Kaitlyn Had A Birthday!

Happy Birthday Kaitlyn!  I wrote the following post a long time ago and it has been saved in my drafts...as always waiting for pictures.  Since Kaitlyn's birthday has come again, I thought I better post this even without pictures.  We did get some today, so I'll try to upload them soon. She is so awesome and we love her.  She got her ears pierced for her birthday, and can't wait to take them out and change them.

Did you know Kaitlyn had a birthday...almost 7 months ago?!  And I never did write about how much we love her, and she keeps reminding me.  And we really do think she is neat, so I thought I better let you know too.  Kaitlyn has changed a lot since her 10th birthday so I have a lot of stuff to write that I wouldn't have if I actually wrote this last June.

Kaitlyn is incredibly responsible.  I never have to remind her to do her school work--she does a little every day and manages all the work she has.  She does well in school, and her teacher told me I was lucky to have her as the oldest...I already knew that.  She helps take care of Nate and Ellie, and I love when she organizes games and activities for everyone and treats them nicely.

Kaitlyn has even been hired to babysit by a family that lives nearby that is in our ward.  They have three kids, exactly Jared, Ellie and Nate's age, and they love to have Kaitlyn babysit.  She brings a little babysitting bag full of activities and books.  I thought she might get scared or nervous, but she seems to really enjoy it.

Kaitlyn is growing fast--this morning before church she tried on about four outfits that used to fit her--they were all way too short today!  I had to pull out a black skirt of mine for her to wear!  She is almost as tall as me.

Kaitlyn got contacts last week!  I told her she could get them before she started 6th grade (that's when I got mine too).  It was already past time for a checkup and if we didn't do it now, she would have to wait until the middle of 6th to get them.  I remember how much I loved it when I got contacts, and since she is so responsible we gave it a go.  It took about 45 minutes to get them in and out at the eye doctor and she struggled the next day, but now she is a pro at putting them in and taking them out.

Kaitlyn has a very pretty voice.  She is gaining some confidence as evidenced by her solo parts in the musical she did this summer.  In years past she didn't even want to try out for a main/solo part, but this summer she tried out for everything.  I didn't audition her, but Sharee said she did really great.  And when show time came she didn't even seem nervous and talked and sang loud and clear.  She wants to try out for show choir in middle school.

Kaitlyn is smart and loves to read too.  She has had fun lately with the sewing machine she got for Christmas and has enjoyed learning to knit.  She is a great artist and likes to draw pictures.

We are grateful to have Kaitlyn in our family and love her a ton--I'm sorry it took so long to write this up!

Funny Things

My kids love to look at my friend's blog and read her monthly post about the funny things her kids have said over the month.  They laugh so hard, and really, her kids say some of the most random, cute, funny things--I love reading it too.  Jared asked me why I never blog about the funny things they say.  Ummm?  I teased the kids that  maybe they weren't that funny.  They definitely took offense, and I took the blame for not writing the funny things they say down immediately after it happened.  Because, let's face it, I forget things pretty quickly.  Maybe if I had an iPhone I could keep better track of the cute things my kids said (that's a plug for me getting an iPhone in case you didn't notice.)  So at the end of our conversation Jared started running around the house yelling, "Everybody, say some funny things so Mom can blog about them!"  I thought that in and of itself was pretty funny.  I will try to be better at documenting these cute moments...I will try. So, for my kids and our memories:

• This actually happened several months ago.  Amazingly, I haven't forgotten it.  We checked out a book from the library about football.  It was discussing the differences between pro football and college football.  After we read a few pages Jared stopped and very seriously and almost solemnly said, "Well, I guess I'll have to be in the pros."  I asked him why and again very seriously and matter-of-fact he replied, "Because I'm so good."  I hope Jared's confidence continues with him as he gets older!

• A new boy started school after Christmas and Jared's teacher asked Jared to be this boys buddy. I asked Jared if they got along and Jared said, "Oh, yeah, he's already my third best friend."   I asked him who was number one and number two and he told me it was Jack and then Brecken.  If you remember a post way back when Kindergarten started you'll know that Jared had a very difficult time because a boy was telling him over and over that his dad was a police officer and when he came to volunteer he was going to arrest Jared.  That boy was Brecken, his now #2 best friend.  Listening to the conversation Brynn quipped in a melodramatic voice, "His worst enemy becomes his best friend...that always happens in love movies."

• I was explaining to Ellie over our trip to Utah that we were going to take the big kids skiing and she and Nathan got to stay home with grandma Esplin. Ellie was not happy about being left behind but I assured her that she would like staying at grandma's house, and I was trying to help her remember some of the things about grandma Esplin.  She wasn't convinced and said, "Mom, I just can't remember what her face looks like."

• After our trip to UT I was talking to Ellie and we started laughing about her comment that she couldn't remember what grandma's face looked like and Nathan chimed in his two year old voice and vocabulary--"Yeah, can't member gampa's cheeks look like."  I thought it was cute that he could equate what we said about her face to her cheeks.  I could go on and on about Nate.  He repeats everything you say to him and I smile all day long because of it!

