Look who's NINE!!!

TA-DA...

Sam turned 9 years old yesterday! I am still shocked that nine years can go by so fast. If you think about it, Sam probably only has 9 more years left at home with us. How sad is that! But on a lighter note, Sam had the coolest birthday ever! He opened some fun presents (like a remote control truck, a spiderman skateboard and a WSU hat) and he was also thrilled to get new socks (the boy goes through socks like no other!). Here he is posing with his sisters:

Here Sam is ready to blow out his candles. Do you love his castle cake or what? So, before you think it doesn't look that spectacular I must add that I decorated that cake with only things I could find around the house. I raided Sam's legos and found some plastic trees and windows. I also found plastic rocks and used a graham cracker and toothpicks for the drawbridge. Resourceful, ey? Sam loved it so I guess that's all that matters :-)

What a HANDSOME 9 year old! He looks so grown up and so small at the same time! I wish I could just freeze time and keep him little. He has informed us that he wants to be called "Sam" and not "Sammy" any more. Of course he told me that I could still call him Sammy if I want, because I guess I have mommy privileges. I think he'll always be "Sammy" to a lot of us:

Just too cool!

Rocky Road Surprise Cookies

Rocky Road Surprise Cookies:

1 ¾ C. flour
¾ C. cocoa
½ t. baking soda
½ t. salt
½ C. butter, softened
1 C. sugar
1 large egg
½ C. milk
1 t. vanilla
12 large marshmallows, cut in half horizontally
walnuts
Chocolate Frosting

In a bowl, cream together butter & sugar. Then add egg, milk, and vanilla. Beat well until combined. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Drop dough onto non-greased baking sheets, about 2 inches apart. Bake at 350 until cookies begin to spread and become firm (10-12) minutes. Don’t over bake! Remove cookies from oven and place a marshmallow, cut side down, in the center of each cookie, pressing down slightly. Return to oven and continue baking until marshmallow begins to melt. Put walnut in center of marshmallow if desired. Transfer cookies to a wire rack and cool completely before frosting. Spread chocolate frosting all over cookie to cover marshmallow (you know...so it's a surprise!). Makes 24 cookies. YUM!

My little helpers!

...this is how we do dishes :-)

Romeo and Juliet

On Saturday Aaron and I went up to Brighton for some fun on the slopes (it was part of his b-day present from me). Aaron snowboarded and I skied. Usually skiers ski with skiers and boarders board with boarders so you could say Aaron and I are like Romeo and Juliet; one boarder and one skier in love..., but no one died...although we had some close calls :-) This was my first time skiing in Utah. The snow was snowy, the sun was sunny, and the slopes were slopey! We had a blast!

What a GREAT view of the mountains...and a pretty good view of a studly snowboarder too :-)

Snow FUN

It's been snowing this week so we didn't miss the opportunity to go sledding on Friday. Although our yard had tons of snow the sledding hill about 2 miles from our house was sparse. The grass poking up through the snow kept us from going as fast as we like. One by one the kids wandered over to the play equipment. Here are some pictures at the park...in their fluffy snow suits :-)

"Sam da MAN"

Kaeli

Rylie

Sara

Just a swingin'...

a SUPER Birthday!

Yesterday we celebrated Aaron's birthday! He was treated with breakfast burritos and hot cocoa in the morning. We went swimming as a family in the afternoon. (Thank goodness for indoor pools). He also had his favorite dinner, Chicken Spaghetti (its a spicy, cheesy, chickeny casserole sorta thing)! The kids were so funny. They had bought him gifts a week or so ago with their own money and were so excited about their purchases that they had picked out all on their own. But they decided they didn't want their dad to know they had bought him anything. So all week they would randomly say things in front of Aaron like, "Oh no! We forgot to buy dad presents!" or "Dad, I'm sorry you won't have any presents. That's so sad." Aaron would respond in a very cheesy tone, "That's OK. All I need is your love." So here are some pictures of Aaron's SUPER day!

Here he is posing with the wiffle bat and ball Rylie picked out for him. I love the Superman balloon in the back ground and the Mater hat (you would think he was turning seven!).

Getting some of that birthday love

And here I am trying to cut a homemade ice cream cake. I eventually gave up and Aaron finished the job. The frozen cookie crust was no match for his super powers!

It's POTTY time!

Sara has been using the potty quite a bit the last few weeks. She's totally got #1 down. And loves to go potty and get a tootsie roll as a reward. Her favorite panties have Tinkerbelle on them. Sara calls her "tinkerbow" and is a little obsessed with the little pixie. Once we figure out #2 we'll be set in panties for here on out. Any way, I had to snap a picture when I saw her sitting on the potty with a princess tiara and veil on. So funny! Is it just me or this little girl 2 going on 20? Here's my pretty little princess bride...on the potty: Way to go Sara!

Cab Ride

I'm a little behind on blogging. Last Saturday we drove up to Park City and rode the cabriolet up to the Canyons ski resort. Why? Because it's fun to ride the cabriolet! And maybe we were a little desperate to find something fun to do that didn't cost anything.

