8+1!

I think M had a pretty good 9th birthday, even if she really, really didn't want to turn 9 and end her year of being her favorite number 8. We started off the celebrations with skiing at Mt. Bachelor! After a rocky start, confidence was regained and everyone had a blast despite the clouds rolling in along with a pretty serious wind (that Bopa challenged...and lost) that nearly blew everyone back onto the chair lift when they tried to get off!

Everyone's legs were too tired for M's original plan of ice skating, but a lot of cake made those tired muscles feel better. 

We couldn't find the candles :( so she blew out some matches that the adults held in front of her, and she got all the pieces of the cake that she wanted. 

And I think we started a new tradition! Silly string fight! As you can imagine, M in particular was pretty excited about it. Next time we might need to get some cans for the adults too!

But a little about M at this age:

Favorite movie - Star Wars; the Force Awakens

Favorite book - Percy Jackson

Favorite color - yellow

Favorite food - anything sweet and sugary

Favorite number - 8

Last book read - Percy Jackson #1

Last movie seen - Inside Out

Currently she wants to be a chemist when she grows up and is pretty seriously into all things science. She can't help but dance when fun music is playing and loves to play pranks on people. The trick is learning which ones won't get her in trouble! She loves hiding herself (under the sink is a new favorite spot) and hiding valuables such as phones, and is really into making up her own jokes, comics, and stories. She's recently become a defensive basketball star and is the household Chubby Bunny champ, despite having a tiny mouth. She cares deeply about others' feelings, often putting their wants above her own. For example, when we discussed going to Bend, we realized she would miss a basketball game if we did. We left it up to her, since it was her birthday weekend. She chose to go because she didn't want everyone else to be disappointed because they'd been looking forward to going. Another sweet example was as we talked about her getting back into speech. She didn't really want to keep going. We had a long talk about it, pluses and minuses, etc. At the end, she mentioned a friend of hers who has been taking speech longer than she, and said it's a good thing she's going to keep going bc it would make her friend feel bad if M got to stop and she had to keep going despite having started first. When M gets in trouble, we have to be careful about what we say to her because she has an overactive guilty conscience and for example, when she got in trouble for sneaking into Aunt Patti's car and riding home with her without telling any of us, we found her crying hours later because she felt so bad about it. She had a hard time moving on past the thought of how worried we had been. Poor dear. She has grown up so much in the last few years and we love the sweetheart she's becoming. 

Baby L is 1!

Predictable though it may be to say, I cannot believe my baby is 1! She seems like she's been part of our family for forever and yet, there's no way it's been a year. Just saying all that makes me so old. But at least as a reward for being old, I get to snuggle with this Tiny Treasure!

Granted, I do prefer when I get to snuggle with her face...

And when she looks up at me with this darling face, it's impossible to not want to cover her in kisses! She's so stinking cute! 

As M says regularly, "I don't want her to ever get bigger!" Haha! This face just cracks me up.

Ooh look! Cake! She didn't have a clue what it was but she was excited by everybody else's excitement, and Photo-bombing Dude was excited to "help."

What is this? They've never put anything like this on my tray before. Is it safe?

Do you ever get that feeling like somebody is watching you? Like if you hesitate or turn your head, your food might mysteriously disappear?

Hmmm...this is good! I think I like it.

Yeehoo! This is awesome! Fist pump to the face!

Look at me, Ms. One-Year-Old-Big-Shot, I'm a big kid now!

Baby L has been a wonderfully, amazingly happy baby. She's quick to smile at anyone she lays eyes on. Her siblings delight her. She greets dad with a dimple-fisted point and a grin. Seeing mom is so exciting she hyperventilates. Her new, hilarious move is coming in for a hug with her belly stuck out, her head tilted back so she's smiling at the ceiling, and her feet moving a little faster than her balance can afford. Some eating problems aside, she's been exactly what we needed from a fifth child. 

However, she has been a walker for over a month and is constantly on the go - totally exhausting to keep away from toilets, trash cans and roads. Watching her try to run is hilarious and watching her start to climb on everything is terrifying. She's determined, affectionate, silly, and hungry. And she's ours!

Eight is great!

The long-awaited birthday FINALLY arrived! She's only been waiting for roughly 2,920 days. At the very least, she's been dying to turn eight since her sister did a year-and-a-half ago (sometimes it's tough being a younger sister). But the day came! And per tradition, she got to go get her ears pierced:

It was only slightly traumatic. She didn't cause the crazy scene that her older sister did but she did cry and complain about it hurting more than I expected her to. Thankfully, it's over and she's proud to show off her sparkle to anyone that'll look!

She got presents:

She got to skip a little school and go do fun things with grandparents:

so that she would be out of the house while we prepared for a surprise Spy Training birthday party:

And, saving the most important for last, she got baptized:

We are so proud of our fun-loving, toothless, caring, quiet, spunky, easily distracted, smart, mischievous yet well behaved eight year-old!

