Christmas Clothes

We took the pictures of the kids in their Christmas clothes this morning, we'll have family here next week so we thought it would be easier to get the pictures done early. Here are our little cuties all dressed up in red...

It's now official, these are the cutest kids in the world, even if it seems to be impossible for us to get a picture where they all look cute at the same time.

*Yesterday I called Hannah my "cute little girl." She glared at me and said, "I'm not a cute little girl! I'm a cute little woman!" 

Aaron refused to make cute faces when he's getting his picture taken! You have to catch him when he's not paying attention (see below where he's holding the baby).

Ahhh! The little booger!

Emma still rocks her signature pose!

We tried getting a picture of Clara sitting by herself, but she wouldn't look at the camera, she wanted to watch the big kids... 

...and she was captivated by the bow on her dress.

So we let the big kids take turns holding her, which worked a little better.

Attempt number one...

...two...

...and three.

In the end we gave up and tried to get a picture with all four of them. At least three of them are smiling!

Jared and I, and all our little stinkers wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! See you in January!

Winter

Although we live in Arizona and the winters here and the best anywhere, it still gets cold. This morning it was 40 degrees outside which, especially for here, is cold! When it was time to go jump in the van and head for school Aaron came out of his room wearing shorts and a tee shirt. I had to force him to go and get his sweater and then when we got to school and I told him I would be emailing his teacher to make sure he wore the sweater outside if it stayed cold he refused to get out of the car.
I sent Emma and Tyler on ahead and had Aaron come sit in the front next to me so we could figure out what to do about this. He sat there in his summer clothes with his shoulders shaking, teeth chattering and nose running insisting that he didn't need a jacket because he wasn't cold. After debating for 45 min (no exaggeration) we finally came to an agreement. Apparently Aaron hates jackets and sweaters because they cover up his tee shirts, so we decided we would drive to Target and get long johns (that he would pick out) to wear under his tee's so he could still see the picture but he would be kept warm. That way even though neither of us were perfectly happy, we would both be happier then we were at the moment. He would still get to have a tee shirt on top, and I wouldn't be so afraid he was going to freeze to death.
We drove to the store and he picked out long johns and put them on under his tee.
I dropped him off at school this morning 2 hours late, but he was wearing long sleeves and he wasn't shaking anymore, so I guess it was worth it.

Ideas

Last Wed in scouts our pack leader told the boys a funny story about some kids that tied their Moms feet to the bed on Mothers Day until she gave them presents. All they boys of course thought this was hilarious while all of us mothers shook our heads and said, "Now don't get any ideas!"
Well after school today Aaron found the hot chocolate I'd just bought at Costco and asked me to make him some. I told him, "No, that's for after dinner." Aaron got a very sneaky look on his face and replied, "Mom.... I'm starting to get ideas from scouts last time."

Zombies

Hannah said our goodnight prayer tonight. She was sitting on my lap and I was helping her a little bit. She did a great job, but then right after we said amen she looked at me and said, "Oh! We forgot to say for no zombies in my room!"
Heeheehee, I told her to ask for that in her personal prayer and that I was sure she'd be ok.

Awww...

This morning Emma was getting ready for school. She handed me her shoes so I could untie them for her, they'd gotten all tangled up. After I handed them back to her she put them next to me and put her foot up on my lap. Without thinking about it I started trying to fit her foot into one of the shoes. When I realized what I was doing I stopped and said, "Emma, you do this, you're not two, I don't need to put your shoes on for you." Em took her shoes back and said, "Awww... I thought you would fall for that."

Reading

Here is our Clara, reading herself a story...

Booty...

Hannah and Emma were getting ready to take their bath. Emma got in but Hannah was dawdling. Emma called, "Hannah! Come on and hurry up." Hannah came running and replied, "Alright, let's get my booty shakin!"

Um???


Side note... I saw the CUTEST little shirt that I must get for Clara. It had the picture of a cute little girly scull and crossbones (with a bow) and underneath is read, "Argh! Change me Booty!"

Ahhhh! so cute!

Space

Hannah and I were sitting on the couch this morning snuggling. I was thinking about stuff and I was just gazing ahead of me contemplating. Hannah said, "What are you looking at?" I replied, "I'm just looking off into space." Hannah rolled her eyes at me and said, "This isn't space, it's a house."

