Cass.

It has been so much fun to watch Cassi learn and grow in her guitar playing.

It really amazes me how well she is doing.

I mean, I knew she was very musically inclined and had good hand eye coordination...

But she is really WOW-ing us!

She is a natural.

Now if she would just STOP writing on her hands...

Love ya, Cass.

Bell

Madi is a pretty good kid.

She puts up with a lot from the little kids.

By little kids, I mean Elsie and Porter.

Cause she still doesn't put up with much from Cassi.

Believe it or not, this is a giant hug from Porter.

Ouch, right?

She just laughed.

Madi has been a pretty big help today.

We have been doing chores around the house and trying to figure out how to make things run smooth around this place.

There has been some fighting from her and Cass...which I wish would STOP!!!!

But I don't think I am that lucky.

But if I can have Madi and I on the same team, things work out a lot better.

Or Cassi and I on the same team.

To them, usually, I am the meanest person in the world!!!!

So if I can stay away from that, I think I am doing pretty good.

One thing I really want to work on, is giving Madi more one-on-one time.

I haven't been able to do that quite yet...it is kinda hard to do with 3 other little ones.

But I think she and I need to work on how we work together before she hits puberty and I have no chance at all!

I love her.

I love that she is my first born and she is so smart and beautiful.

She is such a great help in so many ways.

I am so thankful for her.

I guess I just need to let her know that more often.

To the movies!

We had a fun outing today.

We went to the movie theatre to watch the movie "Tangled".

I can't even remember the last time we made it to the movies as a family.

It was a lot of fun to get out and see something on the big screen.

They were all pretty entertained.

And there weren't many in the theatre, so Port was okay walking around in our isle.

But actually, the movie kept him entertained too.

Elsie was a lot of fun to watch it with.

She had a couple laughs that rang through the theatre.

Most of them had to do with the horse in the movie.

But that girl just knows how to let loose and enjoy life!

This is a horribly terrible picture, taken in the dark with my cell phone.
But you gotta have pictures for the memories!

We couldn't find a Tangled display...but they liked this one, so we went with it.

It was a lot of fun.

*******

Later today we had out FHE.

Cassi picked it, and it was the topic "A house of order."

Just what we need right now!

So while they are out of school, we are gonna really get into their chore charts and really work on working together.

Standing to eat.

The main reason I keep a blog is so that I can remember all the cute little things my kids did when they were little.

I have such a bad memory now, I can only imagine how bad it will get as I get older.

This is how Porter eats.

Standing on his chair.

But we don't make him sit down very often, because he is actually much cleaner when he eats this way.

Plus, look how cute he is.

And, believe it or not, he was dressed about 2 min. before I took this picture.

But he spilled punch down the front, so off it went.

The kid is quite a crack-up too with his goofy faces and crazy sense of humor.

He sure is a fun one to have around!

Merry Christmas 2010!!!

Christmas Day!

What a great day.

So much fun and excitement...

Very little fighting, and lots of love.

So much fun, that I didn't even take many pictures...I was enjoying the moment.

But I am sure happy I got this one on 'film'!!!

Can't you just feel her excitement?

I don't think we will ever have a dull moment at Christmas time with Elsie Rose.

She LOVES everything and is so grateful for all she has.

Santa brought her a new baby doll.

One with big brown eyes just like Elsie.

This is a shot of her seeing it for the first time.

And she has not put that baby down for even a minute today.

I sure wish we could all enjoy the simple things in life like Elsie does.

She really brought so much happiness to our day.

This is right before I let them come down the stairs.

They were dying to peak around the corner...
It is so much fun to see their faces and all the excitement they feel.
We spent the rest of the day playing games...learning how new gadgets work...and getting stuff ready for our very yummy ham Christmas dinner.
I am Thankful for our little family and for the chance to celebrate such a beautiful day with them.
Merry Christmas!

New Traditions...

We had a really fun night tonight.

We didn't have a whole lot to do today except get ready for tonight.

The Young girls came over at 4:30...

Both Drew and Brent are working...so Heather and I thought it would be a lot of fun for us to get together and do something fun for Christmas Eve.

We started out with a yummy dinner...breakfast.

French toast...made from Heathers home made bread.

