Aussie Aussie Aussie!

 We survived the plague of winter 2016.  I was wondering there for a moment.  Not really, but it was rough and I'm grateful to be on this end of it.  Cross your fingers that was it for us this cold season.

Here's a cute photo of me and my Missy on our "date" (pre-plague):

Maren has been doing gymnastics for the last few months.  She loves it!

Just some girls, playing pretend.  The best kind of play.  These girls are good buddies.  It is a real treat for me to hear and watch them play.  90% happy play, 10% fighting.  Not bad!

 What?  You don't have underwear ninjas at your house?

And, yesterday was Australia Day.  Shout out to my favorite Aussies! Oi Oi Oi!

We always celebrate with Aussie burgers:

 Party in my mouth!

Here I am, 16 years younger, enjoying a fair dinkum Aussie burger, "the lot":

Golly, my skin is so smooth.  I've earned a few wrinkles since then.

And, a Tim Tam slam to finish off the night:

That is a happy, wrinkly girl.  ;)

Silver Lining

This week has been a pretty miserable one.  Sick kids.  Sick mom.  No fun.  So, since I'm feeling awfully sorry for myself this morning, I'm gonna fight it off the best way I know how.  With gratitude.  Despite the obvious not-so-great parts this week, I can see the blessings, too.

*My husband (who is NOT sick, thank goodness, not yet anyway).  He is such a life-saver to me, running errands, helping with kids and food and house.  Picking up where I slack.  He was the kid's hero when he took them to the school's annual skate party while Mom was sick at home.  I'm grateful that he hasn't picked up this nasty bug yet.  He has a lot of work and school to do!  Plus, he makes me chocolate chip cookies.  :)

*Priesthood blessings.  I was so thankful to have our home teacher and Daddy give Daisy a blessing last night.  I could feel the spirit in our home.  Daisy had a good sleep and seems to be much improved this morning.

*Netflix is our friend.  I've been especially enjoying the Great British Baking Show.  The British seem like very pleasant people, I'm thinking I should visit.  And this show has introduced me to a whole bunch of desserts that I've never tried before!  This sounds like a challenge to me.  :)

*Time off.  Even though it's a pain in the patootie, I'm so grateful that I can clear the calendar and snuggle in with my babes.  Plus, it is nice to have a good excuse to hang out in jams.

*Good books.  I love a good book, and I've had a good excuse to climb into one more these last few days.  I just finished A Man Called Ove, which I really loved.  Made me cry like a baby.  Don't worry, it was a good cry, not a sad cry.  You all know I can't control when I lose my tears.  I love books that help me see the world in a different way.  Now, I'm enjoying my way through Gifts of Imperfection for the 2nd time.  Another book that opens my eyes.

And, because blog posts are boring without a photo, here's a cute one of nearly two Lu at the beach, because that sounds like a nice place to be right now (and always):

Reading with Daisy

 Daisy is one lucky kid.  Her siblings shower her with love and attention.

Everett had actually made that "bed" for the two of them and they were going to take a nap together.  :)  But first, they needed a book, of course.

 That is a good pick for Martin Luther King, Jr Day, Maren!

We spent some time with my mom today.  It was a treat, as always.  My mom gave Ellie the most awesome birthday present this year: sew a pair of shorts with Grandma.

 Ellie did alright!  She's a pretty good little seamstress!  Just needs to keep sewing!

 Thanks mom, for sharing your talents (and food, and time) with us!  We love you!

Bubbles

 We had a birthday last week, which makes me feel like we celebrated all week long.  In fact, the birthday banner is still swingin'.  Party on!

We had our monthly combined FHE on the eve of her birthday, so we, of course, celebrated then.  Ellie requested liege waffles in place of birthday cake.  My daughter has a taste for delicious food, she does.  Her parents may be educating her in the way of food snobbery.  Don't worry though, we balance ourselves with sub-par food too (fish sticks for dinner yesterday, actually).

For her actual birthday, she requested we go to Pizza Pie Cafe (speaking of sub-par food) as a family.  This was the easiest birthday party ever!

Uncle Nate joined us.

 Always getting those girls to pucker up.

We stopped by Grandpa's to wish him a happy birthday too.  Or, if you are Ellie, to open your last present, which was a super duper huge spirograph set!  We were thrilled to have cousins drop in too.

 Funny.

The weather warmed up enough to soften up all that old, crunchy snow into perfect snowman snow:

I guess my kids weren't feeling the urge to invest their efforts into big ones.  These cute little guys crack me up:

Bubbles!

 Don't you just want to laugh along with Maren?  Her face says it all.  :)

And, slave labor:

What?  That's not why you had kids?  ;)

And, sad news for me, Nick starts school again today.  Back to putting kids to bed on my own, really late nights, and Netflix bingeing.  I miss my evenings with my honey.

Decade

My dearest Ellie,

Wow!  One entire decade!  I can not believe you have reached double digits.  Do you know what that means?  Our parenting years with you are over half gone!  In another decade, you'll be out facing the world's challenges.  Well, now I'm gonna cry... I wish time would slow down, you are growing all too fast!

