Art Roundup...

I wish I could keep every little piece of creativity that flows from these children of mine.....but alas I do not own a home that can be filled entirely with notes, pictures,etc.  Therefore, I take pictures of a lot of what they produce.

Drew has always had a knack for coloring and art.  He is a perfectionist, kind of like his mom...  

Madelyn is starting to get really into art.  She loves drawing princesses and playing little art games like "tell me what to draw." 

This is a bit fuzzy, but it is a cute little picture Drew drew.....hahaha.  I think it's name is "Pookie." 

Hannah is getting into it too, especially since she got a lot of art supplies for her birthday.

Here are some of Hannah's preschool projects, and Lily's as well, since when I teach preschool at our house she gets to join in!

I thought these were cute...I just like to hear what comes from them.  Like "blankies" and "2 blankies."

They kind of leaned on each other for ideas too....juice and blankets.....

They sure love doing projects!

Giving Thanks...

My children are not holding up toilet paper......

They are actually holding up our "Gratitude List" that we worked on for the month of November.

We got pretty far on that thing!  We came up with 166 things that we are grateful for; I think we far surpassed the numbers of our previous year's list.  

Some of the items did get pretty creative....and I'm glad.  I'm glad that my children are able to think out of the box a little and recognize even some of the very smallest things are such a blessing in our lives.

I love reflecting on our blessings.  Man do we ever have a lot of them.  There is so much to be grateful for.  I've been doing my best to continue this practice each night as I go to bed.  There are blessings in the toughest of days if you just dig a little.  ;)

For a follow-up Family Home Evening, we discussed what our top ten would be.  

Here's a few of mine:

1.  Jesus Christ and the atonement.  I'm so grateful that there is hope for me.  I'm so grateful that despite my seemingly permanent bad habits, forgiveness is available and there is still hope that I can change and become a better person.  I'm so grateful for the love of the Savior.  I know He loves me.

2.  A loving Heavenly Father.  I know that my life is in the hands of One who knows better than I.  I know God knows me individually, and He knows what is best for me.  I hope I can always have the faith to follow His will for me.

3.  A wonderful husband.  Very very grateful in fact.  He is my best friend.  We are so alike in the things that we feel really matter.  Yet, we are so different in so many ways at the same time, and boy is that a good thing!  I hope that many of his qualities will rub off on me! 
4.  Being a mom.  I know there are reasons for the direction our lives take.  We each learn certain lessons in life for a reason.  I know that raising a family was in Heavenly Father's design for me, and I'm extremely humbled and grateful for it. 
5. My children.  They have each come with different traits, personalities, and talents.  I'm grateful for each of them and what they bring to our home.  They teach me so much. I sure do love them.
I could keep going on and on about these blessings and write more about others.....but I don't want things to get too mooshy, so I will keep it concise.... :)
I love having a heart full of thanks to lead me right into the Christmas season.
   

Time Warp...

 Oh my....I cannot believe how time is flying by.  Especially when it comes to how fast my baby girl is growing!!  She is now 6 months old, and I am aghast at the thought of how much time has passed since she was born. 

 And I cannot get enough of my sweet little baby girl.

 This sweet little Claire is such a pleasant little girl.

So happy and willing to give smiles any time.

She is such a bright spot in our family.

 I love those sweet little chubby cheeks, those pudgy little fingers, and squishy baby feet.

 She loves to be sung to, loves anything that makes a crinkly noise, and absolutely loves attention.

 I love that she loves her mama.  Jed and I went on our first date without her by our side last night, and when I came to pick her up she just turned right towards me and reached out to me.  Then she just put her face right next to mine and grabbed my hair and held it to her.  Heart melter..... 

So many people comment to me, "I'm so glad we're out of that stage with our kids."  

Not me.  I love baby stage.  I love having a baby on my hip.  I love cuddling those sweet little bundles, she hardly even lets me cuddle her anymore...

But I just have to say, I love it.

(And yes I must admit that this stage of baby-ness is much easier than her colicky stage....colic is not my favorite part of babyhood)

 I love her smile!!!  It brightens everyone around her.

