Birthday Boy!

Luke turned 6 on January 16th!

6 Things about Luke:

1. He is a smart boy and can figure things out so easily.
2. He loves playing the Wii.
3. He loves playing with friends and asks everyday for a friend to come over.
4. He is reading really well and writes the cutest stories.
5. He is such a good big brother and has so much patience with his 2 little sisters.
6. He always tries to choose the right.

I was so blessed 6 years ago when Luke entered my life and made me a mother. I am proud of him and the person he is becoming. It is crazy for me to look at pictures of him over the past 6 years and see how much he has changed. He is growing up too fast for me. :)








Birthday Party Post coming soon!

I know, I know...

Christmas was a month ago, but I still want to post a few things so I won't forget Christmas 2009.

We had a nice Christmas here at home. We spent Christmas Eve with Kevin's side of the family where we had yummy food, did a white elephant gift exchange, had the kids act out the Nativity, sung around the piano, and visited. It was a nice way to spend Christmas Eve.
It was nice to have Kevin's mom was with us on Christmas morning. The kids were really into Christmas this year so it was fun to see them get excited about their gifts. The family got a Wii and we have enjoyed playing it, especially the new Super Mario brothers.


One of the many attempts to get a decent picture of the kids all dressed up. We never got a decent one.

The cousins who participated in the Nativity. (Katelyn was a wiseman wearing her Aunt Holly's tiara. She is cracking me up in this picture at the way she is looking at her cousin.)

New pjs from my parents opened on Christmas Eve. Isn't that tutu adorable? I didn't think she would wear the tutu because of previous experience, but she loved it and still loves these pjs today. She even wants to wear the tutu with her regular clothes.

Katelyn's new nightgown came with a matching doll nightgown. Too cute!

Luke's new pjs were Star Wars Lego themed. Perfect for him and here he is with his favorite Christmas present. A power ranger transformer thingy.

Time to Catch Up

I can't believe my last post was Halloween. I don't know what my problem is but I have not wanted to blog. I think it is because I am so far behind.

Here is a quick recap of Thanksgiving...

We spent it in Utah with my family. The weather was beautiful and we had a great time!


We took the kids to see...

"reindeer" not far from my parent's house.

Kevin and I were able to go to Salt Lake for a night without the kids. It was so much fun and thanks to my parents we didn't worry about the kids. How was that for a quick recap?

A Halloween to Remember

You take Obi Wan Kenobi

a tall witch

and a small witch

and you take them to the church a week before Halloween for the Trunk or Treat. There you will find Obi Wan Kenobi working on his Jedi skills,

the tall witch taking a break and eating corn bread,and the small witch chillin' beside daddy to help pass out candy or to eat all the candy.At the trunk or treat they will score lots of good candy and their mom is thinking they don't really need to go trick or treating in a week. But of course she gives in.

Obi Wan Kenobi, the tall witch, and the small witch all wanted to carve pumpkins (okay, maybe the small witch had no idea that she wanted to carve pumpkins). So for Family Home Evening we did just that.

(It looks like I'm the only one having fun in this picture.)

And this is what resulted from that fun carving party...
(These pumpkins barely made it to Halloween before they turned all yucky inside. Next year we better carve them closer to Halloween.)

The Jedi and the witches were looking forward to Halloween day but little did they(and their mom) know that a special trick or treater would show up a day early. Around 11:40 on Friday morning there was a knock at the door and it was Grandma Cottrell. She woke up early that morning and drove to our house by herself to surprise us and spend the Halloween weekend with us. We were thrilled!!!!

The mom and dad of the Jedi and witches decided to try the Treat Street put on by Mix 94.1. Little did they know that it was so far away and that the small witch would scream for half of the ride there and for half of the ride home. The screaming and the long ride proved to be worth it for the great amounts of good chocolate candy they were giving out and

for the chance to see Jim from The Office.

Who could ask for more? It was definitely a Halloween to remember.


Treat Street Pros and Cons:
Pros: one designated area, free stuff, great candy, perfect for little kids
Cons: far away, you come home with way too much candy (I guess this is only a con if you have no self discipline like me and end up eating most of the candy.), it was only about 7 or 8 houses (but you could go around as many times as you wanted)

Before the Halloween Post...

