A Big Long Post

 Hello friends.  Grab a seat and relax.  If you're here for the long haul, this may take a few minutes.  I have a lot of photos to share.  They got jumbled up a bit, too, and I'm not going to try and sort them out.  You'll be ok.

First up, on Saturday we had tickets to the U of U gymnastics meet.  We felt a little out of place amongst all the red, but it was a fun night out all the same.

We got some family photos taken.  With 5 somewhat shy littles, someone has attitude when it comes to photographers.  This time it was Daisy.  We couldn't hardly coax a smile out of the kid.

 I sure like those people!

 The best part about that photo is that he was smiling at me.  :)

 Um, when did my kid grow up?

Girls having a picnic:

 Best of friends!  I'm kind of sad we're sending Lu to preschool next school year, these two play so well together!

Now rewind back in time.  Prepping Valentine's:

 I had to smile as I saw cute photos of my friend's kids awesome Valentines and boxes and such .  My kids did ALL of it on their own this year, which either makes me an awesome mom, or a really bad one.  I did help them print out the Star Wars valentines they found online, but they cut them out, taped their treat on and Maren made her box all on her own (she was the only one requiring one this year).  It was a shoebox with one paper taped on the top.  Classy.  :)  I am not the mom I thought I would be.  This kind of stuff doesn't matter to me near as much as I thought it would.  The kids were thrilled, so that's the important thing.

Decorating Valentine's cookies for FHE:

 Lu loves headbands.  She is always wearing one (sometimes even to bed) and her hair almost always looks this awesome.

Slave labor:

And, the boy's birthday bash.  I did a few decorations to surprise the boy in the morning, but Ellie really goes all out, check out our circus, I mean, home: 

 And if I want to be one thing on this blog it is to be real.  So take a good look at my counters.  Yep, looks real to me!  And yes, when Everett wears those boots it reminds me of Napoleon Dynamite.  You too?

We are keeping birthdays fairly simple this year.  No parties.  It made my day so much more enjoyable, even though I've decided that even 'simple' birthdays are lots of pressure for mom!  The boy had a great day, though.  He requested dinner at Del Taco, which kind of turned into date night for mom and dad as all the kids disappeared at the playland for a very content long while!  Score!

Then, cake:

And presents.  He had the best faces and was so excited about everything!

 Kids are fun.

Now back to Valentine's Day.  We had our traditional "fancy dinner" (see, it's fancy because we were eating fancy food on fancy dishes, nevermind that we were also in our jammies).

On the menu:  

Appetizers:  shrimp cocktail, artichoke/spinach/sun-dried tomato/roasted red pepper dip with pretzel loafs

Main:  beef brisket with steamed onions and barbecue sauce, loaded baked potato, roasted asparagus, glazed carrots, and sparkling cider

And for dessert, lime/mango cheesecake

 All homemade by my hunny bunny!  I love my man for many things, but his food is definitely one of them!

Me and my sweet. mwah mwah

And, you made it!  Congrats!

The Boy is 6!

My dear boy,

Happy Birthday!  You have been counting down the days and are so excited to finally be 6!  I just can't believe you are getting so big!  I tried to convince you to turn 4 instead, but you weren't going for it.

Buddy boy, you are one cool kid.  Your dad and I say it all the time.  You are just plain fun to be around.  You are so excited about life and all the wonders and mysteries it holds.  You love to talk about it all, too.  I love seeing the way your mind works.

You are a creator.  You love to build, build, build!  Your favorite things right now are legos and zoobs, both of which you make some amazing creations with.  You can spend hours, happily building, taking apart and building again.  You are also quite artistic, drawing pictures with really great details.

You are a smartie and are doing so well in kindergarten.  Your teacher just thinks you are pretty great.  You are obedient and a hard worker and pleasant company.  You are a good reader and writer.  I think it's funny that you've been signing "Warren" lately.  Everyone calls you Everett, but you know your first name is Warren, so that's how it's supposed to be!  You get all fancy with your writing (like writing fancy lower case a's), which I think is funny in an "my kid is awesome" kinda way.  You have your own way of doing things that shows off your spunky personality!

I'm so grateful for your boy influence in our home!  You roll right along with all the pink princess stuff without complaint.  You play really well with your sisters.  You are really sweet and tender, too.  You'll often write love notes to mom, dad, or your sisters.  You are a helpful boy, always wanting to be involved with whatever mom and dad are doing, including cooking, home projects, and sometimes even cleaning!

Everett, we love, love, love you!  Thanks for being the great kid you are and bringing such joy into our family.

Love,
Your Mom

Everett was surprised to wake up this morning to a room full of balloons!

Dreams Realized

 The highlight of my week was taking these cute munchkins...

...to the Provo City Center Temple open house.  It was gorgeous, as was to be expected.  I'm grateful for the opportunity to take my kids inside the House of the Lord and talk about the sacred things that happen there.

I love my eternal family!

I'm a sentimental sap, consider that a warning before you continue.

I looked at that photo above and immediately, my mind jumped to a scene from my life.  Nick and I were engaged and when he'd leave me for the night at my townhome, we'd go down to the unfinished basement, kneel together on a piece of carpet, hold hands, and we would pray.  We'd pray for our future together, and we gave a lot of prayers of gratitude.  Then, we'd talk.  Talk of this adventure we were about to embark on.  Talk about finances, career plans, and our dreams for the future.  We talked about starting a family right away (we were "old", no time to waste) and what we wanted for our children.  This memory swirled through my head as I saw that photo of us and our children, because our life is a dream realized.  I feel so incredibly blessed to have that faithful man by my side and those beautiful little people that have joined us in our journey.  And I am so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ, which provides direction and peace in my life.

And the adventure continues.

On a lighter note, do you see that Maren has a purple chin?  She sucked a cup to her face and, several days later, is still paying the consequences.  Makes me smile.  We all have to do it at one time or another.

Also, it was an especially sweet treat to have our friends follow us through the temple tour.  Surprise!  We got to end this wonderful afternoon with a dinner out with friends.  Cherry on top, for sure!

February

Welcome to February, the worst month of the year.  I'm done with winter and ready for some warmth.  I want to spend time in the sunshine again.  Winter germs are still making the rounds.  We're just past the middle of the school year and I'm already counting down the days.  I could use a Caribbean cruise right now.  Punxsutawney Phil is predicting an early Spring.  I sure hope he's right!

Well, that sounded depressing.  We are happy too, don't worry!  We have our favorite boy's birthday this month to look forward to, and we are starting to make plans for our Valentine's dinner, plus other fun plans, so February isn't all depressing.

Oh, just, ya know, reading my book with a big 'ol pair of 100 glasses:

 It was crazy hair day too, we don't always send our kids to school with yellow streaks in their hair.

And what do you do when your play - work ratio is thrown out of whack and it's 20 degrees outside?

Go bowling!

Lainey should have stayed home and took a nap.  She did rectify the situation:

 Bowling alleys have got to be the worst place to take phone pics.

 Ah, my sweet, not-so-little babe.

It snowed over the weekend, and the kids (and Dad) were excited to build a snowman: 

 Our neighbor friend came and helped out.  And, I think it's impossible for Nick to build a normal sized snowman.  Go big or stay inside (which I did, actually).

A few days later, our snowman looks like this:

Everett wanted so badly to go knock it over (takes after his Dad), but it wouldn't budge.  We now have the leaning snowman of, uh, snow?

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.  ;)