Friday, December 25, 2015

More From My Girls

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I was so excited for Lanaya to have some shoes she could put on by herself this summer.  For some reason, she consistently put them on like this.  Good thing those cute little chubby toes are adorable even if the shoes are on the wrong feet.

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Helping me vacuum!

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Kayli had an art gallery at her school.  This is all original artwork by her.  I never cease to be amazed with her ability!

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When you're obsessed with ranch and painting your nails...

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This is what you do with your carrots and ranch at lunch.

Thursday, December 24, 2015

Egg Fun!

There are certain holiday traditions I don't really enjoy.  At all.

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Dying Easter eggs is one of those things.  I'm not sure why I don't like this, but I think it has to do with all the mess.

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Thank goodness I have friends who are willing to have the mess at their house and invite us to join in!  And thank goodness for a sweet big sister who is willing to help out.

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I love my cute Trey's face here.

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Together Time

We took full advantage of so much family being in town in March!

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Is it just me, or do her pants look kinda crazy?

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She is actually surrounded by cousins on this fun variation of a jungle gym.

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No matter what else is around, a sand box always seems to trump everything else.

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These two artists decided to sculpt some giraffe faces.  Can you see them?

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I love my babies.

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These two cousins love each other so much and it is adorable!

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

It's Great to Be 8!

 We were so proud/excited for Bryce choosing to get baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when he turned 8.

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He was pretty excited about the traditional "quillow"from his grandma.  She makes these for all of the grand kids to remind them about the comfort they can have when they receive the gift of the Holy Ghost after baptism.

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Love these faces.  Even the photo bomber back there.

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Before the baptism, it is essential to get your nails done beautifully!  That's really easy when your oldest cousin is incredibly talented in this area.

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This little lady was in heaven!

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As was her other cute cousin.

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Baptism time!  Unfortunately, not the best photos happened that day.

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Only my siblings actually noticed this photo was happening and smiled for it.  I'm super glad I caught Trey in the middle of whatever is going on up there.

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I love our family.  And the love between a brother and sister on the front row here.

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More fun faces!

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Oh, this boy.

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These two played a beautiful violin duet!

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Our proud boy!

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I love him, but this was the best face I got.

Still super proud of him!  And so grateful that so many members of our family and friends could be a part of it!

Monday, December 21, 2015

Boys' Weekend

In March Blake got away for a hiking weekend with some friends down in Zion National Park, Utah.

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Sporting some new hiking socks and boots.

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Walter's Wiggles.

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Blake on top of the world!

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I love his selfie face.  It takes a lot of concentration to take your own photo.

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He's a sweet husband and standing in the midst of all this beauty made him wish I was there with him too.

It's probably a good thing I wasn't there though.  Besides the fact that that would have effectively ruined the "Guys' Trip", I was at home deathly ill with a stomach bug.  Thankfully, the kids were awesome and took care of everything so I hardly had to get out of bed.  They even made themselves lunch!  And we were all very grateful when Blake got home a little early and was able to take care of dinner and bedtime.

Saturday, December 19, 2015

My Girls

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Poor Kayli.  Her siblings are constantly getting into her things and her room.  This was her effort to make a stand against it.

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And my baby in her big pig tails.

Friday, December 18, 2015

Happy 8th St. Patrick's Day!

Bryce's St. Patrick's Day birthday rolled around again.

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Green German pancakes.

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A pretty dreamy breakfast, you know?

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I don't know why, but St. Patrick's Day is one of my favorite holidays for food.

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And a good excuse for a green smoothie!

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Presents and pie!  We're not huge cake fans here, so Bryce requested Key lime pie for his birthday treat.

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One of the fun things about turning 8 is finally being old enough for Cub Scouts!  A very serious thing, obviously.

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There's my cute Scout.

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This was the gift he'd been asking for the most.

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Trey makes a pretty good present too with a bow in his favorite color.  (And his tattered old sheet.)

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I <3 amazon.="" p="">
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A long board!  Almost as tall as Bryce himself!

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We went out for dinner a couple nights later and Lanaya thought the fry sauce was excellent for drinking.

Yum.

(Gag.)

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Love this cute boy and his obsession with his snow boots!

Happy 8th birthday, Bryce!  Bryce is still my Mr. Chatty.  He loves to follow me around the house telling me stories about all sorts of things.  Sometimes it is difficult to discern fact from fiction, as he gets a little carried away with his creativity.  He is an avid reader.  And he is still one of my best helpers.  If I need a quick task taken care of, or help making something in the kitchen, Bryce is the kid I can count on most to be willing and happy to help.  We sure love this guy!

Thursday, December 17, 2015

Early March

This was a fun month.

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Now that we were finally done painting the bedrooms, it was time to start furnishing!  Starting with this sweet bunk bed.

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Always wear your snow boots to drive you remote control car in the school parking lot.  Always.

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Lanaya invented the concept of "brownie buttah".

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A.k.a. "Brownie Butter".  But really, "brownie batter".

Delicious any way you lick it.

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I had my first "Jamberry" experience.

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Just chilling' in a little house with one of her favorite cousins.

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All four kids sat down on a couch and posed for a photo together.  Sort of.

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Sometimes we spend all day in our Christmas pj's.

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A lot of my family came into town!!!  And ate dinner at my house!!!!  And we all celebrated my mom's birthday!!!!!

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And a lot of fun on the trampoline.

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And these little green leaves that I've been watching for a while produced these beautiful flowers!

And later on the very same day I took this photo Trenton took it upon himself to cut all of the flowers down.

You know what they say--March flowers incite April birthday boys to destroy them.