Our Happenings

It seems like it has been forever since I have updated. Nothing real big to report. We've just been really busy with a lot of little things like school, work, church, funerals, parties, out-of-town company, wedding planning, etc. Here is a recap from my phone:

MAISEY:

 Maisey came home from school yesterday as the class "Math Queen." She happily shared her crown with her sis!

 Maisey rediscovered her camera when I was deep-cleaning her room last week. She has been having "photo shoots" with anything that will hold still for her (i.e. not her brother!). I will have to do a post with all of her pictures!

These were two of Maisey's recent reading passages at school. A little strange, fat and mom should never be in the same sentence! She also had the word "sin" for a spelling word! 

 Happily sharing her iPod so they can both rock out to T. Swift!

GAGE:

He has been a real busy body lately! Lots of mischeif, lots of meltdowns, lots of naps, but lots of snuggles!

 To say this kid is obsessed with frosting is an understatement. He sneaks into the fridge and eats it all the time. I started hiding it in the veggie drawer thinking he'd never look there. . . WRONG! And when I get sick of him sneaking it and just throw it away he resorts to the butter! Yuck!

 This is how several days last week went down: 30 minute melt down about nothing followed by a 2-3 hour nap. Must have been needed!

 Loving the snow (see below!)

 Gage can give the best snugs (that's what he calls cuddles). He just wiggles himself into you, gets comfy, and relaxes. Then every once in a while he'll pop up and say, "Merry Christmas Mommy" or "I love you Mom Mom". It melts me every time!

Gage went to a birthday party and when I went to pick him up, this is how I found him -- passed out on the couch! He must had been exhausted because after waking him up and taking him to the car he fell back asleep on the 10 minute drive home.

I am also happy to report that I put his room back together two weeks ago (knobs back on the dresser, hamper back in his room, train table put back together with a track on it, light switch hooked back up, picture frames put back on top of his dresser, etc.) and he hasn't touched a thing! He is doing such a good job. Love that boy!

MILEY:

 Our little "doll"

 Miley wore a little hair clippie to church since the headbands look weird in her pile of fluff on the crown of her head!

 A visitor is invading her space!

 Visiting Grammy's school

 This girl loves the pool. The big kids start swimming lessons next week, so I am going to take her swimming on some of the days. She will be in heaven!

 Her first cheese stick. If she follows in her brother's footsteps she'll be downing 3 a day in the next few months!

FRIENDS:

Some of our favorite friends came to visit! We played games, shopped the outlets, went swimming, ate yummy pizza, went to a basketball game, and played more games! Thanks for coming Nobles!

 Andrew watched all 5 kids while Shaun was at a funeral and Katrina and I were at the mall. I was surprised that Miley did so well with him, she's kinda a mommy's girl!

Graham, Maisey, Gage, and Miley. Griffen's feet made it in the picture behind Maisey. 

And yes, Gage is pouring water on Miley's head, and yes, Miley loved it! :)

We've got to head north to see them sometime soon!

OTHER:

 For about a week we were stuck in this crazy inversion and it didn't get above freezing. We went out to my mom's school for lunch last week and on the way out all the trees were glazed and it just looked so pretty.

 Then we actually got to Silverton and there was SNOW!!!! The kids were so excited and it was beautiful! I let Gage run around in it for a while. Maisey didn't want to because she didn't want to get her shoes wet. (she is so much like her mom!) This may be the only snow we see this year until we get to Sunriver in 2 months!

These are boxes of Gage's clothes that I am sending for my nephew to wear. I used a whole roll of packing tape on these suckers and let me tell you why! 

My sisters and I have all shared maternity clothes. (perks of having 4 girls in a fam!) Well, my littlest sister, Kelsey, announced over Christmas that she is expecting her first! YAY! So Kate, who has all of the maternity clothes since she just had a baby in Oct. offered to ship Kelsey some of the smaller, cuter clothes! She sent two big diaper boxes full of clothes to her. Well, one of them made it to Kelsey earlier than expected. She picked it up off her door step only to lift a completely EMPTY box with stamps all over it "damaged" and "no contents". Uhhhhh, what? Aparently the bottom of the box had fallen out and all of our clothes are missing! And of course, she sent the cutest stuff! Once Kelsey got the other box she told us what was in it so we can start thinking of all of the things we are missing. Hopefully we can recover some of it. I know they are just clothes, and I'm not ever sure if I'll ever need them again, but I almost cried thinking of the hundreds of dollars I spent on them and now they are all floating in postal land. 

So you better believe I used a whole roll of tape on those puppies!

Shaun and I went to the BYU basketball game against U of P last weekend. And, two people told us they saw us on ESPN! There was a fight where a Portland player got ejected. Shaun was standing up yelling and I was the embarrassed wife that stayed in her seat. Yeah, that's what people saw on national TV! BYU ended up creaming them! GO COUGS! 

I finished our taxes yesterday! That feels good! And while I've been typing this post I got an email saying they were accepted. Now I can stop obsessing every time I am alerted of a new message on my phone. And once we get our refund, we can finally finish paying off our sweet baby! Does that mean she's still not officially ours?

Speaking of our sweet babe. . . she woke up when I was still working on them so her super helpful big sis fed her and entertained her so I could finish! I think Maisey deserves a cut of the refund!

We had a shoe themed New Beginnings on Sunday for "Stand Ye in Holy Places" and it was a success. Short and simple definitely works for me! 

 We decorated with shoes

The girls got these wooden blocks

And we had cupcakes for refreshments. 

The girls got to learn about all of the different kinds of shoes and the different places those shoes might take them. And how important it is to find holy places in their lives and to be good examples. It was a great message.

