Karaia is 10!

Karaia turned 10 Dec. 18th! She was so excited for this birthday and would spontaneously break out into giggles and crazy faces and body movements when her brain reminded her of the upcoming event.

We decided to have her friend party on Dec. 14th. She wanted a pajama party with manicure, pedicures, and facials. I thought that was a great idea. The one problem was I had a deadline for my designs. I worked on my designs all throughout the week and my plan was to plan and shop for the party the morning of the 14th. It would have worked out fine except I woke up with the flu and even blinking my eyes sent dangerous waves to my stomach.

I called my mom who graciously went shopping for gift bags and fun spa things to do. My friend Jo'elle came and grabbed the two younger boys so I could sleep. And Kevin took a half day off of work, picked up the boys and then started cleaning the house. I kept trying to get up and help, but it was no use. I was down. We talked about rescheduling it, but with the holidays looming we quickly realized it had to be that day or some day in January. My mom found the most perfect things for the party and put everything all together. I gave Kevin some last minute instruction and then crossed my fingers and toes...as slowly as possible...and said a thousand prayers and nine 9 and 10 year olds began to arrive for the party.

Kevin was amazing. I could hear the girls laughing. Karaia kept running in my room to show me the present she opened. I love that she was trying to include me. Such a sweetheart! After it was all said and done one of the little girls looked and Kevin and said, "This was a pretty good party, even if it was run by a boy!" Success!

Seriously. I married an amazing guy. He even showed them how to do mud masks!

Her actual birthday was on Tuesday. She got some new clothes and Lego Friends.

They are a big hit and I am reminded how much I love legos.  We also had our family party that night. We love that we live so close to family and that they are willing to add something else to their holiday season if they haven't got anything else that evening. It would be so easy to say no, this is our one night with nothing to do. Thank you! And thank you to everyone who was there in spirit or celebrated earlier with us!

Between her party and her birthday Karaia had a dance/choir recital. She sang a solo. I had tried to get her to practice before hand, but she struggled to get herself to sing in front of me. Finally I suggested getting in a dry shower with the door shut and I would just be in the room, but she wouldn't have to see me. Still struggling after that, I said, "Karaia, this might be a problem. How are you going to be able to sing in front of a lot of people if you can't sing in front of me?"

"Mom. I have this weird thing. I can't sing in front of my family, but I can sing in front of other people."

"Well, that's not fair! I helped make that voice. I should be able to hear it."

"I said I was weird, not awesome."

After that little exchange she managed to make a few noises that vaguely resembled her part. I thought, well, she'll do just fine. At least she's not scared.

 

At the performance, I was frazzled because Sanders did. not. want. to. sit. still. Holidays are hard for 3 year olds. There are a lot of places to be and a lot of people trying to entertain you while you be still. Then Karaia started singing. She was amazing! I had no idea she had such a voice! She wasn't nervous and her tone was pure and lovely. I was grateful she had that opportunity. It was such a treat that it was a surprise to me and I got to hear it for the first time along with everyone else. I learned my lesson. Weird is way better than awesome some times ;)



Karaia has been so fun this last year. We've started shifting the paradime of our relationship. While I will always be more her mother than her friend while she is growing up we've begun to have a lot more friend moments.

She has become so responsible as well. We have made her our go to babysitter for short outings. She takes it seriously and tries her best to learn from the challenges of the previous time.

She enjoys all of her brothers, but her and Sanders have a special bond. It's darling to watch.

She is an excellent friend and can't stand when one friend is mean to another. She just doesn't understand it. Which I am grateful for.

We are so happy she is a part of our family!

A whole month, Elf-like, and Theievery

What the what? How can it have possibly been a whole month since the last post? Wow.

I have been keeping busy converting files over to the correct form in anticipation of strike offs later this month. This is so very exciting and very scary. I can't wait for the company's launch so I can really see where this path is going.

In other news, my mom is awesome! You know when you are SUPER busy with...life. Whether it's kids, work, kids, laundry, meals, being a good friend, fulfilling your calling, or whatever and you think to yourself, "If ONLY I had two of me to take care of the laundry and upkeep of the house!" Well, that is what my mom has been giving me.

I always apologize to her because I tend to get zoned into the design/work world trying to hurry and get things finished and then she makes a small noise and I realize there is another human being...in my home..with me (this happens when all the children are at school. Clearly, it would be impossible for such silence if they were home). But she LOVES it. She likes that I forget about her while she is being like this secret little elf making my life, so, so, SOOOOOO much easier.

The other thing is my mom is a super organizer. I did not get that gene. It's always so wonderful to walk into a space mom has worked her magic on!

Thank you, Mom. It has made all the difference this past week!

Also, Sunday night we accidentally left the garage door open all night long and someone robbed us. They took a GPS, car phone chargers, some pocket change, MY chap stick (I'm totally mad about that one), Kevin's business cards (Weird), a drill, something that goes with the drill, a handful of papers from one of the glove boxes, Keys to places other than our house, and a check book. The check book is the one that hurts. We've had to convert all our accounts and pay rolls and everything else about our life. ANNOYING!

Kevin thought he found our GPS on KSL classifies, but the guy sold it before we could check it out to see if it had the same serial number as our stolen one. Bummer!

