School

Lindsey came home from school on picture day with the feather on her bow sticking straight up! I said, "What happened to your bow?" She said it fell out and she put it back in. I asked her if it was before or after pictures. She said after, but I got a good chuckle when I saw it sticking straight up in the picture. She's so darn cute anyway!!!

1st Grade

I found this gem in Lindsey's backpack over Thanksgiving break. So cute! I love that it says "to Idaho".

We were so proud of little Gracie becoming a spelling bee finalist this year!!! The words that were sent home to practice were pretty tough! Some of them I had never even heard of, so I couldn't even tell if I pronounced them right to her, like leitmotif and jackanapes. At the spelling bee, I realized they started at number one on the list and went completely in order. Good to know if the kids make it in future years. I'll have them focus on practicing the first half of the list, since I'm sure they didn't even make it enough rounds to get to those tough ones. I thought it would be random order from the list they sent home.

2nd Grade

I snapped a couple pictures before they got started, but I was too far away to get clear ones on my phone. Then, before they began, they asked us not to take any picture or video.

I could tell she was so shy and nervous! She spelled her first word right (napkin) and then her second word was emerald and she started out with the letter "i". They told the kids to go back to class when they got out, so I hurried to catch her in the hall. I could tell she was trying not to cry, but I told her how proud we all were of her, and got her smiling before she went back to class.

I was so grateful for all of the texts I got from family wishing her good luck! She's so blessed to have so many people supporting her! Thank you everyone! I showed her all the texts and she smiled!

Here she is with her "Spelling Bee" bouquet from Granny! Thanks so much everyone for always supporting my kids!!!

Cuties

I've never been good at doing hair, so I've been practicing some new braids, hoping to figure out how to do Gracie's hair for her baptism. Olivia let me practice on her.

Lindsey came to show me the dog she made out of these suction cup things. She is so creative!

I made some chore tags for the kids! They've really liked them, but yesterday Cooper came out to the kitchen and said quietly, "Something happened." He was holding one of the hooks, ripped off the wall with a patch of paint attached to it. Little stink!!! He had a balloon and was trying to tie it to a toy earlier, and I stopped him and told him he better not tie the balloon to anything. Apparently, he tied the balloon to the hook and couldn't get it off. I was mad, but at least glad that he had come and told me instead of trying to hide it. At least it was one of his hooks he ruined, and not his sisters, or they wouldn't have been too happy with him either.

The best feeling in the world is when a little one falls asleep on you . . .

Tim rolled Cooper up like a little burrito in his bed quilt.

The kids always love hanging all over Tim. He's their own personal jungle gym.

Olivia's 3rd Birthday!!!

My baby girl is 3!!! I can't believe it! We're so glad that after almost 8 straight years of buying diapers, Olivia is officially potty trained! We attempted to potty train her two other times, but this third time around, she did really well! She's going to be a sunbeam in January too! It will be weird to have all of our kids in Primary.

Gracie was so sweet to think of others again, and got this Happy Birthday bracelet from a treasure chest at school to give to her, along with a homemade card.

I was too late snapping the hug after Livi saw the gift from Gracie.

Olivia was so funny as she said, "I always wanted this!!!" after almost every present she opened.

She made us laugh so hard when she opened her card with a $5 bill and shouted, "I got 50 dollars!!!"

Modeling in her cute new dress from Aunt Heidi . . .

To finish off her birthday, we went and drove through The Galaxy of Lights display at the Botanical Gardens. The kids were so cute ooooing and aaaahhhing at the lights. It's nice that the drive through is so slow that the kids can get unbuckled for a better look out the windows.

I never realized our van had a sunroof that opened! The kids got a kick out of poking their heads out the top of the van to look.

Thanks everyone for making her day so special!!! I love my feisty little boss!!! She knows how to put on the charm to melt me and I can't resist her little face! She is sooo smart too and loves to sing! Love you little Livi! Happy Birthday!