Where has the year gone???

7 Months since my last update...  A lot to catch up on so we will highlight everything in order of when they happened.  Here we go....

This year for Christmas we stayed home instead of going to families houses.  It was kind of nice to be a little more relaxed at home.

Stockings are SO exciting!

Not everyone was ready to be awake.

Hunter turned 8 in January and he was baptized.  It was such a special day for our family.  His cousin Ben is only 20 days younger, so we waited just a bit and on January 22nd  Hunter and Ben were able to get baptized together.

This year Brian turned 31, and I can't believe that I don't have a picture of him on his birthday.  But this one was taken 2 days before so I will use it (not to mention I would love a reason to post it :)

Kait's birthday is in March, and she turned 7 this year. She is so responsible, she helps so much around the house and with her younger brothers and sisters!  She's got a book from Grandma called "Little Mommy", it's her go-to guide, she loves her baby dolls!

This Spring we signed our two older girls up for soccer.  They had so much fun!  Audrey loved being a forward and scored a couple of goals, and Kaitlynne loved defense and is a great goalie!

Brian isn't the only one who turned 31 this year... I wrote "30" on my cake... maybe it's time to start lying about my age...

 I always wait until our kids 1st birthday to give them their first hair cut, but Carter got his two months early because it was just getting too long.

We went from baby toupee hair...

To handsome big boy hair

Here is all that I cut off!

Mailea's birthday was in June, she's 4 now.  It's a little sad for us that she's our baby girl and she growing up so fast!  We asked her if she could just stay three, but she just grinned her classic "Mailea" grin!

She wanted Dora jammies more than anything!

Our baby boy turned 1 this month!  He's walking and mimicking so much of what we say.  He loved his birthday cake and ice cream cone, opening presents got a little intense.

Ice cream makes anyone feel better!

July was especially busy for us.  The first part of the month Sarah's family stopped over for a few days and we all had a whirlwind of fun.  It's always so great for the kids to spend time with their cousins.

Then a few days later  Brian's dad flew out for 6 days.  Layne hired a photographer to take family pictures,  so all 30 of us met at the park at 8 am.  They turned out great, we got some really nice photos.  The kids loved spending time with Grandpa Layne!  Definitely some wonderful memories made this summer!

Some where in all of this we decided that instead of Brian becoming a Respiratory Therapist he would get his degree in Nursing.  He got into the program and starts the end of August.  We are excited!  Two years and he will have his RN, then while he is working, he can work on getting his bachelors.

I think that is enough updating for one post.  I'm going to have to add a few more pictures as I find them :S
But it has been a great year so far!  Heavenly Father is blessing us for sure!  I don't think we could be happier!

Christmas Time is here!

Yesterday we decorated the tree and made gingerbread houses.  It was a lot of excitement and fun for everyone especially the kids eating all that sugar right before bedtime!

I said we decorated the tree, but really it was the kids.

Working so hard!

Every one was so pleased with their houses!

In my defense my kids do not alway look like little (cute) orphans.  It's just when we get the camera out :P

This year for Halloween all the boys were werewolf's and the girls were witches.  Except for Carter, he wore the pumpkin costume that I made when Hunter was a baby.  (All of the boy's have worn it their first Halloween.)    We went to our ward "Trunk or Treat" at the church house.  We all had a fun time!  The kids were so excited for all the candy they got :S  Luckily they shared with aunties and uncles so the sugar overdose was kept to a minimum.

Hunter

Reese

Carter

Kaitlynne

Audrey

Mailea

Brian and Mary

Reese is 2!

Reese's  birthday came right in the middle of the second week of our garage sale.  (I am putting it in print that "I will never do another garage sale")  And it was the same day as our ward Halloween Trunk or Treat.  We did take a few minutes for Reese to open his gift from Grandma Sally, BANANAS! 

 

 

Since he was only turning 2 it did take some pressure off for having a "birthday party" with out too much "mommy guilt".  With all the Halloween candy I didn't really want to make a cake to have on top of all of that.  So he had a birthday cookie, and loved it.

Looking for a more exciting title than "Blog Post #2"

What?  There is more to this than just starting a blog?  You are suppose to add to it? 

  Since school has started we have been busier than ever!  About two weeks ago Brian had the bright idea that I should start getting out of bed earlier than 9:00.  I’m not sure why…  I mean the kids are only up at about 6… and now that Hunter and Kaitlynne are older I don’t come out into the living room in the morning to find them pouring pitchers of water onto the carpet trying to make a swimming pool.  Or three of them sitting around a big cooking pot eating cereal and milk out if it because they decided to get themselves breakfast.  But I had to agree with him and we decided to try it, so 6:30 here I come…  I have to say that it is amazing how much you can get done starting out earlier!  I’m finding time to do little extra projects.  Not to mention there is less arguing in the morning, the kids get breakfast before 9:30, and school is done before Brian gets home from school. 

   Hunter is in second grade this year, Kaitlynne in first, and Audrey in kindergarten.  It is definitely taking more time to homeschool three rather than just two, but overall it’s going well.  Hunter is the most difficult, some days second grade math just kills!  But now that we are a couple of weeks into it he is getting the hang of things and doesn’t freak out when he has to add four digit numbers.

    Now that we are finding more time in our days we have been really working hard on eating healthier and working out.  Brian goes to the gym every day after school and at home I do Callanetics, then Tuesdays and Thursdays we all go to the YMCA.  If muscle soreness is an indication on progress, we are doing great!

  

Since our last post-

We thought that we would take the kids to a Springfield Cardinals game.  Including walking there from parking, and walking back, our baseball game experience only lasted about an hour.  Afterwards we took them out for ice cream. (At least the tickets were free… ) 

Not everyone was cheerful on the way there.

And not everyone was cheerful when it was time to go.

 On the way back to the car Mailea's shoe fell of and got 

run over, you can kind of see the tire tracks.

Carter’s baby blessing- September 5^th

Carter and his Auntie J.

Audrey turned 5 on the 6^th of September which was a Monday, but since we couldn’t get her gifts until the next day we told her that her birthday was actually Tuesday.  It’s kind of nice since the kids are still young, and we have no calendars hanging in the house, no one was the wiser.