Mara's special experience!

Every day in Mara's class someone shares a special experience. They can share something they like to do or teach the class something or show something. Mara chose to read a book to her class. She loves reading and is an excellent reader! The book she chose was Hooray for Wodney Wat! It is a funny book that our family enjoys reading together. The first time we read it we just laughed and laughed! I was a little concerned however with Mara reading it to her class, I wasn't sure how she would do....but she did GREAT! I was so proud of her! She read fantastic! I LOVE listening to Mara read! She has the cutest expressions and enthusiasm!

She was a tiny bit nervous reading to her class and spoke a little quietly but she did awesome!

Her class enjoyed listening to her story. 

 My favorite part of Mara's special experience was at the end when the children could ask questions. One little girl raised her hand and said "Mara, how do you read so fast?!" Mara's response was cute: "I read every day and practice reading!" Another little girl raised her hand and said, "But how were you able to read all those words so good?!" Mara really excels in school. She is a great student!

Speaking of reading....I was in charge of Book Club this month. The book I chose was called A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck. Darling book! Everyone liked it! As I was looking online for information about the author to share at book club I came across this cute poem he wrote. I love  reading with my kids and I love when my kids love to read!

Twenty minutes a dayby Richard Peck

Read to your children
Twenty minutes a day;
You have the time,
And so do they.
Read while the laundry is in the machine;
Read while the dinner cooks;
Tuck a child in the crook of your arm
And reach for the library books.
Hide the remote,
Let the computer games cool,
For one day your children will be off to school;
Remedial? Gifted? You have the choice;
Let them hear their first tales
In the sound of your voice.
Read in the morning;
Read over noon;
Read by the light of
Goodnight Moon.
Turn the pages together,
Sitting close as you'll fit,
Till a small voice beside you says,
"Hey, don't quit."

Birthday Boy!!!

My Caleb-boy is FIVE!! Yikes! Starting kindergarten? No way! I can't believe it! We were looking at baby pictures of Caleb on his birthday and I can't believe how fast he grew up!! Where did that chubby-cheeked, little baby go? Now he is my darling chubby-cheeked big boy!

A few things about Caleb are his favorite color is green. Favorite animal is a wolf. Favorite song is Book of Mormon Stories. Caleb loves having friends over and going to friend's houses! He loves to play! He is a little tease and likes to play spy! He likes legos and other toys, and his new craze is playing on the wii!! He is a funny, adventurous, little guy and I love him!

To celebrate Caleb's birthday we did a little 'boy party' with his buddies! We went to McDonald's for lunch and play time!

This little guy loved french fries! He's even getting big enough to climb and play at the playland!

Look at that fabulous cake!!! Caleb's favorite thing in the world is hot chocolate so I thought I would make a hot chocolate birthday cake! Actually it didn't turn out so good, it ended up on the bottom of my oven! So I tried again and it turned out ohhhh so delicious! It even had mini marshmallows on top!

The birthday boy sure thought it was tasty!

Carder loves eating but he is so messy!!

Birthday pancakes with sprinkles for Caleb's birthday breakfast!

He was pretty excited to have FIVE candles in his pancakes! 

Two boys climbing a mountain!!  On Caleb's birthday it happened to land on a holiday: Martin Luther King Jr. Day! We headed down South to the Swell to explore and hunt for dinosaur bones and rocks!

My big FIVE year old boy showing how old he is!

He is pointing to somewhere he wants to climb to next!

It was a beautiful sunny blue sky day--the blue sky matching Mara's blue eyes!

It was nice to have a day off of school and be together!

Sure love this kid! Glad he is my Caluba boy!

What a handsome boy! The bigger he gets the cuter he gets...is that possible?!

This spot is where we had our lunch. It was sunny but a little chilly! This overlooked the Little Grand Canyon. It's a beautiful scenic spot. Picnic in January?! Sure!!

Ty will try to climb any tree he can find!

And soon this boy will be that big and try climbing high too!

Me and my birthday boy! Love this kid!

Caleb's request for dinner was homemade pizza! Yum!

Carder learned how to say 'pizza'!! He loves it! You can tell, it's all over his face!

They make me giggle...

My kids have a way of making me giggle and laugh! They are so funny! Ty, Mara, Caleb and Carder are always saying and doing the funniest things! I just love them! I am grateful everyday I am their mom!

This little blue-mouthed boy loves his lolly-pop!! 

 This picture doesn't do him justice! He is completely covered in blue slime! His fingers were glued together! He was one blue-sticky mess...and he loved every minute of it!

One day I was making something, I can't remember what exactly it was, but Carder was my little helper! He kept putting his mouth right up to the bowl and watching the arm go around and round! He must have liked the taste of the bowl or the vibration on his mouth!! 

