4

My little Royce turned 4 this month....

eh-hem, I mean, "Spiderman" turned 4 this month.

It came as NO surprise that he wanted a piñata after "himself", and since the whole thing is red I trusted him enough to paint it as well.

It's like looking and twins here.

Unfortunately for Royce he had to give back the Spiderman outfit (he had been wearing for a month straight....every day......no joke) he had borrowed from a friend that very night....which is the reason he wasn't wearing it for the party.

Big shocker here but he wanted a ......wait for it......

SPIDERMAN CAKE!!!!!

He had so much fun running around and shooting his friends with his new gun....

except ONE of his friends, just wanted to hang out by the dog we were dog sitting. I asked him why he didn't want to play and he said, "Your house is REALLY loud and full of surprises"

Yep.....that about describes it exactly.

Later that night he got some warrior beyblades and a junk box from us.

(this child can DOWN Clementines)

WITH a Spiderman drink.

All and all it was a fantastic party and day for Royce the recently-retired Spiderman.

So it made him all the MORE happy when someone gave him this Superman outfit.

He has worn it 100% of the places we've gone minus church. The only variation is with or without the cape.

Gotta love this kid.

Fun Times

There were a few firsts for us in November and one was taking the WHOLE family to a trampoline 

place. I thought it might be crazy trying to keep track of everyone (imagine that!) or that the younger ones wouldn't like it as much and want to leave earlier then the older ones....but I was wrong on BOTH accounts. EVERYONE had a blast.

ESPECIALLY this little lady. Pretty sure she jumped on these trampolines the whole entire 2 hours. Maybe even on that specific square the whole time. :)

Gravitopia installed a new American Ninja Warrior part of it!!!! My kids are freaks about that show so they thought "Cannonball Alley" would be a cinch......um......Camden didn't even make it past one.

And the arm rings (Brooks) and rock climbing (Aleeya) in the back.

When I looked at then pictures on my phone they were mostly of Brooks here. Pretty sure I just followed him around with my phone because I like looking at him. haha.....

Iris just kept going up this ladder thing....over and over, like it was no big deal. So I got on after her and um......didn't make it past one step before it flipped over completely. Iris must have some KILLER balance.

Royce would keep jumping into the blocks and get stuck in there and I would have to dig him out each time. You would THINK it would get old after a while but his smile made it worth it.

Then there was the trapeze. My family probably spent the bulk of their time there. Who couldn't resist  it?

Here Bronson is trying to reach that red ball hanging.....Camden was the only one who made it to the red ball.

We had gone with our friends there so while my friend sat there and watched Kellyn jumping in the same place while I tried the trapeze. Brooks grabbed my phone to take a picture but apparently he took a video. Which is "perfect" because everyone wants their FACE PLANT immortalized forever. Not.

Apparently you need stomach muscles to hold yourself up? Or even arm muscles?

I have neither.....so there's that.

(and I couldn't move my arms for 2 days afterward all because of this one attempt. Wow, I have issues)

Speaking of issues......

The day after Thanksgiving I took my two girls to Disney on Ice for their first time!!!

I can't describe how much I was geeking out over it all. I mean ICE SKATING and DISNEY and THE BEST CHOREOGRAPHY ever?!?!? 

and the costumes!!!!! Oh my word. Check out Captain Hook's crocodile and the person skating lying down in it!!!

And flying people, flying carpets, animal stampedes, coolest Alice-in-Wonderland cards dancing EVER and Lion KING ANIMALS!!!!!

And then at the end every princess and their prince comes out and dances. 

*sigh*

total girl heaven....

It's hard to put into words how excited I was through the whole thing......and crazy that I was like that. Maybe even more so then my girls.....and THEY were in heaven.

The only thing that would've made it better would've been to watch it with my sisters. :)

Thanksgiving!!!!

Thanksgiving......where to start? How about the day before.....with Jack.

Jack is the turkey, named by Emerson after the turkey Tad Lincoln (Abraham's son) saved and turned out to be the first turkey "pardoned".

Unfortunately for OUR Jack, he didn't get pardoned......he was thrown in the bath the day before.

The kid couldn't keep their eyes off him.

Then it was like Jack was CALLING their names and regardless of the temperature of the water and the fact that he was mostly frozen and cold, they STILL begged to take a bath with Jack.

One last hoorah with Jack, I guess.

(By then end of the night every child had bathed with Jack except Bronson. I think the whole thing was weird but whatever, it entertained them)

My kids LOVE to cook and I don't ALWAYS let them (except on Sundays) so I decided that Thanksgiving can be a time that they feel like the "cook" the whole meal. I had kids coming in ALL the time Wednesday and Thursday asking if they can cook something so I just divided up everything to each child. The only thing I did was the stuffing and yams/apples by myself.

