One year older and wiser too!

This girl. THIS girl! Ellery is an amazing child. I think her teacher, who AdOrEs Ellery, pretty much summed it up at Parent Teacher Conference when she asked Matt and I to write down exactly what we have done with Elle, step by step so she could hand out manuals to other parents. We quickly assured her of course that Ellie came this way straight from Heaven! She is this way despite us, not because of us. She is an angel in every sense of the word, and a delight as a daughter, every parent deserves an Ellery. She is unbelievably obedient and thoughtful, so loving and generous, she is a smarty pants, she is a natural athlete :) she is over the top wanting to please, she is always spiritually inclined, she is one in a zillion. I can't gush about her enough, LOVE you Ellery!

This was Ellery's year to have a friend party and all she wanted to do was go sledding. So we packed up as many little people as Matt and I could drive in our two vehicles, plus a neighbor helped shuttle some people over to the one and only hill within 30 miles :)

It was a blast! I only wish I had some pictures, but I was too busy making sure no one crashed and died. It seems that sledding etiquette, and or common sense is a lost art. Sure kids...just walk right up the hill where the sleds and crazy children are barreling down the hill directly at you! Walking safely up the side would be silly. Luckily we only had one small injury, poor Taite.

Then it was onward home for hot chocolate with candy canes and a cupcake bouquet that everyone got to decorate. Ellery had so much fun.

Taylor Swift mania

just typing those words,

5 songs that are sung hours upon hours at our house,

just popped into my head

I heart Ellery, and I think she heart me too :)

A new phenomenon at our house...Zoobles

Word.

We had a little family party on her birthday. She opened some presents from Oma and Papa, Oma Great, and her siblings. Then we dragged her into the toy room with a blindfold on and made her play hot & cold to find her present. We told her it was a small little box so she better search really well. The other kids were laughing hysterically. It was all I could do to keep Gus and Cy from shouting out what it really was.

She finally found it and boy, was she excited!!

I can't believe my baby is tall enough for a real ladies bike :(

What?

Awww, my boy. This is a first for any of my kids Cy got so tired he just fell asleep...in the bathroom? With a big hole in his sock? What? He is so cute it makes up for it.

One day I was putting Cyrus down for a nap and we were snuggling it up. I read him a Christmas book and we were cuddling. I asked him what his favorite part about Christmas was.

He paused, long and thoughtful with his little hand up to his chin and then said, "I think Hanukkah."

I am sorry, did you say Hanukkah? Hanukkah is the best part of Christmas?

Where did he even hear that word? Turns out the girls learned a Hanukkah song in school "Dreidle, Dreidle" and were singing it to him as one of their "Christmas" songs. I think my kids are missing something here :) Pretty funny!

The Whistler

Cy gets "the hiccups" a lot. He always announces when he has "the hiccups."

The other day he comes running up to me and excitedly exclaims,

"Momma, I got the whistles!"

The Whistles.

I am kind of impressed that he has already taught himself to whistle.

He whistles constantly!

If we are singing at church, he whistles.

If we are singing at Family Home Evening, he whistles.

Christmas songs in the car (boy we like to belt it out!) he whistles.

The Whistler.

We are tight, Cyrus and I :)

He was looking at a bridal picture of me hanging on the wall.

"Momma, are you going to wear that dress when we get married?"

Ahhhh.

AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN!

I can't count how many times since our return from Mexico

Cy has asked for reassurance that I am not going back.

If I am going to the store, "Mommy, you are NOT going to Mexico, right?"

At bed time, "Don't go to Mexico, okay?"

Even randomly, "I'm glad you are not going to Mexico :)"

Always pronounced Mexeeco.

This weekend he said, totally out of the blue.

"I have a great idea!" as he pats my face.

"Daddy can go to Mexeeco!!! All by himself and you stay with me!!"

Ouch for Daddy, Loves for me!

The Pretty Line

Some snot-nosed, bratty, punk-ars, booger of a jerk of a devlish urchin of a boy told my sweet Taite that she looked ugly yesterday. Can you imagine?

Good thing I wasn't there to watch his head spin around when I smacked it.

I asked Taite how it made her feel and what she did.

Taite has been a very sensitive child and gets her feelings hurt easily.

We've been working on that.

She looked at me and scoffed.

"Ha!" She said.

"Mommy, I told him,

oh, oh....no. I already know I am pretty, very pretty, because my Mommy

told me that in Heaven I went through the pretty line 20 times!

20 times!"

Good Girl

Bob Bot

Meet Bob Bot...the Robot. Bailey was so excited about this little project, I think she did a super job!! It sure was fun to work on together :) Good Job Boo!

Whew!

Oh my goodness, she is so adorable!

The tooth fairy has been busy at this little girl's bed lately.