• Nate runs around the house looking for Jared at every spare moment saying, "Jed (his version of Jared) shoot hoops!"  He wants Jared to shoot hoops with him on the over-the-door Nerf hoop Jared got for Christmas.  Jared told me he gets tired of it, but he does it anyway because it's so cute that Nathan wants him to play with him.  Cute boy. Oh, and I should mention that Nathan is making more and more shots on that hoop...it's kind of scary!

Nathan Had a Birthday!

Happy Birthday to our 2 Year Old!

 Nate celebrated his birthday 2 days after Thanksgiving this year.  Seriously.  Where. Does. Time. Go?  I can't believe this guy is already two.  He brightens every day and is incredibly spoiled by everyone here.

Nate loves to jump.  His run is always like a little hop-skip-and jump.  He runs, throws in a skip and a hop or two and always jumps as he stops.  It's so cute!  He loves to be with Scott, and Nate definitely has his dad wrapped around his finger.

Nate loves all the kids, and as you can see by this picture he adores Jared.  He loves to throw the ball with Jared and play football.  I often hear Nate saying "innersheption!" and "pass" and "chuchdown" when he's playing with Jared.  The other day Jared was doing something and didn't want to play football with Nate when he asked.  I offered to play with him, but he didn't want that.  He gave enough loves to Jared that guilted Jared into playing with Nate.

For Nate's birthday we all went swimming at Scott's work, and Nathan loved it!  Brynn made him the cute Santa hat for his birthday.

I'm still amazed everyday at Nate's vocabulary.  This morning he told me he didn't eat his breakfast burrito because it was disgusting.  Then he said he ate a cookie in the kitchen instead.  Great.  He does everything the kids do, and picks up on everything ever said.  The other day he came in from outside and said, "What the heck?"  He definitely has older siblings, as evidenced by his premature potty language.  When he gets mad at the kids I often hear him exclaim, "No, poopie!"  Trust me, I do not condone this language, but it is hard to obliterate when it is always met by giggles from the other kids (and I have to kind of force a serious face too).

Nathan is at such a fun age.  I wish everyone could know this kid and see his funny antics.  Of course being two, he's also very independent and it often takes an extra bout of patience as he wants to do everything himself.  He also loves the "Chifus (Christmas) Tree."  Nathan is truly a blessing in our family.  He unifies us all, as he's often the focus of what we do.  We love you Nate!

All I Want For Christmas

The other night at dinner the kids were talking about what they want for Christmas this year.  Brynn and Kaitlyn told me they both wanted sewing and craft stuff, and Jared said he wanted some Ninjago (Ninja Legos) stuff.  Everyone had very reasonable requests until Ellie chimed in and said, "I want an iPod for Christmas!  And an iPad!"  We all started laughing and the other kids were quick to respond that they wanted those things too!  I'm not even sure how Ellie knows about iPod's and iPad's.

Ellie definitely has Christmas on her mind because another time while in the parking lot of Hobby Lobby a lady driving one of those SMART tiny cars drove up next to us.  Ellie looked out the window and exclaimed, "I want one of those for Christmas!"  They do look like little toys, but I think I'm going to have to use the power of suggestion to help her out on her wish list!

Go Cougars!

Jared wanted to be a BYU football player for Halloween this year so look what he started.  It's Cougarmania around here!  Three BYU cheerleaders, one BYU football player, BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall, one BYU fan, and the football!

I sewed Kaitlyn and Brynn's cheerleading costumes and Nate's football costume.  We borrowed football pads and a white jersey for Jared's costume.  I cut out some felt letters and numbers for the jersey and for his helmet.

I wasn't sure little Muff would acquiesce to my plea to wear the cheerleading outfit--she had another costume in mind.  She was good to wear it for the ward Halloween party, and for trick-or-treating and her Halloween party at school she got to be what she really wanted to be.....

This funny dinosaur!  She loved this costume she found in our costume box.

 Nate was the football.  He was the cutest thing ever!

11-11-11

In commemoration of 11-11-11 the kids did not have school (and maybe because it was Veterans Day too). We went on a hike around the Bosque by the Rio Grande River.  We really didn't hike very long until we came to a wide opening and pretty much made camp for the next hour and a half.  The kids played some kind of prison game and ran all around enjoying the leaves and nice weather.  

Nate and Keian could have had fun the entire time throwing rocks into the water below.

I'm pretty sure that stick in Jared's hand is in the trunk of the van--somehow Jared is drawn to big sticks and thinks they all need to come home with him.

We had 24 kids and 5 moms!

Ellie found a log to play on and actually let Amber take these cute photos of her!  I love them all!

Dirty nose and dirty face Nate--I love this picture of his cute eyes.  Again, all these pictures are complements of Amber.  Thank you!

My Greatest Joy

Here are some pictures we captured of my favorite thing to see....the kids all playing together so nicely!  The kids like to play school, and I love how Ms. Karen (Kaitlyn) and Ms. Jen (Brynn) are such good teachers to their students.  They seriously teach Jared and Ellie a lot of things. It would be really hard to play school without lots of siblings!  I love these guys, and I especially like when everyone is getting along and working together.