Christmas at home

Phoebe loves Frozen. When she wakes up in the morning we can hear her singing dramatically "Let it go" It sounds like, "Yeh it Gooo, Yeh it Gooo-oo, yeh it goooo!" She sings this all day and she wants to watch the song over and over again. It is so adorable. She has such a pretty little voice too. She also copies the boys when they sing the star wars theme song and she's learning a lot of toddler songs too :) She also Looooooves all her babies!

When we left thanksgiving she called out loudly. Bye bye!! I love you!! over and over again.

Max is an amazing reader. He is in the top reading group in his first grade class and he just thrills us each day with how much he can read. These days it seems like he reads everything!! He can read scriptures, chapter books, newspapers. And it is so fun to see him progressing so quickly and understanding so much. One of my favorite things is that he understands well enough to have some humor about it. He reads with funny voices or invents different endings to make Sammy laugh.

Sammy is reading too! Last night he read the first few pages of green eggs and ham and it was so fun to see him get so proud of himself and beg me to let him read just one more page. He is such a sweetheart!

Sammy adores his little sister. He jumped in her crib today at nap time and he was so sad when I pulled him out. He kept saying she couldn't sleep without him. I love it that he is such a nurturer and that he loves her so so much!
Sammy and Max also absolutely adore their big cousin James! They want to be with him every second when the family is together and they want to do everything he does from legos to basketball to loving the color purple. James is the kindest most wonderful cousin! I am so grateful he is such a great example for my boys!

I have the best Grandparents in the whole wide world! They love all their grandkids and great grandkids so much! Grandma is always inviting us over and making us food and playing games with the kids and doing puzzles with them and reading to them. And sweet Dadu just dotes on every movement they make. I am so so grateful for them and the love they give to my kids. They've taken care of us so many times. I love them more than I can say. Now while Ive been sick Grandma has wanted us to come every week. While I've been there she's brought me food and fed the kids. I hate feeling like such a slug but she is so sweet I don't want to forget how wonderful she's been

 Here are some pictures from Christmas :)

 Strangely I got super sick in November. I couldn't catch my breath and had to rest half way up the stairs and things like that. It lasted a few weeks but they never found out why it happened...I'm so glad I got better :)

 Max's Christmas around the world program in his class was so cute! He has his own style which I just love about him! During a jingle bells song instead of shaking his bell like everyone else, he swung his around his finger with so much enthusiasm and pride. It was adorable! Sammy had a wonderful Christmas program too. We took a video but it looks like we forgot to take a picture. It was so cute!

 This cute Santa and Reindeer delivered our Christmas treats! The costumes were all their own idea to male it more fun :)

Phoebe sure loves her Dadu!! She always runs to hug him when we see him and she'll reach over and grab his hand all the time.

McCall

In early November we took a quick trip to McCall and stayed in the Whitetail while it was cheap and offseason and had so much fun. We ewtached Arthur Christmas in our private movie theater.

 We roasted Smores out by the lake at night. Sat in the hot tub in the early morning with snow all around us and birds singing in the trees.

 And we went canoeing for a couple hours. It was just beautiful and so so much fun!!

Halloween

Javier did a halloween fun run where he had to dress up. He did awesome! He got 20th place overall and I think he won his age group which was pretty amazing!

 Max and Sammy both changed their mind on Halloween day and refused to wear the costumes they were going to, but it all turned out perfect. Sammy made his robot costume himself out of a box and decorated it with all the robot buttons and essential powers, namely water pouring and fireworks 
smile emoticon His robot name was HAFFF. Max was the cutest little ghost mainly because he could not see all night so we had to walk with our arms around him to guide him. Phoebe was a very obliging Princess because she actually wore her planned costume smile emoticon All things considered I'm glad the boys know their own minds even if sometimes I think they'll make me lose mine smile emoticon And seriously Javier is the handsomest superman I ever saw!!! I love that wonderful man more than I can ever say!

