February 2015

We did lots of fun things this month.

We got to spend time with the fears at the Tucson Zoo { one of my favorite zoos!}

We celebrated miss mack turning SIX!

we did homework.. lots of it.

We fixed up the yard a bit... and found nasty spiders!

battled with lovely croup

played superheros... even they need naps!

Had dentist and doctor check ups

Nolan learned how to kneel and fold his arms for prayers { so stinkin cute}

baby girl grew, and grew and grew

we played with friends at park days and swam our hearts out at lessons!

Mack asked for a doll birthday party this year.  It was really fun to plan.  She just wanted crafts for her and her friends... and their dolls, of course.

So we made hair clips and bracelets.  Colored pictures and ate donut cake!

She also got some fun new things for her doll like a clothes suitcase, bed and travel carrier!

Mackenzie got to go on her first field trip, riding a big yellow bus, and i've never seen her more excited!

We got her to school..{far to early in the morning:)} and off she went for a day of fun with her friends at the zoo.

I sure do love this school mackenzie goes to, and her teacher has been wonderful!

Seeing her with all her friends just makes me smile!

January 2015

New primary classes, that ALL were excited about.  

Mack CTR 5

Bubba CTR 4

Declan Sr. Nursery

Nolan Jr. Nursery

Birthdays. Birthdays. Birthdays.

Sleepy kiddos and swim lessons.

Golf for Ed, making a 60 yd chip shot...he kept the ball :)

Seeing our Utes and trying to get the sick bug outta the house for good!

Big D had a ninja turtle party.  Sorta party.

Really he just invited his girl friend's family over:)  He loves that Wren Heiner.

We opened presents, ate cake {that was supposed to be ninjas but looked like monsters} had ice cream and enjoyed watching the kids run off crazy energy before bed!

happy birthday big D!  We sure do love you!

December

December has come and gone.

Quickly.

But we sure did have a fun filled month.

There were lots of tired kiddos, from getting sick and not sleeping well at night, so naps were welcome.

Girl days, toys presents, good food, family fun, crazy warm weather meant lots of outdoors time.

The Nutcracker.

Mackenzie got to experience her first Ballet, The Nutcracker.  She got a new fancy dress and purse and got to go to dinner with grandma and mom before the Ballet.  It started later than her her normal bed time so to see her fall asleep with 30 minutes left, was no surprise.  But she still had fun!

The day after the Nutcracker, I had my anatomy scan for the baby, and guess what, we FINALLY are able to give Mackenzie that sister she always wanted!  We are all beyond excited and not quite sure what to do with a baby girl:) But little is sure already loved!

Christmas.

 Christmas this year was very low key and quite.  We only give our kids one gift and a book and actually make them give up a gift.  And to our surprise, they were BEYOND thrilled with their gifts this year and that makes a mama happy!

We went to Texas Roadhouse for Christmas Eve dinner, it never disappoints.

Edward worked Christmas so gifts weren't opened till the evening.  The kids and I spent the day at Grandma and Grandpa's playing and resting and soaking up all our time with them before they left for their next cruise adventure to South America:)

This year has been a great year, with overall good health and happiness and I am so very grateful for all the things we have been blessed with.

Here's to more goodness in 2015!

November

And so it's November.  2014 is coming to a rapid close.  But there is much more fun to be had!

The cold bug hit our house something fierce this month and just passed it's way around all of us, multiple times.  So when we were finally feeling on the mend, i decided to take the boys out on a special date while mack was at a birthday party.

Movie date with mom... i was reminded why i let their dad take them:)  They were pretty good but just not my idea of an outing with my boys who fidget too much!

Mack and E started swimming lessons again at a different school, it's a nice indoor facility so they can go all winter long.  They. Love. it!

Nolan is becoming quite the ham and loves copying anything his brothers and sister do!

Declan is talking up a storm and is never quiet, still or calm.  i'm in for it with that one! 

I caved and gave Nolan his first haircut.  I get so sad on the first one because they instantly go from babies to boys!  And Nolan was no different.  He grew up the second we cut the hair off! But looks oh so cute!

