Maggie Turns 6

In November, Maggie had an "art" party for her 6th birthday.  The kids painted wooden forms of their choice and decorated door hangers, we opened gifts, had cupcakes and sugar cookie bars and beat on a piñata.  There was lots of running around in the backyard and six year old fun.  This was the first friend birthday party Maggie had ever had and she thought it was GREAT. 

Facts about Maggie at 6 years old:

1.  Maggie is a fantastic artist.  She has God given artistic talent. She loves to create and would rather be drawing, painting, cutting something up or creating something in general rather than doing anything else. 

2.  Maggie is a VERY picky eater.  She does not like very many things and is a hard child to feed. If it is a carb, she will eat it. But fruits and vegetables are hard to get her to swallow. Dinner usually ends in tears and she is always the last person to leave the counter after a meal. 

3. Maggie loves school. And especially her teacher Mrs. Macres.  Maggie has lots of confidence and does well in the learning as well as social aspects of school.  We had this conversation the other day.

Maggie: Mom, I think I am famous at school.

Me: Oh really? Why?

Maggie: Well, because when the kids have a question they almost always ask me and not the teacher.

Mrs. Macres loves her too and Maggie is loving her kindergarden.  

4.  Sometimes Maggie is so much like me, it's scary.

5. She LOVES to annoy her siblings. Getting a reaction out of anyone is very satisfying to her.  It's hilarious and obnoxious all at the same time.

6. When Maggie is given a task, and she is in the mood to be helpful, she is a perfectionist. 

7. Maggie loves the cat.  

8. Maggie really likes to have her arms and back tickled. She likes to cuddle.  She HATES having her hair done. 

9. Maggie is a girly girl. Makeup, nails, jewels, smelly anything, etc. She loves it. She is in a hurry to grow up. 

10.  Maggie knows who all the boys are at church. 

September to November 2012

 In September we had the backyard landscaped!!! Hooray!

October brought a visit to the pumpkin patch with William and his best friend Asher. We had a fun Halloween dinner with lots of friends and family (which I didn't manage to get a picture of) and trick or treating. 

At the beginning of November we had a sisters and Mom weekend in southern California to kick of the countdown and celebration to Noelle's 40th birthday.  We went to the Price is Right, where Chelsea got on the show! We stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Miller, laughed a lot and had so much fun.

We hosted Thanksgiving at our house in 2012. Grandma and Grandma Miller, Papa & Honey Garnica, Bruce & Carole Teeples, Mike, Jen, Tori, Garrett & Cami Bergen, Eddie, Chelsea, Andrew & Juliette Pickup, Peter, Melinda, Maren, Luke, Evan & Kent Andersen all came for dinner.  

I Caved on the Kitty

We go to this pet shop where they always have kittens. People drop off the litters that they have instead of taking them to the shelter. We have to go there every couple of days to get food for Parker's bearded dragon. And every time we go Maggie asks for a kitten. And every time she had been told no. And she cried. She cried repeatedly at home every time she asked as well. Until last week. This kitty was in the pen looking so cute that I couldn't resist. Will and I took him home and Maggie came home from school and got a very big surprise.  She named him Rocky. So far he is great. Very friendly. Maggie reminds me of Olivia in those children's books. She carries him around over her shoulder and is constantly bugging him. He doesn't seem to mind. 

We are now at our threshold for pets. Dog...check, Cat...check, Lizard...check.

Will turns 3

We had a family birthday party for William a couple of days before the actual day of his birth. 

 He wanted cookie dough for his birthday dessert, so that's what he got.  A big scoop of cookie dough.

 And it was a good thing we did because he spent his real birthday in my bed, sick with a fever.

Parker Turns 10

We had Parker's birthday a week early and celebrated him and Matt's together...

Attendees: 

Garnica's

Pickup's

Andersen's

Reed's

Teeples

13...say it isn't so.

On June 9 Kate turned 13.

We had a friends and family party at our house on the big day.  

She is a great kid. Not overly moody yet, I'm just waiting for that to set in. She is helpful around the house, plays with her siblings still and can laugh at herself. She is beautiful on the inside and out. For her birthday she got a sewing machine and a week at sewing camp. She starts camp in just a couple of days and is super excited about it. We love her and are so glad she is ours.

14 Years

Fourteen years ago Matt and I were married. 

those 14 years have included...

4 children

6 moves

8 cars

some tears

lots of laughs

I like and love him more today than I did fourteen years ago. I'm glad he's mine for eternity.

