Dear Santa:

Daddy's Massage

Tony LOVES massages. He's not picky about who does it, or even if its good, just as long as he gets one. Luckily we have four kids who don't mind "massaging" Daddy's back! I have no idea how this can be relaxing but he loves it ... and evidently so do they!

Happy Birthday!

How could I forget these pictures? What a cutie our Kai is. He LOVED being sang to on his Birthday. Since then he walks around singing Happy Birthday all the time.

 Old Blue Eyes we love you so much and are so thankful you are in our family. You bring so much happiness to us and anyone who meets you. Your eyes melts hearts and your smile makes others happy! We love you Kai!

Big Boy

Slacker Mom that I am forgot to post Kai's big transition from his crib to a big boy bed. I love seeing their tiny little bodies in a big bed. Crazy how he looked so big in the crib yet so small in a twin. He's definitely growing up too, too fast!

WWF

My boys LOVE to wrestle. It is constant! Years ago, before we had kids, we went on a cruise with Tony's Dad and Brothers. Bruce pointed out that the boys couldn't go longer than 10 seconds with out touching, hitting, teasing, pinching, tripping or bothering one another. I didn't really believe it until I started to count. He was spot on. My boys are rapidly turning into this. Thank heavens I only have two!

Their wrestling always starts out fun but after about three minutes, it turns mean. 

 Don't feel too bad for Kai, he gives punishment as well as he receives. He is the lead instigator in most of these matches. He has figured out what buttons to push to tick his brother off!!!

I love you little men. Please forgive me for taking pictures instead of coming to your rescue ... I need a little humor in my day!

What the ????

It was a while ago that I took these pictures. As I uploaded them, I immediately thought "What the @*%^ is he doing"? I had no idea what this was a picture of.

 Then I remembered: THE LIZARD! One Sunday morning, I found a teeny-tiny little 2 inch lizard. It was darling. The boys loved it. They had a ton of fun torturing I mean playing with it until ... he got lost. Blake somehow thought it got lost in his underwear.

 Aliya and Kai were more than willing to help ... from a distance. It was pretty cute to see them so concerned about the missing lizard. We finally decided he was dropped somewhere in the grass, not in Blakey's underwear! Phew!

Arts and Crafts

 I've had to accept the fact that I've got creative kids ... well, creative girls. The boys, they are creative but its more in destructive forms. We'll see what they are like in another couple years. They all like to paint so every once in a while I forget how bad the last experience was and break out the paints. It keeps the boys occupied for about 5 minutes then they start finger painting and its OVER from there!

 I think Kai may have a little bit of his Grandpas creativity in him. Both of their Grandpa's are very artistic ... they definitely did not get it from Tony or me! They also have a couple ridiculously talented Uncles (unfortunately not from my side)!

 Tae got this oil set for Christmas last year and LOVES it. One of her favorite things to do when we visit family in Utah is paint with her Grandpa Thompson. I rarely let her get it out so when she does, it keeps her entertained for hours!

 Tae's BFF Kaylee was over and got to join in on the action!

I fear Blake takes after his parents. This picture was taken moments before he slapped his hand in the paint and started painting his arms. I swear, that boy can never leave a potential mess not messy! He is the ultimate mess tazmanian devil. Give him a 2 minute head start and he can have a room torn apart in moments (as is evident by this). Love him to pieces though!

Kai Kai is 2!

I cant believe it, my baby is two! These past two years have seemed to fly by (well, in hind sight they flew by. Most individual days seemed to last a LONG time ... I love my boys but they are a little too close in age for my taste)! 

 This is the first present he opened: a dump truck from Grandma & Grandpa Thompson. He loved it and wouldn't have a thing to do  with anything else! His brother routinely takes it away saying "Lets share Kai" which means "its mine now, find something else to play with"!

 This picture makes me laugh. Kai is totally content with his dump truck while Blake is drooling over the idea of what could be in the big box. Blake was more than happy to open the rest of Kai's gifts!

