Four fast, slow, wonderful, crazy months have past since Ariana joined our family. She is living up to her middle name and is a Joy in my life. Although she was quite a brat this afternoon, but how would I feel after getting four shots?! Pretty grumpy!

Ari had her normal check up today and is, of course, perfect! 😉 She now weighs 15 pounds and one ounce and is 25 inches long. She is still in the 75th percentile. The doctor did have a little advice. Apparently she likes looking to the right because her head is a little misshapen. Oops. My poor little egg head. So I need to lay her on her left side for naps and at night to hopefully even out her head. If not, the doctor told us she would have to wear a corrective helmet. Adam could not stop laughing when I told him that one.

Anyways, I love this age. She is so fun to play with. She is quick to smile and VERY ticklish! She laughs and laughs. She loves to suck on her hands, toys, paper, anything she can get her hands on. She loves to be outside. She loves BYU! She is a go-with-the-flow-girl! (Thank goodness for that one!) She lets anyone and everyone hold her. (Also very important!) She doesn’t like to lay flat, she has to sit so she can see everyone. She is very patient with her not-always-soft touching sisters.She is losing her hair. HeeHee! She has beautiful eyelashes. She sleeps through the night!! She is constantly sticking her tongue out.

Ariana loves ALL her family and is very loved by them!

Pack rat is what we loving call Kalixta. You rarely see her without at least two things. Toys, hats, jewelry, purses, books it doesn’t matter she carries all her stuff everywhere. Anytime we want to go somewhere, Kalixta has some container, a doll house, purse, or her soft cube, filled with toys. Then the fight starts as soon as we get to where we are going and she wants to bring her collection with her. Many times we take her into church or a store or the library or whereever crying because she can’t take her things with her.

For the ultimate example, and why this blog came to be, look at the picture of just the kids and what do you see? Kalixta is holding two horses and of course you can see the feet in the picture! I didn’t want her to cry right before pictures and that is what I get- horse feet in the photo. That’s okay! We will ALWAYS remember that Kalixta was the family pack rat. I was hoping that she would eventually outgrow it. But I guess as soon as she does I will miss the fact that she did it.

Here you can see two dolls and her crown, but what you can’t see is the purse on the floor she has filled with her stuff!

The rule in our house is that ALL toys stay downstairs. Well when she brought this stuff up I was curious so I let her be. I am glad I did! Kalixta set up her little shop! She placed her dolls, hymn books and cards out and then sang for me. She of course sang her two favorite words – "No Way!"

My goal has always been to take a family photo once a year and to take a picture of all the kids together once a year. Well, up to this point I have failed miserably. But this year I got a deal I could not refuse, FREE COUPONS! Anything free is right up my alley. I recieved a coupon for a free 10X13 and no sitting fees. This deal was too good to pass up. Plus I got TWO of them, one for the famliy, one for the kids, perfect. So off we went to JcPenney to take pictures. The kids pictures were the easiest. Everyone did great – no crying. The hardest thing was picking clothes.

Next was the family photo. Not as easy as the kids’ because I was in it. Britain decided she had to sit with only me, which means that is what Kalixta wants too. And do you think they can share me? Not a chance. But it turned out good and we got some great pictures. Hopefully next year I will get more free coupons so I will be super motivated to go. 

What a great night. I love Halloween. It’s got to be my favorite holiday. We had a haunted garage and had fun scaring kids. Kenny actually knocked a girl down she was so scared. That was classic.

Click on the picture below to see our Halloween album.

~Adam

One of the best times of the year has got to be Halloween. One of the highlights is getting to carve our pumpkins. This year was extra fun because we had a lot of family with us. Marci, Kenny, Jason and Jaime we all here and carved their pumpkins too.

Click on the picture and it’ll take you to our photo album of pumpkin carving:

Yep it is my turn. Brit went first, then Marci, so now me. I expected Zoe to want to follow but not so far. I went this morning and had all my hair chopped off.  My ponytail was 12 and 1/2 inches long. I donated it to Locks Of Love. I feel very bouncy. I like some things and I don’t like others, but I do like that it is short!!

        Before                                  

After

Looking at it in a picture, I can’t believe how much hair I had!!

Well you may have seen the video but now here are the pics to go along with it…

Click on the Stop Sign to see our photos…

It snowed today! First time we got to touch it. We were pretty excited as you will be able to tell by this video. People must have been laughing at us Southern Californians:

Moments like these…

…makes days like these…

…bearable!

No this was not practice for Halloween. Britain got my lipstick and Kalixta got my mascara (Yes! My $20 mascara!). It was two different days. They know they have to split up the mischief. Mom can’t handle too much in one day.

The top picture is Ammon reading to Ariana. She was laying on the floor and he just got his whale book and "read" her the whole story. He then read her a few more. Always careful to show her the pictures. I love these moments!

Saturday morning some sisters from my ward came over and we made applesauce. It was pretty cool. My mom and Grandma made the kids applesauce last fall and my kids LOVED it. So at church when someone offered to teach me how to make it I jumped at the chance.

Sister Eldredge has an awesome machine that made the job so easy. Just put the cooked apples in the machine (skin, seeds, core and all), push it down and turn the wheel. The yummy applesauce comes out one end and the bad stuff comes out the other. Sister Eldredge is in the chef’s apron and Sister Hauglid is working the machine.

Now it is my turn to work the machine. We had four sisters come over. We made about 52 quarts of applesauce. I got to keep 11 so I am a happy girl, and better yet my kids are happy campers.

Adam, of course, gets his favorite job- taste tester! Although he did a great kid sitting job too! Thanks Babe!