Sums it up

Nate's cute drawing pretty much describes the month of December...lots of dashing around to concerts and events!

Halloween 2015

The Sparks kids pulled off an out of this world Halloween with their Star Wars costumes. R2D2, Darth Vader and Padme Amidala could be found collecting candy, eating donuts, cruising around the ward carnival and chili cook-off and other sugar filled activities. We kinda like Halloween!

Snow White

The Children's Theater put on Snow White for their fall production. This was Gabby's first time with a big part! She was Curly, one of the 7 dwarfs. Memorizing and stage fright kind of get to this girl sometimes but she worked through both and did a great job! Nate also got to star in the show as a guard/tree. He had one line, "Pardon Me Sir, where are we going now?" At home, he would practice saying it with a French accent. Since he is a bit of a ham on stage, I was worried that the French accent would come out during the performance but he didn't and also did wonderful. They have so much fun participating in the plays that it makes all the carpooling and costuming worth it!

Nate turns 7!

Someone is happy it's his birthday!

Nate is a fun kid. He is always busy and loves to do just about everything- ride bikes, play video games, soccer, baseball, acting in plays, reading, playing the piano. He is a good student at school and loves his teachers. He tries hard to be a good friend and usually has a little crush on someone. Nate can't wait to turn 8 next year so he can be baptized and start cub scouts (he wears Robert's old scout shirt all the time and has the scout oath memorized already). He will say some of the most thoughtful things sometimes and the funniest things at others. We never have a dull moment with this kid around. Love you Natey the Greaty!

Here are some of his favorites...

Food- Domino's Pizza

Color- Green and Pink

Movie- Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Dessert- Red Velvet Cake Blizzard

Song- My Heavenly Father Loves Me

Animal- Talking Parrot

Subject in School- Math

TV Show- Pokemon XY

Thing to do- Ride my bike

Place to Visit- Disneyland

When I grow up I want to be- A Spy

Nate's Apple Annie's trip

One of the highlights in first grade here is the field trip to Apple Annie's. The kids love it! They get to go on a hayride out to the pumpkin patch, choose their perfect pumpkin, learn about corn and its many uses, go through the corn maze, eat a picnic lunch and play in a pool of corn kernels. It's pretty much the best day ever!

Hanging out with the Warrens

We had such a fun time when Clark and Alyssa and their kids came to visit!

The rockers

Cute Mr. Jude

And we thought it was pretty sweet that Colby and Trent wanted a picture with Robert and Gabby:)

Tree climbers

How many kiddos can you find?

Cupcake Wars

Gabby had the best idea for her birthday party this year...cupcake wars! We all said is was a blast! The girls got really into it and had so much fun coming up with different and creative cupcakes.

They started off painting cupcake boxes while everyone showed up...

Then they made teams and everyone came up with a team name.

It was a tough judges panel of experts :)

Here's how it went...There were 4 kinds of cupcakes and all different toppings, flavors and food colorings they could use. We had 5 categories- Best tasting, best looking, best individual cupcake, unusual ingredient (they had had to use things like bacon, cinnamon, banana) and best overall.

The judges had some hard decisions to make...

They all looked delicious!

With a little teamwork, it turned out to be a fun party and everyone got to take cupcakes home in their fancy painted boxes. 

Birthday girl requests

Here are a couple requests from the birthday girl on her 9th birthday back in September...

-breakfast in bed with waffles, nutella and whipped cream

-to wear Carter's clothes to school

-to get checked out of school and go to lunch with Mom

We must love our Gabby girl a whole lot!

Croatia!

Robert's Mom was able to take a trip to Croatia last summer and visit the places where her ancestors immigrated from. On her way home, she stopped by to visit us. She had souvenirs for the kids and shared some of her adventures with us. It was interesting to learn about a place we didn't know very much about. The girls tried on this traditional hat and they looked pretty cute. 

First Day of School 2015

The first day back to school is always so exciting. Nate started 1st grade, Carter in 6th and Gabby in 4th! It's their last year at the same school. Grandma got to come visit for the first day too!

Carter and Karen

Gabs and the 4th grade girls

Nate heading into class with his awesome teacher

Voice Recital

Gabby did a fun Summer Voice program with the fabulous Tara Cluff. She took lessons all summer, then had a recital at the end. She performed Inside Out and Everything Has Changed (One was Dad's choice of song and the other was hers). She did great and loved hanging out with all the girls while they practiced. Way to go Gabby!

T-ball 2015

A few pictures from opening day

9 years for Gabby Mae

Today is Gabby's birthday! She turns 9 years old and is such a sweetheart. She is a friend to all and especially loves her grandparents and cousins. Gabby is a sensitive soul and can read emotions from people well. She wants everyone to be happy! She loves to sing and tumble and dance. She likes school and is really good at math and spelling. She has a bit of a sweet tooth and may turn into a gobstopper someday. We love our Gabby girl and are grateful she came to our family. Happy birthday Gabs!

Here are some of her favorites:

Color: Teal

Book: Anne of Green Gables

Song: Can't Blame a Girl for Trying

Food: Roast beef dinner (Roast, mashed potatoes and gravy, carrots)

Subject in school: Math

Place to visit: Eagar and UT

TV Show: Bunk'D

Dessert: Crepes with Nutella

Animal: Beagles

Movie: High School Musical (1, 2 and 3)

When I grow up I want to be: First Lady (The boy she has a crush on wants to be president, Robert's going to roll his eyes when he sees this one)

Ice Skating

The last semester of the school year was so busy, my pictures are all out of order! These pictures were from Spring Break when we took the kids ice skating in Phoenix. It was a blast and everyone improved so much from start to finish.

Spelling Bee

Carter made it into the school spelling bee in 5th grade by winning her class spelling bee. She did really well and got 4th place! All the participants received a ribbon and a bee-shaped pin.

You could barely see her over the podium :) but she was calm and thoughtful before each answer. Good job Carter!

♥♥♥