Thursday, March 03, 2016

January 2016

We kicked January off with a little hike up some mountains. We love getting out as a family and enjoying nature. We love the gorgeous views and exploring. Jon and I went on a cruise the first part of January to celebrate our upcoming anniversary. It was so much fun but more on that in a later post. We were so blessed to have a good neighbor, ward member, and friend watch the kids most of the time while we were away. Her name is Cambree Spencer and she did such an amazing job that our kids had nothing but fun memories to share, and things to say about there week while we were away. My mom and also helped and so the kids loved the extra grandma time as well! My mom is a saint and I will always look up to her.  I will post more on the cruise week later. 
January was filled with school, park days, football practices and games, soccer practice and games, everyday life, and teaching my new primary class the valiant 8's. Life is busy but oh so good! Sophia has grown in height and she is doing so much! She climbs all the park equipment, goes down the slides herself, loves to swing, go on bike rides in the bike trailer, and play with whatever her siblings are. She is starting to get more sassy and vocal but only because she is trying to speak with us and just can't yet. She is a precious angel and we are so blessed to have her sweet, silly, loving spirit in our family. She can say dada, mama, dog, that, and other gibberish I can't quite make out. She points to things wherever we go and is particularly interested in her belly button, eyes, nose, and toes. She is getting longer hair and with it comes beautiful blonde curls. Wyatt is half sweet, a fourth naughty/particular, and a fourth aggressive. I never know what i am going to get with him but I sure love when he sweet talks me and tells me I'm his favorite and that he loves me. He likes to pick on his older brother a lot because they share a room and he likes to tease just about everyone. Hopefully he will learn to reign that teasing in as he gets older so he doesn't bug people so much. A sweet story his teacher shared with me the other day is that one of Wyatt's school mates fell from the play ground equipment and Wyatt stopped what he was doing to run over and help is friend. She said he was so sweet and so concerned. He is doing well in school and learning a lot this year in regards to his letters, shapes, and numbers. Also his social skills at school are wonderful and his teachers all adore him. He loves to ride his bike, play sports, sing " Oh Canada" the Canadian national anthem, help make cookies, and color. He drew a picture the other day and asked me to draw a heart by the two figures. When I asked who they were he said Grandpa and Grandma West. He said I miss Grandpa, and can he come back. It was so sweet! He is wearing his glasses more and more and he is growing taller and taller. He and Bailey are the same height already and he is big in mass too. Bailey has really impressed me with learning how to read. She has learned so quickly and I am really proud of her and the hard work she is putting in to learn to read better. I love to see the proud look and smile on her face when she sounds out a hard word or sentence. She has long beautiful hair that is almost longer then mine. She is getting better at soccer even though at first she wanted to quite because the boys on her team were "too good". She is making close friends and it is cute to see how excited they get to see Bailey when I drop her off to school. She is sly though and will sneak gum or lipgloss with out me knowing. I asked her why she took so much gum without asking and she said because she needed her breath to smell good at school. I thought that was funny but told her to spit it out as soon as she got in her classroom. She loves to dress up, paint nails, do her hair, but also run with the boys, play sports, and be competitive. She loves riding her bike off jumps or the curbs to the sidewalks and is always trying to go as fast as she can. She is a good second mom to sophia and loves to play dollies with her. Bentley is doing well in school and goes to a different class to learn second grade material because he picked up the first grade material so quick. He doesn't even know how smart he is which is good that he is humble, but I am really impressed with all that he is learning. He also has done really well in football with learning plays, throwing further, and catching. It is always so fun to watch him and again he doesn't seem to realize how good he is! He is playing baseball now and is excited to learn a new sport for a season. He still has his same group of close buddies, and it is sweet to see them treat each other like brothers. Bentley always wants to do what is right but sometimes struggles when he wants to hit his brother over the head and makes him cry. Those two either play well together or want to strangle each other. I suppose it's not so different from my own childhood. Bentley has lost seven teeth. The seventh one he lost right before his seventh birthday which he thought was cool. 




 Sophia loved the hike as well and her view from daddy.

 Sophia shooting hoops with daddy.
 The night we left for the cruise we tucked these sweet kiddos into bed and then headed for the airport.

 A picture my friend sent me of Bentley in her car at football practice hiding from the rain storm. I guess we had tons of rain and even snow while we were gone here in Mesa, AZ. I have the best friends who all helped out while we were gone.
 Bailey at the Spencers feeding their chickens.
 Wyatt and his buddy Brady playing pretend with swords while watching their big brothers play pick up football in the retention basin.
 Sophia trying to be like the big kids.
 Sophia and Wyatt playing good guys and bad guys.

 Bailey and her cousin Julz are two peas in a pod. They play so well together and have so much fun.
 Sophia with daddy sporting her new shades.
 Bailey the little diva sporting her shades.
 They girls playing at one of our favorite parks.... Princess Park
 Bailey and I met up with our good friends Lucy, Shaley, and Penny for some drinks and snacks at Fizz, a local shop.


 Jon and I on a date night out
 Watching their brothers play football.
 Cousin dog pile/wrestling
 Great play Bentley was in.
 Sophia loves her baths
 Somebody enjoyed her sucker

 Baileys first soccer game. The called themselves the Giant thunder Cheetahs!


 Fun night out with our ward at Amazing Jakes. We had a great time!
 My primary class. They loved when Sophia would join us.
 All those blonde curls. She is so very cute!
 silly goons
 Giving service to our dear friends and making bags of stuff to give to the homeless.
 An after school stop to Fizz with some of our good friends the Whites.
 Destanie and Shawn have some great kids who are always so sweet to my kiddos.
 Sophia loved all the popcorn
 Little miss kitty. She brought this home from school and loved showing it off to her brothers.

Fun morning in bed cuddling these cute kids.

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