Quincy's Baptism (April 30th)

Quincy officially became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on Saturday April 30, 2011. She was excited for her baptism day. This picture was actually taken the day after her baptism before we went to church. I think she looks like an angel.
Quincy and Chris before the meeting started.


Quincy on her special day.



We were lucky enough to get the church reserved for our lunch after her baptism. It was a cold day outside and we didn't think we could fit everyone in our house. We are grateful Grandma Wyatt could make it. She left Grandpa in good hands and was able to come spend the afternoon with us.

Quincy, Brinley & Maddie. Cute girls!
We have a great family and lots were there to support Quincy. We had Grandma Wyatt, Grandpa and Grandma Southwick, Grandpa and Grandma Tom & Barb, Chris & Jenni & kids, Clint & Heidi & kids, Alex, Bill & Marci, Alecia and Alex. Sarah, Emilee, Alecia and Kylee. Beautiful girls!!

Lots of yummy food.

Grandpa and Grandma Southwick and Bill and Marci were able to be with us. Grandpa and Grandma stayed and went to church with us the next day. We had Bill and Marci come back on Sunday and have dinner with us. It was a wonderful weekend!!

Quincy was baptized and confirmed by her Dad. Those who were able to stand in the circle and help with her confirmation were Uncle Clint, Uncle Alex, Grandpa Southwick, Grandpa Tom, Uncle Chris, and Uncle Bill and our Bishop.

Everyone helped to make her baptismal program special. Grandma Barb played the piano, Emilee led the opening song and Kylee led the closing song, Grandma Southwick gave a talk on the Holy Ghost, Grandpa Southwick and Grandpa Tom were the witnesses for the baptism, and Kade gave the opening prayer.

We are proud of you Quincy for your great decision to become a member of the church and make those special covenants with Heavenly Father. We love you.

Quincy's 8th Birthday (April)

In our family, on your 8th birthday you get your own set of new scriptures. Quincy knew this and was actually very excited for them. She made a request for "the small ones". All of the other kids have the standard size but we honored her wish and got her a small print set. Hopefully her eyes always stay good!!
She got some new summer clothes from Grandpa Tom and Grandma Barb. She also got some money and a nice card in the mail from Grandpa and Grandma Southwick and Grandpa and Grandma Wyatt.

Quincy had a friend party this year (this was our 3rd friend party in 2 months...so hopefully no more for years to come!). She invited 7 little girls and we had a giggling party going on. She had a butterfly themed party. They played butterfly relay games, wrapped each other up with toilet paper like a cocoon, made butterflies with watercolors and coffee filters, ate butterfly cupcakes and decorated little fabric bags. The only thing that didn't go so perfect at the party was the fact that they went outside and had a little fun on our tire swing. Our kids are used to it and it doesn't bother them so they forget that others might not be the same. One little girl puked on the way home in our suburban and we heard later that another little girl threw up when she got home. They both said they got sick on the swing!! Oops!

Happy Birthday Quincy...We love you lots!!

Easter 2011 (April)

Coloring easter eggs! I am so grateful that even my big kids still love to do things like this! I love to see all of them doing things together. Kylee, Emilee and Kade were every bit as excited to do eggs this year as Brinley and Quincy were!







You can't color easter eggs without at least one cup of color landing on the floor! Brinley was the proud owner of this spill! We now have pink tile grout. It will remind us of the memories I guess. I must be an old mom, this would have completely freaked me out several years ago. Brinley and Quincy have the older kids to thank for mellowing me out!!





Sunday we celebrated by waking up to treats from the Easter Bunny. He left candy in baskets and flip flops for all the girls and a backpacking survival kit for Kade.





I am grateful that Easter is always on Sunday. Going to church helps remind us of the real reason we celebrate Easter. It was nice to go and reflect upon the resurrection of the Savior and all that it means for our family. I am so grateful for the blessings that come from the gospel. We are very blessed.

And the room turns GREEN...BRIGHT GREEN!!! (March)

Emilee has been begging to repaint her room. She claimed she just could not stand my pale yellow choice for one more day. Sooo we came upon a compromise. She agreed to repaint her room for a personal progress 10 hour project. She also had to clean and reorganize it. She did a great job. She learned how to tape, cut in, and roll on the paint. She did most of the entire project on her own.

She wanted it bright...no pastels... and she definately got it!! It glows!! She loves it.

