the cleaning and decorating for the party and they did such a great job.  It was so cute to see them so excited and working together. 

I think they did a wonderful job and I may even think about doing it again!

time to catch up

It is so crazy how fast time fly's.  I feel like this school year and just they year in general has just gone by in a blink of an eye.  It still feels unreal to me that my baby is already a one year old.  She is so much fun and is just doing everything and learning to talk so well.  She has become a little tornado but it is always the exact same things that she gets into...   She really likes to get into this drawer of the girls hair accessories.... (and when I say get into.... you can see she really does get in it)

Alexis also had her crazy hair day at school and she also wanted to have her hair the same as Brytlee.  I thought it was so cute when she got home from school that she went rollerblading with her crazy hair down the street..... 

Adison Loves to be pushed around in the little baby doll stroller and she is very lucky to have three sisters that are willing to do it.

She looks like a little chunk in these pictures..... it could be because the stroller is for dolls.....

When I hold the camera up Adison has started to say "Cheese"  it is so funny how fast they catch on

Adison is obsessed with shoes.  She gets so excited when you put them on and will not walk around outside without them.  (that is just the opposite of my other girls)   She says "shoes" so cute and plays with them a lot of the time. 

she is getting really mad at the shoe because she can not get it to fit right.  And as you can see she pulled out all the table cloth things... that is another place she likes to get into.

Adison loves to play outside.  She is getting big enough to climb into the little play house all by herself and will go down the slide as long as someone is going to catch her or is holding her hand. 

She loves to play peekaboo and can say it very well and then she will also say, "there she is"  or "uh oh... where she go"

What a cute little girl.  All the girls just adore her and have so much fun with her.   We have 9 little kitty's right now and she LOVES them.  She stomps her little feet as fast as she can and points at them and say's "kitty" over and over again.  She says it so cute with a lisp almost and in a really high pitch.  She is funny with the cats also, she wants to look but not touch.   If they get to close she gets a little nervous. 

Adison put these on all by herself and thought they were funny.  She amazes me with how many things she can figure out on her own and how young she is to be doing a lot of things.  I tell Ryan a lot that I just think she is such a smart girl and he agrees.  (Baby's really are amazing)

Little sleeping beauty.  As you can tell she has been playing very hard and is very messy and just exhausted.    She has started to change her naps around and I hate it.  I can not figure out when to put her down and some days she really needs to go down at 10 but then I can not get her to take another one all day and she wants to go to bed at 6...... and is a grump for the rest of the night.  I hope that we get it figured out soon so we can get on a good schedule. 

 I love these girls.  They keep me on my toes and make my life so much fun.  They are always making me laugh and they are just so cute!  Some days they don't get along and fight and drive me crazy... but I like to forget those days and look back on these ones when they made me smile. 

Some of this and that

 

I have a lot of catching up to do.  The last week of school Elizabeth had her crazy hair day and pajama party on the same day.  I had heard about this party for months and she couldn't wait.  She wanted her hair just like Brytlee's and I think she looks very cute even with Troll hair.

 The girls caught these salamanders and have named them all..... I just remember one of them is George.....  They have been staying in our sprinkler boxes so the girls go and play with them every once and a while.....

What's new?

 See if you can tell what is different about Brytlee...... She is very excited about it.....

 This will give you a hint.  It is on her ear....

Brytlee has earrings!!!   She had decided after her birthday that she would like to have them done.  I wasn't really planning on having them done but I have told the girls that they can choose when they would like them done.  Alexis was five, Elizabeth was only three.... and Brytlee was also five.   She was so excited as you can tell, and was really good for the lady who helped us at Clair's and she has taken really good care of them.  It was sad because the very first night she slept with them one of them fell out while she was sleeping.  We did find the earring but not the back.  When we put it back in it had already closed a little and it was so hard to put it back in and it hurt her a little.  But with no other problems so far she has really loved them. 