Kids

Each year around Christmas time I have the kids talk about themselves and what they're good at. This is the first year I'm posting it on the blog. So... here's what the kids had to say about who they are...

Aaron - "I am awesome. I'm the best in my family at video games. I can solve any addition problem you through at me. I can run 90 yards per hour and I can run on rocks because the skin on the bottom of my feet is like padding so thorns can't hurt me."

Emma - "I'm a really good singer. I like arts and crafts and I like making letters for people. I'm really good at taking care of Clara."

Hannah - "I'm good at dancing like a monkey. I can wiggle like a zombie. I'm good at drawing at school and I'm good at being me, Hannah."

Clara - (Clara of course can't talk yet, so these are the things her Mommy has noticed about her.) Clara is good at walking and running all over the place. She loves to growl like a monster like her brother taught her and she loves to dance whenever she hears music.

Happy Birthday Clara!

I can't believe our little Clara Bear is already 1 year old! It's just amazing how fast they grow.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CLARA! WE LOVE YOU!

Clara's birthday photo shoot... At first I tried posing her on a rock out front, but she was captivated by the bows on her shoes so she wouldn't look up at me, only down at her toes. 

Then Mommy got smart and decided to take pictures of her doing her favorite thing in the world, running!

Go Clara, go!

Cutest baby ever!

Next we went inside and gave Clara her birthday present. She got her very own kitty puppets! She loved to snuggle them!

Time for cake! She wasn't too sure at first...

But then she dove in and had fun, as you can see, most of the cake didn't actually make it into her mouth, but hey, that's what 1st birthdays are for.

All done...

We took a quick bath, Clara loves the water.

One more snuggle with her kitties and it was time for bed. 

Happy Birthday Clara, you are the cutest little squirt in the whole world!

School Election

On the way home from school today Aaron and his friend Tyler were talking. They'd held a fake presidential election in school today and each kid was able to vote for the candidate of their choice.

Aaron said, "It was fun voting today, I voted for Mitt Romney."

Tyler: I voted for Barak Obama, he's our 43rd president.

Aaron: (slaps his forehead) Oh no Tyler! You can't vote for Obama! He's the last person you should vote for!

Tyler: But he's our 43rd president!

Aaron: (rolls his eyes) Yea, but my Dad say's he's an idiot!

Hahahahahah! Good to know he's learning well!

Woohoo!

Hurray! I think Aaron has finally decided he loves his baby sister. Here he is reading his chapter book to her. :) This makes his mommy HAPPY!

Halloween

Here are the pics of our kiddo's all cute for Halloween...

Emma the Fairy Princess

Clara the Bunny

No matter how hard I try I can't get a picture of her without her mouth open. 

Aaron the ninja

Hannah the Dancing Princess

Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Farm

Last weekend we got to go to Buckelew Pumpkin Farm and pick out some pumpkins. It was a lot of fun running around in the pumpkin patch.

Hannah feeding a pony in the petting zoo. 

Up on top of the hay stack...

Daddy and Clara on the hay wagon, doesn't she look like him!

Sisters on the wagon. 

For some reason Clara wanted to taste all the pumpkins.

Cheese!

Daddy and Bub

Aaron wanted to get the biggest white pumpkin he could find but the rule was he had to be able to carry it himself. As you can see, he kept trying really hard to carry these pumpkins that were as big as he was. 

Taking a break...

Emma picked a cute little pumpkin.

Again with the tasting?

Hannah found her pumpkin!

Go Clara go!

Next to the pumpkin totem pole. 

See you next time!

Crazy Kiddo's

So here are all the kids, modeling the silly costume stuff their Lupi sent them for Halloween. *Have to note that the rainbow hair was actually sent to me, Mom sent it for my birthday, just exactly what she's trying to say about what she thinks of my current hair style I don't think I want to know.

Clara-Lou-Hoo

You can really tell in this one, Clara has alot of green in her eyes. 

Stache...

Must point out that in this picture Aaron looks EXACTLY like his Uncle Kevin. 

Ewww.

Here is Aaron sporting rainbow hair, ninja swords, a sweet stache and a cardboard peg leg. 

Oh yeah.