{December 2015: Christmas Festivities, Family Visits, Snow, Perform Talents}

Christmas Festivities.  Love Our Kiddos, Christmas Eve Matching Pajamas.  Baby Girl H's {turn} putting the Star, on the top of our Advent Calendar.  Baby Boy D's First Christmas.

 Lovely White Christmas. Our Girls Opening Presents.  Snacks for Santa & Reindeer.

 Our Sweet Kiddos Opening Presents, together.

Special Christmas Breakfast.  Baby D Snuggling with Daddy and Standing Up.

Opening Christmas Presents together, as a Family.

 Nativity Play on Christmas Day.

 Girl Band Practice.  Curling Our Girls' Hair.  Creating Art.  Big Sister R & Little Miss K, Entering & Winning Awards at their School Art Contest.  Little Miss K Singing at her School Christmas Concert.  So Proud of our Kiddos! :)

 Our Kids had So Much Fun; Making a Ginger Bread House and Christmas Sugar Cookies.  Little Miss K did an Amazing job on her talk in Primary {at Church}: "I know that my Redeemer Lives". Her talk that she said was, "President Gordon B. Hinckley shared his testimony: 'Jesus is my friend. He is my exemplar. He is my teacher. He is my healer. He is my leader. He is my Savior and my Redeemer. He is my God and my King. Gratefully, and with love, I bear witness of these things.'  Jesus is my Savior, for He rescues me from me. I'll try to explain just how to you. It's very clear to see. Heavenly Father sent me here, to learn to choose the right. I can't get back to live with him, unless I win the fight. Each day I have to make a choice. Some days I seem to choose the path that's leads away from Christ, and that's the way I lose. But God knew that I'd need some help, so Jesus said he'd come, and be my Savior so I can try to be the best I can become. And when I try to change my ways, a better person be, I can succeed because of Christ, who gave His life for me. I know that Jesus is my Savior, because He died for my sins. I want to do all I can, to follow His example and be worthy to live with Him again, someday. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

Baby D Adorably Sleeping.  I LOVE that he sucks his thumb!  It is Super Cute! :)  Our Christmas Cards & Baby Announcements, ready to send out.  

   Mark's brother Glen, his wife Summer, and their 4 kiddos {our nieces & nephews} came to visit us at our place, for a few days.  It was so lovely to spend time with them.  

We had a wonderful time, visiting the Cheney side of the family, up in Washington, a few days after Christmas, through New Years.  We also celebrated Baby Girl H's Birthday, this month, which I will be posting about on my photog blog, very soon.

  

{May 2015: Cinco De Mayo, Flowers, Harry Potter, Mother's Day, Science Fair}

Baby H getting a ride on Daddy's shoulders.  Our Three Girls, helping plant our Beautiful, Colorful, Spring Flower Garden.  We Love our Helpful Kids!

 We finished reading the "Harry Potter" series as a family, and watched the last movie together.  We love these books.  So profound.  So imaginative. We put the littles to bed half-way through the movie, and they fell asleep.   

 Celebrating Cinco De Mayo as a family.  We love partying and celebrating whenever we get a chance.  Plus we love any excuse to eat Mexican Food.  Little Miss R, made this awesome Cinco De Mayo Cake; all by herself! :)

Our sweet little Baby H.  We all love her.

Fun Rides with Daddy.  Looking at the pretty flowers.  Hanging out with Baby D.

Sleepy Baby D.  Doggy little man C.  Happy little miss H.

Celebrating Mother's Day 2015: my sweet family brought me a delicious breakfast in bed, made me a special lunch & dinner, brought me my favorite two kinds of flowers {roses & lilies}, gave me presents & cards, and made me a cake.  I felt very appreciated, loved and spoiled.  xoxo

 Little Man E entered the 4th Grade Science Fair, "Dissolving Sugar at Different Heats".  It was fun to go support our sweet little guy at his school. #babywearing

 

{April 2015: Easter, Baby Blessing, Cat Habitat, Family Visits & Fun}

April 2015 was a lovely month.  We celebrated Easter as a family, and enjoyed the beautiful blossoms budding on the trees in our yard.

 Princess H dressed up like the Easter Bunny.  Our kiddos enjoying their Easter Egg Hunt, in our yard.  Delicious Strawberry Shortcake, for our Easter dessert.

 Our Baby Girl H, with Baby Brother D.  Our Delicious Easter Dinner, that we celebrated with, together.