Family Pictures

 I try to get a family picture taken once a year and I have to say I really like how bright and colorful this one turned out.  The only time we can get it done is right after church when we are all ready for the day and don't have to put a ton of work into getting EVERYONE ready.  I have just put our camera on a timer before but this time our neighbor was nice enough to come and take it for us.  I love my family so much and I am so thankful that they love me too.

n

Reminder

My dad scared the heck out of us all yesterday.  I was with Ryan when he was sent a picture on his phone of my dads truck and dump trailer in a canal and the truck was totaled.  There was no message with it, but it said, "dads wreck."  I immediately freaked out and the worst thoughts came to my mind and I felt like I was going to have a heart attack.  I called my mom and found out that my dad was alright but he had been in a accident.  He was pulling a heavy load and when a car in front of him stopped fast he didn't have enough time to stop.  He hit the car and then was pushed into the canal by the dump trailer.  After talking to my dad I know that there were angels watching over him.  He walked away with only a scratch on his leg.  The top of the truck was smashed, the front of the truck was smashed, the doors were smashed, it was just totaled,  and he hit the bank fast and hard.... the airbags didn't even go off.... and to walk away without anything happen is a miracle.  One thing my dad said that keeps playing in my mind is, when he was going into the canal so fast he thought "this is it, this is how I am going to die."  Like I said I have been thinking about this all day and I have had so many thoughts going through my head.  I am so thankful that my dad is alright, and it makes me so thankful to know that he is being watched over by angels.  (I like to think it is my grandpa Merrill, and Grandpa Casper).  My dad really is the most amazing person on Earth and I know that our family and so many other people couldn't make it without him in their lives.  I really started to feel sad that I don't live closer to my parents, I really hope they know how much I love them.  Sometimes we take people for granted and just expect them to know how much they mean to us.  I know that I am not very good at keeping up with all the people that I love and I really hate that.  I don't know if any of this makes any sense,  I have just so much going on in my head and heart. I am really just sooooooooo thankful that I still have my dad and I can not wait to give him a huge hug and tell him that I love him.  When things like this happen I really just want to take all my loved once close and hug them all. 
I keep thinking of memories of my dad that I just love.  He really is just a sweetheart and his smile is so great.  While we were in Vegas he was the only boy and he treated us all like princesses.  He did everything that we wanted to do and held our bags for us and would just sit on the bench and watch us shop.  He always opened up my moms door and also whoever else was on the same side.
He always will jump up quick and help someone without even thinking about it.  I have watched him so many times do a service for someone without putting any thought into it. (.... I have to look at the calendar, see what else I have going and make sure it works best for me...)  He will give up any of his time to do something nice for someone else.
I keep thinking about a time that my dad really was amazing to me.  I was 12 or so and just not a very bright girl, and I thought it would be a great idea to wash my sisters boyfriends truck.  I had been driving from the age of 8 so I just figured I would move it onto the lawn myself so we could reach it with the hose.  When I jumped in and saw it was a stick I thought nothing of it and started it right up.  (I had never drove a stick)  so when I started it up it jumped through the garage door.  I was scared to death and thought my parents were going to KILL me!!!!  I am not sure where my parents were but it felt like it took forever for them to get home that day.  When they did get home I couldn't even look my dad in the face..... I just started to cry.. and then my dad started to laugh and gave me the biggest hug.  He then told me a story of when he was a kid and he drove a new tractor into a tree.  I felt so close to him and I am still amazed at how he handled that situation. 
Some other things I think about are the times my dad played with us as kids.  He loved playing baseball with us and he would take us on family trips and we always had a boat, and snowmobiles and we did so many fun things together.
Also my dad always showed us how much he loves my mom.  I loved when he would come home from work and when he leaves he always kisses my mom and gives her a big hug.  He has been such a great example to me and I have always wanted to marry someone just like my dad.  And because of his great example I did get to marry someone wonderful like him.

something funny

Elizabeth and I were cuddling in bed this morning before she had to leave for school and I said to her, "I can not believe how big you are getting.  It is crazy that you used to be small enough that you could fit inside my tummy huh."  then she said, "I still could.... if you chopped me up and ate me."  we had a really good laugh.