All about the kids

Ryan had about a day and a half where he was obsessed with glasses. He is such a ham! 

 Ryan dressed up in play clothes for the first time and thought it was so funny. Reid was loving it too now that he has a partner in crime. 

 I think the girls got a hold of my selfie stick......

I love bath babies! 

 We had a random nice day. The kids took advantage! 

Adalie with her boys once again. 

 The kids rode home with Nate from church. It is always a highlight for them (and me because I get to get home first and relax before the chaos starts!)

 Hallie was home sick from school one day and cuddling with Ryan which is rare so I had to capture the moment.

 I can't get enough of this boy!

 These kids all LOVE blankets. I taught them all at an early age to find comfort in a blanket. Ryan is just starting to catch on and always wants to be wrapped in a blanket! 

 For Valentines day this year Nate and I made each of the three older kids a coupon booklet. It was a way for Nate and I to show them that we love them. The kids LOVED it and the girls kept saying "Thanks for doing this, I love it!!" Some of the coupons were, lunch with dad, can skip dinner and eat cereal, get to buy 1 pack of your favorite gum, stay up 30 minutes past your bed time, dad (sorry I'm lame) will play super heros with you. That's what he is doing above. Nate was so sick that day and was in bed most of the day, but found the energy to play for about 30 minutes. The rule is you can only use one coupn per day. 

Reid and Hallie used their 10 minute massage coupon

Date Night

I love dating my kids! They get so excited to go out and we have lots of fun together where I don't have to be mom and we can just enjoy each other! I have been meaning to get to an Orrville girls' basketball game for the last 3 years!! I finally broke down and found their schedule and made it a date night for me and the girls. Orrville is AWESOME and I had NO idea! They killed the other team and had some awesome star players! I also let the girls pretty much have free rein at the concession stand which they loved!

 I promise this photo was not staged. These girls love each other most of the time and I love it!

Because I was there too!

January

 I'm going to get caught up on this blog! Just you wait!

Nate has always talked about putting a pulley system in our van for long trips, this time he did it. It worked well, just annoying when randomly I would get hit in the head with a baggie full of something ha!

 On our drive home from the west we drove over the Mississippi in Missouri to and saw all of the flooding This looked like a barn.

Reid in preschool. He is so adorable there, that I can't help but take pictures. 

Adalie is slowly learning to cook. It's so fun and she does a really good job! Just needs to work on the cleaning up part ;). 

I love these babies!!!! 

I decided I am the master of making flavored popcorn! 

Horse rides, a huge family favorite! 

This man melts my heart! 

Adalie was upset about something and these boys ran to her to comfort her. She can't resist their love and it cheers her up immediately! I love the relationships between our kids! 

Nate has "white finger" syndrome. This day it was particularly bad. 

Ryan is a Tasmanian Devil! I get so sick of vacuuming cereal up. 

For FHE one night we did a lesson on the iron rod. The kids loved it!

I seriously can't get enough of these boys! 

Reid's obsession with Adalie is great! She is his second mom, often times his first. When he is upset he will often call for her. 

 Trying to getting Adalie up in the morning......

 This boy is a terror! 

 We put up Hallie's Christmas present!! 

We got the game Life because I knew our kids would love it! I was RIGHT! However, there are tears in almost every game. If you don't spin it right you can suffer through infertility. They HATE it when that happens, but someone (mostly Adalie) falls into that almost each game. I know it's just a dumb game, but it makes me happy to see that our kids only care about getting married and having children and the rest is an added bonus. If they don't easily accomplish those things they get really upset, even if they have beautiful homes, and lots of money.

Christmas Part 2

 We finally made it to Utah in our long journey! We made a brief stop at Jake and Camille's house and then to my mom's house for dinner and some Christmas Eve traditions.

 Adalie and Dots! 

 Ry-Ry all ready for bed 

 Christmas Jammies!

 Excited for Santa to come! 

 Checking the stockings. We celebrated early in Ohio, but we told Santa we would be in Utah and he found us! 

 Our babies! 

 Two of  kind (Reid and Damon)

 Kid party on Christmas Day

 The bearded dudes

 We found some time for a little skiing, the girls had a blast! 

 This picture doesn't do it justice, but Nate's beard is covered in icicles 

 The girls!! 

Nate took this panoramic shot while at the top of the mountain

Trying SO hard to stay warm! It was soooo cold!! 

 Saying goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa

 We promised the girls they could ride the Ferris Wheel at Scheels. Dang those promises! We kept true to our word, but it was hard and we did it literally as we were leaving Utah.

 Getting warm in the cabin. The heat wasn't on initially and it took a REALLY long time to heat the house up. 

 We stopped at the cabin on our way east

I went in to check on the kids before I went to bed and found Reid like this. He loves those sisters of his! 

In the morning we found this footprint

 This is Hallie's birth buddy Macy. They were born only about 2 hours apart. Too bad they don't live closer together because they would be such great friends! They hit it off really well this trip!

  We found just enough time to see our Samek cousins. They picked up right where they left off.

 We were able to spend New Years Eve with them. Reid, Ryan, and I fell asleep early which was okay by me.