Miss Maddie is 5!

Madelyn turned 5!! She had a very special guest at her party this year, Cinderella! She and all her friends dressed up in their fanciest attire while they played games with Cinderella. Fairy Godmother was also there and showed us her magic while they said "bibbity, boppity, boo!" It was such a special day and Maddie had a lot of fun!


Here are a few fun facts about Maddie at age 5:

~She is still very particular with what she wears. It seems to have gotten worse, if that is at all possible! She now thinks even leggings are scratchy! She absolutely hates wearing her coat! She makes me cut the tags out of all of her clothes. Tights are a complete disaster!! I know that it isn't 100% about the clothes being uncomfortable because she will wear something one day and not complain and the next time she wears the same pants, she throws a complete fit! Everyday I hold my breath when she is getting dressed and wonder what will happen! I have tried everything from letting her choose what to wear, giving her options, time-out, losing priviledges, but she still has her complete melt downs sometimes.
~She has some serious drama and attitude! She is a true Diva!
~She can be very sweet and helpful, when she is not being dramatic!
~She still loves dance and gymnastics
~She can be very shy when she is around people she doesn't know or in front of people.
~She still has her curly hair, although as it is getting longer, it is more straight on top, so we will curl it with a curling iron.
~She is very imaginative. She will play in the toy room by herself with random toys forever and she is in her own world! She doesn't like me to listen to her while she talks back and forth with her toys because she says I will laugh at her. She makes me go upstairs.
~She is a HUGE planner! At night she says, "What are we going to do tomorrow?" When I tell her that she will go to school, she then says, "THEN what are we going to do?" I guess she must get this from me since I am a big planner!
~She loves her brothers! She is very sweet and nurturing with Parker and good to play LEGOS with Taggart.

On her actual birthday, she wanted to bowling. We had a great time at the Fun Park and Taggart almost beat us all!


Happy Birthday Maddie Kate (this is what she is calling herself these days!) We love you so much and our house would be a lot less exciting if you weren't around!

Parker's 18 months old!

Our big, little guys turned 18 months old! We can't believe how grown up he has become and we are kinda sad that our baby is growing up! He finally started walking! He really could walk for a month or so, but just didn't want to. Then one day he just gave in and decided to do it himself! We were happy, since he is pretty heavy to lug around! Here are a few things about Parks at 18 months old:

He had his first big boy hair cut! We didn't cut off a ton, just a little bit because we love his curls too much! He didn't quite know what was going on at first, but once we gave him a sucker he was happy.


He is getting pretty good at making messes! If the kids leave markers down, he will draw all over the place and suck on them too! I have forgotten what it is like to have a little one who gets into everything.

He loves suckers! If he sees anyone with one he freaks out and has to have one!

People say that he looks like his Mama, what do you think? I am just happy to have at least one of my kids look a little bit like me!

Maddie loves to read to him before his nap and he loves it too!

He is kinda a picky eater, but he LOVES fruit, chicken nuggets, and soymilk and yogurt (still allergic to milk). He still loves baby food, which is weird for his age. He will eat any of the baby food if it is fruit or sweet potatoes and he loves to suck them through a straw! I know it is strange, but it is actually pretty convenient and healthy!

He loves his blankie and all you have to do is put it on your shoulder and he will cuddle with you! We love it!! He really is the best cuddler ever!

This is really strange, but he is scared of bare belly buttons. We figured it out while he was playing on Cam while he was lying down and his shirt came up and showed his belly. Parker made a strange face and whined, until he put his shirt down and covered his belly up. Now even if the kids lift up their shirt and show their belly, Parker doesn't like it. So weird and I have no idea where he got this from!!

He is saying a few words: mom, dad, hot, nana, ball, shoes, socks, done, yes. When you tell him to sing, he sings in his own language in the cutest, softest voice. He also is really good at signing more and eat.

He absolutely loves balls, shoes, & dogs. Everytime our nieghbor's dogs bark, his face lights up and he barks. He loves to put on his shoes and he loves to go bye bye. Often times he just waves at me and looks at the door like he wants to go somewhere. Our house always has tons of balls rolling around and that is the first thing he will grab in a pile of toys.

He doesn't like nursery. None of my kids have, so I guess I should be used to it!
He is so very cute, though, when he folds his arms for prayers.

He is getting really good at his little scowl. When I tell him NO, he just gives me the dirtiest look ever. It is pretty funny, until he does it to complete strangers!

He really is the sweetest, most chill little boy in the entire world! We love him soooo much and wish he would stop growing up. We love you Parks!!

