Cyrena is 8!

I have to say, it's quite fun watching your kids grow up.  I love seeing what they learn and discover.  I love to see their testimony and understanding of the gospel grow.  I love to see them act more and more responsibly.  I love to see them take care of their siblings.  Heart melters, all of them!

Cyrena turned 8 in December and I have to say all the celebrations were a blast.  This year was a party year and she requested My Little Pony for a theme.  If Cyrena was going to let me do a girly theme, I was going to run with it!  Of course we didn't go ALL out girly, but we did have fun planning.  I believe very strongly in having the kids plan the activities, treats, etc.  It's THEIR party.  So Cyrena, David and I were a team on this. 

 I made the invites in about 30 minutes.  Under the paper strip was the details of time/place.  Very SIMPLE and she loved it.  Her favorite part was the 8 of course.

She requested a large number 8 for her cake.  So we just made a bundt cake, David frosted it blue with rainbow sprinkles.  It kind of looked like a large donut, perfect for Cyrena.

The kids had rainbow pancakes (David is a master!) and fruit kabobs

After they ate, we fitted them with their pony masks.  I downloaded them off Etsy (moms let me know ahead of time which pony their daughter wanted to be).  They also each had some colored hair clips to make their 'mane' colorful.

 After everyone ate they took turns getting their 'hoofs' painted in rainbow colors.  We called in reinforcements and grandma saved the day!

 And then they went outside to do a fun 'applejack' bean bag toss. 

David was very serious as he took scores to determine a bean bag toss champion!

 happy happy day!

 The crowd-we kept it small this year.  These are girls she really enjoys spending time with.

 We face painted each pony's cutie mark.  This girl was Rainbow Dash but each pony was represented!

 I made up a semi-dangerous game.  I made unicorn horns and stuck a pin in the tip.  Then we blew up a million balloons.  I had 2 girls wear the horns.  The other girls threw balloons in the air and the 'ponies' pranced around trying to pop them with their magic horns! (Twilight sparkle uses her horn to do magic) This was definitely the highlight of the party.  I couldn't believe how much they loved it.  It took them a bit to get the hang of it, definitely harder for the younger kids. But once they caught on there was no stopping them!  So the only problem was the horn fell off once and the pin scraped a girl's neck. But other than that we were just fine.

I had a huge bucket of rainbow skittles and I had all the girls guess how many were in there.  The closest number won the whole container. Morgan got it!

 We had to laugh at Natalie's guess.  LOVE that girl

 Then came cake and ice cream.  When they finished we made pony bottlecap necklaces.  They made the pony that they were 'representing' that day. Again, I downloaded the images from Etsy and bought all the other supplies from Hobby Lobby.  They turned out SO awesome and the girls loved them.

 Cyrena and her best friend Robyn.

 She received lots of fun My Little Pony items and things for her rainbow loom (which she received from Grandma and Grandpa Lemmert-super exciting)

And she got a magic set from us, some books and an origami book with paper.

A great birthday for pretty great 8 year old.  We love our Cyrena girl

About Cyrena:

-Cyrena is super clever and can figure things out pretty quickly.  She figured out David's passcode to his phone and was so proud

-She loves school and all that comes with it.  Homework, recess, and especially reading and History.  Many times she comes home from school and does an extra project that relates to something she's learned at school. The other day she made a digital clock out of paper that has different papers you can slip in for different times.  She spent a good chunk of time on it all because they started a 'time' unit in math.  WOW.

-Cyrena is a rainbow looming machine!  We found her a great website that has a bajillion different projects and videos to go with them.  She just browses and looms, browses and looms.  She makes things for everyone; grandparents, mom, dad, sisters, friends.  It keeps her VERY busy.  Between that and reading, we don't see her much.  

-She is just a good good girl.  She never wants to be hurtful to anyone (besides her sisters-we are working on it!!).  She is very aware of choosing the right and keeping herself pure.  I love seeing her grow up but want her to keep her innocence as long as possible.

-Cyrena is excited that she gets adult jokes and sarcasm more.  It makes her feel like part of our 'club'.  I remember feeling that same way at her age.  

-Cyrena is the queen of TMI.  Not always in a bad way, but she over explains A LOT.  Every decision or action is explained in excruciating detail (even if we don't really care!).  It really gets us laughing; just one of her quirks that we tolerate and love.

-She is still a master reader, devouring book after book.  I've introduced her to a genre near and dear to my heart; Historical Fiction in the form of The American Girls collection.  These are such great stories and I loved reading them when I was young.  I don't know where my personal collection ended up bu luckily our library has LOTS.  She was so reluctant to start them (thought they were girly) but was glad that I convinced her because now she loves them.  

Anna is 3!

Anna has made it to three years old and is still alive...barely.  This girl has been our toughest challenge yet!  She is so full of life and FEELING (ie. sensitive and moody) but also a HUGE clown and loves to make people laugh.  We don't know what we'd do without our Anna girl, I expect life would be a bit boring.

Her birthday fell on the same day as the preschool Christmas party so that worked out well.  Then Grandma and Grandpa Lemmert took her to lunch (we forgot to take a picture with them!).  They went to Chik-Fil-A and then did some shopping.  That night we took the family to the $ movie to see Despicable Me 2.  She loved her presents; a Magic Moves Wand (I highly highly, super duper recommend it!) and a walking dog like Natalie's.  The one advantage of a holiday birthday is we get to hit good sales for gifts! Natalie also bought her a crown. :) 

Grandma and Grandpa Dean gave her a fun Hello Kitty and book--it's just her size and she LOVES it.

Grandma and Grandpa Lemmert gave her more ponies--she can't get enough of these!

 At the Movies

Birthday princess!

About Anna:

-She wants to be everything her sisters are.  More specifically, a ballerina like Natalie.  We're going to start her in August.  I know she will love it. 

