A 4-Year Old!

William is the sweetest little boy ever! He is such a good kid and we are so grateful to have him in our family.
For his birthday he went back and forth between a super hero party and a pirate party. We settled on pirates and he had a fun time decorating his cake. 

I was planning on a small family party but I discovered before the girls got home from school that the day before Evelyn had invited the neighborhood over for William's bday pirate party! Although surprised, and grateful that a parent called to confirm, I was glad. Will hadn't ever had a party and we had enough stuff at home to throw together some party favors for everyone. So I was glad it worked out like it did, it was a lot less stress not knowing people are coming until the day they came! And we had a great time! 

 Will with his cake and pirate treasure bday favors. 

 He is always so pleased with anything and everything

Argh! We love you Will!

February Fun

These were our Valentines this year. We saw this idea on Pinterest and have had fun with it for the last 2 years. 

In February we were blessed with a visit from Grammie, Ben's mom. She was so fun and made cute owl cookies with the kids for them to give away to friends. "Owl always love you" and "Whoo loves you?"

 WE LOVE YOU GRAMMIE! Thank you for visiting us! 

January 2013

January was a nice month, we enjoyed the beautiful and cooler weather. The boys and I felt lonely after Christmas break and getting to be with Ben and the girls. We enjoyed some quiet and we also got to tend some friends for a couple of weeks, so that kept us busy. 

 We went park exploring and found Pfluger park, one of my new favorites, there is Henry and our friends at the stream. 

 We made some cool forts

 Henry found a hobby of sitting in baskets 

 The girls ate their greens, we find they eat their vegetables if they pretend they are animals and feed each other, whatever works, right?! 

Will made a sweet tower

Got an awesome thrift store find. We call it the coaster. It was $3! 

Henry figured out how to climb the girls' bunkbed. He still hasn't figured out his crib, but I don't think he's tried, he likes it there! Excuse the Saturday morning garb!

Here is Evelyn's piano recital, she really does have a knack for music and it is exciting to watch her learn and improve. 

Christmas in Arizona Pics

We were in Arizona for almost 2 weeks, so there is so much to post, but since I am 5 months late in posting it, I am only posting a few: 

 Presents! 

 Table! 

 More presents! 

 Grammie and Grandad had a rule for each other this year that you could only get as much as would fit in their stockings...So Grandad made a bigger stocking for Grammie! 

 Evelyn got a sewing kit and went right to work! She did great! 

 We took a trip to a train park with Jon, Nicole, Grammie and kids. Jon had a blast! 

 So did Henry! 

 And Grammie too! 

 This is the Gilbert, AZ temple still under construction. Ben's dad's company did the structural steel work for it! 

 GIRLZ! 

 N and J dawgs

 Fuzzy pic of ginger bread house making

 I love this pic of Grammie reading Christmas stories by the tree with 6 of the now many grandchildren! 

 Christmas Eve, opening pajamas, ornaments, and books  from Grammie and Grandad! 

 Grandma Wyeth was able to come down, we were so happy to see her

 Mother and Son and Daughter-in-law...A great bunch! 

Great-Grandma Wyeth 

Christmas in Arizona Videos

We had a fantastic time with most of Ben's family in Arizona for Christmas. Nellie and Justin were in charge of activities for one night. We played "Sock Wars" where you had to crawl around and take the socks off of everyone else. The following video is the final round. 

Before we did that, Nellie taught the girls a Samoan dance. She was a great teacher and we were quite elegant with our moves, I must say.

While Nellie was teaching the girls, Justin was teaching the boys the Haka. Due to an unfortunate run-in with a nut, Ben was already asleep for the night because of all the benadryl he had to take to stay alive. I am pretty impressed. with these Haka men. I wouldn't want to have to battle them! 

Here's a bit of the fun from the kiddos. I love to hear them laughing and having fun! 

Some more of the kiddos being silly. In most of my videos Nellie is in the background cleaning...I always wondered how everything got so clean :) 

Up on Housetop Evelyn Dings

We were pretty proud of Evelyn and her xylophone solo in the Christmas program! She did great! Such a little wonder she is! We're so grateful to have her! 

Hannah Turns 6!

Birthdays are pretty exciting around here! This year we saved and saved and saved our moolah and for Hannah's bday we got season passes to Sea World! It was a very fun day, not documented very well in photos but in awesome memories! 

 Hannah's bday is early December, so Sea World had some pretty decked out halls 

 Dolphin Cove

 Rides

 WHOA Seahorsey! 

 The Sea Lion Show 

 Hannah wanted to decorate her own castle cake, so she got the cake and everyone else decorated cupcakes. 

 Hannah's finished castle cake (princess included, can you spot her?)

 Our sea-loving, book reading, kind, imaginative, brilliant, bright and WONDERFUL Hannah! We are so grateful for this little angel! 

All the finished castles

This is a video of Hannah opening her giant stuffed dolphin, needless to say, she loved it and uses it as her pillow every night!