We've had season tickets to the U of A football games this year.  Even though we aren't big fans it's been fun to be in the college game atmosphere!  We miss our Utes.  Bubba really likes the games so we try to take him every once in awhile.  We even had some extra tickets this month and let him bring a "date".  He loved being with miss Victoria. {she's our favorite sitter!}

We spent thanksgiving this year up in Mesa with the Fears family.  We played football, rested, ate our hearts out and had fun with cousins.

October

oh October.

You usually are my favorite month, but Arizona decided to disappoint this year and stay in the high 90s all. month. long. ugh.

Luckily we got a little break to Utah to get a tease of some beautiful fall weather.

We also got some visits from some our favorite GA cousins, met new cousins in Utah, finally got to spend time with grandma Karen, had enough croup to last us all winter, got dressed up and got to tour another, beautiful temple!

Utah.

We finally made the long drive that we haven't braved for 4 years.

We got to do lots of stuff and see people we missed.

It was a quick trip, but just enough to give us the Utah fix we were needing.

Ed got his Crown Burger.

I got to "run" a 5k with my mom and sister in law for team Leah Bean.  Froze my butt off but loved being with my mama on the trails again.

We introduced bubba to the joy of a shmoj mashage train.  Ahh, Shmoj Mashages, I miss them.

I got to spend some time with my very best friends, who I miss so much.

We spent some time on the lovely University of Utah campus.

E got croup and I ran out of meds so off to the ER we went.  He was the happiest croup patient they had ever seen and they loved him.

It being 3:30 am when we left for the hospital, I was not awake and backed into a car. Ugh.  As if my situation needed to be worse.  Thankfully the owner called me back and said to not worry about it and he didn't even care.  I got lucky that it was a teen in a beater car anyway:/

We got to spend some time with Grandma Karen as well down at Thanksgiving Point, and had a blast!

 now that the lovely Tara Huish lives in Utah, I jumped on the chance to have her take our family pictures cause we just love her.  Now, this was the day we left Utah, bubba and I had gotten home from the ER about 4 hours before this.  

No one slept good.

No one wanted to be good sports.

So to get any of these was a sheer miracle.

and i love them.

We rounded out the month with Halloween festivities.

We had an Elsa, a Thor, an Iron Man, and a darling Clark Kent.

We went to the ward trunk or treat and called it good for activities.

We decided to take the kids to the Phoenix Temple Open House on Halloween, and if you ask me, that was WAY better than spending the evening trick or treating.

We also got to go to the Marana Pumpkin Patch again while Bryan and Aubrey were here, and the Fears came down too.  It was an evening of fun with family!

September

September in pictures.

Sleepy, sick kiddos. {dang you croup!}

camping {not without extreme fevers}

playing in the rain.

monster making.

dr. visits

zoo fun.

building closets {that's right, I, Kelli, built a closet!}

Camping on Mt. Lemmon.

Happy 34 to my main squeeze.

These cute pictures of my darling Kinder.

Who, mind you made Principal's Pride for grading period 1. {That means she got all 'O's' on her report card.... O = A }and got a trip to dairy queen for it!

Keep it up my smarty pants!

Zoo fun with friends {& cousins!}

August

August was loads of fun.

I was able to get away on a fabulous girls night, even if it was sushi {sick!} I had a great time with friends.

We started a tradition of pizza fridays {to accompany taco tuesday:!} and we tried ourselves some homemade variety.

We had fun times visiting with our cousins and sleeping at Grandmas.

Playing at parks.

Making new friends at school. {Mack and her darling friend, Olivia}

Learning new things and what it actually means to do homework!

We tried out a new "get along shirt".  Declan hated it.

We were able to have a couple {that's right, more than one!} date nights and football season has started again!

We got results from my genetic tests.  I always new my mom and I were twins :)  {Bring on the doctor visits to stay on top of this before it's too late!}

Our good friends, the Smiths, invited us to go bowling for FHE and it was a blast.  Expensive, but the kids loved every second of it!

These two handsomes got their turn at starting school.

Bubba finally gets to go to Mrs. Marjorie and he loves it!

Declan gets to go to grandma Margie preschool and he's doing wonderful, as well.

August brought the end of the T-Ball season, and just in time cause it was roasting hot at those games!  We are doing fall ball from now on!

Bubba loved it, he loved most of all that dad was his coach.

He actually has a natural talent so hopefully he continues to enjoy the sport and we'll keep letting him play!