Kylee's Jr. Prom!!! (March)

Kylee got asked to her Jr. Prom. So fun!!! We knew we would have a hard time finding a dress the right length to fit her so we opted to rent one. We found a cool place in Bountiful where she had over 900 dresses to choose from! I was a little worried that we would be there for a couple days with that many choices, but she did great. She found her perfect match in only 1 hour!!! It fit her like it had been made for her. She looked sooo beautiful. Just like Cinderella.
Just a funny little story. Kylee and her friend both agreed to wear their dresses on the Sunday after Prom. As we walked into the chapel that morning for Sacrament meeting, every little girl watched her from the time she walked in until she sat down. A little 3 year old girl was sitting across from us. She kept peeking at Kylee out of the corner of her eye during the whole meeting. A couple little girls came up to her in the hall and aksed if they could touch her dress. It was so cute. Kylee decided that when she "grows up" she wants to be Cinderella in Disneyland!


Her date...Jared McRory. He's a cute boy. She had a good time.


Not a great picture, but this is them at the Promenade. She looked beautiful!

Brinley's 5th Birthday (February)

Brinley is 5!!! How did my baby turn 5!! Time goes by way too fast. This year for her birthday she wanted a ladybug cake.

I was at a volleyball tournament in Kaysville with Emilee all day the day before her family birthday party. Kylee volunteered to make her cake. I assumed she would just make a regular cake with frosting and sprinkles. Brinley has the greatest big sister. Kylee asked Brinley what kind of a cake she wanted and then went online to find an idea of how to make a ladybug cake. After 2 trips to wal-mart and several phone calls to me, they had one adorable ladybug cake!

The most favorite present of the day was the box of cookie crisp!!

Brinley got to have her first ever friend birthday party. It had to be postponed until a week after her birthday because on the day it was scheduled to be she woke up sick!! When it was finally here she had a great time with her friends.

Just a little side note. The boy in this picture is Jackson Faerber. He lives down the road and is in her same primary class and they also go to pre-school together. They have become great friends...friends, that's what we keep telling her they are!!! She told us awhile ago that Jackson was her boyfriend. Then one night after we had babysat him for a couple hours she informed me that they had gotten married!! I dug up a little information from her older sister (whom I found was behind all of this) and found out that they had indeed been married...complete with a toilet paper ring and a kiss on the cheek!! Oh my! Jackson's dad is in our bishopric. The following Sunday it was his turn to conduct testimony meeting. He told the story about Brinley and Jackson getting married to illustrate the fact that even though it was a little pre-mature, he was glad his children had a good view of marriage and family! Brinley was sooo embarrased and she got several comments after the meeting was over. If you know Brinley, this story won't be too shocking to you!!!

Happy Birthday Brinley. You are the cutest 5 year old I know!! We love you!

Valentines Day!!! (February)

I have the best husband and my kids have the greatest dad!! This year for Valentines Day we had a dinner. Brinley and I found a table cloth, fun valentines plates and napkins, and some balloons. Brinley was so excited for everyone to come home and see. I made homemade alfredo sauce with grilled chicken. Before we all sat down to eat Chris made us all leave the room and he brought in a dozen roses and set them in the middle of the table. He said they were for all of his girls. Four for me, and two for each of his daughters!!

Brinley with her first roses...from her Dad!!
Quincy with her first roses...from her Dad!!


And Kade with a king size candybar. He didn't forget his son, just didn't want to give him roses! He liked the candybar a lot better.



Happy LOVE day!!!

Kade's 11th Birthday (February 1st)

This year Kade wanted a friend party for his Birthday. It's been awhile since he's had one so I let him have a party. He invited 7 boys and we had a crazy party in our basement. They played the candybar game, built towers out of marshmallows and toothpicks, popped balloons and ate lots of pizza and ice cream. The noise level coming from the basement was pretty impressive. They are a cute group of boys. I am grateful that he has good friends even if they are all a little crazy when they get together!

He had a family party too. I guess we forgot to get the camera out for that occasion. He got a backpacking backpack. He is so excited to go backpacking with his dad this summer. He is in the process of saving up for his sleeping bag. I'm so glad he has a dad who gets to take him camping and freeze with him...one job I don't want!!

Happy Birthday Kade...you are a great kid and we love you lots!!!

San Diego Christmas Trip (Dec 26 - Jan 2, 2011)

We had so much fun going on vacation with Bill and Marci and their family for Christmas last year that we decided to do it again. We couldn't go with our travel partners because Marci was recovering from major back surgery, so we decided to venture out on our own. We did it a little different this year. Instead of making it a surprise for Christmas morning, we told the kids about a month before. We thought they might be able to have a little different experience by being able to look forward to and plan our trip. Everyone was excited except Emilee...she was excited for the trip but wished that we had kept it a secret and surprised her like last year. Sorry Em!!

