Merry Christmas!

December Fun!

The kids have really enjoyed getting ready for Christmas this year.  They helped decorate the house and do our Christmas Countdown everyday.  They also have had a lot of 'sleep-overs' with each other.  One of their favorite places to sleep is in Daddy's office.  There's not much room, but they made it work:)

 

 Asher and Vaden have fun with each other and love to play.  They love to color and have started drawing picture on their sketch pads.

 Vaden has a big heart on hers.  What a cutie!

 Asher drew a star.  He is very meticulous.

 They also drew a picture of me, and insisted on taking a picture.

 We've also had a few more days with Daddy, so we've gone to some playplaces and other fun things with the kids.

I have also made a few more stockings this year. Making them is fun, but I forgot how time consuming it is.  Especially now that I don't have time:)

  My nieces, along with Emmet and Kelen needed stocking as I had never made theirs yet. I made a pair for my little sister and her boyfriend.  I also put names on a my last set of stockings from before for John and Julie's family. I hope they love them, like I do!

 Asher took a picture of our Christmas tree.  The kids also like to use our phones and take hundreds of pictures!  This was a good one though.

 Here's another good one I helped Asher take! 

We are ready for Christmas and can't wait until Santa comes!

Lights and a Ward Party

 The kids love driving around and looking at all the Christmas lights!

 Layton City has a nice light display that we drove through and the kids loved it because we let them stand up by the window as we crawled along in the line.

 

The kids love all the fun lights and being festive.  We had planned to go to Temple Square, but the kids have gotten sick the last couple of days so we'll have to see if we make it. 

Our ward had a fabulous Christmas party.

 We got up and went for breakfast at the church.  The kids even wore their pajamas so they loved it and I loved not having to get them ready:)

 The kids had a great time sitting with their friends and playing in the gym.

 We sang a few Christmas Carols and listened to a Christmas story being read.

We even had a special visit from Santa Claus himself!  Asher and Vaden were excited, while Emmet wasn't sure he liked this guy and Kelen was positive he didn't like him!!!

Tis the Season

 We love Christmas time!  We love the lights, the decorations, the treats, the snow, the presents, etc.

 We went to The Festival of Trees in SLC.  The kids had a lot of fun walking around and seeing all the different styles and decor.

 Kelen looks so sad, but he was a good sport and just hung out as we walked around.

 Here's the whole family!

 Asher and Vaden found some trees that were their favorites!  Asher loved the Ninja Turtle Tree.

 Vaden was so excited about the pink Hello Kitty Tree.

 This was Asher's favorite.  Hot Wheels all the way.

Happy 1st Birthday Kelen!

 The beginning of the month was Kelen's birthday.  My baby is 1!

 Kelen's Stats: 

Height: 31 inches 78 cm (90%)

Weight: 22 lbs 4 oz (60%)

Head Circumference: 18.2 inches (50%)

 Kelen is growing so fast, that is probably due to the fact that he LOVES to eat.  He doesn't want baby food (and hasn't for months), he wants to eat whatever we are having.  He eats and eats and eats.  He has 6 teeth, though I think he is getting more.  He sleeps through the night, though wakes up a little too early for my liking (about 6).  He also takes a good nap in the afternoons.

 He loves being held, especially by Daddy.  He is wearing 18 month clothing.  He loves to play with his siblings.  Though he is a bit terrified of Emmet.  They will play really well together, but the minute Emmet does something rough or mean, Kelen takes off as fast as he can away from Emmet, crying as well.  I don't really blame his since Emmet will sometimes throw things at him, sit on him, hit him, or even put boxes of over him and hold him down.  That last one in particular terrifies Kelen.

 Kelen can go up and down the stairs.  He learned how to go down the stairs almost as soon as he learned to go up.  He can move really fast on them now.  He doesn't walk yet.  He crawls everywhere, but he can pull himself up and stand and walk along things that he is holding onto.  He has tried to stand up all by himself with nothing to hold onto a few times, but he only lasted a few seconds.  My sister, Leslie, made him a little baby walker that he will use to walk around sometimes.  He is pretty good at it.  Now we just need to work on walking without help.  (but I love that he looks like an small old man with his walker:)

Kelen hates to get buckled in his car seat.  He fights and cries everytime!  He also doesn't like to be in his jumper.  He likes to play with the jumper from the outside, not being locked in.  He just doesn't like to be locked in or closed in anything.  I think Emmet may have something to do with that!