And last, but not least, this is how my family room looks right now! I love that all 3 of my kids love books. Gage will often plop himself down in front of me with a book and say, sit applesauce (meaning cris-cross) and it's my turn to read and your turn to listen! So I sit and soak in his story which is usually about some black train on a crazy adventure!

Miley: 8 Months

 * Miley was cranky for a good portion of this month because she broke her two bottom teeth! She didn't eat, she didn't sleep, she didn't play. She pretty much whined for like two whole weeks. We cuddled a lot, and walked a lot. We both made it through thanks to some tylenol and prayers!

 * Once they came through she changed right back to her happy little self! She was back to playing, and back to eating, and well, we're still working on the sleeping thing again. She wakes up once during the night and just wants reassurance that we are still here. So we poke our heads in, tuck her in, and she's good to go. (Dad gives her a little snuggle on the nights he gets up).

*She loves to give slobbery kisses, and she loves when her brother and sister give her the time of day! She loves books. Mostly chewing on them, but also when mommy or sissy read them to her. She also likes to arch her back and crank her neck so she can see the dvd player in the van!

* She's got this crazy patch of hair on the crown of her head that isn't long or heavy enough to lay down on her head so it just kinda floats in the air. Thin headbands look weird on her right now, so we either don't do one or do a big one.

* She has starting scooting around a little bit. She can go in a circle and she occasionally goes backward, which really frustrates her. She doesn't like to spend a lot of time on her tummy though.

* She loves to eat any "real" food. Fries, ice cream, bread, apples, yogurt, graham crackers, ritz crackers, animal crackers, cereal, etc. You can tell that she's my third baby because I definitely didn't feed Maisey this stuff at this age! 

* She can sure pitch a fit! She'll let you know if she doesn't like something or if she wants more of something. The funniest thing is when Shaun tosses her up in the air. He'll do it several times then his arms will get tired so he'll stop. She squawks about it until he will do it again. She knows how to get what she wants! 

I can't even remember what life was like 8 months ago! She just fits right in with us and we sure love her!

Highlights of the Week

We all survived the first full week back to school and work. It really wasn't too bad. I fit in some exercising and a major filing cabinet switch/clean-out project. Here are some other highlights from the week!

* FHE all about reverence!

Showing Mom and Dad they can be reverent for 1 WHOLE minute!

* Daddy went to ward temple night and it was the day I was working on the filing project that I didn't finish in time to have the table cleared off for dinner, so we headed to McD's! The kids had a blast even though I spilled a cup of blue powerade and two cups of ketchup everywhere! And, now that Miley has teeth, she actually bites chunks of things now, so I had to finger sweep her mouth several times that night for french fry and apple chunks. 

*Thursday was our stay at home and get things done day! Gage happily made a bed for him and Miley to share on the couch.

* I took Gage on a little adventure to see the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile or as Gage called it "Hot Dog Car! He was very disappointed when he went looking for the Hot Dog Train and didn't find one.

He looks so little in front of it.

 * Shaun got a major promotion at work! We've known about it since right before Christmas, but it was made official in the office on Friday. I am so proud of him and all of his hard work. Most people in this position have been with the company waaaaay longer than Shaun has and it's pretty much unheard of to get promotions two years in a row! Love that guy!

Promotional Hazing!

 * Friday night was declared a family night! Dad picked up DQ treats for us on the way home and we played angry birds all night! It was fun to see the kids create different contraptions to knock down. It was a really fun night.

Maisey was so nice and shared her dilly bar with Miley!

* This Sunday went much better than last. Gage was very reverent during the Sacrament portion of the meeting. I was so proud. And he went willingly to Primary! SUCCESS!!!!! The kids came home with CTR rings that they were so excited about. And Gage came home with something extra!

Not sure what to think????? (The"O" fell off in my bag)

The End.

The Rest of Christmas Break

Both big kids went back to school today and it is amazing what I have been able to get done! Here is what we did during the break, post Christmas.

*Miley got her first tooth on Dec. 27 and her second tooth on Jan. 5. This means lots of snuggling with a grumpy baby.

* Miley doesn't have very many winter jammies in this size, so I was going to get her some for Christmas. But then the cheap side of me came out and decided to get some of Gage's old jammies out and let her wear those for a couple of months! She sure looks silly in them!

* We had a sleepover with the cousins, which included an American Girl party with matching jammies and the movie McKenna.

* We went to the Gilbert House (Salem's Children's Museum). The kids played grocery store, trains, rocket ship (in a submarine), time machine, puppet show, veterinary clinic, and created crafts from recyclables.

* We rung in the New Year. Maisey stayed up until New Years in New York then went to bed. We watched "Trouble With the Curve" which ended just after midnight our time.

* We went swimming. The kids were so funny. They would wait at the bottom of the slide while Daddy went down it. Dad would spray them with a mouth full of water and they would run and scream. Miss Miley loved the water and splashed to her hearts content in the baby pool with Mom.

* We went to the local library several times and made it to story time once.

* We played lots of toys and worked on sharing

* Grammy started school on Jan. 2, so we went out to visit her for lunch one day. The kids love to draw on her boards. As we were getting ready to leave I couldn't find Gage. He had found Grammy's iPad and hid in the corner of the room to play it.

* We had a ward game night. Maisey played Fibber, Checkers, Memory, and Go Fish with some big girls. Shaun played Star Wars Trivial Pursuit, and I mostly chatted with friends!

* We played lots of family games at home. One morning Shaun was doing Brain Quest with Gage. He asked Gage what chickens lay, and Gage said "Corn Pops!" What a goof!

I thought I would be excited for the kids to be back at school, but I'm not really. I liked the lazy days of the break where we could stay in sweats and jammies until lunch time. Not any more! 6:45 am seems sooooo early!