Camden was in charge of the Jack/turkey and I was SO grateful he wanted to. I HATE digging inside holes to find things I don't want to find in the first place.

I think this was the heart he found.

Aleeya thought the girls needed their hair to look nice for the "feast" so she took them in the bathroom and put all their hair in ponytails. If THAT doesn't say formal dinner, I don't know what does!

Camden's turkey came out AWESOME. We even sat together and watched a movie on the best way to carve a turkey together too since Brooks wasn't home and we weren't sure if he WAS going to make it for dinner since he kept getting admissions at the hospital.

We just prolonged dinner a hour and thankfully Dad could make it then. YAY!

I honestly wasn't too bothered about the thought of Brooks not being there though. Sure, it's easier, but my mind was on all the things I was grateful for. There I was cooking MORE food then we've ever had for Thanksgiving, with kids who LOVED to help with food provided for by his employment. You just can't sit and curse his job after that! Plus, I've been so grateful he HAS a job that provides for our family this size and with him finishing next June, I'm grateful for all the opportunities he is finding for employment after this. Truly, we have so much to be grateful for and I felt peaceful all day.

But after dinner, there was enough of feeling peaceful because it was game time. Bronson wanted to start a family Turkey Bowl tradition and even painted one of his old footballs gold so we can make a trophy out of it. I thought it was a GREAT idea since they play football almost everyday but never for a trophy with the WHOLE family.

Iris, Royce and Kellyn were entertained by this stray puppy on the sidelines, so it worked out great.

It was fierce and intense but Brooks, Aleeya and I pulled out the win! Here are the losers congratulating the winners.

Emerson, forever and always is the worst loser so that's why his face is like that, but Aleeya's face cracked me up. She is pouting because she didn't score the winning touchdown. Aleeya scored 3 out of the 5 but apparently the winning one is what matters to her. I had to hold Everly for the last play so I was QB and threw the ball to Brooks while holding Everly for the win. It was one of those shocking plays that goes in slow motion before your eyes with the other team yelling "Noooooooo" and the receiver just as surprised that the ball made it to his hands as the QB (me) was. I was shocked it actually worked so it made the win all the more fun. 

And to be CLEAR, the teams AREN'T stacked. My three boys are good. And I know in my mind I'm still the high school track-sprinter but now Camden can out-run me and if I DO finally catch him I end up with the sore legs that I have now as I type this. Brooks had the two worst players on his team hands down.

Here the boys are presenting us with the trophy

Our names look pretty good on there. As soon as I find a base to glue it to, you will see this on our mantle. Oh yea.....

Then we came home for dessert. Each child picked a pie to make and then made it by themselves. They made them all the day before and just cooked them or pulled them out of the fridge the night of.

Aleeya made pumpkin, which only ended up getting 1/4 eaten of. But she was pretty proud of herself at the time.

Papi made an apple pie all by himself with EXTRA large slits in it. haha. Sometimes letting them do things by themselves kills me! This actually turned out being my favorite.....and Kellyn's too.

Camden made a key lime and it was all the kids' favorite (THANKS Linsey for the recipe)

Emerson made a chocolate pie which the filling was INCREDIBLE!!! It's a homemade pudding from Pioneer Woman that I probably ate two extra bowls of just the pudding beforehand. (as in licking the bowl too!) I will never make boxed pudding again. I think I will do it in a regular pie shell next time though. The graham cracker crust was too messy.

Then of course Brooks has to have his cobbler since he's not a "pie person" and Bronson made that. It ended up being the overall most eaten dessert but I think that's because Brooks was downing it after a tough game of carrying Aleeya and my weight in the football game.

As Bronson says, this was the first of the best three "food-holidays". Bring on Christmas. :)

TIO BUG!!!!!

"Tio Bug" came to our house to visit for a little bit while he was in Atlanta for work 2 Sundays ago.

And when I say "little bit", I mean a few hours.....but my kids couldn't have been happier. They LOVE Tio Bug and they would take only one minute with him if they could.

Kellyn really doesn't like men so I was curious how she would react to him since last she saw him she was an infant. But he just snatched her up (right after a nap too.....I know during the MOST ornery time!) and she let him.

I don't know if it's because he reminded her so much of her dad, or because he has a little girl her same age so knew the tricks or.......

because he kept letting her play on his phone. (Kellyn's favorite thing in the whole world. I'm thinking I may tell Santa to stuff her stocking with old broken cell phones from people) But either way, she loved him.

First time meeting Tio Bug for Everly and she liked it. But then again, she hasn't ever NOT liked anyone that holds her but don't tell him that. (sorry for the double negative Mom)

We had to jam in as much as we could with Bug while he was here. So the boys got to throw the baseball with him, eat, Play "Up Smith" and have a brother one-on-one basketball show-down.

