Birthday Girls!

Aack!! I can't believe my girls are now 6!! The time goes by way too fast. Every year they break my heart a little more. I love these girls so much! It's so fun when it is birthday time for them. We get to have two cakes, two dinners, and a big party! Tiana chose frozen burritos for dinner (I did make them from scratch this time, but that is her favorite food right now with ranch on top, of course) and Alayna wanted egg sandwiches (made with boiled eggs mashed up with miracle whip and mustard).

I attempted my best to make their cakes (Melissa, don't look!).

Alayna blowing out her candles.

Princess Tiana and her cake!

Swimming fun at the wave pool!

Alayna wanted a monkey cake and after searching online (and a little nudging from Mom), she chose this simple monkey face.

Tiana fell in love with this princess cake she saw online. I did my best to replicate it and even watched some tutorials on how to frost cakes. Of course, I cheated and put a plastic tiara on top. The one we saw online was made from frosting.

Christmas and Family

We had so much fun with our cousins over the holidays. Kevin and Laura came to stay with their two kids, Sierra and Trent. We played tons of games with Sierra and had a great time playing MarioKart on Kevin's Wii. We hosted the New Year's Eve party and the kids were esctatic about staying up until "the middle of the night", that is until the next day when they were cranky from being tired!!

Thanks for coming to play at our house, Sierra! We love you!!

This picture is so sweet of Alayna and Tiana holding Trent and Ragen. Super-cute Kids!

Random Pics

Sorry, I'm a little behind so here are a bunch of pics of our family lately......

Our budding virtuoso! We put her at the piano for the first time and she went to town playing.

Look at those chubby thighs! I love squeezing them!

Alayna wanted to use the sewing machine. I taught her how, set her loose, and she loved it!

Our beautiful Ragen Bree in her blessing dress.

The shirt says it all.....

First Snow!

The snow came early this year......at least it felt that way! I spent the whole summer whining because I was hot and pregnant, and now I'm whining because I'm cold! However, my kids don't think it's too cold. What is it with kids and not wanting to wear their coats? I wear mine even when I'm in the house!

Hooray for snow! The kids were so excited to make a snowman.

Mason still wanted to jump on the trampoline with the snow.

The ferocious batman! He loves to wear the cape and mask (much better than the princess dress-ups, don't you think?)

Sigh.....he found the scissors and took matters into his own hands.

Poor girl has to put up with her big brother......"Save me, Mom!"

Halloween Haunting

Even Ragen got into the spirit! She was just a Halloween baby.
My fearless Batman! Ok, he was actually crying during the photoshoot.

Tyla was a mummy. We ripped up sheets and tried pinning them on her.

Then we had the bat girls! This is Alayna.

And here's Tiana. They had so much fun!

Halloween is always really fun, but also really tiring! We went to the ward trunk-or-treat the week before Halloween and the kids scored with the treats! Of course, Mason had his all eaten by the end of next week! That kid can sure go through the treats. He just shovels them in! For the regular trick-or-treating we went up to Teryl's house in Perry and went out with the cousins. That was a blast! Then we had dinner-in-a-pumpkin at Teryl's house afterward.

I don't know about you, but Halloween always makes my stomach turn. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy eating a treat here and there, but just seeing the mountain of candy the kids bring home makes me too ill to even taste one. Tyla was so cute with her candy. She decided to chart it. She grabbed a pencil and paper and proceeded to document all of her treats and her total. She is my child that is not into treats as much. She only ate one after the trunk-or-treat and has since only eaten one or two per day. Of course, that poses a problem for Mason who ate all of his and is now sad that he doesn't have any candy and Tyla does! Silly boy! :)

Precious Smiles!

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Oh, I love it when they get big enough to start smiling! And I actually caught it on camera! She's starting to fill out a little and is so cute when she gets quiet, stares at you, then does a half-second grin!


Poor girl hates her carseat! She's getting better - about 50/50 now.

Ooohh, what's that flash, Mom?

I always forget how huge the carseats are until you put a brand-new infant in them! She's being drowned!

This is the laundry basket she slept in for the first month of her life.

Ragen's 2-Week Check-up

Can you say, "Chubby already?!?" Ragen has definitely decided to be her own girl and not follow in her siblings' footsteps. All my kids lost some weight at their two-week check-up, but not Ragen! She has gained weight and is now 8 lbs. 11 oz. That puts her in the 50% for height and weight! The rest of the kids are below the 5% for all of those! Maybe she'll be the tallest one in the family. Ok, it's probably too early to tell and she will most likely be a shrimp like everyone else. But we're excited for now!

A few things about Ragen:
- She hates riding in the car in her carseat! She screamed the whole way to and from the dr. office which was a 30 min. drive both ways. We've gotta get her to snap out of it, though because we're driving the girls to school three times a day.
- She's being a stinker about taking a pacifier.
- She does not like baths and we have to do them double-time.
- She's gotten better about having her diaper changed and doesn't cry the whole time.
- She hates being naked, unless she's snuggled up next to Mom!
- I swear she has smiled at me real smiles a few times. So precious!!
- She's been sleeping in a laundry basket. It's a good thing because the laundry basket is light enough for me to carry to the different rooms I am in.
- She hasn't lost her hair yet and it is so cute!
- Her favorite snuggle position is chest-to-chest with her legs tucked up underneath her. That just happens to be my favorite snuggle position with her, too!
- For the most part, she is a very calm baby who likes to be held and look around at her surroundings.

We definitely love her and feel so blessed to have another family member!