All Things Christmas 2015

Christmas....the craziest time of the year!  Always so jam packed with fun parties, programs, activities, you name it!  This year was no exception and I'm sure in the years to come, things will just get crazier and crazier.  I actually kind of like the craziness :)  As the pictures show, the girls had a dance performance at the Festival of Trees and Cam ALSO performed with her violin group at the Festival.  There were school concerts as well.  We waited in a LOOOONG line at station park awaiting Santa's arrival and it ended up being worth it :)  He was so sweet and fun.  Nixon wanted a Baymax, Cam wanted Walkie Talkies, B wanted a bow & arrow, and Kendyl wanted little Popper animals.  They were happy to be there with cousins.  We were also lucky enough to get tickets to the MoTab Christmas concert with the Sesame Street Muppets.  The girls got to come with us and they were so excited!  It was awesome having them there.  They got a little bored here and there, but they liked it.  We had a Christmas party with Nic's family at Ashley's house where the kids exchanged presents and got way too much candy :)  Christmas morning was at our own house and Grandma and Grandpa Sellers joined us.  I'm sure they enjoyed watching our kids open presents.  They were so excited about everything they received.  I'm so grateful for kids who show honest gratitude for all they have and for all they receive.  They rarely complain and they're always very reasonable about what fair.  I love them so much.

Happy 1st Birthday Calvin Baby!!!!!

Oh, Calvy boy.

 It's been a year since you joined our family.  You've brought more joy to your brother, sisters, dad and me than you could ever imagine.  You have softened everyone's heart and have brought peace to our home in our most stressful moments.  You have snuggled with your mama, played with your siblings, given your dad big laughs and have entertained us endlessly.  Your sisters still fight to get you out of bed every morning and hold you during the day.  Nixon wants to play with you non-stop.  And your mom and dad could just stare at your cute, cute face and give you kisses all day long.  You've been incredibly independent, which comes with the territory in a large family, and you've kept yourself busy and happy.  Your favorite hangout is the toy box, although all you've really needed is a car to push around the floor or a ball to throw.  You've got a great arm and you make the best car noises :) 

          You've slept like a champ, eaten like a champ, traveled like a champ and have been nothing short of an angel baby.  I am glad we ended our child bearing years with such a great little boy.  All the sickness, aches and pains of pregnancy were worth every second I've had with you.  I can't wait to see what the future brings and I can't wait for you and your siblings to become best friends who love, play, and look out for each other.  I love you with all my heart,

*Calvin had a wonderful birthday.  He devoured his smash cake and was thrilled to get lots of cars to push around.  There were lots of cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents to smother him with hugs, kisses and presents.

Stats at 12 months.

Weight: 19 lbs 7 oz  (25%)

Length: 29.5"  (45%)

Head: 18.4"  (90%)

Kendyl's 6th Birthday

We just love this little sweetie.  She marches to the beat of her own drum.  I'm sure if she woke up tomorrow and she was on the moon, she wouldn't even skip a beat :)  She wanted to go to Jungle Jim's Playland again for her birthday party and it sounded easy enough for me!  We invited her cousins and they all had a blast.  Kendyl loves sharing a birthday with Great Grandma :)  Here are a few special things about Kendyl.   She is SMART!  When I go to Parent Teacher Conference, her teachers tell me she's an "academic superstar".  They seem fairly blown away with her ability to learn and be in control of herself at all times.  I'm so relieved!  She Loves to read and will stay up late at night to try and finish her fairy books :)  She still loves treats as much as ever and HOPES she'll get cavities so she can have them filled at the dentist (uncle Matt).  What?!  Crazy kid.  Boys love Kendyl.  I don't know what it is about her, but every friend I have with a little boy her age has told me that her son has a crush on Kendyl.... scary, I know.  This child is always messy, mismatched and looking for a good time.  She has the cutest smile and still gives me awesome hugs.  I just love her so much and I'm starting to panic that she's growing up!  I LOVE YOU KENDYL WENDYL!!!!

