The many faces of Ty

Mikayla loves to take pictures. I was just looking through the pics on my camera and came across these that she had taken of Ty. Too funny!

My baby Ty turns 2!

Ty turned 2 on Sunday! He shares the same birthday as his Grandma Keller. He is starting to say so many words. He can now say everyone's name in the family. Kayla was the hardest for him to say so he just called her Ash until recently. He still continues to do his HAPPY DANCE! He does this dance when he is really happy or when you ask him to do the happy dance. He moves his legs back and forth so fast that he sometimes loses his balance and goes down. Mikayla has taught him to act like he has a big belly and say, "HO, HO, HO!" He loves to play with CARS. He also likes legos so I attempted making a lego cake (idea of course came from pinterest). He used to give hugs to everybody including strangers. Now he can dish out his few share of punches. We are working on that though and now he now knows how to say sorry and give a hug. He still has the biggest eyes that can cause my heart to melt just looking at them.

Going for it!

Just woke up but still excited for noise making race car. I may be hiding batteries soon.

He likes to do things himself which can be good and bad. He got his own apple juice from the garage and cup and was getting ready to pour it before he was stopped.

I did it

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Thanks to Pinterest I was able to get some ideas and get a little crafty this Holiday Season. As long as there is no sewing involved then I don't mind doing some crafts once in a while! Tonight the kids and I will be making reindeer cookies! I have made so many new recipes this last month that I have gotten off Pinterest that my kids are giving me a bad time. They like to make fun by asking me, "Mom is this a pinterest thing again?" Some things have worked and some not quite so well - like the glowing mountain dew but it is fun to try new things!

Festival of Trees

I guess when you have 6 kids that are involved in different activities you spend a lot of time at the festival of trees. We were there everyday and 3 times in one day to watch kids perform. It was fun and the kids all liked getting dressed up and performing.

Hailey got to sing with a few of the first grade classes from her school and Valerie got to sing with her preschool class. The two girls are quite the opposite performers. They both know all the words to the songs but Hailey thinks the body actions are dumb and so she is the only one of her class standing completely still not doing any actions. Valerie, on the other hand, is an over exaggerator when it comes to actions and mouth movement. I was surprised to find out she had a solo for part of one of the songs. She nailed it! It was to Holly Jolly Christmas. The microphone was a little high but that didn't stop her from grabbing it and pretending she was on American Idol!

Mikayla was able to entertain us with some fun Christmas music and fiddle songs!

Ashley performed 3 dances in clogging. One was a girls team only and the other two were mixed boy/girl dances. There were a lot of kids trying to fit on that small stage. I'm glad the kids didn't fall through because it looked like the stage was about to give out!


Hailey doing a chest roll (no idea how anyone can do this). Below she is in a backbend and going to walk under the rest of the girls while in a backbend. She LOVES tumbling and just learned her back whip this week! My floors are constantly shaking at home and furniture is always moved so she can have room to flip around.


Of course the kids got to see Santa Clause. Ty wasn't scared in the least because he knew he was getting candy. Valerie had to come back the second day and see Santa again because on the first day she saw him she told him she forgot what she wanted.

Daughter of a King

Ashley is now in Young Womens! It is hard to believe she is so grown up. We had our first Young Women's in Excellence night with myself as a leader and Ashley as one of the young women. The theme was a Daughter of a King and it turned out wonderfully. We sang the song, "Daughter of a King" by Jenny Phillips while a slide show displayed pictures of each of the girls and their Dad's. Our desert was fruit pizza made on a tiara sugar cookie.

Lyrics to Daughter of King:
Do you wonder if he knows who you are?
Do you wonder if he knows the secret pleadings of your heart
He has numbered every sand of the sea
And he longs for you to know that he believes in you.

Can you feel the quiet power from above
Can you feel his strength surround you when your own is not enough
He has blessed you with his spirit from on high
And he longs for you to know that he believes in you
Oh, be true

CHORUS:
Daughter of a king
The father's royalty
Heir to his divinity
He's calling your name
To come and take your place before his throne
He has always known
What he created you to be
A daughter of a king

You hold the promises of all eternity
Rise to claim the noble birth right you were sent here to recieve
He has loved you since you lived with him before
Let him lead you to the gifts he has in sotore for you
Oh, be true

CHORUS

Daughter of a king our father's royalty
Heirs to his divinity
He's calling our names
To come and take our place before his throne
He has always known
What he created you to be.....
Daughter of a king.

Home for Thanksgiving

We decided to stay home this year for Thanksgiving to have a break from traveling. It truly is a lot of work to cook everything! I have discovered Pinterest this year and love it. I have gotten so many ideas from that site. We made Turkey heads out of rice krispy treats, pilgrim hats out of cookies, and I found an excellent homemade roll recipe. To change things up a little this year I had asked the kids the day before Thanksgiving what they were thankful for. I typed up a list of everyone's answers and then rolled them up in the rolls. It was kind of fun to open them on Thanksgiving and guess who said what. We are so blessed and have so much to be grateful for. Lately, I have loved listening to Valerie's prayers. She is praying for everyone, from the people who don't have homes to people who are mean. She takes her time and is so sincere in her prayers.

Deviled Eggs - a kid (not mom) favorite!

Uncle Derek came and spent the weekend with us and had Thanksgiving dinner. The kids were very excited to see him. I took Derek Black Friday shopping for his first time. Ashley, Cade, Derek, and myself went to Walmart Thursday evening until about 2 am. I had them scattered all over the store standing in line for things for me. It was nice to have the help and crazy to see how CRAZY some people can get over xbox games! Their night ended there but my night was just beginning. My friend Mel and I stayed up all night and returned the next morning at 9:30 am with plenty of money spent!




We (myself, Derek, Cade, Ashley, Mikayla) managed to hit the slopes for some snowboarding on opening weekend. We all had a good time after we found clothes that fit everyone. Derek was trying to show Ashley that her coat still fit her because it fit him. We had to open a few Christmas gifts early like gloves.


Little Ty wanted to be a participant but instead got to stay home with Dad and put up Christmas lights.
Of course it wouldn't be Thanksgiving without lounging around. The kids made a huge fort with every blanket we owned. It even had separate rooms in it with an air mattress.

The Tyster

How can he look so innocent yet be so mischievous?

I only went downstairs to look up a recipe on pinterest for a minute and..........3 entire cans hot chocolate were dumped all over my kitchen floor.



I'm sure half of Ty's dinner went to the dog. If he doesn't want it he will either plop it on the floor for the dog or try to feed the dog with his spoon!

It's all worth it!

I was excited as I went to bed and was greeted with this cute little card made for me by Hailey. It just helped me put life back into perspective and made me grateful to be a mother! So what if my house isn't clean and my To Do list didn't get done.

Just throwin this in there. My new boot socks!

Goodbye USA, Hello Argentina

Grandma and Grandpa Keller are really leaving. They stopped by for last minute hugs on their way to the MTC in Provo. They spent a week at the MTC and then flew to ARGENTINA to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We will miss you!

All I want for Christmas is my TWO front teeth

Hailey (1st grader) has lost both of her front teeth just in time for Christmas. She even let Mikayla pull one of them out. She talks with a cute little lisp now.

Before picture with TEETH

She let Ashley curl every piece of her hair. It turned out adorable and took a long time. It is so nice to have a Ashley around to help me out with all the girls hair.