 Yep, everyone else got in on the action!

 I love this guy! He is so much fun and brings such joy to our family. I love his smile, he's always got a smile that he'll share with anyone. I love that he pretends to be shy when he is around other people. He gives the BEST snuggles! I love that he is pretty mellow when we take him places. I love how much he adores his big brother and sisters. While they are gone at school he often will ask where they are. I absolutely love his eyes. They are gorgeous! I love his raspy little voice. My favorite thing to hear is "I yove ew Daddy" when he says good bye to Tony in the mornings. I love you little monkey!

Back to School

Yay! My favorite time of year has arrived: the start of a new School  year! I wish I could be one of those Moms who love summer vacation. I don't! I like schedules and home work and regular routines (not to mention losing two of my four for a good portion of the day - unfortunately its the easy ones I lose).

The girls were so excited to chose their outfits and both wanted curly hair. Aliya loves curly hair, Tae not so much but she wanted it for the first day. We did learn that curly hair does not last long when its 110 degrees and 100% humidity. Yet another  lesson learned! Heres to a great school year!

 I cant believe my little Aliya is now in 1st grade. She's got a great teacher and a terrific class. She picked her outfit out all by herself. I tried to encourage something that matched, she thought this did, end of discussion. The 'arm warmers' are her favorite. They belong with a different shirt but she was most excited about this shirt with the gloves. I get a kick out of the clothing combinations she puts together. I swear it was only last year Tae stopped asking me to pick out her clothes. Aliya has NEVER let me pick them out. She has a style all on her own and she rocks it!

 Sassy-Miss-Sassy-Pants. Girl is a bundle of energy wrapped up in a lot of hair!

 Wow, a 4th grader. I cant believe it! She is so big and grows up before my eyes everyday. I love her fun, quirky personality. She too has an awesome teacher and has a couple good friends in her class. She's gotten to the age where she's all about what she wears. Most of the time I like the stuff she picks out ... her shoes are a different story. I'll have to find some pics of those!

I love this picture ... her body language says it all: "Mom, are we done yet?". Luckily she is a good sport and plays along with my million picture taking. I love you girls and cant believe you are both getting so old. I miss you while you are away but I love hearing about all the fun things you do each day. Thanks for being the best daughters a mom and dad could ever ask for!

Taeya's 9th Birthday Party

Taeya turned 9 while we were in Utah so her friend party was delayed by almost 2 months. When we finally were able to have the party, she had the details ALL planned out. She wanted to tie dye underwear ... luckily I couldn't find enough plain white underroos for 8 girls so we did tank tops and socks. I was surprised how well it went. I expected to have dye everywhere. Luckily we only had one spill and it was from my birthday girl so I couldn't get too mad. I sent the finished projects home with the girls to sit over night and then be washed later. Our stuff turned out great, I hope the others did too.

 Taeya then wanted to do friendship bracelets and boondoggle. For their party favors she wanted each girl to get her own box to hold all the necessary supplies. She had so much fun picking out the stuff to go in them and organizing it so each girl got the same amount of each color. Tae is definitely my child that wants to make everything fair. We decorated the boxes at first then after the tie dye project Tae set about teaching them all how to do it. I don't think all the girls got a good lesson but hopefully enough to continue on with it.

 Aliya was all about tie dye that day. She  was showing off her shirt from horse camp. I love this picture of her carrying all the bags. She thought she was so cool being at a 4th grade party. Not sure the older girls liked it but tough, she gets to be there!

 This is Emma from Tae's school class. She was pulled out half way through the school year to be home taught and the girls had recently reconnected at Girl Scout day camp.

 Tae and her BFF Kaylee. They have so much fun together. I love it when Kaylee comes over. The girls just disappear and have a blast!

 Tae and Abby ... they are in Husky Paws together this year so will get to do a lot of fun service projects together.

 Tae and Paulina, her school BFF

 Tae and Ashlan, friends from school!

 Thanks girls for making Tae's 9th b-day great!

CRAZY, crazy girls!