Bug was a newbie when it came to "Up Smith" but he caught on fast.....except that one time when I tricked him. Beginners mistake.... ;)

 It was me and the boys vs. this fearsome team. See how intense? Now which hand is the penny under.....

The sad thing about this is my super long winning streak (Brooks and I are never on the same team) was broken that night. Bug/Brooks and girls beat us by one. I couldn't believe it.

Then Brooks and Bug had a one-on-one dunking contest in our living room. Yes, our basketball net is  in the living room hanging on our front door.......classy huh.

Brooks ended up winning in his cute church clothes, but just in case no one believes those results I video-taped it all.

Bug's 2 attempts:

(this picture rocks). 

Brooks' for the win:

It's so cute seeing brothers still enjoy being around each other as adults. You can see how much Brooks loves it (the winning AND being with his brother) by his giggle and smile afterward. 

Come back soon Bug. I'm demanding an "Up Smith" rematch and the boys wanna go golfing!

Gratitude Rundown

Welp, it's that time of year again when we put up our Thanksgiving or "Gratitude Tree". I put it up the Monday after Halloween and that night for Family Home Evening the message was the story of the 10 Lepers (and always is for the Gratitude Tree activity). 

Then after the kids each got 8 leaves to write things they are especially thankful for this year.

We made a new rule this year though that you can't write down something that someone has already written down. To make it easier on the younger kids I let them go first.

I took a picture of 1-2 things that each child had written down of the 8 they were given because I like to remember ...well, and it's awfully entertaining.

KELLYN

I'm glad she went first because I was worried someone was going to take her's.....

whatever she wrote.

ROYCE

Royce didn't understand "What are you grateful for?" So I asked him the question, "What are you favorite things?" and he told me things like his blankey, the corner on his blankey, pizza, baseball, ice-cream, McDonald's......you know, the essentials. But my FAVORITE he told me to write down was this:

"What is QT?" you ask? Only the thing he thanks Heavenly Father for in EVERY one of his prayers! (without FAIL!!)  Only the place he begs to go everyday! Only the coolest ...

GAS STATION IN TOWN!!!!

We didn't know such a classy and AWESOME gas station existed until we moved here. (Did I just say "classy" and "awesome" and "gas station" in the same sentence?!?!? Oh yea, I did.)

Let's just say if you have NEVER been in one, you are missing out on the cheapest, most variety and better-then-slurpees slushies around.

IRIS

She continued on with some of the essentials like "tag", chips, chocolate milk with the surprising addition of "school" since it's hard enough to peel her off the sheets in the morning. 

Oh, and this:

"Cake". Duh. How could she have forgotten that?!?!?

With most of the "good" ones taken it's going to be harder and harder for the older ones to think of the "un-takens" for SURE!!!

Aleeya

She came through for me in writing down Church though

I decided NOT to bring up that the VERY day before she was bawling because she didn't want to go to church that Sunday. Benefits of short-term memory I guess.

Aleeya DID stick to the crucial things though: Thanksgiving, food, water, earth, mangoes, kiwis.

Her last one was my favorite though.....it just describes Aleeya in ways I just can't.

She wrote down...

That girl's confidence never lacks.

Emerson

Since our high-class-ness has already been shown in the gas station-fettish and McDonalds being listed, I will NOT be embarrassed that Emerson put this on the tree.

Because it's true. I too am SUPER grateful for Kmart.

Camden

My favorite of Camden's is pretty typical of him and the first one he quickly wrote down:

Climbing Trees.

Bronson

The one that warmed my heart from his leaves was this one:

His siblings. How nice to know he isn't tired of them because I rely on him a ton. They all look up to him and Kellyn prefers him (or Camden) to put her to bed at night. She will jump out of my arms to have her older brothers put her to bed instead. Bronson is so good at watching them and can calm the crying Everly down easy when he takes her out at church.

And because Brooks and I are such saps I put our two side-by-side:

So sweet huh. Or is it? The fact that 7 of my children filled out their leaves before and no one wrote down our names?....hmmmm.....if I'm going to be after something I'm okay with it being after QT.

Brooks and I both wrote down things like washer and dryer, dishwasher, car and things that just make our lives so convienent nowadays. We are so spoiled living at this time...and it's NOT just because I'm reading books based in the 1800s and what they had to do daily....okay, okay, it kinda is. But I'm STILL so thankful to be living now.

On top of those conveniences it was a no-brainer for me to put down books and....

for obvious reasons!

Oh yea, I also wrote down something I'm BEYOND thankful for and truly am grateful for MULTIPLE times during the day. Because without this, I would have to confront the 2 (or 3!!!) of my least favorite things of my kids' many many times.

You have no idea how grateful I am for those.