Christmas Card

Okay so I crack myself up....I had so much fun making this card, I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. Here's the story. I can't afford family pics right now, and I don't really want any right now anyway (still have after baby weight!) So you get a little of my weird sense of humor this year. I will be sending some in the mail, but again I can't afford much so hopefully everyone will see these online, or get an email! SO if I miss you by email or snail mail I'm sorry hopefully you'll get a giggle here on my blog or on facebook! Merry Christmas!

(Click the image to get a closer look)

At Sarah's Request...Lots of Mayci pictures

Oh my goodness, it's been forever!

Sorry Dad! I've been out of the bloggin world for way too long. I just haven't been in the mood I guess, but now it means catch up. I've tried to combine pics so this post isn't huge! But it still is pretty long so ... hope you like it!

Back in September we decided we hadn't gotten enough campin in this summer, so we took a last hurrah campin trip with Dan, Heidi and Tag Goodrich, up Farmington Canyon. It was a quick trip and a little chilly but well worth it! I love campin. This was Mayci's very first camping experience! It was a bit of a rough night, I don't think I slept more than an hour or two!


James started piano lessons in September too. He LOVES it, I think it's mostly because he has a little crush on his teacher! But I do have to say she's pretty awesome. Thanks Sadie for taking on this challenge! James is catchin on quick, he'll be great if he sticks with it.

My kiddos discovered a new love. We went to fee the ducks up at Weber State for Family night one night. They loved it, and ask all the time when we get to go again. We've actually been two more times. It's a fun thing to take up spare time waiting for Pete to get out of class. We've downsized to one car recently, so we have to go pick up Pete from School and the timing doesn't always work out just right with picking up James and Ragan from school too, so we have to find things to keep us busy rather than make ten trips!

Mayci is growing up way too fast...she already grew out of her cradle and is in her own room in and in the crib. She sleeps through the night most nights, I think this is due to the fact that she is officially a thumb sucker. I never thought I'd let one of my kids do this, but...well I guess I'm a "sucker!" She has already rolled over both ways and she's starting to get up on her arms when she's on her belly, but it still makes her mad after a few minutes of tummy time. She is an angel baby, she rarely cries and she is always happy to see me. I love it, but it makes me sad that she's growing so fast!

Pete ran his first 5K. His respiratory class puts one on every year and he was required to participate by volunteering or running it. He chose to run. He and his group had to drag a respirator with them which ended up falling apart half way through. So their time wasn't anything wonderful, but they had fun! I'm just happy to see him so happy. He loves his program and all the people there!

This is an odd thing to post about but I just find it funny. Leave it to Pete to make gourmet Ramen Noodles! (They are actually really good)

And of course I can't forget Halloween! I L O V E halloween! We always have a lot of fun. We have lots of halloween traditions. This year we made our own decorations. We made a paper plate skeleton for our door that the kids named Rudy. They would say goodbye to him every time we left the house. They also made some cute little handprint spiders to hang in the window. These kinda things are so much more memorable than store bought! Of course we carved pumpkins. And then a really fun thing happened this year. We went to my mom and dad's in Heber for trick or treating and all of my siblings decided to do the same. We had all the grandkids there together to trick or treat (except Chloe of course :() It was a lot of fun! OH and we had a way fun witches party at Pete's mom's house with some of the neices and one of Pete's Aunts (Deon) We had a witch parade at Grandpa's work and then we went dressed up to Don Pedros for dinner. We were quite the sight!

So that is my update minus a lot of details, hopefully I'll keep up better from now on!

Pete's first day of school

How could I have forgotten to post about this big event! Pete started the Respiratory Therapy program at Weber on August 23. This pic is actually just this week, because I made him pose for me. I thought it would be funny to make him a cheesy kid-like scrap page for going back to school. It turned out pretty funny! He's such a ham! I love him, I am so excited that he is finally in a career worthy program that he loves. He's completely excited about it too and is doing awesome! I think he will really love this career, it's perfect for my big science geek!

My new favorite quote!

I love this quote I saw in a scrapbooking forum this week!:

INSANITY: it's hereditary...you get it from your kids!!!

Labor Day Weekend

We had a fun weekend planned with Pete's brother's family coming to visit, but they had to cancel at the last minute, so rather than wasting a vacation weekend we decided to head to Heber for some fun with Grandma and Grandpa Julander. This first pic is a beautiful sight for a mom to see. This is what I found my kiddos doing while they were waiting for us to pack and load the car! It's a mother's dream. All three quietly reading (or looking) at books...no fighting, no noise, just silence and smiles!

And then there were heroes...okay only one, but he is at the top of my chart of heroes and the cutest one I know! Grandma gave Dallin a new super hero cape for his bday! He was in love and found some killer goggles to complete his ensemble! What a stud!

We roasted some mallows and enjoyed some great dutch oven cooking courtesty of Grandpa J the best dutch oven cook around. Tons of fun.

The kids decided these binoculars made them look like Wall E, so they each had to have a picture taken...to funny.

Dallin's latest saying..."Peep" a boo!

And I forgot to blog about Ragan's first day of her second year of preschool last week! Not quite as exciting the second time around but you couldn't tell Ragan that! She's stoked for all the social life she has again!

Potty Party Disaster

K-so I'm so behind and have a million things to post from the last month but I'll start with yesterday morning's disaster!

