Annual pumpkin carving

I had good intentions of making this year the best pumpkin carving ever. I bought a ginormous pumpkin. It even had a bum crack that Taryn was super excited about. I also bought the carving kit with mini saws and design/pattern books. 

By the time we got around to carving it was kind of late and it wasn't exactly as kid friendly as I thought it would be. The girls chose two patterns (a witch and eek!) and Brent carved them while the girls got pjs on. Creed was cooperative and just wondered what was going on. 

The excitement of the night for me was no one was too squirmy over pumpkin guts this time. In the past both girls have gotten grossed out and wouldn't help. This year all of them dove in and actually had fun I think. Anyway, here is our attempt at Halloween cheer.

Creed watching and wondering why this was so cool.

Brent showing them how to scoop the goop.

Brent laughing at something but I don't remember what...

CRAZY hair day

The girls were super excited to have crazy hair day this year. It was great that it was so close to Halloween so that there was hair spray paint in the stores...Cami went for the striped badger on sided loony braid, other sided pony tail look. Taryn sent for the faux hawk bun doused in black look. I definitely think it was a crazy hair day....

SURPRISE! It was to us too! Faye Faye is 3!

Jocelyn Faye decided to surprise us and join the family a month early and she has been full of surprises ever since...like surprising us by turning 3 last month. How did that happen? 

With Cami and Taryn gone at school all day and Creed still taking 2 naps Jocelyn has turned into my personal assistant and buddy...Jocelyn loves sorting and folding laundry. She loves helping scrub the toilet. She loves snuggling and reading Fancy Nancy or trying to help me on the computer. She loves treats and getting her own snackies...She is independent and opinionated-in a nice way. She is a girl who knows what she wants. 

She is really fun and lately has learned how to be really naughty too (usually in a funny way-after the fact). She can flood the whole bathroom so fast you won't believe it and soak/dirty more towels trying to mop it up than you could imagine. 

She can go through more pairs of clothes in an hour than anyone in the family (remember we have Taryn in the family so that is really saying something). 

She can scream and whack with the best of the best and still smile very innocently when confronted for it. And when she gets whacked I LOVE the way she comes and indignantly acts it all out for me exactly like it happened including the whack-She doesn't just tell on people she shows me EXACTLY how it went down.

She loves a good marker all over anything mess and Creed has benefited from her in this special way. She loves painting and doesn't always remember to keep it on paper. 

She avoids naps like the plague until inappropriate nap times when it is impossible to rouse her without having a two hour melt down for it. 

She can drag a chair anywhere in the house and climb onto/reach anything she wants...even make up hidden on a high shelf in my closet. She is still pint sized but can down an incredible amount of butt-ella (nutella). As I am typing this she has pulled the chair over to the cupboard and is having a feast of chippies...

The way she talks and says things makes me smile every time she opens her mouth. She decided a week or so before her birthday that she was done with diapers and walked out with panties on-she was potty trained. She's had a few accidents but not many. It is impressive to see her determination and will power. Once she decides to do something there is no stopping her.

We love this little girl more and more each day. She is a bright sunshine in our family. We are so blessed to have her even with all her surprises....

This year she requested a fairy cake and since I waited until her birthday to make it this is how it went down....

She's a big girl and she knows it....Also about a month before her birthday we went to the party store to pick some stuff up for a church function. As we were walking down an aisle she started shrieking "LADY BUGGY LADY BUGGY!!!" Sure enough there were party hats, table clothes, napkins, plates, noise makers,etc...A whole stash of ladybug supplies. If you know Jocelyn at all she is a total ladybug girl. So basically I couldn't say no and even though we just had a family party we were all totally decked out for our ladybug girl!

Creed even humored her with his ladybug party hat...pretty impressive I think.

Ready to blow!-hopefully before Barbie's hair catches fire....

AHHHHH!!! Pink Skinny jeans! Life is sooooo exciting and worth living!

Jocelyn's favorite books are by Laura Numeroff and so we added to our collection. I personally love the pictures in these books more than any other books we've ever bought.

Jocelyn is more into babies than our other girls have been and we spent probably an hour on the Target baby isle before she settled for the baby in the hiking backpack...

A new fuzzy blanket from Grandma Weight. She gives the best cuddly blankets ever! It now is working as Jocelyn's bed spread...

She was SUPER excited to get her own markers from her cousins...She busted them out right away and I don't think she's put them away yet...

A normal site to see

Jocelyn is in love with dance...She goes to a combo class once a week but pretty much every day this is what we see.-Her busting out all kinds of moves in all kinds of crazy dance clothes. She also begs for music all the time and if I don't turn it on she makes up her own songs. I love this kid and her flare...