Recently, Kelen has started pointing at things and he loves to touch things.  Ryan will lift him up and let him touch the ceiling and he thinks that is the best thing ever.  He love his Daddy and often chooses Ryan to hold him.  For his birthday we didn't do anything big.  We had Brian and Jennifer and family over for cake and ice-cream.  The kids all had a great time playing and Kelen discovered ice-cream:)

 Kelen was funny to watch because he ate all of his ice-cream, but didn't touch his brownie.  The ice-cream was a bit hard for him to grab, but he kept at it until he had eaten it all.

We all love Kelen so much and are so glad he is part of our family.  He has best friends in all of his siblings.  He loves to crawl and get into everything, including all the cupboards in the kitchen and any food that we leave out.  He and Emmet make quite the team and love to get in to trouble together.  When those two are together and being too quiet, I know they are into something they aren't suppose to be.  Kelen loves to put things down the vents.  He loves to take baths, as long as Emmet isn't in the tub with him.  He is a happy and good baby and we love him.

Thanksgiving Day

 We spent Thanksgiving at my parents home sharing our dinner with family.

 My parents did a lot of the cooking, but I took some green bean casserole and cheesecakes!

 

 It is always fun to have such a large crowd to share and make memories with.

 Aside from my parents and me and Ryan and our kids, Brian and Jennifer and their kids and my Uncle Bruce and Aunt Jennifer and their kids were there.  And of course Grandma Clark!

I am so grateful for so many things: our freedoms, our home, our friends, the gospel, Ryan's job, etc. etc. but mostly I am grateful for my family.

 Baby Kelen sure knows how to butter up all the girls.  He got a lot of love:)  I'm so grateful of his happy personality and his love for us.

 Emmet is such a strong personality and I am so grateful for him.  He is learning new things, but what he loves most is being a big brother.

 I'm so grateful for my little girl.  She love princesses and pinks and purples, which makes me so happy.  She is loving and caring and sensitive and a calm personality amid all the boys.

 I love this kid.  Asher is my responsible, organized personality.  I'm so grateful for that since our days always become a bit chaotic.  He is such a big helper and I know I can count on him to clean and keep things in their place.

I'm very grateful for Ryan.  He is a wonderful husband and father.  He works so hard to support us, while also being available whenever we need him.  He helps me to relax and enjoy things.  I love my family.  

Happy Thanksgiving!

Boys Gang

Here are the boys in our neighborhood!  They are great friends and are constantly running and playing.  Emmet and Kelen love running around with Asher and the big boys and learning new games.  I love that they have the same friends and love to play together.

Asher's Friends

 There are a lot of kids in our new neighborhood.  Asher has made a lot of friends and they love playing around the neighborhood with everyone.

 The boys little gang is so fun for them.  They are constantly racing on bikes and scoot cars, playing sports, and playing nerf gun wars in the backyard.  There is never a dull moment with these boys around.

There are 5 little boys that are right around Asher's age and they have become best friends.  I'm so excited for them to grow up together.

Vaden Friend Photos

Since moving into our new house, the kids have made a lot of friends.  There are a lot of kids in the neighborhood, which means lots of playdates:)

 We took some pictures of Vaden and her friends.  They had a great time with the photo shoot.

 The pictures turned out super cute and will hopefully help document these girls as they grow up together.

Asher's Fun Run

 Asher's school participated in a fun run to help raise money this year.  He was so excited about it and got several family members to pledge.  For every lap he ran, they would donate x amount of money.  

Leading up to the fun run, they had 2 weeks of leadership and team lessons.  There were 'Apex Leaders' at their school to encourage and inspire the kids.  They learned about being active and healthy.  I really liked this fundraiser because instead of selling candy or something like that, they promoted a healthy lifestyle, while helping the kids achieve a goal where they could all participate and accomplish something that would help their school.

 During the 2 weeks leading up to the event, the kids all got 5 silicone bracelets to go with their 5 life skills they learned.  But they would also receive 'gifts' for getting pledges.  It was a great incentive and Asher wanted to pledge people every day.  He got a special glow-in-the-dark bracelet, body 'tattoos', a ball, and a yowie.

 At the race, the kids all lined up and ran around their loop (1/16th of a mile).  The goal was to run 28-36 laps.  Asher ran 39!  He did a great job.

 Leslie, Vaden and I were able to go watch him run and support him.  It was such a fun day for him.  He was super tired after, but he just kept going.  He took a lot of water breaks toward the end, but he ran until the end.  He worked really hard to get pledges and to run his race.

I

 I am super proud of him.