Here are the kids riding in the Cab:

Daddy and Sara enjoying the view from up high:

This kids at the Canyons:

Maegan the WHITE

OK so I can't believe I'm going to admit this, but here goes... I have been finding stark WHITE hairs growing on the top of my head! Not gray ones...WHITE! I plucked 2 last week and last night I found 2 more!!! Interesting to know...I had four white hairs and I have four kids! Coincidence? I think not! I wonder how many other white hairs I have that are just hiding? Maybe I should stop plucking each one I see...I might not have any more left to pluck if I keep this up! Any way, I was trying to look on the bright side of this (not an easy thing to do), and I thought of Gandolf the Gray. If you're not a "Lord of the Rings" fan you probably have no idea who I'm talking about. So in a nutshell...Gandolf the Gray is a wizard with gray hair. While fighting a demon they fall into an everlasting pit and everyone thinks he's dead. He fights the demon and miraculously returns. He comes back with white hair and has become Gandolf the WHITE. So basically he got a promotion! I thought mommies didn't get promotions (until they became Grammas of course). I guess I was wrong. Although it was just a few white hairs I consider myself promoted to white. Congrats to me! But I think I just might cover it up with "Dark Ash Brown" so we can keep this promotion just between you and I :-)

The Draper Utah Temple

We had the coolest experience this morning! As a family we were able to attend the Draper Temple Open House. This is when you get to tour the temple before it's dedicated, so anyone can attend. For the first time the kids were able to walk the halls and rooms of the temple and view the beautiful paintings, chandeliers, wood and stone work. I was touched as I entered the Celestial room with my little family and I hope that we will be able to return as a family many more times in the future. It is a heaven on earth. What an amazing experience.

Spelling Bee!

Each class from 3rd grade through 6th grade held their own spelling bee and sent their 2 winners to the school-wide spelling bee. Sam was one of the winners in his 3rd grade class and was able to compete with all the other winners. He ended up getting 4th place out of the whole school! I thought that was pretty good for my little Super Star Student who was up against big old 6th graders! Congrats Sammy!

REAL life animals holding very still!

Rylie went on a preschool field trip to Cabelas this morning. I didn't go this time but heard all about it from Rylie. Cabelas has tanks filled with fish and real (but now dead) animals that have been stuffed and preserved and now on display throughout the store. I guess they were given a tour by one of the employees. I asked Rylie if she saw all the animals. She excitedly answered saying she had and that they are all REAL and they have to hold very still! She told me she didn't have to worry about the bears eating her because they are supposed to hold real still too! I smiled and decided there's no harm in letting her believe that. Besides, kids only get to believe things like that for a short time before common sense comes along and ruins all the fun!

The Discovery Center

Last weekend we went to the Discovery Center at Gateway Mall in SLC. If you've never been it's kind of like a children's museum where they get to learn about science and technology and real life. The kids got to pretend to be grown-ups in a kid-sized house (including life-like kitchen) grocery store, cars, gas station, etc. They also got to rock climb, build stuff, learn about gravity and magnets, and be on TV. Here are some pictures of our day:

My little reporters:

New Do!

I got my hair cut last week. It wasn't a huge change, about 4 inches came off. I kinda miss the pony tail, which is funny because that's why I got it cut in the first place...pony tail every day! Now I'm forced to actually "do" my hair. Here's what it looks like today...

Look! My bed is made!!! (miracles do happen)

She's got the MOVES!

Here is Sara breakin' out the moves to the HSM3 soundtrack:

Heart Sounds

This afternoon Rylie has her kindergarten physical and vaccinations. I was telling her what the doctor was going to do so she would know what to expect. She asked me why the doctor needed to listen to her heart and I told her it was so he could hear if it was a healthy heart. Then Rylie asked me, "Do you know what the doctor will think if he hears that someone has a tiny heart?" Of course that perked my curiosity! "What?" I asked. He will know that person is a MEAN person! I always love to hear what Rylie thinks. It's so cute and innocent how literal she interprets things. Of course if you know Rylie you won't need a doctor's prognosis to know that she has a BIG HEART! Wish us luck this afternoon!!!

Oh so TALENTED!

Last night during Family Home Evening we were talking about talents. Sam said that my talent is giving birth to children! I laughed so hard! But last night as I was thinking about it I decided that that's a pretty great talent to have. I wouldn't say I am good at being pregnant or good at giving birth, but how grateful I am to have had the ability to birth our 4 amazing children...four of my greatest blessings! Thanks for the compliment Sammy :-)

Ice Skating

We went to the Olympic Oval yesterday to ice skate. I've never seen such a big rink! The kids loved it despite the blisters and sore feet at the end! Sam and Kaeli showed no fear as they jumped out onto the ice. Rylie was timid at first but got used to the ice and soon we couldn't even get her to stop to take a rest...she just kept going around and around. Sara even ice skated! Can you believe they make skates that tiny? We're still all jealous of Aaron's ease on the ice and his infamous hockey stops. Here are some pictures:

Sara and Daddy

Rylie

Itty-bitty ice skates for an itty-bitty girl!