The trip was fabulous. It was sooo good to get out of the freezing cold weather and see some California sunshine. San Diego is such a great vacation spot. Each day was packed. We saw a lot and had a lot of fun. We also decided to make this a little different trip in that we did not go to any theme parks. We did more of the "tourist" things to do. We weren't sure how the kids would like this, but they loved it! Here is a little of what we did...

This is the "Mormon Battalion Historical Center". This was awesome. So well done. There were interactive talking picture frames, panning for gold, an old time family picture and we even found the name of one of our relatives!

"Old Town" San Diego was a big hit for the kids. We could not believe how much they loved it. If there was ever a spare moment, they wanted to head back to Old Town. We ate homemade tortillas on the street, shopped for HOURS to spend the $10.00 they each had and toured several museums. Quincy and Brinley bought guitars with their money!!

Amazing tide pools!!

Brinley and Mom in the sky tram at the San Diego Zoo. She didn't think she should smile for our picture!!

San Diego Zoo

We had pretty good weather...except for Wednesday. It poured almost all day long. We are in line for Scripps Aquaruim. Good thing we found some indoor things to do this day!

Can't see the people in this picture, but they are there! Love the San Diego temple!!

We walked out on a 2000 foot pier in Oceanside that had a diner at the end of it. We got milkshakes when we finally got there.

I thought this was a highlight of the trip. We went on a 4 hour whale watching cruise. It was awesome. We saw 4 groups of whales. Ous ship followed them and we got to see them surface out of the water several times.

We toured "USS Midway" a huge naval ship. We enjoyed lunch on the deck of the ship.

For three of the days this was our transportation around San Diego. This is our double decker bus. We were always the only ones on the bus and Betsy our tour guide was awesome. We would call her on our cell phone, and she would come pick us up.

Homemade tortillas sold on the street in Old Town.

So grateful for the time we got to spend together. Best Christmas gift ever!!!

Funny sayings by Brinley!

I've got to write these down before they are gone forever. Brinley says the funniest things. These are a few...

***Chris and Brinley were watching the movie "Mulan" together. Brinley turns to Chris and says "Oh, she shouldn't break her families hearts, if she did they couldn't breathe"

***I was scrubbing the toilets and she said "Mom, you are just so awesome, I could never scrub those toilets like that"

***She told Chris that he was "so awesome" because he has such big muscles. She really knows how to butter up her Dad!

***As she is eating a sucker she says to me "Mom, you really should take me off sugar and dairy because I just eat it so much"

Brinley turns 4!!

Brinley got to celebrate her birthday this year with her cousin Sarah! Their birthdays are 3 days apart so we had one big party. She was soooo excited. She could not wait to unwrap her presents and eat her cake!

This is such a great picture of this face! She makes it often. It says a million words. It usually means "Look at me, I am pretty cool". She is quite proud of her stash of presents. Between her parents and her grandparents she got quite a few clothes for summer. I was worried that she would be dissapointed to be getting clothes for her birthday, but she was thrilled. She kept making the funniest comments every time she unwrapped another article of clothing. She does love clothes so I guess I am not too surprised.

This was the hit present of the night. She got a vintage cash register! (vintage in more ways than one...I found it at the DI for $3.00. It was a great success. I don't know why we think we need to spend lots of money on toys!! At one point in the night we had all 5 of our kids (yes even Kylee and Emilee) playing "store" with the cash register!

Brinley wanted a princess cake, so this is what we came up with!

Some of the things Brinley loves at the age of 4:

* Her baby dolls - she plays all day long with her babies while everyone else is at school *

* Hot dogs - luckily I buy turkey hot dogs so she's not dead of a heart attack yet! She scoots the bar stool over and microwaves her own. For some reason she loves to feed them to the neighbor kids too *

* playing "PBS kids" and "paint" on the computer *

*Her grandpa's and uncles - always has *

* The DI - I have trained her well. She will say "Mom, lets go get me something new at the DI".

* Quarters - she will do almost anything for a quarter *

* She still loves a good game of UNO *

* wearing either her swimming suit or princess dress ups all day *

Some days I wish I could freeze her! She is so much fun and so fun to talk to. I love to hear her funny comments and perspective on life. She is very loved in our family!!