 Our children had a blast, during our Easter Egg Hunt.

 I love the Spring time, when new life is blossoming.  

Baby Boy D, showing off his buff arms, in his muscle shirt.

We also had Baby Boy D's Baby Blessing in April.  We had a lot of family, travel to come and share in this beautiful day with us.  Uncle Chris & Aunt Mandy holding Baby D.  Little Miss H, styling in her Diva Sunglasses, while she naps.

Baby D * Little Man E with cousins * Auntie Angela holding Baby D * Blossoms from our yard

We were worried about our kittens, outside {we live by a somewhat busy street}, so Mark built them a cat habitat {this is the first stage of this amazing structure} to keep them safe, while they are outside.  We have been adding awesome features ever since {to be continued in posts}.

We love our kittens: Pikachu, Peaches & Apricot.

Fun with Cousins.  K with Cousin R.  Little Miss R celebrated her birthday {cupcakes made by Grandma {my mom}}, with Cousin T, while family was here.  We also had a fabulous party for R, on her actual birthday {I will post a link to that later.  I usually post about our birthday parties on my photo blog}.  Baby H swam in the bathtub, while her 4 older siblings, went with their cousins to swim at their hotel.  So much fun!

Happy Little Baby D.  Styling Little Miss H.

Baby D's Baby Blessing went wonderfully.  Mark gave him a beautiful blessing.  We were blessed to have many members of our family; come to share in this special day with us.  

We had a luncheon afterwards, and enjoyed visiting with our family, in our home.

We had a lovely time together.  We were so happy to have everyone here, who was able to make it.

 Our kiddos had an awesome time, decorating Easter eggs together.

Little Miss H, getting into Mommy's ink, all while wearing her stylin' sunglasses.  Baby D, swinging in his swing.  Our girls H & R reading stories together.

 

{December 2014: Christmas, Pregnancy, Family Fun, Continuing...}

Hello again.  I am continuing on from where we left off.  December 2014.  I will try to catch up as soon as possible.  In December 2014...I performed my violin, in the Stake Orchestra, for our church, for a Christmas Nativity Program.  It was wonderful to play in an orchestra again!  Mark and I were also asked to sing a duet, which we performed in our Ward at church, for the Christmas program.  We sang "What Child is This?"  It was and always is fun singing together.  We had a fabulous time!  I was 7 months pregnant, with our 6th child, at the time, as well.

 We have many Christmas traditions that we enjoy doing as a family.  One is: making and decorating a Gingerbread house.  So much fun!  Our daughter R, performed in her Christmas Music Concert, with the other Third Graders, from her school.

Our Family had a blast at their Class Christmas Parties, at school.  Our daughter K, at her Kindergarten Christmas party, with her siblings H & C.  Our Daughters R & K in R's Class for her Christmas party.  Our sons E & C at E's Class Christmas Party.  Mark and our son C, in his Classroom, for his Christmas Party.

Our Three Ginger Kittens, are Loved so much by our Family!  Our kids named them: Pikachu, Apricot and Peaches.  They are such adorable, and sweet Kittens and we adore their spunky, loving personalities!

 We had a Beautiful and Magical Christmas celebration with our Sweet Kiddos.  We love this special time of year!  We enjoy our fun traditions together; some more are: reading Christmas stories, watching Christmas movies, Caroling together, performing the Nativity Story, Christmas morning Breakfast, Christmas Eve Party, Christmas Dinner, Christmas Light Scavenger Hunt, Sledding, Hot Chocolate, Christmas Pajamas, Christmas Ornaments, Singing together, Crafts...

 We celebrated Christmas Day at our House with our Kiddos, and a couple days later, we went up to Oregon to spend Christmas with Mark's side of the family.  We enjoyed doing fun things with them; including going sledding with our cousins.  The kids had a blast doing that!  

We also celebrated New Years Eve, with Mark's side of the Family.  We had a fun party and celebration, and enjoyed ringing in 2015 with them. 

{Camping, Mark's Birthday, Halloween: October 2014}

As a Family we went Camping at Lake Cleveland.  We setup our tent, we started a fire, we cooked our food over the fire, and we made s'mores over the fire.

 We walked around the area, enjoyed the beautiful scenery of the outdoors and the beautiful lake.

  We enjoyed our special time camping together.  Being 5 months pregnant, I was glad that my morning sickness was over, so I could enjoy our adventure fully. :) 

 We sang songs together, talked, and slept in our large 3 room family tent together.

