Eliza the 5 year old

Eliza turned 5 years old on the 10th of February. We love her spunky and sweet personality. She has brought our family so much joy since the day she was born and made Daniel and I parents. She is a great oldest child, she loves playing with her brothers, wrestling with them, playing tigers, setting up little forts with the chairs and "reading" to them. I'm so grateful for all she's taught me about being a mother, she's so much like me and so much like her dad all at the same time! She had a great birthday - HELLO KITTY style :) I thought I better catch up on her birthday before this baby comes in the next few days. So hopefully the next post will be some baby pics!!

Snowed In

 We were snowed in last week and we loved the days we got to spend with Daniel! He has started his second to last semester of his Master's Degree and gone nights doing school and homework. Everything was canceled and we just had time together!

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A dream Daniel has had since High School is to someday own a kiln and a pottery wheel. We didn't think this was a possibility for a long while, but someone gave us a kiln this summer and Daniel found a wheel for a great price and we picked it up after Thanksgiving Break when we went down to Utah. He's quite artsy fartsy now and I love the things he's created! Not all of them have worked out after being fired in the kiln, but here are some of the things he's made:

 He made plates for the kids to paint. We made stencils for them and glazed them last week. They love eating off of them!

 He's made these gorgeous vases and dishes. I love the way they look un-glazed too. The clay is grayish, then when it is fired it turns white and I love it!

 We had fun with the glazes! Daniel said the blue &red splotchy one looks like the sick witch on Sword and the Stone. 

This is a project that I did for a Relief Society activity. It is our family tree. The tags have the names of our family tree members. I want to get their pictures on there too, eventually. The branch was  pruned from our peach tree and I love it's perfect shape!

Jesse is 2!!

Jan. 9th 2010 -just 2 short years ago- we were in the hospital with this baby. 

I can't believe he's already 2!!

We love this boy! His spunk, his sweetness. He loves puzzles, balls, trains, cars, coloring...pretty much anything that Eliza and Porter like. He's right beside them all day and is so sad when they go to pre-school! Daniel jokes that I should make him a coat of many colors because he's everyone's favorite person in the family! He's so quick to share, hug and say sorry! He pretty much potty trained himself! Love this boy!!

Christmas Fun

Went to Beaver Bark to see the Reindeer and Santa

Christmas Eve - Nativity

Christmas Eve - Snowman Attire

Christmas Sunday

Happy Marriage Birthday!

 Happy 6th Anniversary to my one and only!

As I was explaining to Eliza what an anniversary was yesterday, I told her it was like a birthday of when we got married. Being married is like a rebirth of a life, instead of me and mine, everything turned into us and ours Forever! I'm so grateful I've got this life with him forever!

Late last night I had just finished cutting Daniel's hair, he had just jumped in the shower and I was cleaning up in the kitchen when I heard pounding at the door. It scared me to death! I thought we were going to have a break in or something. I didn't answer and went and hid in the room. 3 minutes later, the same pounding on the door. 5 minutes later again it came. Finally Daniel went to the door and saw his seminary students quickly driving away in their car. They had decorated our porch with hearts and streamers. The seminary council organized all of the periods of seminary to write us happy anniversary notes. It was quite a surprise, so thoughtful and I was so glad it wasn't a robber or killer :)

Hello & Goodbye

 

HELLO: Mums. They finally bloomed in late November and we knew the -2 degree at night was going to kill them, but we came back from our Utah trip to these beautiful full flowers.

GOODBYE: Blue Denim Couches. We received you from some friends the week before Eliza was born when we moved into our new apartment. They came to us in pretty good, but tired condition and have seen a lot in our little home. They have become so nasty and I was done scrubbing them and washing off crayons, chocolate, milk, desitine, etc. Little tear, big smile "goodbye"!

Notice the brown couches in the background...so much better! We are getting excited for Christmas and starting the craft projects already :) Jesse looks mad, but that is his "cheese" smile.

Christmas Card Family Pics

My amazing friend has done it again, she took our family pictures last Saturday and the kids were really good. It helped that I had some leverage with the lolly pops. Excited to start on the Christmas cards now!