Bacon, eggs, fresh oranges...the works.

The kids loved it and they all ate pretty good.

The next activity on the agenda was our own little play of the nativity.

I love the idea of having children act out the nativity...but 4 kids (two fully co-operating) just isn't enough.

But you add 4 more kids and it is pretty perfect.

It wasn't quite an Oscar worthy performance, but I really enjoyed it and I loved the idea of really bringing the story to life for the kids.

The little ones...Porter and Hallie...didn't want much to do with the whole thing.

And Elsie didn't want to dress up...but she would participate as long as it was along side Aubree.

After that we did some cleaning up...and then made ourselves some chocolate covered pretzels.

Well, we actually made them for Santa.

I have tons of pictures to share...but that will have to be posted later.

I gotta get myself to bed before the big guy in red shows up.
I think we all had a fun time and I hope it becomes a great tradition for us all.

Christmas eve's EVE...

Daddy works tomorrow...

So we did all our Christmas Eve traditions tonight.

It was kinda a crazy day...which ended in kinda a crazy...but fun...night!

Dad made yummy ribs for dinner!

YUM!

After that we read some Christmas stories while our ginger bread cooked in the oven.

Then we spent some time decorating out Gingerbread train.

We make a train every year...and I LOVE it!

I have yet to master my gingerbread recipe!

I think next year I will cook it, then cut it out!

This year, I cut it out, cooked it, then had to cut it out again, cause it all grew into each other!

Oh well...it turned out pretty cute, I think.

Madi and I made the Engine...Porter and Dad made the first car...Cassi made the second car....and Elsie and Madi made the last car.

I just love this tradition...even though I am a crazy woman when it comes to making the gingerbread!!!!

Oh well.

The kids had fun!

Then they got to open their present...jammies of course.

Elsie LOVES jammies...and spends most of her days in various jammies...I don't blame her, they are comfy!...anyway...she was SO excited to get new ones!

So, we let them open their jammies and then one more present.

I got my big present tonight.

I am so excited!!!!

Brent got me a BEAUTIFUL lap top!

It will be so great when I can sit and edit pictures and sit right there by him in stead of being in a whole other room!

ALSO....our home computer is on the fritz...working great at times, and others, I am not sure if we will lose EVERYTHING on there!

So I am very thankful and grateful for such a great gift...

I love you baby...and I hope you like the gift I got you...

In trouble...

A bad thing happened today.

The boy learned that he can open the fridge doors.

This is not good!

Next thing you know, he will learn how to open the door knobs!!!!

What am I gonna do then???

We were upstairs cleaning the girls rooms, and Port kept going downstairs and coming up with a Popsicle.

I thought maybe one of the girls followed him and helped him.

A little later I was down doing laundry, I heard the little footsteps....the freezer door open...and I peeked around the corner to find Porter digging around the freezer for another Popsicle!

Little turkey!

Anyway, I tied it up.

He didn't like that.

Neither did Elsie, who taught this great trick to the boy in the first place!

He kept giving me that look like "Please Mommy, you know you can't say no to me!"

Needless to say, they ate the rest of our Popsicles today.

Oh well, right.

After I tied it, and after he gave me that look, he tried to reach the tie on his own...up on his way tippy toes.

After that didn't work, he called his trusty partner in crime, Elsie, over and tried to get her to take it off.

She reached in, and pulled it down, but couldn't untie it.

So the tie works.

But do you know how many times I had to get into the fridge after I tied it?

It sure was a pain...

I guess I have to decide which one is the bigger pain, right?

We love the Wii

We had an early start to the day with Elsie waking up at 4:30.

But she did end up going back to sleep once the others were all up.

And we are trying to endure our days with the terrible twos.

Porter is really having a hard time.

He was grumpy all morning until I put him down for his nap.

That helped his mood a little bit.

But the girls spent most of the morning playing various Wii games.

Most of the time they were up off the couch swinging, and hitting, and running, and jumping...

They were pretty worn out.

Finally I made the shower and get dressed and they were ready for some calm-ness with Mario cart.

I cannot stay out of last place for the life of me...but these guys were doing really good.

Anyway, they don't play it a ton, and I got to get a lot of my stuff done without them noticing what I was working on, so it worked out pretty well.