The good news is they kept their thievery to the garage. They easily could have entered our home and I am just so very grateful they didn't!

The post that is Disneyland

Hooray!!! I'm finally posting about this almost exactly 6 months late. How's that for timing? Nice.

I'm sure this will be more pictures than words since, you know, we created these memories 6 months ago. But I'll give it my best go.

We left for Disneyland April 29th, 2012.

Spent the night in Vegas and then headed for California and a beach afternoon on Monday. Kevin and the older two kids LOVED the beach and boogie boarded for hours. The younger two kids tried to like the water until a wave knocked them down face first. That was the end of their water adventures. But they LOVED the sand.

Me? I don't do the ocean. I love looking at it and being on the beach, but the salt of the water and, frankly, the fact that BIG fish with lots of BIG teeth also live in that water keeps me safely on shore.

This was Sanders' first time ever at Disneyland. I'm pretty sure I was more excited about it than he was.

I made these next shirts with my silhouette my in-laws gave me for Christmas.

 

 I love that machine as if it were one of my children and use it often. The shirts are pretty cool and we were all super happy with them.

Sanders riding Casey Jr. he would have been happy to do that all day!

The super fun part about this trip was my sister, Annie, her cute family, and my mom and Dave came with us! My mom's legs aren't really known for the amount of walking she can do. They opted to rent a wheel chair and she HATED every minute of it. It was probably the right choice at least for the first day, but for the rest of the time, mom was sans wheels and did just fine. Hooray!

As you can see, these cousins adore each other and can't be bothered to stop moving and playing with each other for a lousy picture ;)

Does this not just CAPTURE the Disney magic? Look at those sparkle eyes!

I think Karaia was feeling nervous because those hands stayed up in all the pictures

waiting in line for Star Tours. Mr T was super excited to be tall enough to ride this!

Awwww, Sanders' first pair of Mickey Ears. SUCH a treat to give the kids their first pair.

The stinker wouldn't look at the camera. What can you do? He's still cute. And those mouse ear...I die of cuteness over load.

And now we come to the series of mom-really-REALLY-would-like-one-nice-picture-of-all-of-us-so-let's-be-as-crazy-as-possible

What is Sanders doing?

Still they are hilarious and so I include them.

Again, Sanders?

soooooo close

Clearly this is Beckham's favorite part

Good job, Beckham! Wait. Where did Sanders go? Tennyson has decided that slapping himself with the strap is a better option than looking in the camera. Nice.

Almost....

Wait, Sanders disappeared again.

3 out of the four are at least smiling. Let's take a few more just to see if we can get lucky.

And Sanders has disappeared yet again....sigh.

This is as good as it get! At least we can see everyone's eyes.

Waiting for It's a small world.

My four little Mousketeers

I think it's a rule that the youngest child must fall asleep at least once in the stroller. Thanks for keeping the rules cute Sanders.

The Second day of Disney. I made my shirt, the kid's shirts and Karaia's skirt. They loved them. Sanders did NOT like his picture taken.

Told you. He was NOT happy we were taking pictures.

Tennyson, however, wanted to make SURE you saw his great new shirt his mom made him.

Tennyson is making up for Sanders smiling by smiling even bigger.

Disney cuteness for sure!

Can't ask for a better backdrop.

Love this picture of Beckham.

These two are such good buddies.

I promise Kevin was having fun! I'm not even being sarcastic. He really was. He just looks kind of grumpy when pictures capture him relaxed. It's a running joke.

Great now Kevin is smiling, what's up with everyone else?!?!?!

We also went over to California Adventure on that second day to meet up with the Lawson's and mom and Dave. Annie and I collaborated to make similar  shirts for our kids. Fun times!


Now to try and get double the amount of children to look. at. the. camera!

L to R: Sanders (3), Beckham (7), Brenner (4), Mckinney (6), Davis (2), Tennyson (4), Karaia (9), Brightynn (8)

Clearly, it's time for a dance party!

These next ones are pictures Tennyson took. I think he did a good job!

See, they had these turkey legs that were nearly as big as your head. Kevin couldn't resist. I think he may have been more in love with that leg than with me for a few moments.

Onto the 3rd day! The Lawson's had left by then and boy did we notice. The kids kept asking where their cousins where.

AND because I am a gluten for punishment, I tried to take pictures of the kids. When will I ever learn.

At least they were having fun. Doesn't Karaia look adorable?

At one point Karaia and Beckham thought it would be funny if I took pictures of them "fighting"

I'm so glad Beckham is choosing to fight like a girl because he is fighting with a girl. Classic.

Can you tell it's the third day by the look on Kevin's face? Happy but exhausted.

What's this?! A rare sighting of the mom! Hooray! I was actually there!

Back on Casey jr. He loved it so much.

This was the best! All Tennyson talked about before going to Disneyland was doing the Jedi Training. The first day we tried it was rained out. This was our very, very last chance and he got chosen!

I thought it was so cool how they came up from the ground.

The last night there we decided that ice cream for dinner was the thing to do when at Disneyland. It was perfect.

He makes a good pirate!

And then we went home. We closed the park out every night. It was a great vacation. Sanders talks about Disneyland nearly every day. We can't wait to go back!

PS looking back I remember more pictures with Nana and Pappa. I wonder where they are? Hmm...I'm going to have to go and find those.