Happy New Years Eve!

For New Year's we hung out with Nathan and Tiffany and family.  Grandma and Grandpa were there too.  The kids watched movies and Tiffany and I painted some of the girls nails (and our toes).  It was a nice evening.  The exciting part was it was Talmage's first dance!  He got a ride with a friend, which was totally awesome (drove both ways).  He had previously been really not into dances.  After encouraging him, and just plain telling him he was going, he seemed to be looking forward to it.  It was fun to see him get ready :).  He even asked me to comb his hair. 

It was so fun when he came home and we got to ask him all about it.  He had a great time and danced with 5 girls.  He hung out with friends from the ward and saw people from our old ward and even co-op.  I was so happy to hear he had a good time!  He's a great kid and it's so great to see him enjoy this fun stage in life! 

Happy 2017!

Lucky 13!

We now have 2 teenage boys!  Grant joined the teenage club :).  He is such a smart, fun creative, silly kid!  He is a great brother and loves to have fun and play games!  We love Grant and are so happy to have him as part of our family!

We knew life was crazy the week of Grant's birthday so we planned to do his birthday on Thursday.  Well, mutual got cancelled and all of the family ended up coming over to visit so we quickly got Grant's birthday set up (finished getting presents and making a cake).  We had a nice evening with family over.  Grant enjoyed eating his cake and opening presents!

Growing up so fast!

Helping light his own candles ;)

Make a wish!

Present time!

 The whole present stash! 

 Grant loves playing games, playing with kids, making up games... he is just a fun kid ;).  Grant is also good at sports and has natural music talent. It is fun to see him grow up!  He hates that Talmage has hit his growth spurt and he hasn't.  I'm sure he will catch up to Talmage all too soon!  We love you Grant!

Polar Bear Plunge!

Texas Style!  That means that when the weather hits the 80's in late December it feels so warm that the kids beg to go swimming.  They had a blast, even if they didn't really "swim."  We always appreciate the pool getting used since we pay for it and have to maintain it all year long anyway!

Silly Lorna

Clark and Lorna

Punkin.  The kids just hang out in the floaties :)

Merry Christmas!

The cousins came over to hang out on Christmas Eve.  It was nice to see them and spend time for Christmas.  With Jeff's parents in town we have had several nights with family over visiting.  When it was time to leave all of the kids piled into the back of the cousins' car.  9 kids in the back seat, looks comfy :).  Silly clown kids.

On Christmas Eve the kids do a gift exchange with each other.  It was fun to help them get the presents set for each other :).
Sandra got a sketch pad from Grant, Grant got a fox from Clark, Clark got a ball from Sandra, Talmage got a flying squirrel from Mhari, Mhari got a fluffy scarf from Lorna and Lorna got a Fluffy scarf from Talmage.

Opening presents on Christmas.

Jeff got a unicorn headband, and a t-shirt.

Lorna modeling the headband

This is to honor the squatty potty unicorn ad ;)

Talmage with his present stash

Grant

Lorna

Sandra

Mhari

Clark

Merry Christmas!

Holiday in the Park Fun!

Between everyone taking turns being sick and life being busy we finally made it out to the 6 Flags Holiday in the Park.  We took Grandma with us and met up with the cousins.  The kids had a blast and enjoyed getting to do some rides.  We didn't stay around too long for the evening festivities, but they still had fun!  One of the cool things that is only there for Holiday in the Park was the snow hill. 

Here are the kids getting ready to go down!

  

We stopped for snacks and then decided to head over to the antique cars.  We have never been on them so that was a fun experience.  Grant drove Grandma, Talmage drove me, and Owen drove Tiffany.  Bree took Mhari, Lorna, and Clark and Sandra and Ella rode together.  It was cute to see the boys split up the adults so they could each have a turn driving :)

I tried to get photos of everyone...

Sandra and Ella

Bree and her posse

Talmage driving ... oh this will happen all too soon!

Grant driving Grandma.  They got stuck way behind us all.

After the cars we split up and the older kids road the Texas Giant while the younger ones went on lots of little rides.  We met back up and we got some food before heading back home.  It was a fun time hanging out at 6 Flags!

Eating a turkey leg

Beautiful Music!

This year for piano our piano teacher, Miss Ashley, ended up having some extra time in her lesson schedule.  She asked me if I knew someone who would be interested in lessons after she was done with the girls.  I have been interested in getting the boys into some lessons so I decided to add more family members to the piano schedule.  Talmage refused, but I was able to get Grant to try it out.  I also decided since there was an empty slot that I would take lessons.  So this year we have Sandra, Mhari, Grant and me taking piano.  Miss Ashley does a great job and everyone is doing well.  I know that learning to read music is a struggle for me so having a teacher pushing me to learn is a huge plus! 

It's time for the recital.  Miss Ashley asked me if I wanted to participate in the recital and I said no.  I'm not interested in playing for everyone, but learning songs and surprising Jeff.  Oh, I did all of this practicing without telling Jeff.  I did finally play some Christmas music for him so surprise him!  It's been fun to be able to play Christmas music all season long! 

The kids did good for the recital, even if they had slacked off on their practicing with the stomach bug that went through the family. 

All of the Piano students

Grant!  He has natural ability and it will just continue to develop the more he practices!

Mhari is getting better at note reading and counting.  It's fun to see her learning!

Sandra really does well and worked so hard on her solo piece.  She is even working on making her own song!  It's great to see her develop her talents!

Fall Beauty!

As nice as it was to have the kids pictures taken for "picture day" I love taking my kids photos and trying to capture their personality.  We had been doing yard work and created a huge leave pile in the backyard.  The kids were so excited to play in it, but I knew it would make for a great picture backdrop.  It worked out perfect, I got some great photos and they got to play in the leaves!  Here are some of the fun photos!

Lorna Bug

Mhari Punkin

Chica Sandra

Clark Dog

Leaf Fun!!

 Burying the kids in the leaves to play a mummy come alive game ;)

 Lorna wasn't sure about it.

 But she finally did it and had fun!

The boys had been gone on a campout so I tried to get some fun photos of them. 

Talmage

Grant

I will probably end up taking more photos of the kids, but they are such good sports for me.  Yay for beautiful fall photos!