Maddox is 4!

Maddox had his 4th Birthday on November 23rd. Its been crazy around here, so Im a little late posting about it. He had a STARWARS party with about 14 of his closest friends. A great thing about Maddox is that he really thinks all those kids are his best friends.

Here are some things about Maddox this year:

he played soccer for the first time

he played T-ball for the first time

He learned all his letters and what sound they make

He loves to try and sound out words

He loves to play computer games

He wants to invite a friend over everyday

He loves to play with his all his toys
His favorite tv shows is dinosaur train and electric company on PBS

He grew a ton. He is much taller than many of his 5 year old friends

He loves church when he is there, but every week he tries to get out of it with a fake illness

He graduated from a princess mini bike to a cool boy bike

He started Pre-School with Miss Linda (who is awesome)

He learned to ride a scooter

He became a gentleman and is proud to be one. He loves to open the doors for me and his sisters and let ladies go first.

Maddox makes me laugh everyday! He is sweet and smart and we feel so blessed to have him for our son

Happy Halloween!

I made these costumes for our annual Halloween Party. We're Wendy and Peter Pan if you can't tell.

These are a couple of the prizes I made for tha party. (the cat pillow and the banner) I didn't have time to make some for myself. So I took a picture so I can make them for me next year.

Jord and Tess. Both Ellie and Reagan wore this costume when they were her age.

We were running late and wanted to get out trick-or-treating so we didn't have time to take great pictures. I made them stop on this neighbors porch so I could get one of them together.

Ellie was Pippy Longstocking, Reagan was a Zombie Cheerleader, Maddox was a pirate and Tess was a Bunny.

Pumpkins carved by Jordan and I, but designed by the kids.

More Awesome Girls

My friend Miki posted these pictures on her blog. I told some people about them and they wanted to see the awesomeness, and asked me to post them. Here they are!

Background: High school senior trip. We brought along wigs and dresses and then decided to go to chilli's in them. I did NOT pick to wear the platinum, or "Martha Washington" wig, as we affectionately call it. Everyone has on some sort of fake hair (except Katie- how did she get away with that?) Mine is just the only one that is obvious. We thought we were so awesome and funny then... I still think we're awesome and funny. I laughed so hard I cried when I first saw these posted on Miki's blog.

Girls Weekend

I was able to go on a girls over night trip with some great friends. We started in Park City for some outlet shopping (I spent too much money) and then to RedRock for dinner (where some old drunk guys were trying to pick us up on our way out-it was awesome). We then headed to my aunts house in Heber for Birthday cake (it was Lisa's birthday) and a table full of treats. Its crazy how skinny my friends despite their love of treats! We talked and laughed and looked at old pictures (my favotite was one of Hillary. I asked Becca who the boy is in the picture was). We stayed up so late, then when we finally went to bed, Annie and I talked for a while longer. Annie and I shared a bed. She kept to her side despite her pregnant belly.

Saturday morning we slept until we woke up on our own. No kids needing breakfast or wanting to get out of their cribs. We exercised a bit then ate a really yummy breakfast that far surpassed the amount of calories we had just worked off. We picked apples in a beautiful apple orchard in Midway then headed down provo canyon to buy some peaches. We stopped for dinner at flour girls and dough boys which is really cute. We ended the weekend at women's conference for some spiritual uplifting before heading home to face the music. It was a great weekend with great friends. Thanks Ladies.

Maddox Plays Soccer

This fall, Maddox played in his first official soccer league. I better start with the good things...

1. He loved every thing about it. the running, the uniform, the team, the team name (TIGERS), the treats, the timeouts, the team cheers, the coaches (Jordan and Clark Dana), the warm-up, the team pictures, the robot looking TROPHY.

2. He thought he was awesome. He ran around the field with the most serious face on. He would do moves like he does when he is pretending to play soccer (or fight bad guys) in the back yard.

3. We never had to sit through a game that was too cold.

4. I laughed a lot during the games

5. He had a lot of his buddies on his team, which means, I had a lot of friends to sit on the side lines with.

ok, here is the not so good.

1. they never won a game.

2. I think they only scored 1 goal the whole season.

3. Although Maddox ran like crazy, he just followed the group chasing the ball. or ran around the outside of it (with his serious face on of course)

4. Kate Dana broke her arm at the park the game was at, while playing with my girls

5. no matter what Jordan or I told Maddox to do, he just ran around oblivious to everything.