 The kids enjoyed going fishing with their Daddy.

Mark taught the kids how to fish.

We all enjoyed the beautiful scenery around us.

We had a party for Mark's birthday, and we all had a wonderful time, celebrating the birth of our awesome father and husband.  We love him!  {I made him a special breakfast in the morning.  I made Mark a special lunch to take to school.  Then after school, I made him a special dinner for his birthday: Grilled Salmon, Fried Potatoes, and Green Beans.  It was delicious.  He enjoyed the dinner very much.  We made him a cake, with Blue Frosting, and sang to him "Happy Birthday", and then he blew out the candles, and ate the first bite.  We gave him presents, and handmade cards.}

We have a tradition in our family, when our kiddos are 1 year olds, they wear Daddy's klompen shoes {for a picture}, that he got from his mission for our church to the Netherlands.  So it was Baby H's turn to celebrate this tradition.  Click here, to view all of our other kids when they did this too!  I have always loved "The Wizard of Oz" since I was a child, so I have a tradition of taking a picture with my girls, in these ruby red slippers.  We have them in all different sizes, for the girls.  :) Baby H is starting to really enjoy drawing and coloring.

We love our kiddos.  Our son E and Mark had a lot of fun together, camping in a tent, together, on his Webelos Scouts Campout.  Little man C lost his first tooth!  Our kids have ALL started losing their teeth at age 4.  Super early.  He was really excited, to have the Tooth Fairy come too!  Baby H enjoying Daddy's Birthday cake. :)

   {While E and Daddy were on their camp out:} The rest of the kids and I enjoyed making Halloween Haunted Houses, out of Graham Crackers, Frosting and Candy.  

 We had a lot of fun decorating them, and making them special and creative.  We also watched Halloween movies together.  One that we love is "Charlie Brown Halloween".  We had a great time! {E made one the next day too.}

 We went to K's Halloween Party in her Kindergarten Class at school.  They had lots of games and activities, put together by their "room mom".  They had a photo booth, a huge pumpkin, that they threw bean bags through, large tin can bowling, with different halloween creatures painted onto each of the tin cans, and crafts for the kids to do. 

 They also did a cupcake walk game, and K had fun doing that.  The parents brought in many, many treats, and goodies, snacks, and desserts for the kids to enjoy.  Little miss K loved her Kindergarten party, and we all enjoyed being there to share in her special Halloween Kindergarten party.  The Kindergarteners paraded around their classroom with their costumes on.  K was dressed as a Princess Cat.  It was such a fun event. :)

We went and watched the Halloween Parade at school, with the different classes parading around in their costumes.  Mark was a forest spirit, E was a Ninja, and R was a Hogwarts student.  Then later, Mark, R and E had their Halloween Class Parties. 

E also went on a field trip with his class that day.  They had a lot of fun.  All of their Halloween parties were fun.  K, C and H enjoyed going to the different parties, but stayed mostly in their Daddy's classroom.  

 On Halloween, the kids had No School, so we went Trick or Treating together.  Our son E went as a Ninja, our daughter R went as a Hogwart's student, our daughter K went as a Princess Cat, and our son C went as a Power Ranger.

Our Baby H went as Princess Snow White.  We walked around to nearby neighborhoods to go Trick or Treating.  As always, the kids got way too much candy!  But we had a total blast together!  The last picture is of the kids after their Primary Program, in Sacrament Meeting {at church}.  Little Miss K did her part first, which was singing the first verse of "The Family is of God" with her class.  Little Man C did his part next, which was {the teacher says, 'I feel happiest in my family when'} then C says, "When my Family sings together" (he came up with his own part).  Then our son E did his part, which is: "Jesus Christ showed us, through His example, how we can return to Heavenly Father.  Jesus loves me so much that he paid the ultimate price for my sins".  E sang with his class, the second verse of "I Stand all Amazed".  Our daughter R's next part that she did was, singing the 1st verse with her class, the song, "Baptism".  R's next part was singing a solo in the song "Scripture Power".  She sings, "I'm reading His instructions, I'm following His plan".  R's next part was singing "I Will Shine" song, with the Activity Day Girls.  The Kids also sang all of the songs with the Primary.  They did wonderfully preforming their parts.  I held up (cue cards) the words and pictures, to help the (primary) kids with their songs.  The kids did amazing on their speaking parts, songs, solos, and songs with the primary.  We were so proud of them!  They all did so wonderfully.