Daddy dates

 Clay took both the girls on their own daddy daughter date.

They both loved it so much and felt so special. Clay really tried hard to think of things that they each would like individually. After they both got home the were all smiles and it was all they could talk about for days!

 

Kaitlyn was first. It started with breakfast for dinner at Ihop and then they went to this really cool gymnastics place. They have open gym during certain time of the day where you can just go and jump on their trampolines etc. They have this huge slide that you can slide down into a big pit of foam. Kaitlyn can't wait to take the rest of our family.  

While they were gone Carter, Mea and I did some crafts and played games. 

For Mea's date I didn't get any pictures :(. But she still had just as much fun! For their date first they went to outer limits fun zone and played arcade games. Mea won a bunch of tickets so she even got some souvenirs.   Then they went to Elmers (a local place) and had breakfast for dinner too.

After Mea's date we had to help clean the church for stake conference that weekend so we had to run straight there and clean. But I don't think she minded.

Both of the girls loved it, and I'm sure it will be something they can remember forever! They are so lucky to have such a thoughtful fun dad!

Football, Food and Friends

Superbowl is just a fun excuse to party, in my opinion. I don't really love football, but I do like to watch it on Superbowl. Mostly because it is an excuse to have good food and even better company. Clay's family is really big into the Superbowl and Clay always remembers having a Superbowl party every year with family and friends. It was a fun tradition of their families and Clay suggested that we do our own party this year. I'm so glad he did and it turned out great!

We had a nice spread of food, with pizza too! Yes it did take a lot of time to prepare but was so worth it! 

Our house is small so we couldn't invite to many people, but I think it was just perfect and not too crazy! Everyone just chilled and watched the game. The kids played and made a mess, but none of us adults even minded. The kids loved it and so did I! Sometimes it's nice to just sit back relax and not worry about anything!

My good friend Hayley and her family came. We love hanging out with the Lowry's and will be very sad when we have to move away from them! 

My neighbor and friend Cheryl. We love the Tubbs to and will miss having such great neighbors!

Clay was getting tiered of me taking pictures lol.

These two are so cute together. They are best friends and just love to play and have fun. I'm so glad to see such good friendships forming now while they are so young. These kids all played hard and were so exhausted after the day was over, but they loved every minute of it!

Christmas 2013

I'm finally getting my Christmas post done. For some reason I couldn't get blogger to upload my photos so it took me a while to figure out what was wrong. 

Christmas was wonderful this year. I wish I would have taken more pictures, but for some reason I always forget until it's over and then I kick myself. 

Christmas Eve playing with daddy. I LOVE it when they play together like this. The kids are happy and dad is having fun with the them and that makes for one happy mamma. Sorry don't mind the laundry in the background. I hate folding laundry, to me it's the worst household chore. 

Christmas Eve seemed like it was really busy, but now as I write this I can't for the life of me think of what we did. I know we started the day off making cookies for Santa and did a lot of other stuff too.

 The kids were so excited this year to leave cookies for Santa. Clay is awesome and even helped them sprinkle some oats and carrots on the front lawn for the reindeer. Carter was not really old enough to know what was going on but the girls excitement rubbed off on him.

                                      
I love the magic of Christmas eve when all the presents are laid out and the tree is lit and everything is ready for Christmas. The air feels heavy with the spirit.

And then of course the fun begins on Christmas morning. Luckily all the kids slept in until almost 8 so we got to sleep in too!

I took each of the kids on a special date with mom to pick out their Christmas gifts for their siblings. They loved it and so did I. It was special and they were so excited to exchange their gifts they had gotten for each other.

Christmas night playing with their gifts. 

Clay got me this Shark Sonic Duo Floor Cleaning System. That baby is going to save me a lot of time bending over to scrub the floor. It will also clean carpets and does a pretty good job. 

Cute Kids

It's been awhile since I have posted updates about the kids! They are just to cute for words! 

The girls dressed Carter up in their dance clothes. He loved it, I'm sure in a few years though he wont be to thrilled. He is starting to love to play with his sisters and wants to do just what they do.

These kids are so lucky to have such a great grandma. Every holiday Grandma sends the kids handwritten cards addressed to each of them personally. It is so fun for them to get mail and makes them feel so special!  

Yep it happened, its hard to see but if you look closely you will see a big chunk of Kaitlyn's hair missing. Her friend Lily was over and those two cut each others hair. Unfortunately, well or maybe fortunately for us Lily got it the worst. She had a ponytail on the top of her head and Kait chopped it right off. Oh man I though Lily's mom would hate me forever. Luckily she was really good and just laughed about it. We took Kait in the next day to get a cute bob haircut.

This little man is into everything these days. He especially loves go through dad's bin. 

Seriously could you not just eat him up, he is so precious! 

Kait had her first day of Subeams. She is just growing up in to such a beautiful girl! She was more then ready to move up. Her birthday is in Feb. so she is the oldest in her class.  

This is Kait and her friend Lily (the haircut fiasco), luckily Lily had a really good hairdresser and did miracles for her hair and now it look so cute and you can't even tell.  They are in sunbeams together, it will be a challenge for me this year to get these two to be good and sit still. They just love each other and always want to play.

Carter brought me all of dad's stuff to put on him. It was so cute, and then when I said smile he gave me this cheesy grin.  

Mea taught FHE on love. She drew all these little pictures and cut them out, most of them were just odd shapes. Then for each picture she said something about following Jesus' example of love. I was very proud of her as she did this all by herself. She just loves to teach and wants to be a teacher when she grows up. She loves to play school. 

Carter's haircut, he loves to get it cut and is very good. I just thought he looked adorable in that little cape.

It's amazing how fast the kids grow up.

I miss my babies something terrible,  but I'm excited that they are growing up too and love the little people they are!

More birthday fun

For birthdays it I usually only do a friend party every other year on the even ages. It is time consuming and expensive to have parties. But I do love to plan and throw and awesome party that is why I opted for every other year. I feel like the big birthdays are all evens 8, 12, 16, and 18. This year Maleah turned 5 so it was her off year. I still wanted to do something and make her feel special though.

In Maleah's preschool the birthday kid gets to bring a treat for the whole class, sit in the birthday chair and wear the cool birthday hat. She was so excited to get all the extra attention at school. They were learning about eating healthy this day and did some exercising, hence the sweatpants :). She sure does love her preschool!

Since she didn't get a party I did let her pick 1 friend to go to the movies with. She picked Kaydance from church and was so excited. We went to see Despicable Me 2, which was really cute and a fun movie that is not princess, if you know what I mean.  

We did have a family dinner on her birthday as well, it was really low key and nothing to fancy but I think she enjoyed her birthday.

Boy she is growing too fast and I really do miss her as a baby, but I'm loving seeing her grow and becoming the person she is!