The Nutcracker

Grandpa (Dad), Tammy, Holly, Me and all our girls went to "The Nutcracker" at Ballet West.  It was magical...but like most things where you're required to hold still hour after hour....it got a little old.  It was fun seeing those red soldiers perform their part EXACTLY how I performed it when I was 12!  Oh man, I remember those auditions.  So nerve wracking!  I still can't believe I made it after so many cuts.  Practices were hard and intense.  But I really did love it and it brings back awesome memories.  We got to see the ballet with Dad because Mom was sick.  

Happy Thanksgiving!

We celebrated Thanksgiving at Ashley and Ryan's house.  Poor Kendyl babe was SOOO sick.  She slept in Ashley's office for half the day with breathing treatments every few hours.  I was just about to take her to the ER, her breathing was SO labored.  Broke my heart all day.  Besides that, the rest of the kids had a great time and the whole family (minus Tanner) was able to feast together.  There are a few pictures at the bottom of Nixon at his school program.  He ATE and ATE and ATE.  I've never seen this kid eat so much.  It was amazing.  He wouldn't, however, wear his Thanksgiving hat for the program.  He's a little stinker when it comes to performing :)  What am I Thankful for this year?  This family of mine.  They are my everything.  Everything.

Ice Skating & Santa's Arrival

Station Park in Farmington has the coolest little skating rink they set up each winter.  Lucky for us, it's close by, it's cheap and all of the kids love it.  The pictures below are 2 separate occasions.  The top grid was the night SANTA arrived at Station Park!  We waited in line FOREVER to see him (he was worth the wait).  Nixon asked for a Baymax, Brooklyn asked for a bow & arrow.  Kendyl wanted a popper toy, and Cam asked for walkie talkies.  Nixon and Hudson sat on his lap together and were so stinkin cute.  We then went iceskating with Sean, Papa and Ashley's family.   There were festivities going on all over the mall and it made for a very magical, Christmasy night.

November Stuff

November in Utah.  One day you're basking in the sun, the next day you're in your snow gear.  We've tried to take advantage of every moment we can be outside.  Let's review these random pictures.  

Nixon smoked me at 'Memory'
Checkers became our little hobby for a while.
Kendyl has proven to be an amazing artist
Nixon, Boston and Cal were playing dinosaurs....and it was too cute.
Nic took the kids to see "Big Hero 6" and the next morning, K and N dressed up like the characters and played Big Hero 6 in the yard.

A bunch of kids in their winter gear....pretty self explanatory :)
But the bottom right picture is Camryn standing in front of our Thankful tree.  We had the Martins over for FHE one night and wrote down things we're thankful for on these leaves.  We tied them to these tree branches and it was our centerpiece all month :)

Jumping the Gun

I'm usually pretty firm in my belief that we don't set up Christmas until AFTER Thanksgiving.  However....once the kids were out for Thanksgiving break, and they were bored, and I was feeling festive...we just went for it.  And you know what, I LOVED IT!!!  It went much faster since we only decorated one tree this year.  We finished off the fun by watching my favorite (and now my kids' favorite) movie, 'Home Alone'.  Nixon and Kendyl spent the next few days running wild so they could be Kevin :)

Clean the Cal

It's rare to find a bathing baby without a smile on his face.  It's especially rare when the baby just had a dum dum.  Calvy's smile is contagious.  And that little bum.  Come on.

Next door horses

Our neighbors have a horse arena that shares a fence with our backyard.  They have sheep, goats, ponies and more.  It's so fun watching their girls ride.  They are LEGIT and it's very cool.  Kendyl always wants to ride, and our nice neighbors are always more than willing to let her.  Kendyl has no fear and I'm sure she's be an amazing rider if she had access to these horses each day :)  It's kind of cool living in the country!

