My Spelling Bee(ner)

This girl is smart.  Crazy smart.  I don't say it to brag, it's just the hard truth.  I'm already annoyed that she's going to outsmart me and make me look dumb!  She studies hard, practices hard and genuinely wants to be great at everything.  She's such an unusual kid in that way, but I'm pretty impressed with her.  This is her second year at the spelling B.  She won the class spelling B and was sent to the school spelling B.  She did well and made it almost to the end...then made a silly mistake on the word "station".  We were so relieved that she was given an easy word, then she lost her train of thought and was eliminated.  Man I was nervous!  Haha.  She handled it well :)

Kendyl's BANGS!

The girls had a sleepover at Ella's house.  Kendyl accidentally got some syrup in her hair during breakfast.  The next night, when she was home, she got out of bed while Nic and I were downstairs watching TV, and took matters into her own hands.  CUT THE SYRUP OUT!!!  I noticed the next morning, made her feel bad, then decided they were actually kind of cute.  I don't love bangs though....just one more unnecessary step :)  I can't believe this was my first experience with this!

When toddlers Facetime

Nic's big Birthday

Nic turned 34 this year!  Craziest part....he's gotten better looking.  Not fair- but I do enjoy looking at him :)  He decided that for his birthday, he wanted all of us to play and enjoy the winter.  We went to Sundance and took the kids skiing.  It's free on the bunny hill rope tow.  Britten came with his girls, Ashley brought Hudson and Matt and Kate brought their girls.  The kids did awesome!  The first run was a little rough, but they got better and better.  Brooklyn would just go down the hill at 50 MPH and take out anyone that was in her way :)  It was awesome.  The weather was fabulous that day so we brought Calvin with us all bundled up in his car seat.  We took turns sitting with him by the lodge.  I got some interesting looks when I was in the bathroom, nursing a newborn while I was sporting ski boots and ski clothes!  The next day, we went to the mall for a little bit, then stopped at Farmington Station to go ice skating.  The kids had a blast and little Nixon did NOT want to stop!  We love Nic more than words could ever describe.  He is the fun one in our family.  The kids are obsessed with him and so am I.  Happy Birthday Nic!

Our popular little man...

Everyone loves a new baby!  The girls always want to hold Calvin...which is sometimes scary, but since this is the last baby in this house, I want to make sure they all get lots of time with him.  Nixon has really grown to love him and even holds him for a few seconds at a time.  Camryn has a made a goal to change 100 diapers :)  She's so proud of herself for being so helpful.  Little Calvin has some tummy problems and we've tried every medication that's affordable.  Zegerid worked...but we ran out and it's a fortune at the pharmacia.  We've made due with Mylanta and Pepcid.  Not as good as Zegerid and Prevecid, but it's something.  He cries a lot and has a hard time going back to sleep when he gets up in the night to eat. He usually ends up next to me in bed, nursing back to sleep.  Unfortunately, this has booted Nic down to the basement blow up bed.  Sad.  We've tried to protect Calvin from the winter weather and diseases, but with a large family, that's not entirely possible.  He's had to go to dance class, music class, grocery store....but not church!  Church is the scariest of all!  I love this baby and I could kiss him and stare at him all day long.  Too bad they can't stay tiny for just a little bit longer!

Calvin's First Days Home

Calvin is a fantastic baby...except for his eating.  He doesn't quite have it figured it out and I've NEVER been in so much pain!  I seriously black out when he latches on!  I know he'll figure it out in time....but meanwhile, he's starving and frustrated, and I'm in pain and frustrated.  Other than that, he's been a pretty good sleeper so far and he basically just sleeps all day!  We love him.  The The kids are obsessed.  Nixon says. "He's my widdle brudder!"  "He's cute, mom".  And he gets right by his face and says over and over again, "hi, hi!"  in the highest pitched little voice.  The poor twinners were sick when we brought Cal home so they didn't get a whole lot of holding time :(  It will come though.  Things are chaotic, but luckily it's Christmas break and we can take it easy and sleep in a little.  Things will get crazy when school starts!!

Christmas

Christmas time was a little crazy!  We had our Sellers Party a week before Calvin was born.  The kids acted out the Nativity.  We did White Elephants for kids and adults.  Had a little talent show.  Great Grandma read the Night Before Christmas.  We ate Chinese food.  Basically like most other years...it was nice :)

After Calvin was born, we decided to have Christmas day at our house with Nic's family.  It was probably a bad idea in hind site.  I'm one of those dummies that has to have the house clean, so knowing people were coming over, I probably over-did it getting everything ready....considering I'd had a baby 4 days earlier.  It was still fun (and crowded) though!  The highlight was Nixon and Hudson getting their little electric ride-on motorcycles.  They rode them all over the basement all night.  So awesome.  We had a wonderful meal, broke a pinata, did a white elephant and opened lots of presents.  I'd be lying if I didn't say it made me a little emotional to have a brand new baby boy at Christmas time.  Kind of made the whole meaning of Christmas and the birth of our Savior a little more magical for me.

I shouldn't forget to mention our own little family Christmas!  We woke up early and brought the kiddos downstairs to check out what Santa brought!  Brooklyn got a Furreal dog.  Cam got some Magic Treehouse books.  Kendyl got an Olivia doll.  Nixon got a Nemo squishy and other tub toys.  That Santa is a good man!  And guess what....they got a lot more stuff from their parents :)  It's so fun to have little kids at Christmas time.  And thank goodness we had Spanky the Elf around the house ALL MONTH to make sure the kids were well behaved (they usually are).  It was usually Spanky who was misbehaving... Cookout with the barbies and stuffed animals in the living room.  Swim party on the counter in a snowcone cup and much more :)

Merry Christmas!