 I love cute little baby mischief.  We all think its funny.

 Too funny and cute.

 I am just smitten by this little baby.

Claire is still in her little baby crib in our room!!  Half because I can't bear the fact that it is past time for her to move out, and half because I just can't trust her in the other room with my other mischievous little girls....

I love how she just seems ready to party with us at night time...

So, yes, I am doing my best to savor and drink up every ounce of this cute baby stage.  It goes all too quickly, and it seems to leave faster with each child. 

Birthday #7

 We had another birthday around these parts recently.  Madelyn hit the ripe old age of 7.  Man, does time ever fly.  I know  I pretty much say that every time we celebrate a birthday....but, seriously, I feel like I'm living life in warp speed!!

 It was a little early in the morning for Claire.  Luckily I stalled Madelyn by having her take a bath, that girl got up at 5:30 A.M. that morning.  She always has been my little early riser!

 The first gift she chose to open was the tiniest one, I think it was intriguing.  I had to have my camera ready for this because it was a little box with several sets of earrings.  I told her a long while back that she could get her ears pierced at 8 years old....but then I thought I would rather save the anticipation of turning that age for baptism, so this was a complete surprise to her....

 She was a little confused.  And when I told her I had changed my mind about getting her ears pierced, she was pretty excited!!

 Lily didn't have as hard of a time on Madelyn's birthday as Hannah's a couple weeks earlier.  Phew.

 Madelyn loved all of her presents, it made it so much fun to give them to her!!  She was so thrilled about every single one and praised us with thanks without being reminded once.  It was very sweet.

 I thought it was so cute that Drew wanted to help her put her necklace on....

 All ready for school with her show and tell bag.......We ate german pancakes and then she was off.  Part of the specialness that morning was being up early enough to do her hair "fancy."  She loves that.

 Lily was pretending it was her birthday too after they went to school...

 Little ham....

 These girls were way excited to help me make their sisters special cake...

 Madelyn had planned this cake out weeks in advance.  (In fact we're planned in the cake department up to Drew's birthday).  I love making their birthday cakes, even though I'm no pro.  I just love to surprise them!  Just one of my favorite things about their birthdays.  The cake was completed just in time for Madelyn to come home from school and see it....

 Her reaction made my day!  I opened up the fridge and brought it out....she just gasped and said "Mom!  It's beautiful!  I didn't think it was going to turn out that good!!"  It doesn't get much better....  :)

 Drew grilled us up some awesome burgers, which happened to pass of a scout requirement and help his mom out big time at the same time.  ;)

 Madelyn wanted a picture of this heart basket she got from her grandma.

 Placing those candles in her cake...

 She had her grandparents join us for birthday cake that night.

 

 I like to swipe my kids from school to take them out for lunch.  This time we had to wait until the day after her birthday because I was teaching preschool on her birthday at her lunch time.  So we had a "girls lunch" all together at the fancy dancy Fiesta Ole.  :)

 They sure love those bean burritos.  Crisp for them, but those delicious soft cheesy ones for me!

 I sure love doing lunch with my birthday kids.  Me (not flattering) and my birthday girl!

Then on Saturday, I took all of the kids with me to get some things done in town.  One of those things was get Madelyn's ears pierced at the mall.  Boy was she ever brave!  I squeezed her hands and my little girl didn't even shed a tear!
She loves having her ears pierced and showing them off to everyone we meet!

Seven things I love about Madelyn:
1.  She has a caring heart and always has.  She loves to write me love notes and I love that! 
2.  She is so helpful with her sisters.
3.  She is brave.  She doesn't mind public speaking one bit.  She will try new things.
4.  She is a friend to all.  She is such a social little bug, and has so many friends.
5.  She loves to do things with me from making food together to making lists of things to do together that day.
6.  She is smart as a whip.  She can check out any book she wants from her school library.  Her school teacher loves her.  And she absolutely loves to read.
7.  She is a missionary.  She has invited friends to come to church, shared the gospel with strangers, and has the book of mormon scripture story book in her backpack ready to read to a friend of hers whenever she gets a chance.
I love you Madelyn!