December 2018

 December!!  Its always hard to believe when we come to the end of another year.  We love all of the extra family time that this year brings and all the memories that we make.  As usual December was full of lots of activities.  

Colette turned 10 months old this month and she continues to surprise us with the things she learns.  She finally started to really army crawl, loves music, and discovered how much she loves Addie.  

Starting to walk!

 More updates on the Barbie House...

 Took Tess and Kassidy to story time with Mrs. Claus and then visited Santa at his workshop...

 Kids aren't the only ones having fun...

My mom turned 60 this year and we celebrated with dinner and a night at Ogden's Christmas Village. It's always a fun night with the family altogether. 

Addie's Christmas House Project turned out so cute.  Even though it was done at the very last minute. 

Santa visited our neighborhood one night.  Such a fun family that put this together.

 I got to volunteer with Quincy's class to help them make gingerbread houses.  It was fun to be with her and her class. 

 And Tess had her own gingerbread house making session with Grandma!

Payne Family Christmas Party...

The Stoker Family invited us over to decorate gingerbread houses and we love spending time with this family!

A few more updates on the Dreamhouse.  I started getting so nervous that the girls would find it!

This is how we do the orthodontist!

School Christmas Sing...

Cookie Decorating...

 We surprised the girls with tickets to Juanito Bandito's Christmas Carol.  They were so excited and we had so much fun!

Christmas Eve came so fast.  We started the day by opening our Christmas Jammies.  

 And then got ready for the annual Christmas Eve party...

Wayment Christmas Eve Party was amazing as usual.  We have so much fun playing games, visiting, and enjoying watching the kids get so excited.  Everyone is completely spoiled by my parents who always go above and beyond.  

 Love this family of mine...

 Sweet Babies...

 When we got home we went to work setting up the Dreamhouse for the morning.  I was thrilled with how it all came together.  

Christmas Morning.  It was so great watching these ladies get so excited over everything.  And Coco's first Christmas was a little bit of a reminder how quickly time is passing us.  This will be the last "first Christmas" that we will experience and we enjoyed it so much.  And I loved seeing how excited the girls got over the Barbie Dreamhouse.  It made all the hours of work worth it!

We wrapped up our Christmas with the Paynes, lamb dinner, crackers, and crowns. We wouldn't want to spend it any other way.  We sure love this family.   

 Kangaroo Zoo fun...

 It is rare to find an outfit that is in all my girl's sizes so when I found these dresses I just had to get them.  They are so adorable!

New Year's Eve!! Our family took the Prophet's challenge to finish the Book of Mormon by the end of the year.  It wasn't always easy but in the end it was definitely worth the sacrifice.  We were definitely blessed and have grown stronger as a family.  Then, we spent the evening with our favorite friends and it was an epic night that included lots of food, games, unintentional matching outfits, and ringing in the New Year at 9:00pm.  We certainly love this group of people.  

 Even though the party had ended, the girls were determined to last until midnight!

 We have been so blessed throughout this year... our 4th (and final) daughter was born, our girls have been healthy and learning and growing in so many ways, we have an amazing support system of our family and friends, and we have had so many opportunities to grow and serve and love.  We look forward to what the next year will bring!

November 2018

November was filled with lots of family time and full of fun.  

It started with forts and friends and still being able to play outside.  

 Next up we had our newest niece Maylie's blessing and it was fun to put these 2 little beauties together.  

 The older girls loved seeing this little sweetie too!

At 9 months this little lady has had a lot of ups and downs.  Poor thing has gone from to acid reflux, to croup, to ear infections and she just wants to snuggle in to my hair.  She also gets busier and busier by the day. Exploring new things and moving more and more.  She is trying more and more foods and gets so excited over bananas and cheetos.  

 Her little crossed feet... I love this so much...

 This little lady loves to be a helper.  Her newfound favorite... Laundry!

And she has been better at trying (and liking) new foods, like ribs and shrimp!

And she comes up with the craziest new dance moves!

And learning to read!

We had to celebrate Melanie turning 40 this month!  We tried to sneak over and decorate her house but she was home and caught us!  It was still fun!

 Preschool Fun... J is for Jellyfish!

Addie's Science Fair Project!  She was one of the winners and made it to the District Science Fair. So proud of her!

 Quick outing to get pedicures to celebrate Melanie's birthday.  

Love shopping with this girl. She always makes it fun!

 We had a visit from our favorite California family the Villamizars.  It is always the best day when we get to spend time with this family.

 Sister snuggles...

We spent Thanksgiving at the Wayment's and it was such a great day.  We have so much to be thankful for.  

 More shopping with the whole crew...

 We had a fun opportunity to go to a BYU game with Ryan, Sara, and their kids when they were in town.  We love spending time with this family. 

 Decorating the Christmas trees.  The girls love that they get their own tree to decorate in the basement. 

 What? How do you play with your Little People Nativity?

The girls started asking for a Barbie Dreamhouse for Christmas and I just knew that this would be such a fun project.  After doing some research and realizing how expensive it would be I almost threw in the towel.  Then out of nowhere, I found all the wood I needed for $20.  I knew that it was meant to be and I got started right away.  I measured, cut, sanded, primed, painted, nailed, glued and even built most of the furniture. This project stretched me in every way possible.  I learned so much and really enjoyed building this from scratch. Here's the beginning of the project.  Final project in next month's post.

Thus ended our November and we went head on into December, ready for one of our busiest months.