Little bit about Maren

Maren turned 18 mo. old in February.

A little bit about our baby:

Boy does this girl love her daddy! She prefers him to anyone else in the family. Everytime she gets dressed she says "I show daddy", even if he is not home. She likes to run to him so he can tell her she looks "cute cute".

Here she was hanging out with him before he went to work.

Here she was after he left....

She thinks she is a super big girl. She likes to play with Embrie's toys maybe even more than Embrie does. Forget that "baby stuff"

She thinks she can do whatever they're doing. She has even to my dismay learned how to climb up to the top bunk bed.

She has learned to use a spoon and fork pretty well. Very early on she wanted to do this and she is pretty good at it considering.

Here she is playing the tablet which is fairly new to our family.

She thinks she can wear makeup (mascara in this case)

she loves to bruch her teeth.

And she loves to play with her friends.

She has been an amazing talker early on and now she is starting to sing songs (yes she knows the words) and talk in phrases.

She also thinks that if she wears little bloomers under her dresses that they are underwear like big sister's.

I think this little girls is trying to be bigger than her britches. Don't grow up too fast!

Valentines Day

You know, these are the moments that a mom or a dad just love. We have valentines buckets and the week before v-day we all decorate and make valentines for each other and secretly put them into the buckets. I love that they love doing this for each other. To see the excitement they feel when they "give" is so encouraging.

It's not just about receiving after all.

Scooby Dooby Doo

Happy 4th Birthday Embrie!

She partied it up with Scooby Doo!

We read a couple of scooby-doo books, did some coloring pages and we played a scooby-doo mystery game where we had to find the clues

team 1

team 2

These kids had so much fun playing that clue hunting game! They were a super excited bunch! I am glad that Embrie has so many awesome and sweet friends.

 

A Merry Christmas

For the Christmas season this year we tried to do something different. Something to focus a little more on Christ and what he would have us do. The first FHE before December we talked about serving and how we can do this for Christmas. Our goal was to do 24 days of service. So we had a jar with slips of paper in it, and on each paper a different service idea be it big or small, the kids helped us come up with some of these ideas. And we tried to do one of those services for each day up to Christmas.

I didn't plan as much of it in advance as I wish I could have but I think its something that we'll try to do every year just as a reminder to us about our Savior and the REAL gifts of Christmas.

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Garrett and Embrie did their usual cookies for Santa. This is a big deal at our house, they love it.

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Just a few random Christmas morning shots...

Garrett and dad both got remote control helicopters

We're a lucky bunch it was a fun relaxing Christmas.

do a little dance ...

Embrie had a Christmas Dance recital which naturally means, a lot of pictures of her flopping around on the floor ...

and doing .... her own moves?

Ha ha! it was actually pretty cute. Just another thing Brad had to miss for working, so I recorded it, or at least tried to with a baby on my lap and not having the best view of her. And now I am upset because the "actual dance" is not to be found on my camera?! It really was a cute dance I guess we'll have to settle with their warm up.

And on to December

We had a fun little excursion to Gardner Village to do an 'Elf Hunt'.

We've done 'witch hunt' and this was sort of the same but really, the kids love it they've never been bored with it yet. And it is my chance to spend more time with Embrie too since Garrett is in school all day.

My parents were not going to be traveling much through the holidays (due to Blain having shoulder surgery before Christmas). So they invited us all up for a couple of days to have a Christmas party.

We had competition: Gingerbread houses

Now it was going to be couples or families against the like. I was missing my other half, Brad had to be working that weekend. I knew that with him we'd probably win, but I was determined to show that I could do it without him!

Kalvin brought a friend, Morgan, home. She was his partner. Jared and Jessica, Sunni and Ed with help from their boys Blake and Colton (since they are older kids). And Grandma agreed to be on my team.

I had really grand ideas. To win this competition I wanted to make a long ranch house.

Blake with his families truck and trailer, pretty awesome.

Jared and Jessica made a log cabin.

Kalvin and Mogan made what I thinkwe decided was "a prison court yard" although I think they were at first trying to make it look like a building on campus at USU.

....... well this is the last photo of me and grandma Judy's house still standing. My long ranch house didn't want to stay standing and we tried to turn it into a house with a fenced yard but it was a FLOP! ah! sorry Grandma. Apparently I can't do it with out Brad. I am sure Grandma could have done better with an idea of her own. I probably should have let her make the blue prints :)

Even the kids and Grandma Sheri made houses that stood better than ours!

Oh well it was lots of fun.



I vow to catch up

This is after all my diary/ scrapbook/ family history journal of sorts so because I am a little bit obsessed with chronological order and stuff. I will get these past few months out.

And so this was our Thanksgiving Holiday spent with the Callahan side of the family. There were fun Minute to Win It games for the kids they loved it!

I recognize how amazingly lucky we are to have such great families, to not want for anything and to know that our Heavenly Father has given all of this to us!