Claire's 6 years old!

 

For some reason it reversed the order of pictures that I selected but because of time, I am going to keep it.

This is the card that Brinley made to greet Maren and David.

Let's say it brought up some interesting conversations.  I can't believe that we are going to have so many babies join our families (Hannah, Lauren with twins, Minnie, and Katie are all pregnant).

Claire's reading is skyrocketing.  She absolutely loves to read and she is reading some big words.  Today she read the word receiving without any help.  It is crazy how fast and how much she is learning just by practicing and reading over and over again,  She is a little bookworm.

Growing up, my mom started a tradition where we would open up one book a day until Christmas and I have continued that tradition with my own kids.  They love it!

Our neighbor Evelyn is so sweet and brings us her newspaper so the kids can read the funnies.  I don't know who enjoys it more, Derek or the kids.

I gave away ALL my baby clothes (0months-3T) to some swet families.  My heart is so fulll of gratitude for all the people that bought and/or dkonated to me their baby clothes.  We had 4 of our girls during dental school and undergradate and oh how thankful I am for those that were so generous during a time of great need.  I am also so grateful for my friend Kristen and Naomi who gave us all their boy clothes for Emmett.

Loading up my car with tears rolling down my face, I am grateful for my beauiful babies growing healthy and strong.  I am grateful for each stage in motherhood and I am embracing this new stage of motherhood!  Yeah for no more diapers and passing along the baby stuff.  My house feels a lot less cluttered!  YEAH!

I am so excited for the next stage adventure!

Coloring the candles

Ashlyn finished the 1st book of 3rd grade math.  The program we are using is coming out with their 4th grade math at the beginning of next year so we decided to just do 3rd grade math so she can really solidify her multiplication and division and we are so glad she did it.

I bought this book for me and I absolutely loved it.  Then as I was reading it, I felt prompted to give it to a friend of mine who has been struggling with a few parenting things.  So I read the book in one day and then that even dropped it off at her car at the gym while she was in a workout class.  I wrote a note to her about how much I loved this book and how I felt like she could benefit from this book and most importantly that I was thinking of her.  It was fun to get my girls involved with this service and dropping it off at the gym was really fun!  

Ashlyn made these at school.  Isn't it so darling!

I love this guy!  I can't remember what we did that day, but I love our walks around the neighborhood, Derek and I holding hands, while our kids ride their bikes.  It is a fun memory that I will always cherish!

Evening teeth checkups with their dentist

Claire reading the night story to the youngers

Desi sipping during the prayer- this was priceless.

I love when I can get the whole body massage from these workers

In Ashlyn's homeschool class they planted a garden and she picked some lettuce and came home to make her own salad.

In class, Claire made Indian vests

Brinley made a cute turkey

Derek and I love our walks on our dates!

Derek counted 56 turtles on that log

Ashlyn planted her potato

This is my drive when I go to the gym in the morning!  Isn't it amazing!

So I was going to the bathroom without the light on and then I stood up to flush the toilet.  Then I saw a dark spot on the seat.  I thought to myself, did Emmett poop on the seat?  Right then the toad moved.  I screamed so loud that Derek thought there was another snake in the house.  I can't believe that I sat on this toad!  I can't believe we have a toad in the house!

Claire finished her Kindergarten workbook in November for English!  She is doing fantastic!

I am so proud of how hard she is working and that she loves it so much!

Ashlyn loves hot sauce as much as her daddy!

This was so much fun!  Ashyn and I checked out the same book from the library and we had a book club discussing the book.  It was so much fun.  It is called I Survived and it was all about 9/11.  It was fun to hear her thoughts and perspective.  We are so blessed to live in America!

SIlly monkeys

For Claire's birthday, I had a training from the stake so Derek took the kids hiking at the state park.  It looked so fun and beautiful!

My boys!

My boys!

I am learning how to french braid.  Good thing I can get lots of practice!

Happy Birthday to this sweet girl!

Birthday date!  We loved spending one on one time with Claire.  She make a request that I drive Dad's truck (which this was only my 3 time driving it) and then she was fun to play with and go shop for her birthday.

Another birthday requestion: Breakfast in bed

The girls were so sweet, they wrapped a lot of our toys so Claire could open a lot of presents on her birthday.  It was so cute!

And she got other toys too.

We are so happy Claire is in our family.  She is so sweet, makes us giggle, is a hard worker at reading, tennis, and she is fun to be around.  We love you Claire!