Happy Birthday Harper!

  Sunday Harper turned five years old.  She was very excited about being sung to at Church, and also giving her first talk in primary.  She was very cute.  The whole weekend turned into a long birthday celebration.  On Friday we went to McDonald's, and let the kids play forever there.  Then Saturday I took the kids down to my parents to celebrate there early since Daryl was in school all day.  That night Daryl took Avery and Harper to Red Robin, so Harper could be sung to.  Harper's actually birthday Karl, Aimee, and Tyler were there to celebrate with us.  Daryl's cousin Kyle also was there because Daryl had actually invited Karl and Kyle to watch the NFC championship game not remembering at that time that it was Harper's birthday.  We had a great long birthday weekend.

This is tiny baby Harper.  She was so little, and she still is.

Avery is so sweet.  She made this card and the little flower crayon at school with her OT's help.

Harper had been asking for a plane for her birthday for a while.

Luke snagged Avery's licorice while enjoying birthday cake.

This is the best shot I got of Tyler, Harper, Avery, and Emery with the birthday cake.

We let the kids decorate their cake slices with candy.  Tyler made a goofy face for me of course.

A close up of my wild haired Emery.

The Going Ons

    We've just been getting back into the swing of things over here.  Daryl is back in school after his Christmas break, and it's more than fair to say that we are really over school at this point.  We only have until June though and then he is done forever.  Everyone is doing good.  Enjoy the pictures of the various exploits of our family members furry and otherwise.

Poor Luke had RSV and an ear infection this month.  For about a week he was taking six hour naps.  He is now restored to full health.

Dax laying around like she owns the place.

Avery and Harper playing Go Fish.  We also taught them to play Uno.

Avery got this medal at school because her name got drawn as a student of the week.  When they catch the kids doing good things at school they give them a little slip of paper, and that's entered into the drawing.  Avery was really proud to be a Sensational Sockeye!

This Friday was crazy hair day, so I put some washable pink highlights in their hair.

Here's my little cheeser.  Every time the camera comes out she insists on a picture too.

Sisko enjoying the cat tree.  I love his fat cheeks.

Monday we put up the cat shelves, and we are pleased that by the end of the week Dax decided it was a nice place to take a nap.

Teeth

  New Years Avery lost her second tooth and was very concerned that the tooth fairy would be too busy to come by.  I assured that wouldn't happen, but it did happen.  She came into our bedroom the next morning with the bag she placed her tooth in and declared with horror that the tooth fairy had not come.  She then left her tooth on Daryl's nightstand, and went to the bathroom.  While she was out the tooth fairy miraculously came into our bedroom, snagged the tooth, and left her money.  Of course Daryl and I had our backs turned to the tooth the entire time, and merely heard a quick apology from the tooth fairy as she sped off to Hawaii since it was not yet morning there.  Avery was completely satisfied.

  

   Meanwhile Luke has been rocking a mere two teeth for the longest time.  Finally around Christmas he got his two top teeth in and right now a third tooth is finally coming in along side those ones on top. He still hasn't committed to walking full time yet, but he is slowly upping his walking to crawling ratio.

Getting pictures of baby teeth is tricky, so I was lucky to get this shot.

Christmas Art

  Here's a sampling of the finest Christmas decor that Avery and Harper produced this holiday season. 

Harper's winter landscape.

Harper's candy cane.  Note the cutting and pasting this intricate piece required.

Avery made this at school.  This rather soulful reindeer was constructed out of a hanger and old pantyhose.

Avery's reindeer.

A colorful holiday scene by Avery.

Harper wanted to pose with her gingerbread man who is sad because he is about to be eaten.

Beauty Shop!

  So yesterday I was a really nice mom and agreed to go to Avery and Harper's beauty shop.  It was very professional.  I signed in and paid the cashier (Harper).  The pretend money went into their Pinkie Pie bank.  Then I got my toenails painted and my hair and make-up done.  If it looks like I am slightly terrified in the pictures that is not wholly inaccurate.  Emery also was a very enthusiastic helper and colored one of my toenails in with a lip crayon.  Later in the day I asked Avery if it was  a great day because we played beauty shop, and she quickly corrected me.  "We didn't play beauty shop, mom, we had one." 

I made them go get my own hairbrush since I remembered someone in Avery's class had lice.  Hopefully it will pass by our home.

See Emery there were some good times.

Harper putting on my lip gloss.

Emery also needed to put lip gloss on, and I think Avery was directing her.

Look at all those eye shadow options!

Avery tried really hard to do a pony tail, but finally gave up and let me do it.

Emery is very good with make-up.

Don't we all look beautiful!

Our New Year

   Thanks to some cheap planes tickets my sister Nellie and her husband Paul visited with our nieces Reagan and Ashlyn.  Since they were in town over the New Year DeAnna and Brad came up too.  We had a great time with all the family visited.  The girls were especially excited to see Reagan.  Daryl and I watched all the kids on New Year's Eve, so we added Reagan and Logan to our usual crew.  Then my parents watched all the kids on Saturday, so we could see Star Wars together.  It was a great visit.

I got a super happy Logan picture!

Luke bonding with his dog cousin Lady.

Don't worry Ashlyn is still sleeping her life away.

The girls got to make their own pizzas on New Year's Eve.

Silly Lady needed a pillow for her head.

Hey look it's Daryl and Luke.

Christmas Day

  

   Daryl and I are very happy that we do not have early risers on a typical day and that the kids are happy to sleep in on Christmas day as well.  Our children's Christmas gift to us was they slept in until eight.  We waited to open gifts until Grandma and Grandpa got to our house sometime before ten.  Then Adam, Angie, and Logan joined us just as we were pulling the rib roast out for lunch.  Avery and Harper got to go see Star Wars with their Dad and Grandpa, and they loved it.  It was a nice low key Christmas day.

Here's our fireplace with all the stockings hung.

Our Christmas tree with Dax cat in front.

Avery, Harper, Luke, and Daryl

Don't you love Avery's lipstick that she put on herself?

Hey we took a picture with the whole family in it!

My Dad with his new BYU quilt.

Everyone getting into their presents.

Sisko decided to sit on Dad's lap because he knew how much he doesn't like that.

Avery and Harper playing with Harper's new Peppa Pig rocket.

Adam and Logan.

I forgot to blog about this earlier, but this is Harper and Avery with Santa.

This was taken two weeks ago at our Church's Festival of  Nativities which features nativities from all over the world.  They also let the kids dress and take pictures with baby Jesus.  Avery and Harper both wanted to be angels and chose their props and posed all by themselves.