December Festivites

We had a very busy and festive month of December. Here are some of the fun things that we did.
We went to the Nutcracker in Logan. This was our second year in a row and the kids really love it every year. Notice I am wearing my glasses because I got Lasik Eye Surgery this month also! I had to wear my glasses for 2 weeks prior to the surgery, but now I can see perfectly with no glasses or contacts! It really is the most amazing thing in the world!

We went to Temple Square with the Alger family.



Attended Taggart's Tumbling Tigers Christmas performance.

We went to a couple Christmas Partys. Maddie and Parker were NOT fans of sitting on Santa's lap this year, weird for Maddie, not so weird for Parks. Here are Parks, Taggart, and I standing by the money tree from Grandma Richter.


Cam and I surprised Tag and Maddie for Christmas and painted his old bunkbeds and re-did their room and made a toy room. They had been begging us for bunkbeds and now they are happy!

Taggart and I both celebrated birthdays and got 1 year older! Taggart was very excited about this, me, not so much!! What a fun month it was for us!!

Christmas 2011

We had a great Christmas this year. We were able to spend a lot of time with both of our families and we really enjoyed each and every moment!
Here are the kids dressed up as our live Nativity. Little Maverick made the perfect Baby Jesus this year.

Here we are all dressed up on Christmas Eve in our Christmas jammies.

Taggart and Maddie got Pillow Pets from Santa. They were soo excited!

Parker loved Christmas this year!! He even enjoyed opening the presents.

Here we are at my Parent's house on Christmas Day.

Taggart and Maddie were so happy to have Ada and Boston here from California so they could have someone to play with!

We even had some fun at the Fun Park and celebrated the December birthdays. Maddie was sooo sad to see Ada go back to California:(


We had to take advantage of all of my family being together, so we finally got a picture with the whole family!

Overall, we had a great Christmas break. We got lots of presents, ate a lot of good food, and spent some quality time with our loved ones. Merry Christmas to you all!!

You've Had a Birthday Shout HOORAY!!

Taggart has been really looking forward to his birthday for months now! We were so happy that it finally came and he turned 7! He had his party at the Fun Park and he and his friends went bowling. It sure was crazy with all those boys!

Taggart loves bowling and all the kids had a ball!

He wanted a TRON cake this year. He got a ton of presents: legos, dagadar, beyblades and all the things a 7 yr old boy loves!

Here are just a few things about Tag Man at Age 7:

*He is such a smart boy! He is getting straight A's in school and does especially well in Math. He is a really good student and is great at following rules and listening to his teacher.
*He loves to build Legos and fix things. You can tell that he has his Dad's abilities when it comes to this and he can follow instructions and build almost anything, plus he loves it too!
*He is a pretty sweet boy (most of the time) He has been his entire life and still is pretty tender hearted and sensitive. We LOVE this about him! He is really sweet to comfort his brother and sister when they are sad... it is so cute!
*He talks with his hands a lot and is pretty animated when he does talk. I wonder where he gets this from?
*He is super skinny! Some people ask if he eats and he does, but again he just has his Dad's genes and bones poking out all over.
*He loves to play the Wii, ride his bike and scooter, swim, and is always happy to play with his buddies!


WE LOVE YOU TAGGART!!

This is Halloween....

I think Halloween just gets better and better every year as my kids get older. They get so excited to get out all the decorations and Maddie especially loves that she can pretty much live in a costume for a month long and it is acceptable! Maddie had a few different costumes, since we borrowed some from Grammy and friend and re used some from previous years, so she was a ladybug, Rio girl, Dorothy, and a witch this year! Taggart was Mario and loved every minute of it! Parker was a cute little monkey and he was so cute every time we put his costume on, he would just grin and chuckle and thought he was pretty darn cool! I feel like we went to parties and celebrated Halloween for an entire week before Halloween, when the day actually came, we were ready to be done dressing up! We went to Maddie's school carnival and Taggart said, " Mom do I have to dress up? I'm just so exhausted of dressing up!" I thought it was hilarious because that was exactly how I felt and Halloween was still 5 days away! We did have a fun one this year though. It was the second year that we went house to house trick or treating and Taggart sure did race from house to house. Maddie was a little slower since she insisted on wearing her Princess dress up shoes which are NOT the best for trick or treating. Parker just sat in his stroller the whole night having the time of his life while sucking on his suckers. It sure was a Happy Halloween for us!

Fall fun!

Autumn time in Logan is really one of my favorite things! It is beautiful and I just love to feel a little chill to the air! We always love to go out to American West Heritage Center and this year we had a lot of fun!
Parker loved the animals and the tractor. I just love these two boys!!


They had this huge slide set up and the kids loved it!

Taggart also played indoor Fall Soccer. He loved it and especially loved being the Goalie.



He had a great team with a couple of his good friends on it and he really loved every minute of it!