Ellie, it is a privilege to see you growing up into a happy, kind, obedient, helpful, beautiful young woman.  You have a desire to do what is right.  You want to help and show love to your little brother and sisters and they all look up and admire you (when you aren't teasing them, that is.  ;)  You aren't much of a "little kid" anymore.  You listen in and pay attention to what mom and dad are saying and join in on our conversations.  You enjoy being creative.  I've been impressed with your confidence as you took a sewing class last Fall.  I hope you continue to have an interest in sewing.  We'll work on that!  You love to be the organizer of places and events.  You'll often write lists of activities and such.  You keep us all excited for upcoming holidays and celebrations.  You enjoy making up games and playing with all of your siblings, which often creates crazy chaos in our home, but we love to see you playing happily all together.  Maybe I should just invest in some good earplugs.  ;)  You love to be right in the middle of things.  The worst punishment for you is to be sent to your room, where you are all by yourself.  You take good care of the little kids.  You shower the baby girls or help them get dressed and you like to do their hair and create fun new hairstyles.  You want to help out in the kitchen, as much as mom will let you.  You are an awesome waffle and pancake maker.

Ellie, we all love you so very much!  You add a light to our home, all your own!  It has been a wonderful decade with you, and I look forward to another!

Love,
Your Mom

Christmas and all that Jazz

 Brace yourself.  This is a long one.

Christmas.  Let's begin with Christmas Eve.  We decorated gingerbread cookies, a family tradition.

You all should know by now that we spend a lot of time in pajamas around here.

Big sisters are da best:

Lu Lu Lainey in her "popular" dress.  Notice she put one small dab of frosting on each cookie.  Done!

Everett did a mighty fine job.  I think he got about 75% on the actual cookie:

We visited with Nick's parents that afternoon and the kids opened their presents.

It was really great to have new toys to keep them entertained on Christmas Eve.  They were thoroughly content while Nick and I slaved away on our turkey dinner.  20 lb. turkeys take a long time to bake.  By the time we ate, at about 8 or so, my kids and I were quite hangry (a word that applies often in our home).  It was delicious, though.  

The kids were so excited to open Grammy jammies:

It's also become tradition for the Uncle Nate reading of the Cajun Night Before Christmas.

 And then, off to bed!

Christmas morning was magical.  And, we are all believers around here.  We even saw reindeer footprints in the snow.  Proof.

Daisy, so excited for her princesses:

Everett got the remote control helicopter of his dreams:

 Which, one week later, is not functioning properly.  Surprise, surprise.

Maren was surprised to get a camera/camcorder and has been snap happy ever since:

Lu's favorite gift was this cute little jewelry box with wind-up music box and ballerina.  She'd get this sweet little smile every time she opened the box and saw her tiny ballerina there twirling her heart out.  A sweet smile kind of like this (although I couldn't catch the real deal):

The aftermath:

The mama and papa:

 I'm sporting some of my new goods.  I'm a goof ball.  Proud of it.

We love that Uncle Nate comes and spends the night and Christmas morning with us.  The kids love it too.

And what could be more magical then waking up Christmas morning to a foot of snow?

And, more magic:

 We've lived in our current home for just over 4 years now, and every Christmas Eve, we've gotten a secret delivery.  A big pile of brand new books.  How cool is that?  Very cool, if you ask this book lover.

The favorite present:

 Nick and I have had 11 Christmases together, and this was my favorite of them all.  Why?  Because we did NOTHING!!  I stayed in my jammies all day, played with the kids in the snow, sledded, shoveled the driveway (because I wanted to), watched movies, took a nap, played games, and ate too much sugar.  We stayed home and just enjoyed being together.  The kids were completely and thoroughly content with all the new fun things.  It was the best.  This will continue.

And then, this whole last week was vacation time.  No school, no work.  This makes for late nights, sleeping in, eating way too much, games and movies, and ignoring the state of the house.  Monday is going to be rough, rough, rough.

Some highlights:  

My nephew's mission farewell.  I am so proud of these kids.  My family has 6 missionaries out right now.  Two in the same mission!  How cool is that!?  I pray every day that they will be protected from harm and that they, and the people they contact, will come closer to their Heavenly Father.  Good things happen on missions.  Good things.

Star Wars The Force Awakens.  Very cool.  I may have teared up a little as the Star Wars title came up on the screen with the famous theme music.  Of course, I tear up a lot lately, and no I'm not pregnant.  This is a part of who I am.  I'm accepting it.

Going running with my dear, dear, dear friend, Lisa.  What would I do without you?  She took me out to lunch as well.  She owed me because the two of us had a little friendly "healthy December" challenge and I won.  By one flimsy little point.  But really, we were both winners because both of us lost weight, a bit over a pound a week.  In December.  We are that awesome.

We actually stayed awake this year to see the New Year roll on in.  We got to spend New Years Eve with some good friends and we all had a blast playing games, chatting and eating food (or running around like madmen if you are under the age of 12).  We came home, watched the fireworks all over the valley and snapped a photo to prove that we could do it:

 Party animals.  That's what we are.  Of course, the next morning, Nick and I both woke up with headaches.  We can't handle all this partying in our ever-increasing age.

We spent New Year's Day playing in the snow at the farm with cousins:

 My man, looking all steamy hot.  ;)

 It was FREEZING (below freezing, actually), but the kids lasted for several hours, being pulled on the sled and going down a little hill Grandpa had pushed up for them.  I was proud of myself for getting on the four-wheeler myself and flipping the kids off their sled a time or two.  Who's counting?  It was fun.

Wait, you know it's coming.

 Yep, there it is.  I'm sure my mom is so proud.

We finished the day with homemade pizza, root beer floats (cause we weren't cold enough?), and games all around.  I came home happy.  What a fun day.

And, just because this post isn't long enough, here's a little of Ellie's birthday celebration (she'll be 10 in 2 days!  TEN!!!  That's two digits!!).

Last year, we went to Color Me Mine for her birthday, and she had so much fun she wanted to do it again.  She could've brought anyone along with her, and she chose Everett.  Ah, sweet.  :)

Ellie with her mug:

Everett with his robot bank:

And one with all four of them: