A Little Christmas Video For Grandma and Grandpa in Nigeria

 

 

Our New Addition

We have been talking about getting a puppy for the longest time, and the kids have been begging for one for the longest time. Finally we did it! And we are all in love. I left the kids Monday morning with their good friends to play for the morning and went to choose the puppy we wanted to bring home. I fell in love with her black coat and little white feet. The kids had no idea what I was up to, and were SO excited when I picked them up from their play date with a little extra sweet surprise in tow.

We threw around a couple of different names, but as soon as the name "Daisy" was brought up, it stuck. Hayden loved it because Daisy is a character on Super Mario, and the girls just thought it was cute. So, meet Daisy:




She's a ShihTzu/Bischon Frise mix, and is so adorable! She is six weeks old, and such a good puppy. We are feeling so lucky to have such a sweetheart. She is playful, but so mellow and good with the kids too.

It's fun to see the way she acts differently around all the kids, and how they all interact with her in different ways.

Hayden LOVES to let her chase him and play with her little toys with her. He laughs so hard and can't decide if he loves it or is a little bit afraid when Daisy chases him, trying to get her little toy from him. He usually ends up dropping it and running away, laughing as he watches Daisy attack her little toy. The first day she was here, Hayden kept saying, "Please tell me I'm not dreaming." It was so cute!

Kate loves to hold her, but doesn't try to "man handle" her too much. She thinks she is fun to watch, but doesn't quite know how to hold her yet. She loves to have her on her lap, but kind of doesn't know what to do when Daisy starts to move around. But she gets so excited to see Daisy wake up and always wants to know where she is.

Rylee is the little doggy mommy. She carries her around like a baby and is constantly near her to make sure she is okay. She takes her outside to go potty and just dotes on her. She worries about her just like a mom would worry about her child. She feels so bad and sits by Daisy to pet her when she is twitching in her sleep. She is so worried that she is afraid or sad because she isn't with her mommy any more. She is determined to arrange a "doggie family reunion" so Daisy can see her mom and dad again.

Lana mothers Daisy quite a bit too. She is always anxiously waiting for her to wake up from naps so she can play with her and snuggle her. She loves it when Daisy chases her feet and laughs hysterically just watching her play. She had to hold her in the car on the way home and then walk down the street and show her friend her new puppy as soon as we got home with her. She's definitely smitten.


We are all so excited to have a new pet, and it is so easy to see how pets become like family. She is adorable!

It's Been A While...

I obviously haven't blogged for a while. I wasn't sure I was even going to remember my password to do another post! LOL! A lot has happened since my last post, and this will be my official 200th post. So to catch up and do something fun, I will post 200 random thoughts and some pictures from the past few months. If you actually read all of it, you deserve a huge reward.

1. I don't feel like making dinner, and if this takes long enough I won't have time to cook anything. Darn. Maybe we'll have to order pizza. ;)

2. If we order pizza, it will be from Dominos because we are still MVPs there. I know, we're special.

3. Thanks to "Despicable Me" the kids now love to say "Oh poop" and "Whaaaaaaaaaaattt!" all the time.

4. Rylee got a cell phone (She is so awesome!)

5. Rylee was bored and added that last one on her own. Stinker.

6. Thanks to my dad's help, we were able to get a couple of bedrooms done downstairs. He and Bill spent many nights down there working so hard. It's male bonding, right?

7. Hayden and Kate thought they had new bunk beds downstairs when my dad put them on the shelves of the hall closet.

8. They were seriously disappointed to find out that they weren't really bunk beds.

9. Hayden loved it when we handed him a paintbrush and told him to help paint his room.

10. He marked his territory with a painted "H" on the wall. :)

11. His room looks so cute now!

12. Hayden is convinced that the Mario sticker on his wall talks because he had a dream one night that it did.

13. Talking Mario stickers must creep him out because he sleeps in Rylee's room with her every night.

14. Rylee's room turned out cute too!

15. You can hear Hayden and Rylee downstairs giggling most nights for about an hour after we put them to bed.

16. Hayden will only let me kiss him at bedtime. He tells me, "You can kiss me when it's time to hit the hay." Where does he get that?

17. Since Rylee and Hayden got new rooms, Lana and Kate wanted theirs decorated.

18. Lana loves candy more than anything in the entire world.

19. I promised her a candy room, and am working on putting that together. Here it is so far:

20. Spring needs to hurry up and get here already!!!!

21. I love Girl Scout Cookie time.

22. My figure doesn't like Girl Scout Cookie time so much.

23. My favorites are Samoas.

24. My kids and husband love Samoas too.

25. We ordered 8 boxes of Samoas this year.

26. Did I mention that Spring needs to get here soon? I don't feel like working off those cookies until it gets warmer.

27. Hayden and Kate have been doing lots of puzzles this winter.

28. I think they can both put together a 100 piece puzzle faster than I can.

29. Go BYU basketball team!!!

30. It doesn't matter what pair of pants we put on Kate. She never fails to show some crack.

31. My kids think it's funny to say, "Put a quarter in the slot" when they see her bum crack.

32. Hayden thinks it's funny to tell people to "just hold still and count to ten." When he says that, you know he is trying to pants you. When he succeeds he will then yell, "BAZINGA!"

33. I'm a horrible mom for laughing when my kids think it's funny to pants someone.

34. But in my defense, underwear always stays up in the pantsing. :)

35. Kate loves to lick cake batter.

36. Hayden loves frosting!

37. It's always fun to get together with cousins and grandma for a Halloween party!

38. Bill was a good sport to dress up for the kids.

39. He will forgive me for posting that picture.

40. But he'll probably only forgive me because we have a picture of me looking pretty ridiculous, also to humor the kids.


41. You can't have a Halloween party unless you are eating donuts off of a string.

42. These cousins LOVE getting together!

43. Grandma loves it when her grand kids pile on her!

44. My kids actually stopped long enough for me to take their picture before they ran off to fulfill their greedy little need for sugar.

45. My little brother surprised the kids when he showed up at the ward party dressed as Santa Claus. Sara didn't go for Mrs. Claus. She opted for the bumble bee costume. Dang cute!

46. Believe it or not, we have a picture of all of us together. This never happens!

47. Hayden still loves his cousin, Brielle, and would rather hang out with her more than just about anyone.

48. We actually got my whole family in one picture together when they all came for dinner in December!

49. Rylee and Lana are still the best of pals.

50. I am 1/4 of the way done with my post!!!

51. Rylee has to do some book reports that I find ridiculous.

52. For one book report they had to read a biography and then make a poster of that person that they could stick their head through.

53. We, er, she made a Helen Keller poster.

54. I think she thought it was a ridiculous assignment too.

55. We did something we have been wanting to do for a few years now. We had Thanksgiving by ourselves.

56. Hayden loved it because he never did wear anything but pajamas all day long.

57. The kids' favorite part was the candlelight dessert.

58. Hayden finally got to eat the chocolate pie he had been waiting all day for.

59. He pronounced "Thanksgiving" wrong. He called it "Disgibby."

60. As he ate his pie in the candlelight, Hayden said, "I love Disgibby!" LOL!

61. The kids were all dying to have presents wrapped for them under the tree as soon as it was up.

62. As soon as I put some presents under the tree, the three youngest were counting how many each of them had.

63. When I came into the family room that afternoon, this was what I found:

64. If you didn't know this before, I hate making sugar cookies. They taste delicious, but take so dang long to make, and the mess is so gross to me.

65. I deserve a prize because I made sugar cookies with the kids for Christmas.

66. Hayden and Kate ate more frosting off of their knives than they got on their cookies.

67. That's why they each get their own containers of frosting. Ew!!!

68. See, I don't think Lana likes the mess either.

69. Hayden and Kate love me to make them lunches in their lunchboxes, and then they have a picinic on the floor.

70. The kids practiced for weeks to put on a Nativity play for us on Christmas Eve.

71. Kate was Mary, and Hayden was Joseph.

72. Rylee was the shepherd, and Lana was the angel. Rylee's stuffed dog had a paper tag tied around his neck with the name "Sheepie" on it. LOL!

73. I LOVE the sleepy Christmas morning faces!

74. Rylee got the Babysitter's Club book that she had been dying to read!

75. Lana got "Wall-e" after begging Santa for it, and still hasn't watched it all the way through. Why do they do that?

76. Hayden got the Mario figurines he was dying for.

77. Kate was so happy to get her princess toothbrush and toothpaste that she asked Santa for.

78. And apparently looking through the rest of your stocking so early in the morning makes you pull faces like this:

79. Bill still has a cute bum.

80. Kate does not want to see it or hear about it though.

81. For New Year's Eve, Hayden had fun making faces on the table with his carrots and cheese cubes.

82. I'm not a great mother because I don't care that my kids play with their food.

83. Rylee turned 10 in January!

84. I cannot be old enough to have a ten-year-old!

85. Rylee loves to do cool tricks with her uncle and daddy!

86. She pulls funny faces when she is getting ready to blow out her candles.

87. Minute to Win it games make for some great pictures!

88. Rylee was pretty good at "A Bit Dicey."

89. Sara giggled through "Johnny Applestack."

90. The slinky was almost as tall as Brielle in "Pink Elephant."


91. Hayden loved playing "Separation Anxiety."

92. Andrew thought "Pink Elephant" was fun.

93. Bill and Mike show their stuff as they try "Junk in the Trunk" and "Pink Elephant."

94. Kate loves hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa.

95. There was a really cool sunset one night. It looked like the mountains were on fire.

96. One day, Hayden and Kate decided to "decorate" downstairs in the newly finished part.

97. I was afraid as I walked down the stairs because I could smell something funny.

98. As soon as I got down there, I realized why I didn't like that smell.

99. This is what I saw:

100. They had used dry-erase markers.

101. I was not happy because dry erase markers don't come off of much.

102. We just painted over it again.

103. Hayden was so upset and couldn't understand why we ruined the artwork that he was so proud of.

104. I used to wonder where the mom was when kids did things like this.

105. I don't any more. They are probably making dinner like I was.

106. I threw away the dry-erase markers.

107. Hayden turned five in February!

108. He got his first baseball glove and ball for his birthday.

109. He is excited to be signed up to play baseball this summer.

110. Hayden loved when it was finally time for cake and ice cream the night of his birthday.

111. After she had a rough couple of weeks in the hospital, it was nice to see my grandma feeling well enough to celebrate her birthday.

112. On Valentine's Day, the kids were so excited about their treasures at the end of the treasure hunt that they wouldn't even look up for a picture. Oh well.

113. Our little Lana Darlin' turned seven last week!

114. She got a lot of candy for her birthday, and LOVED it!

115. Lana loved inviting a friend to come with us to Classic to celebrate her birthday.


116. She was all smiles all day, and was going strong into the evening when we came back for cake and ice cream.

117. I love that Lana is such an easy-to-please kid who just wanted cupcakes for her birthday cake!

118. Bill had a birthday last week too.

119. Now we are the same age again until my birthday this summer.

120. I hate being older than him.

121. He thinks it's funny to tease me about.

122. That's okay. I still love him.

123. My mom has been doing a really cool thing for everyone's birthdays this year. She has been giving everyone a 72-hour kit.

124. If a big disaster hits before July, Kate and I are in trouble.

125. I have four fantastic kids!

126. They are also four cute kids!

127. They love each other and are the best of friends...

128. Except when they are the worst of enemies.

129. But most of the time they love being together.

130. I'm sure Hayden would love to have more boys in the family, but he sure handles a bunch of sisters pretty well.

131. Rylee has been growing up so fast.

132. She loves babysitting - bonus for me!

133. She has a quick wit and makes Hayden laugh hysterically every night before they go to sleep.

134. She is constantly writing little plays and songs that she teaches to the rest of the kids and then they perform for us.

135. She has been in a cheer class and loves it! She's pretty good!

136. She loves to read and has plowed through almost every Babysitter's Club Book in the series in just a few months.

137. Rylee always wants to look nice and takes pride in the way she presents herself. She's very much a girly-girl!

138. She is so responsible and tries so hard to do what is right.

139. Lana is our candy-lovin' girl!

140. She has an infectious giggle and does the best giggles when you give her candy.

141. She is my comfy-dresser. She loves to wear yoga pants or any other comfortable clothes. Most days she just wants her hair in a pony tail. Works for me! :)

142. Every morning, Lana gets out of bed and immediately makes her bed. She has taught Kate to do the same thing. What a great example!

143. Lana is a fun-loving girl who gets along with anyone, and for some reason it seems that kids fight over who gets to be around her.

144. Lana is our little bouncy girl. I think that's why she is so stinking skinny. She doesn't stop bouncing. :)

145. At night, Lana loves to arrange her bed just right. She has her pillow pet that she arranges just so, with her rice bag right under her shoulders, her favorite blanket tucked inside the sheets, and then all of the rest of the bedding tucked up around her. I don't know how she doesn't roast to death!

146. Lana is always worried about how other people feel. She can't do anything to intentionally hurt anyone's feelings. She's quite the tender-hearted little thing.

147. Hayden is so awesome to have around with all of the females we have in our family. :)

148. Hayden has to get his "Mario" fix in every morning. His day just doesn't start out right if he can't play some sort of Mario game on the Wii for just a few minutes when he wakes up.

149. Hayden looks out for Kate, and it is so cute to watch him play with her.

150. Hayden is a tease, and is great at taking funny lines he hears in movies and applying them at appropriate times in real life. For instance: One night I was tucking him into bed and he had picked three books to have Rylee read to him. She was tired that night and told him to only pick one book. He sighed, and threw two Dr. Seuss books aside and said, "Well somebody doesn't like the classics." (That one is from Ice Age 2.)

151. Hayden is the most ticklish kid I know. If you rub the top of his head, he can't stand it. I don't know how he lets me cut his hair.

152. He loves to tell me about every detail when he gets home from preschool or church, and can recount the stories he is told there. I love it!

153. Hayden loves Ranch dressing and would drink it if I would let him. Gag!

154. When I kiss Hayden's cheek at night, he rubs his face with his hand and says, "Aw, shucks."

155. Kate is the curly-haired cutie pie.

156. Every morning, Kate comes in my room and gives me a kiss and says, "Good morning" before she does anything else.

157. If Kate hurts you or does something wrong, she is quick to say, "I'm sorry" in her cute little voice.

158. Whenever I get out the mixer to make something, Kate asks what I am making. If I say it is cookies she get so excited, runs over to the bar, hops up on the stool and says, "Ooohh, I LOVE cookies!"

159. Kate loves to say prayers and is so good at saying them by herself.

160. Kate doesn't walk many places. The girl RUNS!

161. Kate loves to be my big helper. Her favorite things to help me with are folding the laundry and vacuuming. She's getting pretty good at both!

162. Kate loves to play Just Dance and Just Dance 2 on the Wii, and has a few of the dances DOWN!

163. Bill is still the best dad and husband around.

164. He has a quick wit - that's where the kids get it.

165. He is always great to play with and wrestle the kids.

166. He always smelled amazing when we were dating, and it has continued to the present! I love it!

167. He does the grocery shopping. I hate to shop, and he has been so good to take over that dreaded duty.

168. He is always optomistic and is constantly looking for ways to improve himself and our family.

169. He can still write a killer love note.

170. Bill is always good to help me with whatever I need. Even after long days at work, he still comes home and just jumps right in to help with the kids or dinner or errands - whatever the need may be.

171. I am so lucky to have the family that I do.

172. Our whole family thinks "Angry Birds" is the coolest game ever.

173. Bill and I are still convinced that the stuffed animals are reproducing in there. No matter how many of the dang things we get rid of, the dang box is always overflowing. What the heck?

174. You can't deny that Yo Gabba Gabba is a cool show!

175. YAHOO!!!! 3/4 of the way done!

176. I'm so ready for BBQ season again.

177. Four kids equals never-ending laundry.

178. It's weird when our kids drink plain milk - with no Nesquik in it.

179. Hilary still makes the best cookies in the tri-state area, or in five states, or just in the whole world!

180. Hilary is an awesome decorator, as seen above, and can make any room look awesome with her creative touch.

181. Hilary can always cheer our kids up no matter the circumstance. She has a magical way of making them happy so quickly.

182. Hilary writes a daily note/poem to our kids to put in their lunches. It is usally a silly little rhyme that hopefully brightens their day at lunch. We'll see if she can keep up the pace when we have morekids in school. May have to start recycling them.

183. A hug and a kiss from Hilary can make anyone in the family feel better.

184. Uh, Bill wrote the last few while I was not looking. Stinker. But I'll leave them on because that means I am closer to 200!

185. Crap, I just remembered that St. Patrick's Day is less than a week away.

186. Time to start collecting all things green and to scheme for the mischief that will be created that day.

187. Guess what?

188. Chicken butt.

189. I'm pretty sure I hear the word "mom" close to 200 times per day. Sometimes I swear one kid says it about 20 times right in a row within 5 seconds. You moms can relate, I'm sure.

190. We have awesome friends!

191. We also have amazing extended family!

192. I should have made this a gratitude list.

193. I could list way more than 200 things we have to be grateful for.

194. Then I wouldn't be so stuck when I am so close to 200! LOL!

195. Maybe I should have posted 200 pictures - heaven knows I have taken more than that.

196. It has definitely taken me at least 200 minutes to write this post.

197. It won't be another 200 days before I post again.

198. I can guarantee I won't do this for the 300th post.

199. If you have read all of this, I am amazed.

200. I'm done! And I won't wait so long to blog again. :)