Birthday Girl

Shayla is 8!!! Growing up so fast...she is already asking me if she can borrow my clothes.

The other day she said she LOVED my shirt, "Can I have it after you die?"

Still laughing about that one :)

The chocolate-chocolate cake

Birthday party with 15 girls!!! I went a little crazy when Shayla made her list of who she wanted to invite. Had a moment of temporary insanity and just sent invitations to them all. And just about everyone came. Lots of giggling, high-pitched laughing and talking and fun. Glad we only do friend birthday parties every other year, though :)

My camera is on the fritz--the flash only works part of the time, so this one is blurry.

Notice the straight hair. Shayla has wanted straight hair forever so I had promised her years ago that I would straighten it for her on her 8th birthday. She didn't forget so we did it and she looked really cute. I especially loved how she would toss her head around and make sure part of her hair was over her shoulder so we could all see the beautiful straightness.

Making a wish

Shayla will be getting baptized on February 12th. She is very excited and had her baptismal interview today with her Dad. That was a special experience for both of them. She is growing up and has such a kind heart and is always quick to help her brothers and sister AND keep them in line. They love that :)

Merry Christmas!

Waiting at the top of the stairs to come down to the tree

Miya, too.

The kids had an exercise in patience as we forgot to download the old video off the camcorder to make room for the new, so they had to wait 30 minutes while we did that. We were not popular parents first thing Christmas morning!

Miya's new hairbow

Miya is such a daddy's girl--she always backs into his lap whenever he is sitting down.
I love it!

Shayla and her new jewelry

A football like the pros use was his request

Grant's bowling set

I love this one!

Miya got a toothbrush in her stocking. Now maybe she will stop stealing everyone elses. She loves to suck on it and carries it with her throughout the house. Maybe we've got a future dentist on our hands...

Stocking stuff

Shayla stocking

Look at that face! This kid is intense about his gum!!!

Come to think of it, we all love gum around here

It was a wonderful Christmas day, complete with fun family time playing with new toys, good food and a sledding trip with friends.

Merry Christmas, y'all!

And here's to catching up the blog so I can start blogging about the current events and be a bit more consistent!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve we invited two couples over to enjoy the festivities with us. We did our traditional reenactment of the Nativity with a complete cast this year, plus camera crew. It was great!

As usual, Santa dropped off a surprise package on the doorstep of PJ's for the kids. No one was more shocked than myself when we heard a knock on the door, ran to get it to find Santa himself in the driveway waving at us. This created quite a stir, with Shayla saying, "That can't be the real Santa--he wouldn't let us see him if it was! Who WAS that?!!" The next day the kids found Santa's hat out on the driveway, with his glasses tucked inside. They were pretty worried about it until we reassured them that Santa probably has a few back-up pair of both. It made for an exciting night!

The excitement was palpable! The four oldest "slept" together in one room. I don't know how much actual sleeping took place, but they sure had fun.

Almost a snow day...

It's -24 degrees outside. And the kids have 2 extra hours off of school this morning before they have to brave the weather. Brrrrrrrr.....

I don't think I'll be going anywhere today-hopefully I'll have time to post some Christmas pictures later. Stay warm!

Snow days

December was the snowiest one in history here. I think we got 36". I guess if we are going to have a lot of snow, we might as well go for the gold and break the record. The kids loved it!

Grant--king of the snow mountain!

It was also very, very cold. We hung out in the single digits for quite a while.

The kids in front of our house

This was the view from our deck.

Longing for summer bbq's about now...

Polar Dash

I ran a 5K on New Years Day in 7 degree weather (-15 with the wind chill). It was awesome! I was so terrified I'd be cold i wore too many layers and was "sweatin' hot" (a phrase Shayla coined and is commonly used in our house during the summer). I was afraid my feet would freeze so I put those hand-warmer packs on top of my toes between two layers of socks and it worked like a charm!


I love the race-day excitement and it's fun to be with so many other crazy people running in the cold. My goal time was 27 minutes, and I barely squeaked in at 26:51. I was so glad I made it! And they had great finishers medals to boot, so all in all it was a great way to start the new year!

Just a cute photo of the kids. I was trying to get a good one of them after church in their cute clothes, and this was the best I could do. Yes, I'm a budding photographer :)

Grapefruit Season

My kids LOVE grapefruit. They ask for it every meal and can't get enough of it. Except for Ty and Miya. Ty thinks it tastes like poison--don't ask me how he knows what poison tastes like. Today he said he couldn't even eat a grapefruit for a million dollars. Wow--I could eat just about anything for a million dollars.
Shayla and Miya after church today

Ty is a good big brother and helps get all the juice, even if he does hate the fruit

Yum, Shayla!

Miya's newest trick--trying to climb out of her high chair.

So, not that I have any new years resolutions about blogging, but hopefully I'll be a bit more regular about it. If anyone is still out there reading :)

Enjoy your grapefruit while it lasts!