Lydia turns 1!

This little lady bug turned 1 on January 24th.  I guess with each kid time goes by faster because I cannot believe we've already had this girl for over a year.  On her birthday we had a quiet evening at home and I made a simple healthified apple cake.

I love this picture like "Dad, what is that?"

 She loved it and made a mess like every 1 year old should with their first piece of cake.

 Then she got a bath and since babies in towels are the cutest thing ever, here's the proof.

We love this little girl more than I thought possible and her brother and sisters just adore her to pieces.

Baby Shower for Baby Carla

I met some of the best people in college.  I really am very blessed to have gone where I did and found the people that I did.  One of my very best friends had a baby shower in January and I got to take most the day off of "mom duty" thanks to Russell. and go spend time with some of my favorite people.

This is Brie, pregnant with the first girl grandchild for her parents (sister Bridget has 3 boys, and Brie has 1).  She is one of the best people I know and I got to play volleyball with this stud in college and then she was in my wedding party.

 More volleyball players from Cal State.

(Cat, Bridget, Ashley, Brie, me, Amy, Kate)

 Love these 3 ladies.  Ashley was also in my bridal party and I got to room with her in college.   She surprised Brie and flew down from the bay area for the shower. 

I'm so blessed to have such fabulous friends and am so happy that Brie now has a darling little girl to call her own.

Christmas Morning at HOME!

For Chirstmas this year we spent Christmas Eve at my parents as usual, but we drove home that night so we could have our first Christmas morning at home.  It was very different from the busyness and noise that we are used to, but it was nice.  We didn't rush, we let the kids take their time looking at their stockings and really tried to make the morning last.

 Best part of Christmas morning right here...

 They were so excited to get new skooters.

 And Lydia loves baby dolls.  She is always giving them kisses and patting them on the back.

 These girls are always in need of coloring books!

Apparently I didn't take very many pictures :(  And a lot of the ones I did take turned out really blurry.

We had a very slow relaxing day and went over to Russell's parent's house for the afternoon and then dinner at Uncle Mark and Aunt Kami's house with the extended family.

Christmas Sunday 2012

I love getting the kids dressed especially nice and festive for Christmas Sunday and this year was no different.  We went with red and black and I only had to buy shrugs for the twins and a dress for Lydia since we had everything else.  I love the way everything looked, but we did NOT get a good picture this year.  Although, last year's picture was gross because I was hugely fat and 8 months pregnant, so maybe this one's not so bad haha! Russell's mouth was still a bit swollen from his jaw surgery, so he couldn't really smile much and Nathan was crying about something. This is as good as it got...

Sundance Kindergarten Christmas Program

I'm so glad that our elementary school still does Christmas programs with the students.  I'm so worried that eventually the schools won't be able to do anything for religious holidays anymore.  The kids same some really cute songs and it was really fun to watch them all.  Russell was off for break already so he got to be there as well, which made us all really happy.

Their teacher is really sweet and thought to put them standing right next to each other so we didn't have to try and look different places at once.

 Towards the end of the program the kids were getting tired from standing and having the bright lights on them for so long and Morgan let Madylin rest her head on her shoulder.  It was so sweet.  I'm so grateful for these two and so happy they have each other.

Ward Christmas Party 2012

Our ward Christmas party this year was really nice.  The food was great and there were beautiful carols sung.  I was playing the piano for the program that went through the origins of a lot of christmas carols and then the congregation sang them or there was a solo or group chosen to sing it.  I was practicing with singers during Santa's visit, so I missed seeing the kids with Santa, but Russell got some photos.  Although he did forget to put Lydia on Santa's lap for her first Christmas!  I admit to being a little upset about that, but oh well.

Madylin and Santa

 Morgan

 Nathan was a little scared of Santa at first, but he got over it and cornered Santa for a picture later ;)

Morgan and Madylin as well as their cousin Riley, and friend James sang and signed Silent Night up on stage.  They did so good!

I'm so happy that my kids seem really into music.  It was such a big part of church and Christmas for me growing up and I'm happy that our ward highlighted it on this night.  The morning after this party my friend Britney and I sang "Mary's Lullaby" in sacrament meeting.  It was my first duet in sacrament meeting and I was nervous, but really just wanted to help contribute to the spirit of the meeting and tried really hard not to think of myself.  Although I'm sure it was really quiet, I think it went well and I was grateful that Heavenly Father helped me get through it and that I could be an example to my children that we should share our talents and always do what we can to help our ward.

First School Award!

In December Madylin and Morgan were both selected by their teacher to receive outstanding achievement awards.  It was pretty cute to see how excited they got.  They are really doing so well in school and love it so much.  I'm very grateful for that.

Madylin getting her award from our wonderful principal, Mrs. Kinney

 Morgan... so happy.

Hope to have many more award assemblies like this in the future!

Family Pictures 2012

In November my friend took family pictures for us again.  She is so talented and so sweet to do this for us.  Here are some of my favorites.  There are A LOT!

 

November 2012

November must have been fairly uneventful, because I have very few pictures from that month.  Here are some random ones...

My mom wanted this picture because she made these overalls for me when I was a baby

 Nathan in some of Uncle Spencer's border patrol gear

 We took a trip out to Glamis with Russell's dad, Travis, Corinne, Brandon, Alec Bogh, and Matthew Fisher. I'm honestly not a huge fan of these trips, but there are always some good memories.  My favorite part is sitting around the campfire at night.  Lydia enjoyed the quads and the twins got pretty good on the little 50 we borrowed from my brother Matt.  Nathan was scared, as usual.

 Lydia liked riding in circles around camp with Daddy (very slowly, mind you).

Halloween 2012

I was kind of bummed that the girls weren't allowed t to wear their costumes to school.  I think it's sad that it's come to this in the schools.  The kids had "orange and black day" instead.

I had a little photo session with the kids in their orange and black.  

It wasn't going great at first so I had to do some crazy stuff to get them to smile and they were cracking up (don't ask what I did, please;)

 Halloween night I took the kids around the neighborhood while Russell stayed home to pass out candy.  Lydia dressed in a darling bumblebee costume this time. I LOVED it.

 The other kids were the same, but I let the girls wear a little more make-up this time (which they LOVE of course)

Nathan lasted most the neighborhood but Russell came out to get him just short of finishing our route.  I was getting tired of holding Lydia to so she went back with the boys and I finished the last few houses with just the big girls, which was nice.

The kids enjoyed some of their candy while we passed out candy the rest of the night which they find just as much fun as going around trick-or-treating.

Lydia got in her comfy skeleton jammies.  I'd say she really enjoyed her first Halloween.