Kaeli's BIG day!

On Saturday, Kaeli was baptized and confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! She looked so pretty in her white dress. We had a houseful of family who came to be apart of that special day.

Kaeli was baptized and confirmed by her daddy.
Kaeli looks like an angel!

Isn't it GREAT to be EIGHT!!!

It's official! Kaeli Ray is 8! She feasted on her favorite for dinner...Ramen Noodles...chicken flavor! (I was burnt out from doing such a difficult meal, but I'm recovering :-) She also had a chocolate chip bunt cake with cool whip and strawberries! Yum!

What a pretty girl! I snapped the following shots right before school this morning. You may not see the snow storm billowing just beside her, but she was cold. We thought she was a "spring baby" but I guess that term isn't legit for March if you live in Utah.

Kaeli is just as BEAUTIFUL on the INSIDE! She is such a wonderful EXAMPLE to her family and her friends. Ever since Kaeli was in preschool her teachers have said that she goes out of her way to be KIND to those who need a friend. She the "#2 Mommy" in our household and takes such good care of her siblings. Kaeli also loves to LAUGH and be SILLY. Be careful not to get her started because you just might catch her contagious giggle. Kaeli is also our little TUMBLER and now can do up to 8 handsprings in a row. She also loves to draw & color, play with her friends, and read. We are blessed to have her in our family!

Tie-Dye PARTY and Ear Piercing!

Kaeli had a birthday party with friends on Saturday to tie-DYE for! Call me CRAZY to tie-dye with a bunch of 8-year olds! But believe or not we had ZERO fabric-dye fatalities. The guests each brought a white t-shirt to dye. After I showed them how to "tie" the fabric they choose their own colors and went dye-happy. After that Aaron took the rowdy bunch downstairs for a few games all of which included balloons; carrying, popping, bouncing...you name it they played it! Then they feasted on pizza and soda pop, cupcakes and cherry ice cream, and topped off the party with opening presents and chasing Aaron :-)

Oooooh! Tie-dye cupcakes! Or at least that's what I hoped they looked like!

Tie-dye MANIA!

Yeah...PRESENTS!

After the party, Kaeli and I went on THE date of all dates...

a mother/daughter date...

a date of high anticipation...

a date of becoming the the rightful age of 8...

a date of getting EARS PIERCED!!!

... followed by a trip to the Marble Slab Creamery :-) Here is Kaeli immediately after getting her ears pierced. You can see the pain is already forgotten and the "don't I look CUTE!" has set in!

Congratulations Kaeli! You sure ARE cute!

Creating = A Happy Me

My latest goal is to make more time to be creative. I love to create! I just don't do it enough. So whether it be painting a picture, rearranging my living room, (finally) updating the look of my blog, writing a post, planning and throwing a party, refinishing furniture, or sewing curtains for the girls' room I will be happier (see video in the right-hand column). Here is my latest creation:




Aren't they girly? We needed them to make the room darker for Sara's afternoon naptime. I still haven't gotten the flash on my camera fixed so the pictures aren't great. I forgot how much fun it is to make something :-)

Why Mormons Build Temples

Click here to watch an informative video!

It's that time of year again...

...when strawberries go on sale!

...and all your available tupperware is used up for freezer jam :-)

so HUGE!

Sara is my big HELPER during the day. Above you can see she is helping sort the socks (what? you can't tell that's what she's doing?). She randomly puts them in piles and even puts little piles on the table as if she were setting it for dinner, so each person has a little pile of socks for their place setting. She is so ready to be big. In fact, yesterday she told me, "Mom, I am HUGE!" I had to laugh and I agreed. She's been doing some huge stuff lately, like using the potty for both #1 and #2 and staying dry all day! She also moved out of her crib a few months ago! She is always following her siblings around mimicking their behavior (not sure if that's a good thing) and insists on doing things all by herself. Although she's "super huge" we hope she stays small for a little while longer :-)

Shout out to Dr. Seuss!

Dear Dr. Seuss,

Happy Birthday! Thank you for writing such wonderful books and bringing out the kooky, rhyming creativity in us all. You have inspired generations! And you have made reading so magical & FUN!

Love your admiring WHO's,
-The Davis Family

P.S. Your birthday is on the same day as our "Sam I Am", of which he is very honored!

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!