Soccer Kids

Nixon was PARALYZED  with fear for his first practice and first game.  If I wasn't out there holding his hand, he wouldn't even move.  Well then something happened.  He somehow scored a goal as I was dragging him along; and that did it.  He was a new man, ready to take on the field!  He let go of my hand and played like a champ the rest of the game!!!  As long as I started each game by easing him into it for just a minute, he did great!  He looked forward to his games all week.  He scored a few goals and we couldn't be more proud of this little man.

 Kendyl was born to play soccer.  We was asked to be on the more "skilled" team this season, but I decided to keep her where she was at for now and just let her shine on her team :)  Well shine, she did!  She averaged 3 or 4 goals a game and enjoyed every minute of it

Brooklyn is a hustler.  Always right on the ball and never wanting to come out.  She scored a few goals this season and they were beautiful!

Camryn has improved by leaps and bounds this year.  She didn't love soccer her first couple of years but she plays SO much better now and really seems to focus and enjoy the game.  She is a great defender and she also scored a goal this season.

Halloween

Holidays are month long events now-a-days.  These kids were in their costumes for some event or another almost every day!  Nixon found this skeleton costume at Smiths and decided that's what he wanted to be.  He put it on right when we got home and we could hardly get it off him for the next week.  He wanted to scare us :)  The twins wanted to be witches and we found the bulk of their costumes at DI.  Kendyl found her ROCKER costume at Costco and it was perfect for her.  Calvin was this adorable lion.  I found some "Incredibles" costumes on a Facebook yardsale a few days before Halloween.  My intention was to save them for next year, but Nixon obviously found them and couldn't wait to be Mr. Incredible.  I had to let him :)  Here we are at a preschool program (Nixon was about to get a fever, little did I know, I wasn't feeling very festive that day), the Fall Festival, Grandma's Halloween party (which was very awesome), Main Street Trick-or-Treating (I even dressed up for that one!), and a backyard glamour shot :)  We also trick-or-treated in our own neighborhood and hit up 2 Trunk-or-Treats!  I think we collected about 30 pounds of candy, no joke!

October Wrap-up

It all pretty much speaks for itself.  I think our life is too good :)  During those times when I'm stressed and angry about the messes and the craziness, I need to step back and remember how truly blessed I am to be the mother to these 5 amazing little kids.  My prayers were answered times 10 to have the family I have..... I should never ever be allowed to be ornery.

*Nixon cut his own hair,...and was VERY embarased and ashamed.  Nic had to "fix" it that night and Nixon was thinking he was going to get his old hair back, not get more cut off!  He cried and cried.  We just had to assure him that he was going to look like Chase and Hudson :)

* My kids LOVE to help me cook.  I wish I had time to do more of it.  It's always a battle of who gets to pour in the next ingredient.  Camryn keeps telling me she wants to learn how.

*Kendyl and Nixon have these 2 friends, Gwen & Boston Shirley.  The boys are at the same preschool and the girls are both at Legacy.  They have become good friends since we started carpooling.  We've had lots of playdates and they are all peas in a pod.

Calvi- 10 months

Nic and I are done having kids.  That declaration just puts a pit in my stomach.  Seeing Calvi get big is so awesome and so heart wrenching all at once.  He is so happy, curious, and loving.  Really the perfect baby to end on.  He LOVES to eat...maybe because he gets table food instead of baby food.  He LOVES his siblings to carry him around.  He loves to chase our automatic vacuum, Doobi, around.  He loves his binki.  He loves when I sing him "I Am a Child of God" before bed.  He loves laying his head in a pile of blankies.  His smile is to squishy and cute.  He claps, says "mama" and "dada".  Sleeps like a champ.  Nurses like a champ.  I'm just in love.  In love.

