Call me Crazy!!!....

Tonight was Charley's 6th Birthday Party with her friends.  Her actual birthday was last week, but her friend party was tonight.  She had some friends from school she wanted to invite, but I felt bad at least not inviting all the girls. I didn't want the girls that didn't get invited to feel bad.  ....I know...Ben already told me that I didn't need to do that....but I did it anyway.  Plus we had a few neighbor girls we invited.  Oh well, it was a fun night!

We had pizza for dinner, cup cakes, watched Madagascar 3, and even got to play Just Dance 4.  In this new version, at the end of each dance, you have the option to watch a video of yourself after the dance.  The girls thought it was hilarious!

I admit, it was a little crazy, but it really wasn't that bad. Happy Birthday Charley!

To Do List

 I have a long list of things to do around the house....one of which was to cut this girls rat tail!  Dani had this long strand of hair that seems to grow abnormally faster then the rest of her hair....thus, the rat tail!

 Her first Hair cut!  Done!

 Now that all of my girls have taken their one year pictures, I decided to make a big wall of them.  I spent money on them, might as well show them off!  I had some boards cut at Home Depot, and mod podged the pictures on.  Added picture hooks and hung them up myself.  One year picture wall. Done!

When we originally painted Dani's nursery, we let Charley pick the color. We knew eventually that it would be her room.  Once Dani was on the same schedule as the other girls, we thought it would be best if Charley had her own room.  She is getting older, and wanting a little more private space....without the little girls in her way all the time.  It is understandable.  I grew up in a house with 4 other girls.  I know she is a lot younger than I was when I got my own room.  But with only 3 girls, we figured the older one should have there own room rather than the baby.  We have been working hard to turn it from a baby room to a little girls room.  Even though Charley wanted her own room, I knew she really like sharing with Gabby.  I thought she would be scared to sleep alone.  But this girls is always surprising me.  She LOVES it, and doesn't mind sleeping alone.  I think she gets more sleep this way.

Switching rooms. Done!

**I took this pictures last night after the girls were asleep!  ...you can see Charley's head poking out from the covers!

Primary

 Charley moved up to CTR 5

And Gabby is now a Sunbeam!!!
Seriously....my kids are getting so big!

Charley's 6!!

Charley's birthday was the day after we got back from California, so we are planning on having her friend party next week.  So we just had a fun day with her on her birthday.  My cousin Danny and his girlfriend, Andrea were on their way through to California, and happened to be staying with us on Charley's birthday.  Charley had school that morning, then we met Ben for lunch at Thanksgiving Point, went to the Dino museum, then ice cream, and then cake and ice cream after dinner.

I don't think I tell her enough, but Charley really is an amazing little girl.  She is beautiful, smart, and so loving. She is always wanting to please everyone.  I am so proud of the young lady she is becoming, and am so grateful to be her mom.

Happy 6th Birthday Charley.

In need of some sun!

It has been abnormally FrEezZZZing here in UT.  And we just needed to get out....and we wanted to see family!  So we were off to California to visit Ben's sister and her family.  We were able to ring in the new year with them! ...we spent the weekend in the hot tub, on the beach and outside soaking in some good old vitamin C!!!  

Thanks Em & Jake for a great weekend!

Christmas Morning!!!!

 The night before....Ben and I hard at work playing elf for Santa!

 A new tradition I heard about that sounded fun, wrap the door way to the tree in wrapping paper for the kids to run through....and so they can't peek.  However, where we had the tree, it didn't quite work for us to wrap the door way....and we didn't have enough wrapping paper, so we half wrapped the stairway.  ....we'll work on it for next year!

 Singing a Christmas carol in order to come down the stairs!

 Poor Dani wasn't quite feeling very well that morning. She was just wanted to cuddle with daddy all morning.

 New razor scooter and bike!!

 The pure joy on their faces when they opened their presents from Nana and Grandpa Z....Dream Lites...."what they always wanted!"

