Victoria - my oldest is TWELVE!



I love to see joy on my kid's faces. Allan stuck three number
one candles on her cake. Well at least their candles.

I can't believe my girl turned TWELVE on Monday. She is an amazing person, who is growing up to be kind and loving and sensitive toward others and I love being her mom! Since I haven't been able to shop for her with my recent surgery I sent Allan on a busy holiday Sunday out to our local towne center. He was armed with a list of items to buy, took Benjamin along and managed through a busy shopping day to get everything on the list. Well done dad! On her birthday, he took her to pick out a dessert for her birthday which was an ice cream cake. Here are some photos which show who she is and how we celebrated with just our family and my folks.



Victoria often has her face buried in a
book or a magazine.



 

Victoria helped at her brother's birthday party.

 

Victoria and her friend Audrey dressed up themselves and Elizabeth
to have an outdoor tea party. This was Elizabeth's first tea party
and she was so happy to be included with the big girls. They
taught her how to how the tea cup with their pinkies out.

 

 

Victoria loves to swim and race because she is competitive.

Victoria dressed up as an 80's teenager for
this Halloween. She was diggin the
pink hair and big earrings.

 

 

They actually all sat next to each other before Victoria
opened her presents.

Allan always buys the girls flowers for their birthday!

I love how they are all listening to Victoria while
she read her birthday cards! Maybe they were
looking to see how much the check was for
from Grandpa and Grandma.

Victoria was thrilled to get these black ruffled
curtains/panels for her bedroom. She also got a
black shag rug that she was longing for.

This is an eiffel tower jewelry holder
that Victoria was excited to get as you can see
on her face. Her room is painted turquoise and she
has a Paris theme with black & white accents.

Finally, she received warm fuzzy slippers
and a soft robe.
 

 

Celebrating Birthdays

December is always a fun and busy month for us. We have Victoria's birthday on the 3rd. She turned eleven years old on Saturday. She has had a birthday party most years, but this year we are going to go to a tea house with just her, myself and Grandma Cynthia. Victoria celebrated her birthday on the first day of Bethany Church's Christmas Joy performance which she is singing and dancing in. They performed last weekend and again this weekend on December 10th & 11th at 3:30pm and 7pm. Anyway is welcome to go. She plays a hangtown kid and they sing and dance to many songs. She also gets to dress up in a sheep costume which she wasn't too happy dancing in. But doesn't she and her friend look adorable. We celebrated her birthday during breakfast time with cinnamon rolls, eggs, and pineapple. I decorated our dining room with streamers and signs. I have no pictures of her on her birthday because I left my camera at my in-laws the previous weekend. She was very excited to get some Paris-themed items as her birthday present since we are in the process of redoing her room in that theme. Paris is one of the places on her bucket list that she says she will be visiting or living one day. Victoria is a wonderful young girl. She is a sweet and loving daughter and sister. She is growing up ever so quickly. She still wants to sit on our lap or snuggle really close to us. I try to really take advantage of that time and not hurry to do something else because one day she may not want to sit next to me. Allan stops what he is doing whenever she wants to talk and he just listens. I love watching him joke around with her.

On Monday, the 5th, we celebrated Allan's birthday. Victoria & Nicholas helped me make a chocolate chocolate cake from scratch and boy was it DELICIOUS!!! You can see it in the photo and it doesn't look that pretty, but it sure tasted good. We never finish cake around here and I think there may be one slice left for Allan's dessert tomorrow. Nicholas and Victoria have never really decorated a cake before and I am not a cake decorator myself, but  Allan loved it anyways! All of us made him a card and he really seemed to enjoy his time with just us. I have to say he is an amazing man. He is so humble and kind! He really cares for us and I am fortunate to have him as my husband and as a father to our four children.

Allan with all his crazy, I mean adorable kids.

Allan and his mini-me, Benjamin. Ben would be in all the pictures if he could.

Lizzie & Daddy- He loves his little girl!

Nick & Daddy - They spend lots of time doing cub scout stuff together.

Victoria & Allan- She really enjoys her dates with daddy.

Here are Victoria and Audrey posing as good sheep.

Help me! I have a NINE year old!

I have two October babies. Ben celebrated his 5th birday on October 5th and Nicholas just had his 9th birthday on October 20th. I can't believe he is nine. He is my hot or cold child. He is either really happy or really mad. He'll be really excited to go somewhere or to do something or he'll throw a huge fit because he absolutely does not want to go anywhere or do anything. I have to make him go most places and in the end he has the most fun out of all the kids. As a baby and toddler he always had something in his hand. He started with a baby sleeper and then moved on to a blanket. As a toddler and preschooler he would walk around with a plastic hammer and then downsized to a plastic kids spoon. He was the most difficult one to be potty trained. I'm glad that was over with several years ago. I love to see him excited about things. He enjoys playing the piano which he just started in February. In our backyard, we often find science experiments that he has been working. Allan wasn't so happy about the yellow grass or the messes that we find at the end of the day. We are so thankful for our 9 year old boy and how much he is learning and growing. He is halfway to manhood. He'll one day make a wonderful husband if we can just get him to do his chores more consistently. We love you Nicholas!!



Here Nicholas is helping Allan put together the girl's bunk bed.



Nicholas is waiting patiently to open up his birthday presents.

He picked out a chocolate mousse cake with strawberries on top.

Look who's FIVE!!!

I can't believe Benjamin is five today. He has been waiting for this day for 364 days. Since he has an older brother & sister, he always wants to be older, bigger, stronger, smarter, taller, faster, and the list goes on. So today he is officially OLDER. The last month or so he has had a lot of changes or accomplishments in his life. First, he learned how to ride a bike with no training wheels. I can't believe I don't have a picture of this to post. It is so cute to see him riding on his small bike. His pedaling reminds me of that old women/the wicked witch of the west from "The Wizard of Oz." I can hear the music playing now... Da, dat, da, dat, da, da, da.... He also learned how to swing himself by pumping his legs. His older brother patiently talked him through that. Another accoumplishment is that he learned how to travel across all of the monkey bars on our backyard playset. He has been practicing that for quite awhile. He started school this September. It is called Transitional Kindergarten for kids whose birthdays are in late summer and fall and their not quite ready for Kindergarten. He LOVES it! Mom loves it too!! Victoria & Nicholas love that their younger brother isn't bothering them. He has made a lot of friends! You know that show "Everyone Loves Raymond". Well that's what we say about him, "Everyone Loves Benjamin". He has that smile that can melt anyones heart. His joy and laughter are contagious. He also keeps getting taller or thinner. I'm not really sure which one. I'll have to measure him one of these days. I just know that most of his shorts & pants have trouble staying around his waist.
Today, as we were driving home from dropping Victoria off at choir, Benjamin asked me, "Mom, when will I turn six?" I said, "You won't turn six for another 364 days." He pondered that and responded with, "That's a LONG time mom." I told him to enjoy five, soak it in, just be five for awhile. Well as you can see we love this fun, energetic, cute guy and it is so exciting seeing him get bigger.

Here is Benjamin on his first day of school.
He even has a backpack & takes his lunch everyday.

Benjamin has just mastered going across the monkey bars.

Benjamin working hard on the swing.

Victoria & Benjamin - Don't they look alike?
Victoria made him an original, one of a kind
Bey Blade holder.