Time to update

Well, I never take my camera anywhere, so all the pictures I have are from around the house. The girls are always asking me to take pictures of them. So here are a bunch of the kids playing around.

Our neighbor saw how obsessed Carly is with wearing dresses everyday, so she brought a bunch of her daughter's old ones over. She wanted a picture in each dress, but since there were quite a few, she settled for one in the purple (her favorite) dress.

Abigail loves pictures with her favorite dolls or stuffed animals. Everytime I look at my phone it has new pictures of her dolls on it.

Luke loves to read. If it weren't for legos or computer games, he'd probably be doing this most of the time. I love it when I find the kids reading by themselves.

Luke and Ben have been reading Harry Potter together. They are now starting #3. Sometimes Luke gets impatient while Ben's at work and reads to himself.

Hailey loves her blankies. Luckily, it's any of her 8 receiving blankets, not a specific one. So there's always one clean. Her favorite thing is getting a clean one out of her dresser. She must love the smell of our laundry detergent.

Every once in a while I like to take a picture of Luke without his glasses. It's nice to see his handsome face, and eyes. This boy looks so much like his Dad!

The only show that Hailey will watch is about 10 minutes of Super Why. Ab loves to hold her while they watch it together.

We've got plenty of silly face pictures

I've said this with the third and fourth child, but I don't want to be the Mom that stops taking pictures after the first couple of kids, so I'm randomly taking lots of little Hayes.

I looked out the window the other day to see Abigail trying to teach Carly how to ride her two wheeler. Abigail really is such a helpful child, I love it.

Brent's getting hitched

Brent and Shelley got engaged earlier this month! We just love Shelley and can't wait until it's official (May 19th). Abigail is especially excited to have a new Aunt. She keeps asking when she can call her Aunt Shelley. I told her anytime, but she wants to wait until the wedding.
Shelley's parents are from North Carolina, and they were in town for a couple of weeks, so my Mom put together a dinner so we could all meet.

The lovely couple

On the left side of the table we have Lauren, Shelley's sister, Shelley, Her Dad, Kent, and her Mom, Sandra. Hopefully if you're looking at my blog you already know the people on the right.

These two hit it off right away. This is Emma, Shelley's niece, and her and Carly are the same age. The kept hugging and holding hands. They kept falling over and getting hurt because they were hugging and trying to walk at the same time.

These two are big trouble makers, but still adorable.

hanging out, probably playing where's my water.

Sweet, not-so-little Kael. This guy is growing up too fast, and there's no more grandbabies on the way. I don't know what we'll do without babies to play with.


The kids all did well to entertain themselves so the adults could visit. It was so much fun getting to know Shelley's family.

January

Here are the highlights from January.

Luke still loves his Star Wars legos. But I think he's starting to like Harry Potter legos just as much.

Hailey loves to sit at the bar with the big kids now. No more highchair, which is actually the first time in over 6 1/2 years that there hasn't been a baby occupying it.

The kids love cream of wheat with food coloring. 

The most exciting event in January was even more exciting this year.... Ben hit the big 3-0! We (the kids) had so many ideas for the cake, they couldn't make up their mind. But finally we narrowed it down to a Chargers bolt, sprinkles on the sides and in the bolt, one heart from each of us, so he knows we love him, and of course happy birthday written on. Which sadly, had to be done in yellow frosting, since the kids used up all the other food coloring on their cereal.

We made dinner, cake and ice cream, and Ben's parents stayed with the kids so Ben and I could go to a movie.

 Abigail fashioned a sling all by herself for her baby to be carried in.

Ab is growing up too fast. She's constantly asking when she can be her own boss, when she'll have her own little baby girls, and when she will get to be the same age as me.

This girl is probably going to be even more girlie than Abigail... which I never would have thought possible. She is constantly wearing dresses, combing her hair, and spraying perfume.

I love spending all day everyday with these sweet kids!

Christmas 2011

Christmas was great as it is every year, and we did our same stuff as we do every year.

we opened p.j.'s from G & G Dawson

posed for a family picture

Did a nativity with a magician and three Mary's

snuggled with Great Grandma Ruth

We had a delicious Christmas Eve dinner made by my Mom and played games made by Shannon

Beau and Hailey enjoying their games

Reading the Christmas story

The annual Nativity puppet show by Brent and the grandkids

Christmas morning is definitely the best part.
Luke's favorite present that Santa brought. He's been wanting this for a while.

Carly with her cow cabbage patch

little Hayes, shopping away

playing paper dolls

the cash register was a big hit...

even Grandma Ruth played :)

It was a nice relaxing morning

Christmas evening we got to talk to Blake in Florida! He's doing great. It's the last Christmas that we will get to talk to a missionary. After having 4 brothers, that's been a lot of Christmas phone calls.

lounging on their new bean bags from G&G Jenkins

Abigail turns 5!

Abigail always makes her birthdays so much fun. She gets SO excited about each little thing. She's always so grateful for all the gifts she receives. She could barely handle waiting for her grandparents to come over that night. We passed the time by cleaning the house (she wanted it to be nice for her 'guests') and making her cake(she wanted and rainbow and a sunshine). She also decided that since it was a party, she must wear a party dress. So she donned her favorite 'easter egg' dress (She got it for Easter, and she thinks the polka dots look like eggs). She squealed in delight as she opened her gifts.