My Wonderful Family

 This is my entire immediate family, minus my dad and grandpas. To show you how much we love each other, my grandma in the dark shirt is actually my dad's mom. But here we are all together.

 My brother Tim, my sister Heather and my sister Jenny. The people I love most in this world, except John and my children of course!

 From left to right. Back row: Moira, Selenia, Isaiah - Jenny and Ben's kids, then Spencer and Olivia.
Front row: Jacob, then Emma (Avvy between them) and James - Timmy and Chelsi's kids, and Matthew. Of my parents' 10 grandchildren, 5 of them our mine! Crazy!

 My siblings and my mom, the person who taught me more lessons in life than any other person.

 My sisters, Chelsi included!

 

 Heather and Aubrey...more accurately identified as our sister than a cousin. Love you Aubs!

    

The amazing men of my family, my brother in law Ben, my amazing husband and my sweet brother Tim in a true protective stance around my mom. Watch out would be mom snatchers, they will kick your butts!

And just for fun...

As per tradition...Dr. Seuss' Birthday

This year at school, they decided not to have a dress up day, just crazy hair day. But because of the popularity of leggings under skirts (and an awesome pair of striped pajama leggings), we kind of tricked them out. Olivia looked like she had stepped right out of Whoville!

 Matthew's head was glowing, it was so "banana"! And yes, we know his hair is supposed to be blue, but we ran out of blue hair spray and I didn't want to food color his light blond hair, blue.

 Jacob was perfectly happy with "banana" hair, just not going to "singing school".

These brothers love each other!

Matthew's 6th Birthday!

This is Mr. Popularity! Here's what's going on with Matthew...
Every day he has several friends begging to play with him...
He had a reading program created at school just for him because they don't have one for his reading level.
He's been riding his bike training wheel free for two years!
His testing scores in school are so high that they have to modify the programs for him.
He is still the peace maker, always willing to give up his toy or his candy, etc. to keep the peace.
He loves to help.
He still amazes people with his athletic abilities.
He loves to read like crazy including Harry Potter, Junie B. Jones, Flat Stanley and his scriptures.
He loves beyblades, super heroes, any sport and still wants to be Big Blue when he grows up. Great plan, it'll be a great way through college!



Traditional "sized up" pictures of him with his balloons.

 This is his rockin' new ride!

13 of Matty's darling friends came to his birthday party.

And what else can you do on a tight budget and a February morning than a pizza and movie party?!

We had a blast!

All tired out after a great day! Happy 6th birthday Little Man! We love you like crazy!

How it goes...

 When taking a two year old's pictures,

 TRY,

TRY,

(Cute picture, not so cute pose!)

 TRY, (Cry may be more appropriate!)

TRY,

 

and try some more.

  
I guess this is it!

Officially Diaper Free!

This is our latest and greatest...we are a diaper free home!!
A week and a half before her 2nd birthday, Avvy decided to potty train herself. And I finally gave in as I was down to the realization that I either had to potty train her, or duct tape her diapers on her! She chose the latter!

She is such a determined little stinker that there is no reasoning with her. When she decides something, there is NO talking her out of it!
 

She is such a bossy little mother, she frequently gets Jacob dressed in his clothes or pajamas. And more than once we have had to stop her from wiping him while he is in the bathroom doing his business!

This is our little stinker...what a personality! Can you see why I gave in to this one?

 We call her "Little Miss Sass"!

And I'm a little (teensy-tiny) bit sad about this last connection to babies in our home...but I think I'll get over it!

We love you more than anthing else in this world...

For family home evening, our lesson was about the Book of Mormon being a companion to the Bible and how blessed we are to have ongoing scripture. During the course of the lesson we touched on the fact that our Heavenly Father loves us in this day and age just as he loved those in the times of the bible and how He would not cut us off from His direction. We discussed that our Heavenly Parents love us even more than our earthly parents do. Then to help our children understand how much love that is we expressed to them how we love them more than anything in this world, how we could have everything we posses taken from us and as long as we have our children we would be fine. We told them that just as we would do ANYTHING in this world for them, our Heavenly Parents love them even more...and that's a lot! Well, I should have seen this coming, but as we tucked our kids into bed last night, kisses had been given, prayers had been said, scriptures were read, teeth were brushed, and the lights were out (and they were supposed to have gotten their cups of ice water, it's part of their responsibility/remove an excuse to get out of bed). I heard a call from the little boys' bedroom: "Mom, can I please have some ice water?" "You were supposed to have gotten your ice water before bed." There was a long pause. "Mom...do you remember how you told us that you love us more than anything...And how you would do anything in this world for us?" I began to chuckle. How could I not get him his water at that point? So I took him his water bottle and we had a quick reminder that kids love their moms and dads more than anything in this world,too!

Jacob's "banana" obsession

Jacob is OBSESSED with banana. Banana the color that is, not the fruit. Although he does like those too. He has invented his own color system. Green is "apple", red is "strawberry" and of course "banana" is yellow. Pretty smart! I think it has to do with the fact that his favorite blanky is yellow and therefore it became his favorite color, but at any rate, he loves everything "banana" and he will shout out everything he sees in that color. Banana trucks, jeeps, cereal bowls, suckers, foods, clothes, crayons, etc. And you better not decide to have something banana if he wants it...you'll break his tender little heart!

Note the banana shoes...

 and the banana tube...

and the banana slide he HAD to go down. The green one would not do.

See his banana cast?

And our amazing nursery leaders who brought him a giant banana sucker when he broke his arm! (And because they are just that cool, they brought one to all of them. But the banana one was for Jacob!)