Well that is it. With that toothless grin I think I am finally caught up on the blog. Not that there was anything really big that I missed, but I hate getting behind. This is my journal and a scrapbook all in one so I've got to keep it up. I am going to keep it up :)

September and October were just really crazy months. We had some unexpected distractions that took us by surprise. Something big that we had planned on was Mattie's new job. He was with a wonderful company these last few years, but had an incredible opportunity come his way with a new company that he just couldn't pass up. He still sells seed corn just like before but for Syngenta, a really wonderful and really ginormous company. He LOVES it! It has only been a couple of months now, but he is in Heaven. It makes me beyond happy to see him so fulfilled in his employment. It has just been so busy.

For the unexpected, I had a routine appointment with my hematologist to check my platelet levels and discuss his thoughts on where we were at 6 months later. He wanted to have my abdomen checked to see if anything was wrong with my spleen, liver and pancreas. There are a few conditions with those organs that can lead to low platelet disorders. I had the ultrasound done and I could tell by the technician that everything was not normal. She was very concentrated in one area compared to the others she looked at. I was pretty worried waiting for the results.

Long story short, my spleen was enlarged and they found a mass. Dr. Pascual who was normally so upbeat and a cheery little lovable Asian man turned very serious in our next few meetings. He wanted a CT scan done immediately and order a million and one in-depth blood tests. He was still hoping that there was a much simpler explanation than what he was afraid we had found. He was very concerned in telling me that his primary concern was that I had probable lymphoma. Lymphoma on my spleen. I was so taken back by his words I couldn't really process it all. I didn't even know there was any connection or possibility that all this blood nonsense the last 6 months could have anything to do with cancer.

I had a blessing right away and my family fasted as we awaited the results. THANK HEAVENS after the scan they were sure that I did not have lymphoma. The enlargement is due to a cyst inside my spleen. It could have happened years ago, a car accident or even playing basketball (I played rough you know ;) Maybe all the wrestling we do around here squished my spleen causing a cyst! But they are not worried about it and Dr. Pascual was very confident that they were right and this was NOT lymphoma. There was no lymphoma anywhere else which helped him feel confident that this spleen issue was indeed just a cyst. They will repeat the scan in 4 months to make sure that they are correct and it has not grown at all.

So after weeks of pure anxiety I got a big old clean bill of health, wahoo! A nice fat false alarm! The results of the extensive blood work was all negative too for what could be causing the low platelets. I just have something in my antibodies that kills off my own platelets. But the levels that they have remained at which are low, are not low enough to have to worry about. Just probably monitor periodically.

I can not explain the relief. We have been one grateful family around here that all is well. Thanksgiving is always a great time to be grateful and while I have never taken health for granted, I certainly have added gratitude for it this year. Life is so very very good :)

I'm So Excited!

I'm so excited!! And I just can't hide it!!

All for this. The combine taking off the field behind our house. Cy had been asking for WEEKS when they were going to harvest. The day finally arrived :)

Cutest Little Playas Ever!

It was dress as your favorite sports team day at school. We discussed the options and of course BYU was number one on the list. The Jazz and Colts made close second places. Then Ellery said, "I really just wish that I could dress like Daddy in his football pictures."

Well Elle, now that you asked, why not! We dug out Matt's old jerseys and I had to do some major adjustments because of the fact that they literally would drag on the floor they were so long. The girls all had their pick of old school Y and the newer Y and then also the different all-star games Mattie played in. They were beyond thrilled and the hit of the school apparently because they were wearing "real" jerseys. It was adorable to see how proud the girls were of their Daddy-o :)

Yo Yo Yo

Halloween

We had some major problems with Halloween and preserving this year's images. Forgotten cameras, dead battery cameras, too many things to carry so ditch the camera episodes and last but not least blackberry camera that only took a few pictures. It still makes me mad because this year was funny. Here is the run down with the few pictures we did get.

Cy was Wow Wow Wubbzy. Have you seen that show? He LOVES Wubbzy! We saw a costume at the store for 20 bucks. He wanted it soooo very badly. I wasn't going to pay that though. So I made him one for $2.50! He was in heaven.

Gus was Donkey :) Really it was a horse costume, but I convinced Matt to go to the branch Halloween party as Shrek, Shrek and Donkey! I made Matt a little, well big vest and painted his whole head green. I am FUNNY! I don't think he enjoyed himself very much and UNFORTUNATELY that was a dead battery camera night :( Opportunity missed.

Taite was a very beautiful fairy. Pinked out from sparkly head to toe! She was thrilled and oh so cute!

Believe it or not this is the best picture of Bailey that I have...a "gothic vampire queen!" What a character! She had a really beautiful spooky dress on and made me put the "blood" all over her mouth, gross.

Ellery was an Indian Princess and we made her a really cute outfit. She was like Bailey and not around much for the few pictures I got. She had a blast this year.

Working hard?

.....or hardly working? Well at least they are getting their work done. I think it is funny that they find ways to have fun while getting their jobs done. Who knew unloading the dishwasher could be such a good time? Good work girlies :)

Hey Punkin

Last year we carved, this year we painted! We like to rotate every year. These beauties came out of our garden and we had SO much fun painting together!!

That is just gross

Hard at work,

Daddy the dork :)

Dah dah dah DAH!

The finished product!