What we've been up to

Life is crazy and full with four wonderful children.  Here's some of what we've been up to lately...

One day we made peanut butter playdoh for a snack after school.  It was a big hit with the kiddos.

Lily showing Katie a magazine.  Claire wanted to be in the picture too.

The kids wanted to make a toilet paper maze in the hall.  Ollie loves tying things and making messes.  He was the instigator of this activity.

We had to crawl under everything to get anywhere.  Some of the doors were tied shut...

Claire has taken it upon herself to test the limits of our baby swing...  I got sick of her climbing in so one day after she climbed in and shut the door thingy, I just left her there.  After 30 minutes of being stuck she decided she wouldn't climb in anymore. 

The girls have decided they like eating their food off the bench.  Lily also loves to be in her pajamas all day long.  Claire prefers to pick her own clothes and change them multiple times a day.  Mom has imposed a two outfits a day limit.  Laundry for 6 is crazy!

Ollie taught Claire how to put her PJ's on upside down.  Claire thought it was funny until she realized that her hands were covered.

Katie is too big for the doll bed!

One day during spring break it was nice and warm so we set up the slip and slide.  Our grass is too bumpy so there wasn't much slipping and sliding.  Mostly just water play.

Don't you just want to hug and kiss this darling dirty little girl?!?

You can't really see it but she also had buggers all over her face.  Fun times.  :)

Ollie has decided that he likes taking pictures.  Lots of pictures.  He thought it was funny that Katie got her toe stuck our of her jammies to he wanted to take a picture of it.

Katie just woke up to I have to get back to work  More of our fun filled lives later!

Christmas Photos

I have tons of Christmas Eve/Day photos. Since it's now April... here just a few. :)

The kids all got new goggles for the swimming pool.  Thankfully Grandma and Grandpa Beck have a hot tub to use them in.

A care Ollie made for his sisters.  It says "Dear Sisters, I will play watever you want to as long as I'm a boy.  Sencirly, Ollie"

Christmas was full of family and fun.  We enjoyed being able to be around our families for Christmas!

No Fear Child

I found something our No Fear Child is afraid of!  Bugs.  We were out gardening yesterday and we saw a bunch of potato bugs.  She asked what they were so I picked one up and went to hand it to her...  there was NO WAY she was going to touch the "bug".  She also won't stay in the room if she notices there is a fly in it.  Funny little girl.  :)

Surfboards

Our kids have been saving all their money for a trampoline.  They saved all their birthday money and Christmas money.  They did lots of extra chores.  They saved for a long time.  They finally earned their trampoline!  They have been loving it.  (pictures soon...)
Spencer and I have been saving our money for a trip to Florida. 
So... the other day I was giving Ollie his allowance and talking with the kids about what they want to save their money for next.  Lily promptly said, "Candy!"  Ollie thought about it for a long time and never came up with anything.  I suggested that maybe they should save it for a trip to Florida (thinking they could buy a souvenir).  A few minutes later I go into the living room and Spencer tells me that the kids have decided they are saving their money to buy surfboards.  Yes, I suppose that surfboards would be fun in Florida.  :)
And no, I don't think we will REALLY be buying surfboards.

Special Day

I loved seeing them all in white!

Trying to get a picture of everyone...  our little tornado had a hard time holding still so Papa had to hold her.

Little Katie and Lincoln.  It's sure fun to have cousins to share these memories with.  (Ollie was blessed the same day as his cousin Elsa.)

When we decided last summer to skip our usual summer trip to Utah and go in the winter instead, one of the really big reasons for us was so that we could baptize Ollie with family around.  He turned 8 in December.  We really wanted our family to be able to share with us as he made covenants with the Lord.  My parents worked things out with their ward to have Ollie baptized there.  We decided to make a day of it and after the baptism we blessed Kaitlynn and then my brother also blessed his new little boy.
As I pictured the day that my oldest son would be baptized I wanted it to be really special.  I wanted it to be a day that he would remember forever.  I wanted him to really understand and know what covenants he was making with the Lord. 
I must say that the day was as special as I had hoped it would be.  Ollie really is a neat kid.  I really felt that he understood what it meant to be baptized.  The spirit was really strong.  Then following it up with Katie's baby blessing was awesome.  I'm so blessed to have such wonderful children!  It was a wonderful day that we will remember forever.

A funny side note...  They had some problems filling the font.  Ollie had to literally lay on the bottom to be completely covered.  :)  We all had a good laugh about that.

Utah Trip

I just have to say it...  we LOVED our trip to Utah.  We have fun every time that we go.  This was our first time visiting in winter and our first time driving from Waco. (We've driven several times from Lubbock)

We loved that people had more time off of school and work so we got to see everyone more.  We loved playing with all our cousins.  Our kids are blessed with 20 cousins.  They also all have cousins close to their ages.  Lucky kiddos!

We spent a day at the children's museum with some cousins.  What could be more fun that a wonderful place to play with wonderful people???

Kids love playing in water!

Grandma helping Claire "buy" her food.

Kaite's first sleepover with cousin Lincoln.

Dinner one night at Aunt Mel's.  It was our first time trying hot pot.  We loved it!  Super fun with family.

Watching movies with cousins.  Nothing like snuggling!

Santa Katie

These three kiddos are all within three months of each other in age.  Katie is the youngest and has no hopes of getting the cute chubby cheeks.  :)

On the drive to Utah I told Spencer that I really wanted to get a picture of Katie smiling.  She smiles at me a lot but the second I pull out the camera... smile gone.  So while we were there we got this cute picture.

And a picture with a little tongue.  :)

Decorating a candy gingerbread house with Grandpa.

The finished product.  You can tell Lily sampled the goods and they must have been orange.

Baby Zizzy found a new toy called Katie.

Sleepovers with cousins

Snuggle time

I'm not sure what they were doing in the top picture but it looks fun.  These three girls are sure good friends!

The girls danced downstairs and the boys played games upstairs.

Uncle Ben and Uncle Kendel loving on Katie.

Dinner out to celebrate Nate's graduation.  As a joke we all pitched in and bought him a LOT of deodorant.  He was moving to China and we knew he wouldn't be able to get it there.  He thought it was funny to open all these bags with deodorant.

More trip photos to come but now I'm needed by three little girls.  :)h