Nixon's Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

Nixon.  He's 3 1/2 years old and he still just melts my heart from the second he gets out of bed in the morning.  He is so cute.  Seriously, just so cute.  His little voice.  His little teeth.  His little body.  The funny things he says.  Oh man.... it's unreal.  He was cute at his field trip....and a bit of a stinker as he refused to be in a few of the class pictures.  He participated in frosting his cookie and picking out pumpkins though.  He was so excited to pick one out for Dad :)

3rd Grade Planetarium Field Trip

Volunteering at the school has gotten harder and harder since I now have a mobile baby and a needy toddler.  I love going on field trips with my kids so I decided I'd just have to make it work.  It was a little tough being in charge of 6 kids PLUS my babies on a bus ride and a day at the planetarium, but it was a lot of fun.  The kids were SO SO nice to little Nixon.  He was so happy and pumped all day.  I was almost emotional as I watched the 3rd grade girls and boys on the bus giving Nixon high fives and making him feel like he was the coolest kid on the bus.  And of course, Camryn and Brooklyn chased Nixon around and helped me tremendously, even though they were on a field trip with their class.

It's Britney in Vegas!!

For UEA, we headed to St. George!  I drove to Vegas to meet up with my sisters who had already been there for a couple of days, so we could see Britney Spears in concert!  Yes, it's always been on my Bucket List so I was excited to go.  It was a lot of fun and I was just so excited to get to see her in real life.  We also went to dinner, layed by the pool, played a little black jack and enjoyed the strip.  It was a very quick trip for me, seeing as I had to get home to my nursing baby and relieve Britten from watching all the kids while Nic worked.  The rest of our St. George trip was full of sledding down the sand dunes, swimming, playing at the pumpkin patch & panning for precious rocks, and keeping a dozen kids under control!

Cornbelly's Dance Performance

Look how cute these little dancers are!!  These girls have so much fun at dance and have such a patient, fun teacher.  They get to do lots of performances, including a Halloween performance at Cornbelly's!  Ashley, Matt, Averi, Elle and Nana all came to watch these girls dance and then to play at Cornbelly's.  Check out this giant corn box!  I kind of want one ;)

September wrap-up

*Nic and I were given tickets to the BYU game 2 weeks in a row by my dad.  He couldn't go.  The games were awesome and we loved watching Taysom Hill blow up the field with his QB skills.  Too bad he broke his leg a couple weeks later :(

*Camryn loves Mini EVERYTHING.  Always has.  Here she is making mini paper airplanes at church :)

*Cam and Cal watching a soccer game.  Every Saturday for 4 months of the year are spent juggling soccer games.  I wouldn't have it any other way.

*I usually take all 5 kids with me when I go to the store.  It's a little more chaotic, but they are good kids and I always enjoy having them around when I run my errands.

*My baby Cal is getting big.  He's standing and pulling stuff out of cupboards.  My heart aches every day to see him getting bigger.  I want my kids to stay little.  

And.....we moved.

We moved in the beginning of September.  We had a lot of friends come help, even people from our new ward.  We're getting nice and comfortable and totally enjoying our yard! The picture of the primary kids was our final practice for the program.  It was pretty emotional for me, as I've been the 1st counselor in the primary for a little over a year now.  The ACTUAL program was even harder.  It was SO great and Cam and B performed their baptism song.  The presidency stood up at the end to bare our testimonies. Naturally I was a weepy mess seeing as it was our last week in the ward of 8 1/2 years. There is also a picture of mom vacuuming out the crawl space.  YIKES!  I wasn't about to do it!! (Although I've been in there plenty of times since then). And check out that dreamy hot tub!!!

Nixon starts preschool with Mrs. Mimi!!

Oh Nixon...you have melted my heart again.  He was so excited to start preschool and picked out his own outfit and everything....but he was NOT interested in me leaving him in the classroom!  I am writing this post 2 months later and I'll just say this, it took took a good month and a half before I was able to leave without him crying and chasing me out the door.  He's made some friends now (Boston and  Zane) and his teacher, Ms. Mimi (Janet Short), is awesome and she absolutely adores Nixon.  He's a smart little boy and loves to sing his "N.I.X.O.N." song :)  Each of the kids has a tune for the spelling of their name.  Nixon is the bomb and although I'd give ANYTHING to freeze him at this point in his life, it's fun watching him grow and become more brave and more awesome :)