Without a doubt, THE cutest girl in all of Tacoma!!

Ok... So I am a little bias, but just look at her!!! I really think she is SO cute! She has gotten a few new tricks to impress anyone that is lucky enough to bask in her beauty.

She now has decided that fish lips are oh so fun! I just giggle every time she does it. You all are very lucky that I caught it on my camera phone, she will not do it on command and if you do it to her in hopes of her copying, she looks at you as if you have broccoli growing out of your nose.

I just think this is cute. She is crawling now (which the picture does not show). Her method is unlike any I have ever seen. She (unlike any other child I have ever known) learned to do her legs first. So she gets her cute tush up in the air, pushes a little and eventually lets her arms catch up, army style. What a cute little bug!

Landon's Backpack

For Halloween I bought the boys some glow-in-the-dark buckets to put their candy in. These buckets have been used in SO many ways! I put toys in them as I am cleaning, when there is something that Abby (the lady that cleans my house) doesn't know where it goes she puts it in the buckets, they make great bath toys, the kids even used them to puke in when they were sick (after which they were disinfected thoroughly). My favorite use; however, has been Landon's use. He uses it as a backpack. He doesn't store anything in it so I guess it is more like a camel hump, but he goes EVERYWHERE with it!

Here he is in his room (please ignore the mess in the background) just chillin' with his little camel hump.

Here you can kind of see how he goes about sporting it. He wears the handle across his chest as I do with my purse strap.

Here he is in the bath even! Not such a good picture of Landon but I think it is SO funny! Hope you all got a kick out of it as I did.

Christmas Day!!!!

What a miracle for us here in western WA. We got snow, on Christmas day!! It was so beautiful and the kids loved it; that is until their little fingers got so cold that they felt like they were going to fall off.

I know, I am horrible, I forgot to bring any mittens for any of my kids when we went to my parents' house so, yes, they got quite cold. But in my defense, it was NOT snowing when we left our house, it was raining.

Here are Ezra and Landon not sure what to think about it.

Max (my eldest nephew) and Ezra

Gabe (still with black hair) and my insane husband in the background. No, he is not wearing any shoes.

Apparently Gabe thinks that Aaron is just as crazy as all of us do.

We really had an exceptional Christmas. We loved the time spent with Rachel, Ella and Bryant, we loved being together and we loved the snow.

So sick!

We recently all had such a horrible flu. Landon (below) was the first to get it and quickly passed it to Ezra. Between the two of them they threw up 40 + times. At the same time, Aaron got sick so guess who got to clean it all up, aren't I lucky! When they started feeling a little better, Scotland got it and threw up quite a few times herself. After it seemed that everyone was over it, Gabe and I got it. I felt AWFUL! Landon's face shows how we all were feeling. I feel so bad when the little ones get sick and don't know what to do about it. I am so happy to say that we are all doing well now and hopefully we are done with the flu this year!!

Exploding Turkey

My Dad likes to deep fry up to 4 turkeys on Thanksgiving. Here is exactly what happens when you have a bit too much oil, as he did for the first of this years batch. Notice his silly little fire dace!

Thanksgiving Turkeys!

Oh how I LOVE Thanksgiving! i love the food, I love the family, I love the food, I love the smells, I love the relaxed feel to it as we all stuff our faces, I love that no one is on a diet on Thanksgiving! I know I mentioned a bunch of food stuff that I love; but, honestly, my favorite part really is the family. I love having family visit, I love talking with everyone, sharing stories, laughing, watching TV, cooking, and just feeling the incredible love we all have for one another, there is nothing in the whole world like it!

My Grandma and Grandpa Holmes had Thanksgiving with my family this year and Grandma was SO good with all the kids (she better be with all the practice she had with her kids). She held Scotland, she read books to the boys, she listened to the crazy stuff Gabe had to say. It was so fun to have them here.
We also had Bethy and Hyrum's family over! They live in VA which is so sad for me; Bethy is the sibling that I have always felt the closest to. I miss them so much when they are away but I has been such an incredible joy to have them here for this holiday.

I truly hope you all had as enjoyable a Thanksgiving as I did!

This is for Michelle

Ok... First, to those who don't know Michelle. She is a completely awesome person that my magnificent cousin married (they are SO cute together)! She has a blog and on it she listed 5 little known facts about her and asked that I did the same. While I hate talking about myself (not one of the little known facts), I think this will be somewhat fun to see if people actually DO know some of this stuff or not. So... Here ya go!

1) Unlike Michelle, I LOVE speaking in public!! I don't know if it the rush of adrenalin, or what, but I love it! I wish that I was asked to speak more often but with all the kids I have, I think the bishop thinks that it would be too much for me.

2) I like "Desperate Housewives." I know... I know... Think of me what you will, but I like it. I especially like wrapping up in a blanket when ALL the kids are asleep, and I watch it on my computer.

3) I had my tongue pierced (twice) and I miss it. If the prophet had not come right out and said that we should not have our tongues pierced, I would still have it.

4) I love to dream. I love to be in another world and just pretend in general.

5) Since this is the last thing, it had better be good. Hmm... I really, really wish that I could play the piano extremely well. I don't want to be OK at the piano, or somewhat good, I want to be AMAZING!!! I think that is what is holding me up from taking lessons, I don't want that bit of time when i am decent or Ok, etc. I just want to automatically be marvelous!

So there ya have it. That's me! Hope I didn't disappoint anyone or anything.