- Anna loves to COLOR. She concentrates so hard and scribbles, scribbles, scribbles.  She is getting better and better at staying in the lines.  I love to watch that crayon move back and forth with precision. What I don't love is when I find marker on her or anywhere else (like her sister's stuffed animals).

-She likes to talk 'big' like her sisters and mention things about preschool, church, or friends.  She refused to go to nursery the last 2 months of the year because she was so anxious to go to primary.  Instead of fighting her since we both have callings to get to, she just came with me to primary and was a perfect angel (almost).  She's officially a sunbeam now and just fine.  Every so often she will tell us "Jesus loves me" oh yes he does Anna.

-Anna loves chicken, crackers, chocolate, salad, vegetables, bread, bananas, smoothies, orange juice, and pickles. She is always drinking something, anything that has been left on the table, regardless of whose it is.

-She hates to be wet unless she's in the bath.  She takes forever drying her hands after she washes them-every inch has to be perfectly dry.  If her shirt or pants get the tiniest bit wet, off they go and she won't put them back on.  If I'm making dinner and she wants help putting her shoes on (happens almost everyday) she checks to make sure my hands are dry before she will let me touch her.  

-Anna sleeps flat on her back and snores the night away.  I've never heard a kid snore like that!  

-She has the loudest burps!  I've also never heard a kid belch like that, she has it mastered.  Ask anyone that has spent time with her, they've heard it.  

-Anna is the clown in the family, always doing such funny things.  It comes so naturally to her. She has a knack for comedic relief and you can always count on her for a laugh!

We love our Anna girl, even though there are times we want to give her away (or sell her to pay off our debts).  We obviously wouldn't go through with it (probably) because we can't help but smile when we see her adorable wild-haired, messy faced, crinkled nose, vampire teeth grin.  She's the best.

Zoolights!

David's work family invited us to go to Zoolights with them.  We had never been but had always wanted to so we were excited!  It was very fun.  Natalie and Anna rode a camel and then Natalie and David rode the zipline together. We love spending time with the Blount family. They are very good to us!

Cyrena's Christmas recital

Oh how I always looked forward to my Christmas recitals growing up.  I love all the fun music and festive atmosphere.  I was so excited for Cyrena to have this chance again.  She absolutely loves playing the piano and we LOVE hearing her play.  She is very diligent practicing her assignments but she also takes time to play for fun.  She loves to play out of books we have and also songs published in The Friend magazine.  Her playing makes me happy while I'm making dinner or doing other mundane chores.  The sound of the piano is an instant mood lifter and is something our whole family enjoys.  

 This year the kids were asked to prepare one piece of their choice and then pick one Christmas duet to play with an adult.  Cyrena picked Hark the Herald Angels Sing out of an awesome book that Grandma Dean gave her (shown below).  I got to play with her and I loved every minute of it.

Many days they like to have matching hair.

Cyrena's wonderful teacher and my friend, Traci.  She is fabulous!

From the phones

Sometimes we leave pictures on our phones for too long.  They need to be shared.  Here are a few from the last few months.

My wrapping buddy

 Cyrena's soccer medal

After decorating cookies, grandma read the kids two special Christmas stories

One of our nighttime discoveries

 

 For David's birthday we went with friends to dinner--guess where? :)

(s'mores cheesecake=2 thumbs way up!)

 The kids were bundled up most of the time at Cyrena's late soccer practicies

 One night while David was at the church I took the kids to the mall with me. I had to return something and Natalie wanted to spend her birthday money from Grandma and Grandpa Taylor.  Then I bought us some Wetzel Pretzel bites.  They didn't go over well-the kids didn't like them???  I'm not sure how that's possible. David enjoyed them later. Lemonade saved the day then I took them to See's for a sample.  It was a happy night.

The purchases; a walking dog and Ariel shoes!

 The kids were sent a little money from Aunt Debbie for Halloween and this is what they bought with it; a Rainbow Dash pony, snack cups for Evan, a Hello Kitty Purse, and a Nerf gun.  Thanks Aunt Debbie!

On Veterans Day we met a few families at our park since it was a beautiful day.  The kids kept busy for a long while, burying and playing.  Then 2 of the girls stayed at our house the rest of the afternoon.  And a third joined later.  It was a mega playdate and my kids were thrilled.  

In November (you know it's November because of the 'stache see here) David and I went to an ASU game.  I didn't necessarily WANT to go but I knew David wanted me to and we ended up having a great time.  I was picturing having to squint to see the players but as you can see behind us, his work has great season tickets.  However, don't ask me who won! We were thankful to have grandparents watch the kids for us.

Even though Cyrena wasn't quite 8 she was invited to attend Activity Days for their Christmas party.  I picked up her friend Morgan so they could go together.  They were pretty excited.  (again, the shark tooth necklace!)

Evan is 9 months

Here we are again, Evan is actually almost 10 months but here is his 9 month recap!

I feel so lucky to love on this boy everyday.  It makes my stomach turn to think of him growing up.  We am doing our best to soak up every single moment we have with him.  Having him around helps us focus on the simple joys in life.  

Evan is the squishiest, snuggliest baby.  He loves to nestle into my neck and grab a mouthful of my curls! This month he finally mastered sitting up nice and sturdy.  He hasn't tried any sort of crawling but he rolls and twists and turns around all over the floor, getting anywhere he wants to go.  Often we find him with his bottom half under the t.v. stand.  That's when he squeals for help.  He still takes 2 great naps and sleeps 11+ hours at night.  He loves to eat!  His favorites are oatmeal, eggs, cheese and cheerios. Evan loves his sisters and squeals with delight when they walk in the room.  They are in his face constantly trying to get a reaction from him.  He obliges often.

Fall Portraits 2013