Daddy Daughter date

Cami goes to activity days at our church (like scouts but for girls) and there is a traditional Halloween daddy daughter date every year. The dads and daughters dress up usually in coordinating costumes and play games and eat treats. Cami cooked up a plan to be Hermione (again) and the natural choice for Brent was Dumbledor or Hagrid. Since I was left to find the costume I raided our neighbors basement and my grandma's closet and Hagrid it was. I think it turned out great and Cami was happy. They had a great time at the party and the pictures were blackmail ish enough that I had to post them....

Standing...

It's official-Creed's got "skills." He seems to be a pretty coordinated little man. He pulls up to anything these days and if he is not thinking he will let go. He will walk around chairs or tables or couches. 

He says mama-yes I finally had a child that said Mama first-but he says Dada too (and various other baby babble sounds). He claps patty cake and waves bye bye. He got his first cold but has survived.

 He now can tolerate food that is green without ganging/crying/immediately spitting it out. He loves pita bread and yogurt and his sisters (most of the time). 

And he laughs more readily than any kid I have ever seen. He is INCREDIBLY ticklish and he loves his blankie. His hair is starting to grow in a little and it is so fun to give him a faux hawk. Creed is such a loved baby. We feel really blessed to be able to smooch his kissy cheeks every day and smell his little boy smells. 

And ps-HE is STINKING CUTE!!!!

Taryn, Tarbear, Tarbeargen is 7!!!!

So this totally crazy thing happened...Taryn turned 7. How did that happen? Sometimes Taryn gets a bad rap because she likes to be loud and because we didn't know if we would honestly survive her first year of life.

 BUT Taryn is seriously an awesome child. She is spunky and fun loving and thoughtful and sensitive and graceful and wild and crazy loud and stubborn and sassy and completely immovable once she has her mind made up. She is definitely a force to be reckoned with. And honestly who wants a pansy for a child? Just kidding. But really who doesn't want a powerful dynamic kid who isn't swayed by others (even us parents)?

Taryn is a hard worker and I really respect that about her. She has been working so hard on her reading and has moved up 6 levels so far this year. She has also passed off several (all she has been tested on) of her timed math tests and math seems to be a strength. She also has incredible handwriting and often embellishes each letter with swirls. 

Taryn still wears funkadilly outfits but she tries occasionally to match (as in she will usually change her shirt if I tell her that it REALLY doesn't match the rest of her outfit). She still prefers dresses to pants but she doesn't wear them EVERY day. She still loves beautiful finger nail polish (a different color on each nail) and she loves accessories. 

She has a great singing voice and isn't afraid to use it. She is super open and I love it. I know who all her "crushes" are and who's Cami's are. I also know what she thinks of everything and everyone.-honestly I just hope she continues to tell me all the details as she grows up. 

She is trying to learn how to control her screaming and temper and she is working on making her r sound and th sounds. We hope this will be her last year of speech therapy. 

When I look at how far Taryn has come in her short life I am so thankful for a girl like her. I know she will always have fun and be happy everyday-even when things are occasionally hard. I know is loves life and I love her!

She really wanted a hula girl cake so I made a coconut cake with a barbie stuck in....

Brent has the tradition of taking each girl out to breakfast on her birthday and this is on their way out the door. She was really relieved to have him home to take her after such a busy month before.

Brent ended up leaving again during the day though so I thought a fort in the living room and a movie sounded like a fun way to do birthday dinner...

Some friends came over and joined her...

She did have a great birthday party about 10 days later but somehow I did not take a single picture...Trust me, it was epic....Thanks to Aunt Rebekah for helping out!

Sweet Dreams...the stuff a kids life should be made of..

Some of the best memories I have made are of sweet babies sleeping.-not just because they are quiet and peaceful-I like them when they are awake too...BUT when they are asleep I hope for sweet dreams, feeling loved and secure and peaceful despite the fact that this can be a crazy world. This is what childhood should look like and I feel really blessed I can give these nights to my kids if that makes any sense.

The potty fairy...she swipes pull ups for panties in the stelth of night

Oh how I love this crazy little lady. She is so independent and opinionated. (I say that lovingly and in  a good way-at least I do right now...) For some reason she decided she wanted to start wearing panties....She walked out wearing them and nothing else one day and it took. She has had very few accidents and none at night (knock on wood). 