I thought I would share something that I found that would be fun to do for the month of November. Luke just started his track break and I have been thinking of things to do to keep him busy. I thought some of these ideas were cute and fun.

P.S. We are now on day 4 and having fun with the ideas. My kids are really enjoying it and it makes me feel like I am doing something worthwhile with them at least once during the day. :)

18 Months Old

Ashley turned 18 months old on the 3rd of October. This is a big deal at church because now she can go to nursery and we no longer have to walk the halls during the second and third hour.

Looking at that cute face and smile you would think she would be excited about nursery...

but the following picture truly describes her first day in nursery. Even though she was crying to go outside this is exactly what she did in nursery. We let her cry it out for a little bit and then Kevin stayed with her the rest of the time. Luke and Katelyn went to nursery so easily, but we knew Ashley would have a hard time. She is still such a momma's girl.

This is an image I see all day long. :) It's a good thing she is cute!

Ashley's highlights and maybe a few lowlights ;) at 18 months...

• talks a ton and will copy almost any word we say to her (Luke loves to have her repeat words after he says them. He loves to tell everyone he taught her how to talk.)
  
• she can say some short phrases
• just started saying "thank you" and it sounds so cute
• she can be very polite and says "scuse me" after she burps (she has been doing this for awhile and it still makes me smile each time she says it)
  
• mimics everything we do
• loves purses and putting things inside them
• loves to be outside
• she's a climber (This is new to me because Luke and Katelyn were never climbers. It is a whole other ball game trying to keep track of her and what she might be standing on.)
• wants to do everything Katelyn does (which doesn't always make Katelyn happy) and gets mad if she can't do it
• likes to hit and scratch :( and it hurts
• knows what to do for timeout
• likes to shut doors
• likes to pretend to go potty on the toilet (because she sees Katelyn doing it)
• LOVES to color and will often say "I color"
• still learning to color only on paper
• sings "Happy Birthday", "Popcorn Popping", and "Ring around the Rosies"
• cries whenever I leave even if she is with daddy
• sleeps well at night and most days will take a good afternoon nap
• loves to play in the toy kitchen and "help" me in the real kitchen
• likes to watch Hi-5 with Katelyn and dance
• doesn't like sitting in the cart at the grocery store anymore
• sometimes has an opinion about what she wears-i finally made her a cute tutu and was hoping to get a picture of her in it, but no such luck. I'm still determined to try and get a picture and it may just have to be a crying picture.

• She is still very attached to her "dinky" and asks for it all the time. I need to get brave and take it away during the day.

• She calls Luke "wuke" and Katelyn "Ka-ten"

She definitely keeps us on our toes with her spunky personality. We love our Ashley and have had fun watching her change so much in the last 18 months.

Her stats:
23 lbs. 14 oz.
32 inches tall

Yes, it's that post!

The first day of school pictures and a little more!

Luke is getting used to the idea of going to Kindergarten everyday, but is loving it! However, he had to miss today because he got sick with a bad cold and fever. Here's hoping he recovers quickly.

Katelyn started a 3 year old preschool this week and feels like such a big girl! I think she might be the youngest in the class, but looks like the oldest. :) She was beyond excited about getting a new backpack.
(I think it's kind of funny how both Luke and Katelyn have the same smile and pose in their pictures. I didn't even take them on the same day.)
I had to post this one too because I actually got a real smile from Katelyn without a fuss!


And this little one who is now 17 months old is loving her alone time with mommy on Tues and Thurs mornings. However, the extra attention does not stop her from being mean to Luke and Katelyn. She loves to hit and pull hair. It drives me crazy and I am having a hard time figuring out how to get her to realize it isn't funny. She has seen Luke and Katelyn go to "timeout" on the stairs. So the other day she was being mean and I told her "no, you need to be nice" in a stern voice. She gave me her look that you see in the above picture and said "I sit" and ran over and sat on the stairs. Of course, I had to take a picture and she got up about 10 seconds after sitting down. It took a lot for me to not start laughing at that face she gives me and seeing her little body sitting in a timeout. Now she probably thinks "timeout" is a game. Oh well, we will figure it out somehow. What a stinker, she definitely keeps things exciting around our house!