Merry Christmas family and friends! Last year I started blogging so I used it for my family update that I usually include in my cards each Christmas. It connected me with a lot of you that are blogging as well and has been fun for me to see what you and your families are up to. Since that worked out so great, here we go again!
This past year has been a crazy busy year for our family. So many wonderful things have happened and we have truly been blessed with them all. To start off with, we added a beautiful new little boy to our wild bunch. Aaron Scott was born March 5th. He is now 9 months old and has been such a fun addition. He really is such a great baby. Fun personality, happy, content, smiley and just a joy to have around. He is 9 months old and is a constant ball of motion. It takes 2 most of the time to change him. It has been so much fun watching the other 3 kids with him. They all adore him. When Mikey gets home from school, he crawls over and climbs on him and is ready to play. My favorite, is when Ryan gets home every night he is greeted by the kids and the wrestling match begins. Aaron will crawl over and plant himself in the middle and joins right in. I think he feels a need to keep up with his siblings. So far he is a momma's boy and a great snuggler. He truly melts my heart. I am enjoying him soooo much!
Aaron at 6 months (above) and 9 months (below).
Tyler turned 3 this year. He talks constantly and was FINALLY potty trained 100% this past summer. That I must say was a real trial. I have story after story of mess after mess. He tried my patience to the bitter end. Now he is a pro and goes through the night. He is such a fun kid and he continues to keep us rolling with laughter. He loves wrestling with his dad and brothers, playing with his superhero's and dinosaurs and playing with his "best friends." On most days you will find him in a pair of shorts rain or shine. He loves his "horts" and must wear them constantly. It a fight to get him or Mikey to wear pants. We definitely live in the wrong weather climate for them. He has got to be one of the funnest kids to sit and talk to. You never know what funny thing is going to come out of that mouth. Much to Ryan's sadness, he no longer lets his sister dress him up in princess or tinkerbell attire. He is now much to the other extreme. He will not eat a strawberry yogurt because it is a "girl yogurt" because it is pink. He has it all figured out. Right now he is next to me making shooting sounds and using my nice easel/frame holder as a gun. He is 100% boy and we love it!
Brooklyn turned five this year. She started kindergarten and loves every minute of it. She will be one of those people that just loves learning and that we will always be thankful for. Brooklyn was so excited to turn five. Since her birthday she poses with her hand held up and fingers spread. I finally heard her tell her friend one day when I was getting ready to take their picture, that you need to hold your hand up because your 5 (check out the photos). Every picture has her holding up that hand. Needless to say we are amused by it. She is such a sweet girl and holds her own in a house filled with wild boys. She started piano this year and is doing really well. I think she inherited some of her dads gift for music. I love walking in on her when she is practicing or when her dad is playing primary songs and she is sitting on his lap singing as he plays. Nothing is more precious than hearing her pipe out "I am a child of God" or "I love to see the temple." She is definitely our little doll.
Last but definitely not least is Mikey. He turned 7 in August and has not lost any of his energy. He got an electric guitar last Christmas and has just excelled in his guitar lessons this year. He plays so many songs such as "Free Fallin," "Back in Black," "Beat it," etc. He loves jamming and is working towards having a band and performing for people in the park. On his birthday he made his grandparent's deck into a stage and set up chairs and performed many songs till we finally pulled the plug and let his "captive" audience go. He loves lions, tigers, leopards etc. In fact he wants a lion cub for Christmas and is planning on living in the jungle when he is 18 and raising his family there. Just ask him about it and you will be listening for hours. Every last detail is planned. He is in 2nd grade and just loves his teacher. She allows him to let his personality shine. She has allowed him to bring his guitar and amp to class and sing and play songs. He brought in his tiger blanket his grandma gave him for sharing time and then belted out ocapella "Eye of the Tiger." He is not a shy child. So, when he is not being entertained by the music, he is playing is absolute favorite sport, basketball (the game of knock out) Mikey has a fun life and is a fun person to be around. There is never a dull moment with him around.