M at 8

Favorite Books: Harry Potter, Narnia, Flat Stanley, Penderwick Sisters, Sisters Grimm, Magic Treehouse and My Weirder School

Favorite Songs: Anything from "Wicked" and "I Am A Child of God"

Favorite Movies: Harry Potter

Favorite TV Show: Little House on the Prairie

Favorite Food: Macaroni and Cheese or berries

Favorite things to do: gymnastics, baton twirling, ice skating, play with siblings, play with friends

Favorite subjects: Reading, P.E., Music, Writing and Recess

Places she likes to visit: Oregon, Utah and South Dakota

Princesses galore

On to her princess party with friends. This was about as cute as it can get. When we went outside to blow bubbles, no joke people on walks and even cars stopped to say hi, ooh and aah, and comment on their adorableness. There were too many cute pictures to choose from so I had to make a slide show instead :) I'm a sucker.

And thank you for all the help from family that made pulling it off possible!

Meri's birthday

So I know her birthday was nearly three weeks ago now, but these pictures are too cute to not get posted - even if they're EXTREMELY late. These are from her actual birthday when we celebrated just with family. So here they are:This was the best reaction of any of her presents from anybody. We were at home just opening the presents from us, while she sat in the "birthday chair," aka car seat. She opened it, stared at it for awhile, then in slow motion changed her face to expressionless to this face and then hugged the Disney compilation (mostly princesses) cd we'd made for her with a look of pure blisss. Yeah, I think she liked it.
We'd been working on this for weeks beforehand, but she is now very proud to show anyone and everyone how old she is.
Our beautiful princess enjoying her "Happy Birthday" song.
And then enjoying her unladylike no-hands method of devouring her cupcake ... or actually of just devouring the "good" part of the cupcake that had frosting and sprinkles. She left the bottom half.

Happy Birthday Jenelle!

Okay, so I'm a bit behind - it was August Seventeenf, but it was too important to miss just because I'm a little late. Plus, it can't be too late, I mean the happy birthday sign with pink fringe is still up at our house. And anyway, a girl only turns 4 once, and she has been looking forward to this event and talking about it and planning for it for about a year now, so here it is - teddy-bear picnic party and all:

Teddy Bear Ring-around-the-rosie

The picnic - at a table, which is lame, I know, but so much easier to eat at and keep food on the plates with - and of course, the guests (I was a little overly ambitious and so we had 11 4 year-olds, including my girls)

Teddy Bear toss prep

The toss!

Fun, fun, fun! And we survived the day, which is always good. She LOVED her birthday, and has already informed me that next year, she will be turning 5. I really don't feel old enough to have a five year-old, so here's hoping this year slows down a bit so we can just enjoy 4!

Oh, and here's a shot of the lame princess castle cake I threw together for the family party the night before. For the party, the kids decorated their own cupcakes. Less work for me, and they LOVED it. True, they used a few more sprinkles than I would've ever, ever, ever, ever have used, but their greedy-little-twinkling-eyes told me not to care!

My baby's 2!

Happy, happy birthday Meri! Totally can't believe she's two years-old already - it's been a crazy two years and I can't imagine our family without her.

Here's a quick list of some of my favorite things about Meri:

1. She's super cuddly and loves to snuggle for comfort or relaxation.
2. She's famous for giving great squeezes that make everyone happy.
3. She's got such a cute, little impish smile and often gets this crazy look in her eye that makes me laugh out loud.
4. When she wears a ponytail on top of her head, she looks like a who from Who-ville.
5. She says the most sincere "I'm sorrys" that I've seen a kid do. And she follows it with a little sorrowful hug - even if she's saying sorry to a stranger.
6. She adores her sister and wants to be just like her. She often even shares with her sister - wanting Jell's company more than the toys.
7. She's fearless - she pet a 4 1/2 foot snake the other day that Jell couldn't get within 5 feet of without screaming. Meri pet it when I told her to and then looked at me like, "so what."
8. For the most part, she has a wonderful little contentness about her and can just sit and play happily by herself. She also bounces back from disappointments or owies amazingly quickly and goes back to just being content again.
9. She forgives me so quickly.
10. She's ours! I'll be forever grateful!

Here's a few pictures of the weekend-long festivities:
The winner of the favorite 2nd birthday present award. Thank you Great-Grandma and Grandpa Berne!
Apparently cupcakes should be eaten with no hands - who can be bothered with etiquette at a time like this?
Meri has had a thing for giraffes for nearly a year now - kind of a random animal for her to pick but it turned out a cute cake.
Quite happy to be getting her own piece of cake.
Remember that crazy look I was talking about? This is total present-opening ecstasy!

We love you Meri! Happy Birthday!!