Time Flies

How can it be almost four months since my last post. Time has flown by since we moved to our new (wonderful) house. I really love it here. Lots of projects are in progress, i.e. backyard landscaping and patio cover, little kids built in beds, paint touch up (the painters finally came back to fix a few things after a four month wait and they will have to come another day to finish up the touch up) So the paint might be done by Christmas :). We had three trucks of concrete poured in the backyard to make up the patio, a riding path for the kids and a partial basketball court on the side of our house. It was a lot of concrete. The house is slowly getting decorated. I don't want to just put things on the walls to have things on the walls, so I'm taking it slow. Making sure I love or at least like what I have up. I haven't posted any pictures of the kitchen completely done because of the painters. They are supposed to paint the crown all around the top of the cabinets so that it matches exactly. So again, maybe by Christmas.

LOVE

It has been years since Matt and I have been home for Valentine's Day. That's not a sad thing, we've spent them all in Aspen while someone else watched our kids. But this year we didn't go to Aspen (soooo sad), so I decided to make the best of it and have a LOVE dinner with the kids. I set the table and cooked while Kate and Parker were still at school and Maggie and Will had naps. Parker rolled his eyes at me about all the heart shaped food, placemats etc. He told me I was a little extreme. The girls loved it and I think Parker secretly did too. Will was just glad that there was chocolate on the table. We had Lasagna, Death Bread, Red Grapes and Salad. And heart shaped brownies for dessert.

As we sat and ate we each took a turn saying something that we love about each person at the table. A few things that were mentioned...Mom is loved because she takes care of everyone and cooks. Dad is loved because he plays business (wrestling with the kids). Kate is loved because she is so nice. Parker is loved because he is always teaching us things we didn't know. Maggie is loved because she draws us all such great pictures. Will is loved because he makes us laugh. It was interesting to hear what each child had to say about each other. Kate and Parker were very thoughtful about what they said. It was really great to remind each other that there are specific things we like about one another. As a parent I rarely, if ever hear my kids tell one another something nice about the other, so this was a good change. I felt really grateful to spend the night with them.

If the Aspen trip is forever over, this will be a new family tradition.

Christmas Outfits

I really like it when Christmas falls on a Sunday.

Who Was I Kidding...Oh Myself

Yes, I was kidding myself. You see I look at lots and lots of home decor blogs, pinterest, before and afters, DIY craft blogs, etc. and I theoretically think it would be fun to do that, but really I don't have time. So I'm scratching the "house made pretty" blog idea from my to do list, so I can actually accomplish some of my more pressing to do items. I guess that's one way to accomplish something, right?

In the last four weeks we have been SUPER busy. We were very busy before that too (well at least Matt was). Obviously we celebrated Christmas. It was great. The kids loved it. We stayed in Vegas and celebrated with Matt's family. I have a picture or a hundred somewhere that I will hopefully post a little bit later.

The day after Christmas we started the big move...oh my was that an undertaking. With Christmas shopping, the kids being out of school and having a really helpful two year old I wasn't as packed or prepared as I should have been. Plus I think I might be a somewhat organized hoarder. We started the move on Monday and we got the last things out of our house on Wednesday. Matt did lots of little fix up projects on the old house on Thursday and it was painted on Friday. The really great people who are renting from us moved in on Saturday. It was a whirlwind to say the least.

The new house is great. There were still quite a few things to finish up in it in the first few weeks that we lived here (the first week we had one working sink in the whole house and it was in the master bathroom). As of today all of the sinks in the house are now working. We have blinds up, (almost everywhere). The house functions. Not everything is unpacked (1/2 of the three car garage is still in boxes) and we need to purchase quite a bit of new furniture. But we are getting comfortable here.

My favorite part is the kitchen. Everything has a place, it's so great and I am so happy with how it is turning out. There are some paint touch ups that need to happen and new barstools to be bought, I haven't decided on the backsplash, but overall it is more than I hoped it would be. Here are a few before and afters....

So Excited

We are getting a new house!

It will be big enough to not feel cramped, but not too big. The backyard is large (and full of dirt and weeds right now).

It's going to be awesome...it's not so awesome right now. But it is getting better every day.

Matt is working his tail off making it everything I want it to be.

I've been picking paint colors (10 sampled so far, haven't decided yet), kitchen cabinets, bathroom vanities, floors, doors, trims etc. It's been really fun. Well, not the paint, that has been annoying. I can't seem to get it right. I want a bluish grey greenish color for the entire house. I have picked the trim color...it matches our cabinets, that was easy.

