Thanksgiving!

Watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. For some reason that channel does not come in downstairs.

The kids enjoyed decorating their tree in the morning.

And yes, the tree is leaning and driving me crazy!

Their elf Buddy came back. If you notice the kids gave him a starburst.

She is growing up way too fast!

Zoe is a goofball!

Chase is as sweet as can be!

We had Thanksgiving dinner with Derek's family. That night the kids spent the night at my parents so Derek and I could do some shopping It was nice to have him come with me, normally he's home with the kids.

Chase lost his 1st tooth

11-17-2013

 

Chase's story behind how he lost his tooth isn't what you'd expect.

 

Derek and I were downstairs when it happened. Apparently Maeley and Chase were pulling from both ends of his blanket. For whatever reason he had his blanket in his mouth. Well Maeley pulled hard enough a tooth popped out. The crazy thing is was it wasn't even loose to begin with!

Chase was quite upset. The funniest part were the comments he was saying. He was definitely having some separation anxiety.

 

"It was my favorite tooth!"

"It was my buddy."

"It was my favorite."

"I miss it."

 

At one point he took it out of the Ziploc bag and kissed it.

 

He's okay now especially after the tooth fairy came a few nights later.

Maeley got baptized!

Maeley was baptized November 16th. The day finally came, she couldn't have been more excited! She loved bearing her testimony after she was baptized and confirmed.

 

These pictures of Maeley and Derek are all I have from her baptism day. I was not feeling well and clearly not thinking straight.

 

I'm so proud of her. She is such a sweet girl who is always wanting to choose the right. I love watching her grow and develop her talents. She loved going to Activity Days a couple weeks ago. Its hard to believe she's 8.

 

I love you Maeley!

Rummy

When we went to some cabins back in October they had an old Rummikub game.  We all  really enjoyed it. Well the next week I was in charge of the activity for FHE I thought getting Rummikub would be fun. Turns out they don't have the old fashioned one I always remember playing with when I was a kid. The same kind the was at the cabin. Instead of the kubs numbered they have Jack, Queen, King, Ace. After going to a game store and realizing how uncommon that is, Derek set out to find one online. After searching for an hour he found one. The exact one the cabin had.

Its by far the most played game in our house.

Zoe wasn't interested in playing that round so she was our cheerleader instead.

Halloween

It's about time I finally blog about Halloween.

 

Before trick or treating we had Kim, Laurel, Zach Jacob and Devan come over for pizza.  

 

Jacob as a prison inmate and Devan as Bane.

Maeley as Princess Aurora (aka Sleeping Beauty)

Zoe as Rapunzel

Chase as a fireman

Jacob and Devan and also Kim took our kids trick or treating while we stayed back and passed out candy.

 

This year the next day we sold all our Halloween candy to a near by orthodontist. Best decision ever. With the money we got we put it towards the Monsters University movie. The kids thought it was a great idea. They never even complained once about giving up their candy.

The girls birthday party!

Zoe has been obsessed with zebra's lately and Maeley likes everything girly. So the girls decided on a pink/zebra birthday cake. My sister Laurel did great at coming through with that task.

 

 

Overall the girls had a wonderful birthday and were spoiled by everyone. These girls are such good friends and have so much fun together. They both love playing with their American Girl dolls. They love to color, draw and do anything crafty. They love giggling, getting their nails painted and playing dress up.

Maeley's finally 8

When Maeley was nearly 3 she went to her cousin Kourtney's baptism. Ever since then she has been so excited to be baptized. Now its finally going to happen in a few weeks.

Maeley has changed so much in the past year, maybe even just within the past 6 months.

Maeley wants to help out often.

She loves to read! In addition to her own reading each night (often 1-1.5 hours) she reads to Chase and Zoe almost daily.

She and Zoe are great friends and have a blast together. Sometimes she gets upset with Zoe because she tends to be more messy but the conversations they have in the evenings are enjoyable to listen to.

She has a great heart and thinks about how others feel. Last week they had an awards assembly at their school for the first quarter. Maeley got 3 awards out of the possible 4. Chase didn't get any and Maeley sure was sad for him and let him know how she felt about him.

She has so much confidence in herself. It amazes me.

She's quick to finish her work at school so she gets to teach other kids. She enjoys it and says its sometimes challenging coming up with new examples.

She loves to laugh. Seriously right before showers in the evenings the girls go wild and laugh like crazy.

She's already getting to old for playing with the kids. She'd rather hang around the adults.

Maeley sure is turning into such a sweet and helpful girl. We love her!

Happy Birthday Maeley!



Zoe is 5

Its unbelievable that my baby is now 5. Its mostly great but at times I miss those simple days with all the kids little and at home.

Zoe is a wonderful caboose to our family. We love her very much. Some of her best qualities are:

She is very optimistic and sees the good in everyone.

She makes up the best songs with such a cute tune to them.

She loves her family and tells us daily.

She is silly, sweet and enjoyable to be around.

She does not like getting in trouble and when she does she will tell you she loves you so you will say it back just so she knows you still love her.

Happy Birthday Zoe!

Cabins

This past weekend we went up to Heber for a nice weekend with my sisters family. The kids were on fall break, I wasn't working and surprisingly Derek ended up getting Friday off last minute. We arrived there about 1:30 in the afternoon Friday along with Laurel, Zach and the boys.

Love this picture! It may be out of focus however Chase and Zoe are cracking me up!

This is the only picture we ended up with Zach in it.

 

Derek and Laurel trying to teach Maeley how to throw the ball correctly.

Devan got a sling shot and Chase loved using it!

Can he get any cuter?

Zoe was tired of walking so Derek picked her up. As he did that Chase got hurt.

Now Chase gets to be carried. He tripped on a cattle guard and bruised his shins and cut his lip and chin.

 

These pictures were taken at Bison Ranch.

Loving the fall colors!

By the way these aren't "outhouses" they are for trash.

"My Place"

Back in May Zoe was screened because we thought she had a speech delay. She was then rescreened the end of August. Then she was finally placed into an articulation class. Sadly its only once a week for 45 minutes. Its better than nothing but it goes by too fast.

This was her first day going to her class.

Which she calls "my place".  I think its funny.

I wanted to add a picture of her wearing her zebra shoes. She loves them. She is definitely going through a stage of zebra obsession. She's a nut!