Bailey's Riding a Two Wheeler

Bailey finally had the desire to ride a two wheeler, so she grabbed the neighbors bike out of their garage, rode it down the drive way and continued on down the street.  Literally.  No lessons.  No falls.  We had tried to do it in the past with no success.  I guess we just had to wait for her to do it on her own terms.  Great work Bailey.  We are proud of you!

 Hunter's mode of transportation these days: a pink scooter.  We have two of the exact same scooter, one pink and one blue.  He won't even touch the blue one.  Go figure!

 Hunter

 Tanner

Natalie

Sunday Nap Time

Sunday naps normally start out something like this. . .

And then end up something more like this. . .

 No one wants to miss out on the snuggle time!

Happy Birthday Natalie and Hunter

It's a Miracle!

Ladies and gentleman, for the first time in 8 1/2 years I have NO children in diapers.  Hunter gave us a little miracle when he decided he was done with diapers.  It's true, this "no diaper" thing won't last that long (I've got three months until our little girl is due), but I will take any break that I can get!

Over Christmas break Hunter would inform me any time he had done anything in his diaper.  Last Thursday (a week and a half ago) I decided to pick up some underwear for him while we were at the store and just give it a shot, not expecting anything miraculous.  That afternoon I put the underwear on and although he had three accidents, he also had two successes!  Day 2: two accidents and seven successes.  By day three (Saturday) he didn't even want us to put a diaper on him anymore and he made it through the day without any accidents.  This past week we made it through with just two accidents the whole week and he woke up dry every morning!  So I think that I can officially say that he is "a big boy now".  So exciting!  I wish I could say that there was something magical I did to make this happen, but he was just ready.  Thanks Hunter so this little miracle in our lives!

Catch-up!

I am hoping to play some major catch-up on our blog in the next couple of weeks.  Yes, 5 months of catch-up!  I am in trouble.  So much has happened and I don't want to miss any of those memories.  Main reason that I am so far behind: baby number 6 is on her way.  Yes, another little girl.  My due date is April 21st.  We are very excited, but this pregnancy hasn't been one of my prettiest.  Each of my pregnancies has been progressively easier, so when I got pregnant this time I thought it would be a breeze.  Ok, maybe not a breeze, but totally doable.  Boy, was I wrong.  I was SICK, and struggled with even the easiest tasks.  I was ok until about 10am and then from that point on could do little more than lay on the couch and get to the bathroom in time.  Add to that school, homework, scouts, soccer, meal prep, laundry, etc.  Most nights I went to bed even before the kids, struggling to make it to about 7:00pm.  Luckily that only lasted into my 18th week of pregnancy and now I am feeling great (I'm 25 weeks).  So here goes the catching-up.  Wish me luck!  I am definitely going to need it. . .

9th Anniversary

Brett and I celebrated our 9th Anniversary the night of Debbie's and Becky's reception.  It was fun to be with so many family and friends and pretend a "little" like it was our night all over again.

So much has happened in the past night years.  It is hard to believe that it has already been that long, yet it feels like we have been together forever (although if you count our dating years it has been 14 years!).  In the past nine years we have moved 7 times, had 5 1/2 kids, had three different jobs, and enjoyed (almost) every moment of it.  I can say without a shadow of a doubt that I love Brett more today than the day we got married and I know that love will just continue to grow.

You mean the world to me Brett!  I am so happy and so lucky to be married to such an amazing husband and father.  I love you so much!!!

Weddings

My sisters Debbie and Becky got married at the end of December.  Although they got married one day apart (Debbie on the 27th and Becky on the 28th), they had a double reception on the night of the 27th.  It was so fun to see both of their personality shine through at their reception as the gym was literally divided in half, one side for each girl.  It was a long couple of days with all the celebrating, but was so fun to be a part of it all!

 Tom, Becky, Debbie and Rob

 Becky and Debbie

Reception: Side closest to you was Becky's, Debbie's on the far side.

Debbie and Rob 

Debbie and Rob 

Tom and Becky 

Tom and Becky

Brett, Rachel, 

Bailey, Spencer, Natalie, 

Hunter and Tanner  

 Left to right: Brett, Hunter, Bailey, Tanner, Spencer, Natalie and Rachel

 Higham Family: Rachel, Melanie, Sarah, Shelley, Tami

Doug, Jim, Liz, Debbie, Michael, Adam

Collen, Tom Beckstead, Becky, and Doug

Sisters: Sarah, Tami, Rachel, Debbie, Becky, Liz, Shelley, Melanie

Christmas Eve/Day

Christmas this year didn't turn out like expected, but it was fun none the less.  A couple of days before Christmas I came down with the stomach flu.  Luckily I had finished all of my shopping and what not.  It out me down for two days.  And then as soon as I was feeling better, Natalie got it.  And then it went slowly through the whole family.  That means we were contained in the house for about a week.  Not fun with family and friends in town!  But it did give us lots of family time with just Brett, the kids and myself, which is always needed.

This is a countdown calendar that Spencer made.  I wish I would have gotten a picture of it on another day other than "1 days til cristmas" (the "a" and "s" are at the top of the sign).  He was diligent about changing the number every day.  It was very fun.

The traditional reading of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas".

Our family in our new pajamas. (again, another pretty good picture coming from our camera on "timer" mode)

The first three awake.  We told the kids that they had to stay in bed until at least 6:00.  At 6:00 on the dot, Spencer was in our room waking us up.

This one wasn't so sure she wanted to get up.

But we told her that Santa had definitely come:

So she finally got out of bed:

But still wasn't too happy about it!

The kids all got new outside toys.

Brett asked for only one this for Christmas this year: A remote control helicopter.  He has only played with it a couple of times, so he hasn't really learned how to control it.  Maybe one of these days he will find some more time.

And I just thought these pictures were fun of Christmas day: Brett and Tanner playing pirates.  Tanner got Brett a pirate set for Christmas and insisted he wear everything, earring and all.

Good will always triumph over evil!