 I love spending my days with these two boys! Most days are just spent hanging out in the house playing legos and puzzles and always reading books! Caleb and Carder are best buddies! Carder has just learned how to say 'Caleb' it doesn't sound much like it, it sounds more like 'Taytub' but we know what he means!

Over winter break we went to the Kangaroo Zoo with our cousins. Carder was finally big enough to participate! Last time we went he just watched from the sidelines because he was too small! This time he LOVED it! He kept saying 'again! again!' after every slide! He loved jumping on all the equipment! 

And he didn't even mind when he fell down!! Silly kid! 

 

We also went to Cabella's and looked around. Carder loved this huge moose! What I love is Carder's little tongue sticking out! He does this quite frequently! He will run around most of the day with his little tongue hanging out of his mouth!! 

Ok! How cute is this!?! Can you get more darling and handsome?! Oh my goodness! I have fallen in love again! Mr. Mayor as the kids like to call him when he is all dressed up in his suit! 

He went to nursery for the first time to get him ready for the transition. He really liked snack time! He mostly just sat there during toy time and he cried during singing time!! Hopefully he can enjoy nursery (unlike our other kids!) 

All dressed and ready for church! So beautiful and handsome!

 

How does Mara stand it with these three awesome brothers?! I especially love Caleb's future missionary tag! Three maybe four missionaries?! Yikes! I'm glad they are still little!

Baby Mozart!!  Carder loves sitting at the piano and hearing the sound he makes as he plays the keys!

The weather has been unbelievable around here!  Blue skies and sunshine almost every day! I know we need the snow and rain but I am loving these beautiful days! We love going on walks and bike rides!

Carder LOVES being outside! He loves going for walks in his stroller! He loves looking for animals.

This little sweetie is all bout doing her tumbling tricks! 

Wait!! I found a few more!!!

I thought for sure I had taken pictures on Christmas and I found them! Yay! I'm not as bad of mom as I think I am!!

Santa treated us well this year and left some good presents under the tree! 

He filled our stockings with lots of surprises! 

Our big Santa gift this year was a Wii U. It sure has brought a new dimension to our home! I'm not saying it's a bad thing, just different than it was before!

Carder was thrilled with the oranges in his stocking! 

He carried them around most of the morning! 

 

All the kids received new banks to help them save their money for college and missions!

Ty gave Caleb a new angry bird game!  

Mara has her work cut out for her with this new bead jewelry kit! She can make several necklaces! 

 The kiddos also got a new watch to help them know what time it is!

 Carder was less than thrilled with Christmas presents! He didn't understand what the big fuss was about!!

Carder's favorite presents were his new books! He LOVES to read and he especially loved his new Where's Spot?, Who's leg is it?, and the ABC book. He reads books all day long!

Christmas Fun!

I can't believe Christmas has come and gone! It feels like it was forever ago! We had a great time and made wonderful memories!

Instead of gingerbread houses this year we decorated a giant gingerbread man!

This creation wasn't nearly as much candy, creativity and fun, but the kids still seemed to enjoy it!

The finished product! And I must say it looks better than it tastes!

We celebrated Christmas Eve in our own house. It was really nice being home for the holidays! We felt very blessed to be able to have Mimi and Papa come down and be with us for Christmas. It was a special holiday celebrating the birth of our Savior. One of my favorite traditions is acting out the Nativity. This year we were able to perform it not once but three times!! I was asked to write the program for the Ward Christmas Party and let's just say it was well used!

 Caleb was our Joseph!

Mara played our Mary. And Carder was our destroying angel! He refused to dress up and kept stealing the baby Jesus and running off with him!

Ty was the donkey and carried Mary to the stable! Because I had made the costumes for the Ward Christmas Program we had shepherds and wisemen too! The kids played all the parts but there aren't pictures because we were too involved in the program!  It was not the spiritual evening I was hoping for, but it was still nice to read the story from Luke and hear the words of our Lord's birth!

 

My other favorite tradition is new jammies on Christmas Eve! This year I found matching jammies for the kids! So fun!

Christmas day was awesome! I have been accused of taking too many pictures and living in the future and not the present so let's just say I did not earn the mother of the year award for taking great pictures on Christmas! However, I was so caught up in the day of opening presents, playing games, making great food, playing dolls, figuring out the new wii....we just didn't have time for pictures! It was the most relaxing wonderful day!

The kids all had a great Christmas! They received many nice gifts and seemed happy with what they got!

 At 6:00 that evening Caleb sat down on the couch and fell asleep! I guess Christmas got to him! He was too tired!   

It sure was fun having Mimi and Papa come down! We were glad they would come visit us. They left on Christmas day and headed to Salt Lake and California to visit the other grandkids! So grateful for awesome parents to who love their children and love being with their grandkids!