Spencer turned 5!

1. How old are you? 5

2. What is your favorite toy? Fireman house

 3. What is your favorite fruit? Clementines

4. What is your favorite TV show? Octonauts

 5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Lunchables or “lunctables” (Pizza and Ham & cheese)

6. What is your favorite game? Plants vs. Zombies

 7. What is your favorite snack? Brownies and Ice cream

8. What is your favorite animal?  Cheetah

9. What is your favorite song? Choose the Right Way

10. What is your favorite book? Ready to Read Books

11. Who is your best friend? Addy, Allyssa, & Hadley

12. What is your favorite cereal? Life

13. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Ride my bike and scooter.

14. What is your favorite drink? Juice- Sunny D

15. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas

16. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? Penguin Lubie

17. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? Olive Garden

 18. What do you want to be when you grow up? Dentist

19. What is your favorite sport? Golf

20. What makes you happy? Playing the i-pod

21. What makes you sad? When the zombies eat my brains.

22. What do you love to learn about? Letters

23. Where is your favorite place to go? Gymnastics

24. What do you and your mom do together? Crafts

25. What do you and your dad do together? Be silly (Necks chomps).

26.  What is your favorite color? Green

27. What is your favorite movie? Wall E

28. What do you like do with your sisters? Blow on their bellies.

29. What was your favorite birthday present?  My orange teradon  from Annabell.

30. What was the best part of your birthday? Running away from monsters (all my friends).

I just wanted to add how much I love this boy who made me a mom. He is such a good brother to his sisters and a good helper to me. He is sensitive, caring, and such a loving boy. I honestly can't believe I have 5 year old that starts kindergarten this fall. It makes me really sad to think of him growing up. I have had the hardest time filling out his registration forms, can he really be going to kindergarten. It scares me, but I know I need to let him grow-up. I just hope that no matter what he will always be my little Spencer Wencer. 

Play dough Snowman

I wanted to make some "snow" play dough off of pinterest. However, the post didn't mention how they got the play dough so white. We improvised and made blue glittery play dough instead. This particular recipe is really oily, for lack of a better word, and not one we will use again. However, we made it on January 9th and it is still as soft and fresh as it was that day.

The kids didn't really love the feel of it and my trying to do something fun with them wasn't going so well. So, I improvised again and with the help of my kids we made this!

Christmas Eve 2011

It was always the tradition in my family to drive around and look at lights and make cookies on Christmas Eve. This year we didn't get to do either of those things. We were kind of disappointed in the lights last year, and still need to find a really good place to go and look at a lot of lights. Maybe looking at lights is kind of boring, but I really enjoy it! We celebrated Christmas on Saturday. Therefore, Christmas Eve was on Friday, which means Clif worked until late, so we also never got around to finishing making my mom's Christmas cookies. We did make the dough and ate a lot of that throughout the week! There is always next year, right?

There are so many fun traditions and things to do with your kids that I am sure we will be changing them each year. This year is was really important that my kids understood the true meaning of Christmas and we talked about our Savior's birth lot. My mom got them Little People manger and Mortimer's Christmas Manager to open on Christmas Eve for their scavenger hunt (more on that later). We each gave Jesus a gift (something we would work on for the next year) and read the story before going to bed. I have read Mortimer's Christmas Manger before, but sitting there with my kids, thinking about that special night, I couldn't keep the tears from coming (even Clif had tears). It was a very special moment and one I plan to continue each year.

What we did do was take baths and lots of pictures!

 

We opened a gift, pj's of course!

Addelyn's candy cane hair.

We gave the reindeer their food. It was cold, so the food didn't go much father than the rug!

We attempted to get pictures with everyone in their pajamas. The girls aren't as cooperative as they were before they could crawl and walk!

Spencer never likes the noise.

Addy is trying so hard to bring them back.

Better make the most of it and laugh!

Almost forgot the cookies...

Santa came late...

Goodnight and Merry Christmas!

7 years

Clif have I have been married for 7 (not 6) years now. In 3 short years (I know how quickly they fly by), we will be celebrating our 10 year anniversary. I hope for our 10 year anniversary that we can go on the honeymoon that we never got to go on. It doesn't have to be somewhere exotic, although both of us would love to go to Hawaii. Well that gives us 3 years to save, find a good deal, and find a crazy person willing to take 4 most likely 5 kids for 5-7 days.

I realize now why Clif may have thought it was our 6 year anniversary because while we didn't do much this year, we at least acknowledged it. I think last year we were still in survival mode as I don't remember anything about that day. Not even one memory to recount or a picture to post.  Sad, but true. Sleep deprivation will do that to you. So needless to say with Christmas and everything our anniversary is just another day. I know one year we got horse shoes for each other, and we have yet to play them. Most likely because we don't have the yard to do it in. He really wanted those and I hope one day soon we can use those as a family.

This year I suggested that he use the Christmas card lying out that he forgot to fill out for Christmas. He was sweet and had bought me a Christmas card, but never wrote anything in it. Clif always writes the sweetest notes and they are always all I ever need, especially if he remembers all on his own.
So the morning was filled with me getting last minute things ready for my lesson. We went to church and both of us taught out primary classes that day. I asked Spencer to take some pictures of us because it was our anniversary- "7 years ago we got married."

Then later tonight we spent the time doing silly things together as a family.

I didn't realize how old we looked until I compared this pictures to our wedding pictures. I think it is time we get some pictures taken of the two of us again. Ones where I have had time to do my hair and we aren't in our pajamas!


Clif is a very considerate man. He always puts mine and the kids needs before his own. On a daily basis he does things that I know most men only do for their wives on their birthdays and anniversaries. He works hard for his family and never asks for much in return. With the daily chaos I often forget to thank him for all he does and let him know how much I appreciate him. I am thankful that even through the hard times we have been able to relay on each other.