Happy Birthday Kristina....

Kristina turned 15 on November 17th.  She requested a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.  I was happy to make those wishes come true.

Now all the girls have curls...

Katie has been bugging me to cut her hair. I kept putting her off. Then she started asking about perming her hair. I should have just given her the hair cut! :) Last Monday they were out of school for President's day and we went to three stores to find a perming kit. You cannot buy them at Walmart or Shopko. I was going to go to Walgreens next when I thought of Sally's Beauty Supply. That is where we found our kit for all of $5.99! I got two kits and a bunch of rollers and we were out the door with enough perm solution for two girls! I did one perm on Monday and one perm on Tuesday. They don't have the tight poodle perm, just a nice wave giving them some nice body and they feel like they have some curl. Lucky for Emily she was born with naturally curly hair, perfect ringlets. I just get hers a little wet and she is good to go!

November Birthdays...

This was the year for having friends over for a birthday party. I usually keep it to family since we have so many birthdays so very close together. In fact we have about 1 a week starting with Emily on Oct. 23 and then Jonny, Kristina, and then Katie on Nov. 24th.

With the Thanksgiving break during the week of Katie's birthday we had a combined party for Kristina and Katie and their friends. They all ate pizza and watched Toy Story 3 on the wall. All the movie candy they could eat too.

And then the requested ice cream birthday cake too!

Halloween 2010

The ward has a Trunk-Or-Treat each year at the neighborhood park, just a block or two from our house. It is great to get all the stops done in one place! This year was Katie's last year as a trick-or-treater since she turns 12 in November. Our family rule is you are done trick-or-treating when you are 12. Emily, however has another 9 years of this fun stuff. I still get candy for all the big kids so no one misses out on getting some sweet treats!

Have fun guys....

Kristina left yesterday for Girls Camp. She was so excited I am not sure she slept much the night before. I hope she has a blast, I always did!

Today, Jonny is off to High Adventure. Completely outfitted with a paintball mask and camping gear and a mountain bike he is set to go! He too was up at the crack of dawn ready to take off. Summer is so much fun!

I am down to three kids at home now....so quiet!

Rummy....

My sister and I learned how to play 7 card Rummy from our Grandpa Haller when we were kids. We would play games with him everytime we visisted. Today my sister and I still play this game. Now the children have started learning this game and play with their Grandma any chance they get. And now they are playing with each other for countless games, one after another. Today I found Jonny and Logan on the floor, near their computers, taking a break from school and playing Rummy.

November Birthdays...

(Jonny's 15th Birthday)

We have 3 birthdays in the month of November, all about one week apart. By Thanksgiving we have celebrated 5 birthdays since September 1st. I really love decorating cakes and I get some good practice in this time of the year.

(Kristina's 13th Birthday)

The kids get to choose their kind of cake and their favorite dinner too. As they are getting older there is more variety to the choices. Jonny wanted pizza for dinner, Kristina wanted Aunt Tami's homemade noodles in homemade chicken soup. And Katie wanted my homemade bread bowls with homemade broccoli & cheddar soup.

(Katie's 11th Birthday)

Katie chose an ice cream cake made by Aunt Tami. I got to write on it but that is it! Whew... (Katie received gifts too, I just don't know why we didn't get pictures...birthday burnout maybe, sorry Katie!)

Steve was in Arizona for Jonny and Kristina's birthdays and so he participated in the celebrations via Google Video Chat! It was fun when he showed them their gifts over the video. After 12 hours of intense driving Steve made it back to actually eat some of Katie's ice cream cake! Having Daddy home was a great present for all!!

Back to School....

On August 17th, with tissue boxes in hand and backpacks packed full, the kids boarded their buses headed back to school. This is our last year for grade school (for a couple of years anyway), our last year before I have a high schooler, the last year of split bus schedules, our last year of senior primary (until Emily gets up there). It is Emily's first year in nusery at church. It is the first year that Emily waves and says goodbye as the kids get on the bus. The first year for Kristina in Middle School. The first year that Katie and Carson are not in the same class. The first year that Jonny liked the first week of school. The first year that we don't go to the fair!

We have been to two class presentations since school has started. Carson gave his "I am an Influencial American" presentation during the first week of school and Katie gave hers at the beginning of this second week of school.

Goofy kids....

Girls go to Table Rock

Last Saturday the girls went with our friends, the Moxleys, and climbed Table Rock in Boise.  They had so much fun and they look so cute sitting here overlooking Boise!  Thanks Carol for taking the girls and the photo too!

We finally did it....

 

The girls(Katie) have been begging for quite awhile to get their ears pierced.  I finally gave in after Katie had continued, for about a month, showing me how responsible she was.  I checked around on the prices of piercing ears and found that the cheapest way of doing it was buying self-piercing kits at the beauty supply store.  How hard can it be right?  When it came time to do it I marked their ears and then I chickened out.  Luckily we were with my sister and she was more than willing to do it!  What are Aunt's for anyway if they don't pierce their niece's ears right?

Happy Birthday Kristina!

Kristina turned 12 yesterday, Nov. 17th.
Some of the items on her birthday wish list were:

German Chocolate cake with My Little Pony toppers.More accessories for her doll house.She wanted more clothes. She also got a sewing machine from her Aunt and a movie and doll house people from Grandma.For her dinner choice, Aunt Tami's homemade chicken noodle soup! Yum!

I can see clearly now the blur is gone....

Logan got glasses when he was in second grade and almost blind. He literally couldn't see the fingers you were holding up. We spent the next few years going to the eye doctor every 6 months. Patching his good eye for 6 hours a day, forcing the weak one to work. He had eye drops to blur the good eye, film on his glasses to blur the good eye, and the patching too. He didn't have to do this all at once. Oh, and part of his "prescription" to help his weak eye, play hand-held games ie., Gameboy/DS for 2 hours a day. He was heartbroken!!!

Logan lost his glasses this summer so we had to go get new ones. About two years ago Carson got his glasses. And now the girls got them too. Kristina has been squinting at everything for awhile now. We would all tell her not to squint. Katie has been complaining of headaches and things being hard to see. Now everyone can see clearly! And 4 out of 6 kids are now in glasses. Aren't they cute! They couldn't be happier!

Kristina's Presentation in 5th grade

Kristina's 5th grade class starts the year by doing presentations on how they are an Influential American. They then move on to study some of the influential people in American history. So this is my 3rd child with this teacher and so she always counts on one of my kids starting the year with their presentation since we have been through this before. Honestly, I am glad to get it out of the way too!

Kristina did a great job. She told about how she came from an orphanage in Kazakhstan and now she is in America with more opportunities. She talked about how church and grandparents have an influence in her life. She even said that she wants to be a mom and a teacher in the future to be able to influence others. We took one of the nesting dolls, or Matryoshka dolls that I bought in Moscow, Russia. Kristina also brought a necklace that she made with Grandma Lockhart and a wooden boat from the Tall Ships we saw with Papa Jack and MaNette.

New Easter Dresses

Each year I make the girls new Easter dresses! I had bought fabric a few weeks ago and it just sat on my sewing desk collecting dust! Well, of course it is Saturday night, the eve of Easter and the fabric sits un-cut on my desk. I spent Saturday running kids to friends in Kuna, shopping, and anything but sewing. Finally it is 10pm and kids are going to bed and Kristina says to me "I can't wait to see my new Easter dress!" Great! How can I not stay up and get these done now! So it took me 1/2 hr to cut the fabric and then by 2:30 am after many, many yards of gathering we had Easter skirts! I had found Emily's dress about a month ago and that is what I matched the girl's skirts to. They are darling!