Sara and Mommy

Speed Skaters!

Sam and Kaeli racing around the ice rink!

and more SLEDDING!

Sled Train!

A few casualties at the bottom of the hill!

Kaeli Sledding

Sammy Sledding

Merry Christmas!

Christmas is here and gone. It's amazing all the preparation that goes into this special day, but before you know it it's over with. It's too bad Christmas can't last any longer. It's been fun to have the hubbs home from work, the kids home from school with no activities to run to. We've just been hanging out and enjoying each other's company.

Here's a picture of the kids in their Christmas clothes last Sunday:The kids left Santa some eggnog and moose balls for a snack. I love the little letter they wrote to him:
After opening presents we had a breakfast of crepes and hot cocoa...YUM, and then we had Christmas dinner later that evening. We like to eat :-) We usually have a mini-Thanksgiving meal:
We hope you all had a Merry Christmas! We appreciate the thoughtfulness of letters and gifts this time of year, so THANK YOU! Have a Happy New Year!

Shocking!

Aaron has been in Texas the last two weeks. He wasn't able to reserve a rental car before his flight there so when he arrived they were all out of cars...except for this stinky Mustang! I feel bad that he's stuck having to drive this junker all around Fort Worth. Poor guy.

Last night the kids were decorating the Christmas tree and I was going to take some pictures when I realized the flash was broken on my camera, and all the pictures were turning out to be dark shadowy nothings. I guess it's been dropped one too many times in the short amount of time that we've owned it. After the kids went to bed I decided to see if I could fix it. Our old camera used to stop working quite a bit and a few times after taking it apart and putting it back together again it worked! I love to take things apart, and I love even more to be able to brag about fixing something, so I was excited about opening this newer camera up. I unscrewed the impossible-to-see, itty-bitty screws with an itty-bitty screw driver and exposed the inner guts of the camera. I examined the flash a little more closely and wondered if I could pop the flash out to see if a bulb had broken. As I stuck my tiny screw driver behind the flash a bright light sparked and a surge of electricity sored through my body. I screamed and threw my camera (as if it wasn't broken enough before)! I was sure that my heart had been shocked out of rhythm...perhaps even skipped a beat or two. I sat down, still trembling (and feeling kinda funny inside) and called da hubbs to let him know I had just been electrocuted. Of course he laughed, and then tried to show some sympathy for me, but I could tell he was still fighting the urge to laugh some more. After hanging up, I went back to the camera and painstakingly screwed the impossible-to-see, itty-bitty screws back into the even-more-broken-than-before camera. My sadness was for my camera which was still broken and for my singed ego. By the way, does anyone know where you can take a broken camera to be fixed?

What? No tears? No hesitation?

Saturday morning brought much excitement to the Davis home! We were going to our ward breakfast party where it had been rumored that Santa would be the guest of honor! In previous years there was always the excitement, but it quickly dwindled the minute it became our kids' turn to sit on Santa's lap. There suddenly came some hesitation, some fear of that big guy in red! And babies? Forget about it! Just the thought of sitting on a stranger's lap brought tears. And if we still tried to prop them up with Santa for a quick snap shot the tears were combined with outstretched arms for mommy. It was pure torture. In fact, there were years where we opted to skip the Santa visit so the kids could continue to have a happy, not so threatening ideal of Santa. This year I decided to go for it any way...perhaps the kids were ready. Amazingly, there were no tears and not a single hesitation! The kids knew exactly what they wanted from Santa and they couldn't wait to tell him! And Sara? Because of the excitement of her siblings she decided that Santa must not be a bad guy. So she sat there wondering who exactly was this bearded man in red. And we had the first happy experience with Santa, with many more to follow I'm sure!

Here we are...all in RED and ready for some Ward Christmas Party FUN!

Rylie told us last week that she wanted a "sweet house" for Christmas. It took us awhile to figure out what she was referring to. She wanted her very own gingerbread house (more proof that she truly is my clone). So we made graham cracker houses (simply because true gingerbread houses aren't very simple). The kids had a blast decorating their houses...and sneaking samples, too!

Ready to move in? Home SWEET home!

Our little village of yummy houses...that we can't wait to EAT!

Gotta Love Dem Piggies!

Is it possible to take too many pictures of your kids? I obviously don't think so!

Thanksgiving

I know I am late posting about Thanksgiving, but I couldn't just pop into December without mentioning it! We went up to Dawn's (Aaron's sister) who lives about 1 hour north of us. Aaron's parents, sister, and grandma were there too. The food was great! We did a little shopping and even went to the Nutcracker...it was super neat!

The Apple Pie I make every year!

What? Christmas Stocking are hung...before Thanksgiving??? Let the Christmas Season begin!