Miss Stewarts Wedding

Quincy's first grade teacher got married last Friday! Chris and I chaperoned three 6 year olds to the wedding reception. This was absolute entertainment!! It was the cutest thing I have seen in a long time. The night began with these three girls having quite the discussion all the way there about possibly catching the bouquet and whether they thought Miss Stewart and Dan would kiss at the wedding or when they got back home that night! When we got there Quincy was pleasantly surprised to see her very own artwork framed and on the book table. That is the picture she drew of Miss Stewart and her new husband!!

These are the bride hopefulls with their favorite teacher!!
We had planned to stay only a few minutes, but that was not what these girls had in mind. We were there for over an hour! They ate so many refreshments I was surprised there were any left for the rest of the guests!

This was the highlight of the night. After the line ended, the bride and groom danced. The girls decided they should join in, so they held hands and danced around in a circle amongst the bride and groom and their parents. Needless to say, it was cute, but a little embarrassing. I couldn't stand it any longer, and after a few minutes I made them sit back down!

You would have thought it was their own weddings! The only disappointment was that they didn't get to stay and watch Miss Stewart open all of those presents!!

Kade's 10th Birthday!

Kade's Birthday was on February 1st. We always celebrate with the Hadley family on the Sunday closest to the birthday. He will still get to celebrate with the Southwicks later this month when we have a combined February Birthday party! This year Kade wanted either a wii game or a "big" soccer goal for our back yard. Chris and I are both big succers for anything that will encourage our kids to be outside doing something constructive rather than getting more thumb exercise! So even though the price was a little higher, we went for the soccer goal.

Kade has a great Dad. He got online and researched, went to Soccer connection in Ogden and talked to the people there, and then went to Home Depot to talk to some more people. He came up with a great plan to order a net and have him and Kade build the goal together out of PVC when the weather gets a little better. We bought the net and that was what he opened for his Birthday. We started out looking at medium sized goals...but you know how a Man's project gets bigger and bigger...Kade ended up with a soccer goal that will be 20 feet wide by 7 feet tall. That's a big goal. Add that to the full sized volleyball net, tetherball pole, basketball hoop, swingset, fire pit, and sandpile and we should have quite a yard full! Kade didn't know which of the two he would get, so he was pretty anxious to get the present open and see! He said that he had hoped it would be the soccer goal.

Chris got out the tape measure and showed him how big it will be.

These are some of the things that Kade enjoys at the age of 10!!

* Playing Soccer - Indoor and Outdoor

*Playing wii with his friends

*Watching sports with his Dad

* Eating chicken noodle soup, pizza braid, and chocolate chip bundt cake

* Building igoos in the back yard with the neighbor boys

* Playing "moshi monsters" and "roller coaster tycoon" on the computer

* Wearing his new Heely's to Wal-mart (1st time in his life he begs to go shopping with me)

* Math - he dazzles his 4th grade teacher with his math skills!

* Still loves to tease all of those sisters!

Backyard visitors!

As Quincy was eating breakfast at the bar this morning, she all of a sudden said, "Mom, I just saw two deer go through the back yard!" We sometimes do see deer, so Chris and I ran to the window to take a look. Sure enough, these two deer were hanging out in our neighbors back yard. Chris had to capture a picture. Quincy and Brinley thought it was pretty cool!

Meet Skippy!!!

Ever feel like you're being watched??? This is our little kitty Skippy! Yes, we have a kitty and I even buy him cat food and feed him! Miracles never cease! We inherited this little kitty last summer when my two animal loving neighbors caught him, brought him to our house in a cage, with food and asked (in front of my kids) if we would like to keep him! I am assuming he is a he...I have no idea!! What was I supposed to say? I really never thought he would stick around. He was deathly aftaid of people. Our kids have worked for months slowly slipping out the back door trying not to scare him away. At random times last summer I would see either my own kids or neighbor kids laying dead on the lawn as motionless as possible trying to get the kitty to come near! It was pretty funny to see them all try their different tactics to get the kitty to come to them. He has finally warmed up and will let the kids pet him and even some days pick him up.

He is the funniest little kitty. Above is a picture of our french doors in the back of our house. He sits there like that for hours!! He loves to just watch. I am sure we ARE the most intertaining house in the neighborhood, but really, hours!!! His head will follow the kids' every movement! We leave the blinds up so as to not block his entertaimnent. He also loves to climb up on our gas grill and sit and look through the window. We really must not be as boring as we think we are!

The kids can't wait until the snow melts so they can really get out there and play with him! They can no longer say I am the meanest Mom in the whole wide world because they are the ONLY kids without a pet! I have redeemed myself!