Happy 4th Birthday Mary!

 This is how Mary spent most of her actual birthday today. She slept a LOT. But she came around about 5 and ended up being pretty okay thankfully!

 Playing a little DS before bed.

Thankfully we celebrated mostly yesterday. She wanted a pony cake, so we surprised her with one of her presents on the cake. My cakes are getting really sloppy but thankfully my kids don't seem to notice! :)

 Spencer hiding the cake from Mary.

 Getting ready for the big "reveal".

We think she liked it!

 Brigham got her Bubbles.

 All of them in on the action.

 Make-up from Lucy. She was just as excited as Mary.

 So was Sarah.

 Mary with the doll from Gma.

 And more polish,

 And what she wanted most--Barbies that are getting married.

We Love You so much Mary girl. You are so sweet and kind. I love watching you play, you have a great imagination. You still love Caillou--I still can't spell it. You love pink. You are very tall. You are already wearing 5T because of your height.  Today I had you stowed away in my room so we could still have art class and kids come here after school. I told you to call me if you needed anything (the monitor was on). You said, "Ok what is your number?" So funny. Don't know what you thought you were going to call me on! :)

Watchdog Day at Dodd

I made my first chicken pot pie from scratch (mostly) the other night, needed to use a pie crust from Thanksgiving! Joe said it was his favorite meal I have ever made, got the recipe online. It was pretty yummy!

And the day finally came! Watch Dog day with Dad at Dodd. They were so excited. We had to work on the shirt for Lucy the night before to make it acceptable. We had to cut the sleaves and tuck it in a certain way in the back so it hung right! :)  Love that our schools have this program. Joe got to help out in both their classes, in the lunch room, and out front unloading kids in the morning. They had a great time!

 Had to get a picture of the dress. I think all my girls have worn it. I should find their pictures too!

We are having a wonderful Winter, that feels more like a brisk spring! We did get some much needed rain this week, that was nice. The boys are having a good time with Basketball and are signed up for Baseball next. It is a good thing for them. Joe and I got to go to the temple with Elysse Baty yesterday. That was a great experience! Still trying to sell the Corolla. We wish we could keep it, so we only had to drive the Suburban on a rare Sunday that we all get to go together and on our big trips but I don't see how that is possible right now. We celebrated Mary's birthday today but I will post it all tomorrow after her real birthday! She has a bad cold, but is acting just fine. Poor thing!

Cute pictures

All the kids, but especially the girls have been playing so cute together lately. Sarah loves to do hair and she loves to carry around babies. She is good at communicating what she wants, she will take your hand wherever she wants it. She is also starting to say Hi more, adding to her Bye Bye, Shh, Ma Ma, and Dada. She tried doing a handstand the other night while watching her siblings. It was pretty funny! Mary is a good big sister most of the time and has a good imagination.

Happy 9th Birthday Brigham!

We had a great day celebrating Brigham's 9th Birthday yesterday. We celebrated a little on Monday too, we were off school. He had Kaden Gardner come and play and we had donuts. Yesterday the girls and I visited him at school. We did presents after school and before the trial tumbling class. After tumbling (which went awesome!!! Lucy did it with him and they both rocked it!) we grabbed pizza (again--he picked it for both days from 2 different places) and ran home. Hurried and ate and did cake and ice cream before Joe had to leave for YM. He really wanted an itouch but that was NOT and option so he was happy with lego's and a few other little toys.  Gymnastic classes are his birthday gift too. We LOVE you Brigham!!! You are a wonderful part of our family. You are so talented and we love watching you work hard at almost everything you do! He learned to do a back flip on the trampoline last week (with his Dad's help) and he is so into it! I will have to get some pics/video--he looks awesome! Much better than mine--although I haven't seen what I look like--not sure I want to. He had so much fun showing off his skills at his trial tumbling class. A boy doing a back flip is what he wanted on his cake too. Happy 9th Birthday Briggy!

Finishing 2011

I think I did the last post while I was on the phone so I didn't type anything. We had a really great trip to UT and Christmas even though Sarah was sick almost the whole time we were up north. She puked all over me on Christmas day while we were visiting the Sphren's. (Sorry again Jen about the puke EVERYWHERE! and the rushed goodbye and the no getting back to you...) She was happy though the whole week just puked once a day for about 7 days in a row. Weird. Anyway then Joe and I both got Strep. He had it while we were there and didn't know it but didn't feel that great. Anyway when we got home we were very sick. He had to get a big ole' shot for his. We are all doing better now and are sort of recooped. Mom and Dad are the best and we had fun seeing and being with them. Got to spend a little time with my sisters and their families and that was fun too. Had fun dancing with Haylee and Brent on Just Dance 3. No snow at all and it was kind of warm (50's) the last couple days we were there. Odd, but good. Good for driving. We did have some crazy winds in TX on the way home. A tumble weed hit us on the side and it made a loud sound--we weren't expecting it to be loud. It sounded like a deer had hit us or something. Little Sarah did awesome on the drive. She actually watched some of Barney and Mommy and Me (thanks Erin Rollins for that tip). We are thankful for all the family and friends we have in UT. Thank you Mom and Dad for taking such good care of us while we were there. Love you!

Time to get this year's entries to the printer. It was a good year for the most part.  We still have a lot of things to work on but we are on the right path. We are so blessed and we are so thankful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the many many blessings He provides us.

Merry Christmas!!!

 Merry Christmas!!!

 So happy with a sucker!

Brigham's magic kit--he totally loved it!

 Shawnette Horton, Stacie Austad, me, Valaree Fielding.

 Early birthday celebration.

Even Sarah wanted to join in the hair fun. So cute!

 Just Dance 3--so fun!

 Timarie doing Lucy's hair.