I was kind of worried she would be hard to train because she was so not interested at all...and then she was interested and 100% committed and it has been awesome. She is so independent I never have really had to ask her if she needs to go. She just runs and goes and comes and asks for her M&Ms (her incentive for going.)

The first night I told her she had to wear special panties to sleep in just in case some pee snuck out while she was asleep. She wasn't happy about it but she did let me put them on her. At midnight when I went to smooch her again she looked like this...panties on, butt cheek hanging out, and pull up on the floor...

After a good laugh Brent and I tried to sneak her pull up back on and panties off. We didn't even think she woke up too much.
 Five minutes later I went in to put something away and the pull ups were off and panties on again...I just left it that time. She knows what she wants and she did great!

Just a snap shot of a normal afternoon

One day I was feeling sad thinking my kids are growing up to fast. I want my babies for ever and Cami is going to be filling out college applications like tomorrow...So I stopped and took a picture of each kid doing exactly whatever they were doing so when I'm old and senile I can remember that one random afternoon we were all perfectly happy hanging out in our own little family.

Jocelyn fell asleep on the way home from picking the girls up from school and we were all thankful she  stopped moving for a second.

Taryn was playing school by herself telling the class how to make their writing fancier.

What a surprise (not at all) Cami was reading a book and thinking about writing a story...

Creed was supposedly playing with the little people but clearly he was displaying his knack for finding off limit items on the floor...

Worst case of pica EVER!!!

So apparently the way to grow a super cute little boy is the same way to grow healthy plants. Just add lots of nice dirt.....

This kid has the WORST case of pica ever. Pregnant ladies can't even come close to competing. I vaccumm everyday, usually more than once and I still have had to do back blows twice for stuff he has consumed and choked on from the floor. He is super fast and super determined...

I am scared for when he walks but maybe the highlight will be that the plants are no longer in his sight path so he might forget to eat his favorite snack...

Soccer!!!!

The most wonderful time of the year...The smell of freshly cut grass and sweaty socks. The taste of Gatorade and the feeling of burning lungs and a healthy heart...Truly soccer season is the most wonderful time of the year.

Soccer season is so fun for me and Cami has had a great team this year. She became better friends with some of the girls that go to other schools and that makes it more fun. She has played more defense than offense this year. Someday I hope to see some aggression out of her-I told her I would give her a reward if she got a red card...she told me she is scared of the refs so she keeps all the rules...yup-sounds like Cami! I just wish Taryn was playing and on the other team and I KNOW the aggression would naturally be there. (instead Taryn is living her dream of jazz and ballet and various other girly pursuits that make her totally happy-it is who she is...) 

Just had to throw this in for fun-Creed hanging out watching and being super pleasant.

You want a piece of this? Ya turn and run for the hills....

Just try and get past this....just try....

Time out for a good time

Brent has been up north a lot the past couple months helping out his parents. We are grateful to live close enough that he can help. In the mean time at our house we have tried to do some fun activities so we don't miss him to much and go completely crazy. One of these activities was swimming in Grandma Rice's hot tub. All four kids got a HUGE kick out of this and thankfully this is the right time of year to be in a hot tub in St George.

They didn't really want to stop for a picture once the hot tub was in sight so this is as good as it gets...

Super Citizen...Super child!

Cami is a super. When I say super I mean SUPER DUPER (child). Each year she is given the super scholar award right of the bat-the award for the student doing homework, doing class work, basically just everything it takes to be a great student. Serious She has gotten it at the first awards assembly of every year so far just because she is a SUPER scholar.

Her teacher called me and said even though Cami was a super scholar she would like to give her the super citizen award. She said she is sure Cami gets the super scholar every year because the first thing you see about her as a teacher is that she is super smart and responsible. BUT she said that she has noticed that Cami is a sweet and kind and caring as she is smart.

Her award said "Cami Weight is our class's super citizen this month. Cami is genuine and happy and pleasant to be around at all times. She is friendly to all, and includes others. She follows classroom and school rules, and kindly encourages others to do the same. Cami is also a good student and works quickly so she can have time left over to lend a helping hand.She can often be found helping other students in a patient and loving manner. She is unselfish with her time and with her talents. Cami truly is an asset to our class. We are grateful for all of her service."

I appreciate that Cami is a good student and I have always been very proud of her. But I actually am more proud that she is a good person and a good friend. I wish everyone noticed the needs of others and helped them as quickly as Cami does. Being smart is a good thing but Cami is also kind and I think that is a better thing! Way to go Cam! 

My super child getting her award without a flash. Incidentally her teacher is a kindred spirit with her and she is very kind and gentle. Cami couldn't be in better hands!