6, I was talking to some parents on the oposing team just before out last game. They said they hadn't ever one, and mostly they got killed. I thought - oh good, maybe this will be a closer game. Nope, they killed us.

oh well, they all had fun. GO TIGERS!!!!!!

Family Pictures

We had our family pictures taken a couple weekends ago. Matt Clayton was our photographer. I stole these pictures from his blog. Which by the way is the blog I visit most. Every picture he posts is amazing. I'm not a fan of too much photoshop and his pictures are classic! Some of the pictures he chose to post of my family are not the ones I would have chosen, but I won't get any digital proofs from him so these are the only ones I will be able to post.

I was going to put a link to Matt's blog here, but for some reason, I can't ever do links?! so his blog is www.mattclaytonphotography.blogspot.com

BRACE FACE no more

Today Ellie got her braces off!!! Congratulations Elle!!!

Face Painting

Today Ellie and Reagan went back to school. Maddox the great idea that he should invite a friend over and I could paint their faces. So I did. This weekend, his sisters had their faces painted at a fair in Park city. That where he got the idea. I am not a face painter, but the boys thought it was awesome. Maddox wanted to be Batman; Sean wanted to be a bear, and Jack wanted to be a fox. I tried.

Guess who is the youngest. Yep, its Maddox. He is so Tall.

The Last of the Summer Fun

My kids are on year round school,so technically they only have 3 weeks of summer. Because of the track they are on they start school, go for 3 weeks then go off track. We like this because it means we get 3 more weeks of summer. These are some of the fun things we did:

Reagan finally decided to learn to ride a bike without training wheels!

The Haitt family joined us up the canyon for dinner



We went to Hogle Zoo, I think it was Tess's first time.





We learned about Pioneer Life at This is the Place Heritage Park.








Over Labor Day weekend, we went to the Jeremy Ranch Condo with my parents, Rich and his family.

Not One of My Best Moments

I should be posting more cute pictures of my kids and our summer/off-track adventures. Instead I'm posting about how I screwed up my kids. First let me say that Jordan has been out of town all week (first with work then in Yellowstone, fly fishing, kayaking, hiking and camping with his friends) AND Im on accutane; I've been told its mood altering.

Today my kids have been driving my crazy!!! They would take turns being whiney and pouty and selfish. so by 6:00 in the evening I freaked out. I was trying to be nice and take them to the store to pick out a treat for our game night, when it began again! I told them how sick of it I was and then said, about the they made me feel today "It's been Hell!" and then after seeing the look of shock on their faces (especially Reagan's) I said "Hell! Hell! and that's a swear word!" to this Ellie and Reagan began to cry, Maddox looked down and Tess just starred in silence. so now they think their mom actually is going to Hell!

ok now I have vented. Soon to come... more cute pictures and happy posts.

*I did end up calming down, and the kids were freaked out enough, that everyone obeyed and was nice and happy the rest of the night. We even had fun playing games

SUMMER

I have been a little behind on the posting this summer, so here is a big update of some of the things we've been up to.

Swimming Lessons

Ellie, Reagan, and Maddox had swimming lessons this summer. They all improved so much. I am so happy with the places they are taking, Shinsels and Debbie's Dolphins.
I don't know why,but I never brought my camera or video camera to the girls lessons, But this is a picture of Maddox at his.

Heidi's getting married.

My amazing friend Heidi Clark is getting MARRIED. that meant I got to get together with some great old friends for a shower. I didn't get home until 1:00 in the morning. I love how with great friends you can go years without seeing eachother and just pick right back up when you do. These ladies are so incredible.

First day of school

My kids had to switch to Herriman Elementary this year, due to boundry changes. This made the them a little scared intead of just excited for the first day of school.

Ellie started 3rd grade. I can't believe how old she is. I say that all the time, but I really mean it!
Reagan started 1st grade and was so excited to go all day and have lunch at school After two years of playschool with neighborhood friends, Maddox started real preschool. He was so excited he was ready with his back pack on for an hour before it was time to go

Swimming in the Crater

Over the 24th of July we stayed in Aunt Gay's Heber house with all my brothers and my parents (I include Natalie and Makai in the "my brothers' statement) We had a lot of fun hanging out together. I haven't laughed so hard playing cards in a LOOONg time, thanks to Rich's made up card game in the middle of the night. We also went swimming in the crater at the Homestead. Well everyone but Maddox and I, you have to be 5 to get in. I think Maddox and I had more fun eating popsicles, playing on the playground, playing horseshoes and finding golfballs.