 I couldn't get enough of pretty little Phoebe. She was excited to wear this dress. We tried it on her one night in September and she pranced and spun around so excitedly and threw the biggest tantrum when it was time to take it off. I was surprised that she was so girly already.

 ANd I just loved this picture Max drew of it at school the next week. SO perfect!

Harvest and conference

We had a remarkable garden this year. Really it was overflowing. Everyday I filled a huge mixing bowl with produce from my garden for several months. Especially as I was a little generally sad this summer, I got so much joy from my garden and working in it. These sunflowers were enormous. We had a lot of fun watching them grow and then harvesting the seeds.

 Love conference time!! Our great kids!!

 Sammy at the pumpkin patch with his preschool class, He wanted a tiny pumpkin.

 Max and his -ing crown

Fall walks

We had a goal this fall when the weather was nice to go for a long walk every week as a family. It was so fun! I don't know what it is about being in nature, seeing my kids enjoying nature, playing swords with sticks and picking up interesting seedpods that just makes me feel like life could not be any more beautiful! One day we took a long walk around in the foothills. It was so nostalgic and lovely!

 We enjoyed different walks by the river in Eagle. They all seems to go behind the backyards of beautiful houses. One time we crossed a little stream and got kind of lost. By the time we made it back to the car we were awfully tired but it was so fun and pretty!

Start of school time.

Oh how I hate the start of school. I shouldn't say it that violently, I know, but I really do. They steal my kids away and this year they stole Max away for all day school and it really stunk. He loves school and I am so grateful for that. He also has the most wonderful teacher this year, Mrs. Moos. But he came home so so tired it killed me. At first any question I asked him was enough to reduce him to tears just because he was so tired he couldn't talk any more. Poor baby :( It has gotten easier as time has gone by. Also track breaks and holidays are absolute heaven!!!

 Little Maxy is sure handsome. This is his favorite shirt so I love it that he is wearing it in this picture!

 The only good part about school starting is that I really have had the chance to get to know my sweet littles better. And that part I have LOVED! My Sammy is my little buddy. Without Max around all day, Sammy and Phoebe kind of like to hang out by me. They help with laundry, in the yard, whatever I ma doing. They enjoy each other so much. They dance, they play, they wrestle, they laugh. As much as Sammy misses Max all day its good for him to be the biggest  for awhile. Just now Phoebe was begging for Toast and Sammy made her a piece all himself. He decided he wanted to share it with her but decided all on his own to give her the biggest piece. He is such an unselfish little sweetie. He does things like that literally all day for her. She is so lucky! And so am I! Sammy is also so affectionate. I'm so grateful for all his hugs and loves all day!

 Phoebe's cute little mad face that showed up overnight this fall and delighted us all. The beginning of Phoebe finding her own voice and opinions and boy has she! I love it that this girl has a mind of her own and isn't afraid to let anyone know what it is. The other day we were at grandma and Dadus and Dadu was teasing Eli and scared him and Eli started crying. Phoebe got Mad and stared yelling in her gibberish and shaking her finger at Dadu. She cracks us up!

 Max's first day of school.

 I made Sammy that Teepee for his birthday. I had so much fun doing it. I hope the kids like it as much as I do :)

 Max has a club. He gave us all invitations to it in August wrapped up all fancy and decorated adorably. I think he got the idea because he could tell I was sad about school starting and he wanted to make me feel better. Once a week or so he will announce that we are having club today. He plans it out totally himself. He either has an art project for us like the one in this picture was copying a VanGogh, or a lego challenge like building a secret agent thing (this was the most recent one). I love to see the creativity and leadership of this kid! He made rules and signs saying this way to club and things like that. Javier and I just burst with pride to be in his club 
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 Sammy has really enjoyed preschool with Michelle Broadhead this year. I have missed his old preschool but I can't deny it has been a great decision. They have learned so much and had so much fun, plus I LOVE being able to walk to school or leave Phoebe napping at home since I can get there and back in less than five minutes. Especially now that I am sick it would have been absolutely completely impossible to do what we did last year. I'm so grateful I felt inspired to make that switch.