For those of you who don't know I think potty training is definitely the worst part of parenthood. As my sister in law Minde once put it: Potty training will be my hell if I don't make it to heaven. I completely agree! I will be potty training all the celestial children! Anyway...Dal turned three on Monday so I thought I'd take a stab at the idea of the potty. I am sick of changing double bums! So we spent over an hour in the bathroom Tuesday morning having a "potty party!" Mayci and Ragan joined us and we played games and sang potty songs and loaded Dallin up with lots and lots of drinks from his "water bobble." Mayci started to get fussy and I realized I needed to feed her which is usually done in the nursery without the other kiddos, but I didn't want to ruin the "Party" So I sat on the stool in front of the potty and fed her. Well Dal just happened to want to sit on my lap at that exact moment and was not happy that Mayci got first dibs! He stood right in front of the potty and instead of turning toward the toilet, he decided to let it go right on my legs! My instant reaction due to the fact that I couldn't get out of the way, was (sadly) a smack on the side of Dal's head hoping he would stop peeing, but no...the water bobble did it's intended trick and he peed for a good 30 second all over my legs and the floor and the clean undies I had waiting for him for after he peed! Potty disaster! I hate potty training and I'm pretty sure the smack up the side of the head will help to postpone any desire Dallin will have to use the potty in the near future! I've ruined it! ANY potty training advice...or better yet volunteers would be appreciated!!!

Anyway...on to bigger and better things...with pictures!

So we finally had some summer fun. We went to this "cabin" at Bear Lake. That is what the owners call it! Cabin my...well you know, it's more like a designer summer home. They happen to have three other houses! I couldn't believe this place! It would have been perfect for a couples retreat, but with almost twenty kids in the house....yikes! It was not quite so relaxing trying to keep everything nice and clean and unbroken! We succeeded though and it was a fun weekend.

We did have lots of care free fun on the private beach though! It was beautiful and not to hot. So much fun! The kids played in the water ALL DAY! You can tell by James' raisin toes in the pics. Ragan loved being buried as a mermaid and we had to for tradition sake bury Uncle Tay. We made him into Sponge Bob this year!

Ragan has become Mayci's personal jewler! She is so proud of her creations. She got a bead kit from Mayci in her Nursing Basket. I gave each of my kids baskets from their new baby sister when she was born. Stuff that they could do on their own when I have to nurse Mayci. I am determined to nurse her for the whole year, so I needed to make it one on one time so she doesn't get distracted like Dallin did. He only made it to five months...we'll see how we do.

This picture is soley here because I think it's adorable! Look at those cute boys and their beautiful eyes!

These next pics are what my kiddos do when I'm on the treadmill. They want to exercise too, so I put on my workout videos. This is Taebo! They crack me up!

Many of you have noticed that Mayci's hair does not lay down. She has a natural alfalfa big time! This particular day her hair decided to be a full on mo-hawk! We now call her Mayci Mo!

Sweet girl!

Last sunday Dallin got yet another head wound. He seems to be prone to these! He fell out of the van strait on his head no cushion. His goose egg looked like a cartoon! I couldn't believe how big it was!

Profile to show just how huge it was!

Mayci is so full of smiles now, but here is one of the first that I captured on camera

James started first grade. He couldn't have been more excited! He also started piano lessons which he was even more excited about...I hope it lasts!

We have a new cousin! Davis King was born 2 weeks ago yesterday! He is so adorable.

He make Mayci look like a giant! She is two months old today! It goes by too fast!

My sister Holly and I seem to be on the same baby schedule. All of our kiddos are within 2 months of eachother and until this one they've even been the same sex! To bad it won't continue! I'm done, but I don't think she is! Look at the cute crew.

Dallin turned three on Monday. I planned an impromtu party after James gave me a guilt trip about Dallin not having a friend party. He told me that Dallin should be special enough to have friends too, like him and Ragan. So I planned the party monday morning and had it that night. It was a super hero party and ended up being a lot of fun. Dal loved it and I hope he felt special!!!

Birth Announcement

I usually send out 80 plus announcements when I have a new little one. This endeavor ends up being quite pricy. So this time I still made a birth announcement so I don't deprive my last baby of what I've done for the other three, but I am only sending it to the few people who haven't seen her via facebook or this blog. I thought I'd post my creation here to officially send a birth announcement to everyone! So here she is in all her sweet innocence: Our beautiful

"BABY MAYCI"

I can't believe she's one month old!

Have you ever noticed that people's blogs dramatically change when they have their first baby. Where before there were random happenings and pictures here and there...usually just thoughts and a journal of sorts to share. And then suddenly there are hundreds of pictures of every little insignificant movement of the new piece of heaven in their lives! I love it and why not! When you become a mother that beautiful little angel becomes your whole world not to mention takes up every waking moment of your life. Your life goes from all about you to not about you!

The fourth child, although different in many ways is much like the first in the all consuming, life altering way. And of course, for me hundreds of pictures are part of the game too! I love taking pictures of my little angels, especially when they're new. Mayci had over 100 pictures taken of here before she even left the hospital! I know, I know we're obsessed. But how can you not want to capture every moment of such a beautiful little girl! Speaking of capturing moments, check out these fabulous moments captured by the marvelous Whitnie Stark!!! Thanks Whit they are perfect!

My capturing of moments are not quite so pro as Whit's but here's our month in a photographed nutshell!

The blessing day, people and parts of Mayci's big day!

(four generations)