 Dani was scared of her little princess rocking horse...and she still is.  She wont sit on it, and when I try and make her, she freaks out!

 The mess the girls made!!

 And a new family tradition!  Waffles for breakfast!!...Thanks Char and Jared for our new waffle maker!  We LOVE it!

And Ben's new toy....a smoker!!!  I love that he loves it!!!  And he has made some AMAZING yummy foods with it!!

That night we had our friends the Albas over for dinner, and we played our new Dance 4 game. 

It was such a fun day. It was a lot different then we were used to.  We normally go to families house, or they have come here, but it was also nice and relaxing. It was fun to start a few traditions of our own. 

Merry Christmas!

Temple Square Lights

A few weeks before Christmas we bundled up and went to see the Temple Square lights with the Hinckley/Ewing family. We met at Uncle Ira's house in SLC, then went to dinner at the food court at the new City Creek Mall, then off to the lights.  Afterward everyone went back to Ira's for hot cocoa, but our girls were ready for bed, so we didn't go.  However, Dani was a little sick, so Ben stayed back with her and just walked around the mall to keep her warm.  It was a fun and crazy night out with family.

Christmas

I have finally caught up with all of my blog posts!  And tonight is Christmas Eve. We have had an amazing Christmas season with lots of friends and family. This is our first Christmas with out other family around.  I remember when I was young my parents made Christmas so special, I just hope we can do that for our girls.

 So from Our family to Yours, Merry Christmas!

*Here is a picture of Charley at her school Christmas Singing program.

1 Year Pictures

We had our good friend Annie Take Dani's pictures. The turned out sooo cute!...I mean, how could they not be amazing when you have a beautiful baby to take a picture of.  I love looking at them!

My amazing sister-in-law gave Dani the lace romper, and a friend down the street made her cute headbands.

Happy Birthday Danielle

Happy Birthday to my sweet baby girl. She turned one this month. We had a little party for her the weekend before her birthday.  We had Aunt Kay there along with my siblings.

Age: 12 months

Weight: 18 lbs 14 oz. (15th %-tile)

Length: 29 inches (47th %-tile)

Head: 45.7 cm (69th %-tile)

~Dani only  has 2 teeth, however, when we took her to the Dr. he saw 6 of her top teeth coming in....not going to be fun!
~She started taking steps the weekend after Thanksgiving, and started cruising about 2 weeks ago.
~Her first word was Dada.  her second word was "Button"  She would get so excited to see Ben come home from work every day. And when Ben would take her when he got home, she would always point to his buttons on his shirt.  Ben would tell her "buttons"...and after a while, she started saying it.  .....and after Dad, and Button, then she started saying Mama!
~Dani loves following her sisters around the house.
~When she hears music she loves to dance.
~When she doesn't want you to take something from her, she twists her body from side to side really fast and screams.
~She has a little tuff of hair on the back side of her head that grows super fast....so fast it looks like she has a  mullet.
~And she is a little sweet heart.....we love her!

Happy Birthday Baby girl!

Thanksgiving in Omaha

 We had a busy week in Omaha the week of Thanksgiving.  The girls had been practicing, so I told them they could dance with me while I was there.  During that week I did a 4 hour hoop clinic for OPS, a one hour show for Union Pacific, and danced 4 times for UNO.  And I also danced for the Rosenthal's Thanksgiving.  But I was very impressed and proud of the girls.  They weren't shy, and with every dance they got better and better.  They are becoming great little hoop dancers.

 One of the main reasons why we went to Omaha was to go through the temple for my Uncle Mario who passed away on 11.21.11. And on 11.23.12 we were able to do that. On that same day, Jordan also went through the temple for the first time.  It was a really neat and wonderful experience to be able to do that with my family.

The kids at the Winter Quarters Temple Visitors Center.  They do an amazing Ginger Bread display every year, and it opened just in time for us to see it!