I'm planning on starting a separate blog about it (housemadepretty.blogspot.com)...but haven't done that yet because....

I am addicted to Pinterest....LOVE it. I've gotten tons of ideas on things to do to our house (which means more projects for Matt :0) I love having an incredible carpenter husband.

This month is going to be BUSY!

True Love

she is positive she is his favorite

Halloween Parade

Batterman had their annual Halloween parade again this year. Parker's costume was a hit with parents, teachers and kids. Papa came and walked the parade with the kids and then helped in Parker's class at his party.

Going to the parade at the elementary school every year reminds me of the parades we had at Howard Wood. I remember how great I thought they were, marching around to the Monster Mash. The principal yelling over the microphone, the disorganized rambunctious kids, the parents taking pictures, the crackly music playing, it's still the same. I think the costumes were better when I was a kid, there weren't a lot of duplicates. There was one class yesterday that had at least 5 Grim Reapers. And there were some moms who were dressed as slutty bees, nurses, witches, etc. And walked around in the parade...what? Although that does add to the entertainment level. ;)

Halloween 2011

Every year I try to come up with something for the kids to be that kind of coordinates, and every year they shoot me down. It happened again this year. Will was a dinosaur, Maggie was an angel, Parker was a LEGO man, and Kate was a bee. The one good thing about this....EVERYONE was pleased with their own costume. So losing the coordination battle was worth it. Matt and Parker worked on making his costume for weeks. And I made Maggie and Kate's costumes. Will was the only child we bought a pre-made costume for. I just couldn't get enough creative juices flowing for one more.

We had friends and family over for dinner and went trick-or-treating as a big clan. It was lots of fun.

Kate...the actress

First Day of School 2011

7th Grade

Kate has a part in her fall school play, The Knights of the Rad Table. The performances will be at Faiss Middle School on Thursday, December 1 at 6:30 pm and Friday, December 2 at 6:30 pm.

Catch Up....Again

It seems like I am always playing catch up with this blog. So much has happened since my last post. Just normal stuff, but lots of it.

Our 13 year anniversary - we went to dinner at the Chart House and to the Country Music impersonator show. I can't remember the actual name. It was pretty good, but a little uncomfortable. I always think it's weird to watch someone pretend to be someone else. Especially when that someone else is still living.

River Trips - The first week there we spent with Honey and Papa, Bridget, Paige, Claire, Chelsea, Andrew & Juliet. Kate became a very proficient slalom skier. Matt & Ruben both bare footed and Parker skied on two. He tried and tried to slalom, but couldn't quite get it. William was thoroughly entertained by his cousins. The second week we went Noelle, Anna and Miller came.

Parker's 9th Birthday - He spent the day with his Dad. First on a helicopter ride over the Hoover Damn and Lake Mead. Then a movie with Dad & Talon. After the movie we had family over to the house for dinner and dessert. He was very happy with his day.

Heber Vacation - we spent almost three weeks in Heber this year. The first week Melinda and Carole came to spend with us. The last two weeks Honey and Papa came and we spent lost of time with Noelle, Bridget, Beth, Marci & Emily and their kids. Matt came up for the last few days and to drive home with us. Love, love, love Heber!

Will's 2nd Birthday - two years already! He is a very funny kid and his eyebrows keep us entertained. He is saying a lot of words. He is a total boy. He loves anything that has wheels. Right now his favorites are trash trucks and choo choo trains. He scrunches his little lips up into and pucker and says choo choo. It's adorable. And when he hears the trash truck outside our house he gets really excited and we have to take him out to look at it. The garbage men must think we are crazy out there waving at them.

River Trip - We went to the Parker strip with Matt's family for our third and final river trip of the summer. We had a good time. The kids and Dad's jumped from the cliffs. Kate was the only kid who jumped from the highest one. She regretted it though, she had huge bruises down the back of her thighs from landing a little wonky. William LOVED the boat, but didn't like being in the water until our last day there. Maggie is more of a lay around and play in the sand & water type of kid. She really doesn't have any desire to do anything behind the boat other than tube. Parker and Kate do it all. They love to knee board, jimmy jam, tube, ski etc. Anything that can be done behind the boat they are willing to try.

Our summer has been happy and busy. I'm both dreading and impatiently anticipating the start of school. This was our first "real" summer and it's been great.