Business has really grown and taken off this year for us. Ryan has been working obscene hours to try and stay ahead of it all. Paintball and snowboarding has had to take a back seat. I know he longs to get back to that again soon. However, I must say I am proud of him and it has been exciting to see the success and all the progress he has made this year. Medipro Direct has grown so much he sold his billing company to free up his time and allow him to keep up on the growth of Medipro. For someone who has had to work so much he juggles things well. He is a great father and has so much fun with his kids. He teaches institute for the Stake for the local college kids and teaches Gospel Doctrine on Sundays and keeps the missionaries coming by, by boggling their minds with his magic tricks. Needless to say, he stays pretty busy.
As far as me, I am running as fast as I can to keep up if not a step ahead of this crazy bunch. I love being a mom and a wife and taking care of each of them. I have bounced back from Aaron's birth pretty quickly. I got a new calling helping with mid week activities for Relief Society. I still teach a strength training boot camp twice a week in the morning. I am so thankful for that, it keeps me sane and in decent shape. I volunteer in both of the kids classes. I keep busy and feel like I hit the road running from the time I get up to sundown. Four kids and a busy husband are a lot to keep up with. I feel fortunate, because I live in a small little town with wonderful friends who help me keep up with it all. I don't know how people do it if they don't have great friends to trade with and leave their kids with once in a while.
Ryan and I feel so blessed in our lives and really recognize the Lord's hand in it all. We have so much and our lives are so full. We are so thankful for the good friends we have and the wonderful family in our lives. Thanks to all you for the part you play in our lives. We truly are so grateful for each of you. We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and New Year! Please keep in touch. We love you all!
If I hadn't bored you enough already, here are a few highlights of our year:
My sister Staci and her family came to visit for Aaron's blessing. It was a lot of fun having them here and getting to show them around.
Brooklyn's 5th birthday party at Pump it Up. She had a great time with her friends! She wanted a princess castle cake this year, so this is what we came up with.
One of our many trips to the Portland Zoo.
One of our trips to the Oregon Coast. It's so beautiful here and the kids always have a ton of fun!
Just a random picture of my boys practicing their guitars.
We had a super fun weekend trip this summer to the Wildlife Safari in southern Oregon. We had such a blast. In this top photo it is hard to see, there is a tiger behind us. We had an up close and personal tour of the Bengal Tiger. Below is a better photo of him. He is beautiful and was super cool to see up close. The tried to get him to do tricks but he was a typical lazy cat.
All the kids got an up close and personal visit with the Elephants as well. We all got to feed them after we watched them do their tricks. Amazing!
As a part of this trip we got to go on a couple of hikes to some waterfalls. This was so scenic and beautiful as well. The kids are great hikers.
We went to Canada this year for a family reunion on Ryan's side of the family. We stayed at the family farm. It was absolutely beautiful and a lot of fun. This is a picture of the kids with their cousin Brendon. He helped them catch one of the sheep.
The kids running through the fields trying to find the sheep.
It is so beautiful here!
They have the biggest tractors I have every seen! It is such a fun place for a kid to run around.
Mikey turned 7 this year. He told me he wanted a cake that had a lion on it eating a zebra. I told him I don't do blood on cakes. So he decided that he wanted a cake with a lion on it, and Rascal Flats with the guitarist making that particular motion. So, this is what we came up with. This was probably one of the funnest cakes I have ever done. He loved it and thought I was the best mom ever! Our trip to Great Wolf Lodge in Washington. We had such a fun time!
Tyler's 3rd birthday! He had such a great time! This birthday was exciting. He could hardly wait to be three. It was so fun to see him anticipate his big day!
My Mom and Dad came to visit for a few days. It is always a highlight of our year when they come. We all look forward to it so much. They got to spend some good quality time with us.
I am already plotting their next visit.
Our Halloween tradition is to go to one of the local pumpkin patches and go on a hayride and pick out our pumpkins. We live by many farms and this is such a fun time of year. I learned the hard way that carving pumpkins is just not fun with young kids, so now we paint and it is so much more fun. Here is what they looked like this year!
Another great Oregon tradition is going to the Christmas tree farms and picking out our Christmas Tree. We searched and searched until Mikey finally found the "one." The one I picked out he thought was completely "horrible." So we brought his find home instead.
We absolutely love this time of year and hope you are enjoying it as much as us. If you actually made it this far, I am impressed. Merry Christmas!!!
