Happy Birthday Morgan!

 Morgan's birthday was basically a two-day event.  It fell on Sunday this year, and seeing as we wanted to buy her a hamster on her big day, we needed to celebrate twice.

We didn't tell Morgan where we were going, just that we were running an errand.  We piled into the car, I grabbed my camera, and we were off!  It was a blizzard outside.  We pulled up to Petsmart (which happens to be right next to Sportsmans Warehouse) and told Morgan that we were going into Sportsmans.  When we all got out of the car we veered over to Petsmart and went inside.

Once inside, we decided to scope out the rodents.  Morgan fell in love with the dwarf hamsters.  They are the cutest little things!  But.  When we asked the sales associate about them, I guess they are pretty mean and don't let you hold them.  Here's Morgan falling in love with one....

 

That same sales associate brought out some bins with hamsters in them ~ Morgan got to hold a few and try them out.  She ended up liking THIS one.  Isn't she cute?!

 

Some more dwarf hamsters...

 

The hamster was boxed up, and we checked out.  Oh, do you think Lilah is teething?  This is how she spent her time at Petsmart.

 

Once we got home we decided to try out the exercise ball.  We all enjoyed watching that little hamster run around the front room for awhile.  I mentioned to Morgan that it looked JUST like those Hostess Cinnamon Donut's that are so yummy.....and she said, "Let's name her Donut!!".  So here's Morgan with Donut.

We also told Morgan that she could have a late-night with ONE friend.  She asked Breaunna to come over ~ so they ate pizza, played with Donut, and watched a movie.  Happy Birthday Bug!!

Here are the kids as we wait for Morgan to arrive after picking up Breauna at her house.

 

Aaah, birthday DAY.  Happy birthday Morgan.  You are one awesome daughter, and I am so proud of you!  You make such great choices, and are so smart, and you play one amazing soccer game.  I love you so much and hope that you had a super happy birthday.

 

My favorite photo of the day...

 

Day of PURE guilt.

Back in November (I think), I took the kids to the dentist.  They reccommended that we go to the orthodontist for Morgan and Grace because their teeth were looking a little scary.  (Darn genetics).  I made an appointment with one in January, and come to find out, Grace needed THREE teeth pulled.  THREE.

I remember back in my brace-face days how painful it was to have TWO teeth pulled, so I couldn't even imagine three.  We took the day off of school and drove to the dentist.  I insisted on laughing gas (they weren't even going to give it to her...sheesh!) and watched as they pulled three HUMONGOUS teeth out of my 6 year old's mouth.  She didn't cry once!!  I could tell that it was hurting her though, so I had to squat next to the dentist chair and squeeze her hand as they wrestled those teeth out of there.

How tragic!

After they were finished, they handed me her teeth, rolled up some gauze and stuck it in her mouth.  We then drove home and I let her rest with Dad and play my Kindle while I drove to the store buying about 35.00 worth of ice cream, popsicles, gogurt, and pudding.  What a day.

Grace was so stinking brave and I was so proud of her.  She is the funniest person....always taking things as they come, and not dwelling on it after the fact.  She is definitely a person to look up to in that regard.  Good job Grace.  No wonder the tooth fairy brought you 5.00 and a coloring set.  You deserved it.

Here are those awesome teeth.  Pretty tramatic, right?!  It makes me a little light-headed just looking at them.

Pinewood Derby

This was the first year our Ward decided to host a "Pinewood Derby".  Seeing as I didn't have BOY siblings even close in age growing up, this was a whole new experience for me.  Chance was so excited when he heard the news.  He promptly came home from church that day, and dug out his old cars from when HE was a scout.  He gave one to the kids to decorate (but Morgan was in charge of the sanding, and the main painting), and then he had a banana and an "old time" car.  Morgan and the kids really had fun painting their own.  It turned out pretty................um, interesting.

Chance then had some plans of his very own.  He was going to build 2 different cars.  One was going to be only for him, and one was going to be for our family.  HIS car was going to be an antler (big surprise there, right?), but as he got building it, he realized that it was a bit too complicated for a pinewood derby car.  So he scrapped that idea and focused on his masterpiece.

After a few tantrums, some yelling, and some sweat, it was finished.  He was pretty proud.

Here's Morgan sanding her car one afternoon....

Painting....

And here is Chance's masterpiece.  Pretty, eh'?

Here we are on the actual night of the races.  Sadly, our cars didn't do that well.  Our Banana didn't even GO on the track.....for some reason the tires froze up that night and it just sat there on the top.  The rest of the cars did "okay."  I think our first pinewood derby experience was a success though.  Our kids had a LOT of fun.

Snowday!

A couple of weeks ago Chance brought home a snowblower from work.  He decided to make a gigantic snowhill in our backyard for the kids to play on.  After he was done he decided that it JUST wasn't big enough.

So.

This last weekend we had the snowstorm of snowstorms.  Chance, after snowplowing that morning, decided to bring home the snowblower once again to make that hill bigger.  He spent the entire morning/afternoon getting it perfect.  As you can see, the kids had a BLAST on that thing....and Chance even got a chance to play on it too.

Happy Snowday!!

Here's the before and after:

I have such a good husband!  He ran in the house to grab the camcorder so he could film all the kids playing.

Love Morgans face...

Grace with some pretty impressive hat-hair...

 

Morgan invited one of her good friends over for the afternoon and they spent the entire time outside sledding, digging an ice tunnel....

 

Leave it to my husband to try something like this.  

 

Indoor Soccer

 I'm not quite sure what to think about indoor soccer.  Before Morgan started playing this winter, everyone we talked to said how much we've LOVE indoor.  So far.......nyah.  Sure, it's more fast-paced, but the games are at weird hours and it's SO different than outdoor that most of our team took an entire session to just figure out how to play again.  It's still fun to watch Morgan play, and it's nice that you don't have to worry about the outside elements...I guess it's just getting used to it.

I finally took my camera to one of the games....

Notice how most of the other team is about a foot taller than Morgan.....and she's STILL tough. :)

Merry Christmas!

 Yep....three photo's.  It's like Chance's birthday all over again.  I had my camera out, the flash on, and STILL only took 3 photo's.  I guess I was too busy getting breakfast ready (homemade orange rolls)...who knows.  Point is, at least I took SOME.  Right?

Here's the tree after Santa came...and before the rug-rats woke up...

I'm pretty sure Morgan only wanted a Kindle for Christmas.  Too bad it wasn't a Kindle Fire, right?  She was a little ticked off about that fact, but as now found a way to "make due" with the one she has. :)

 

And here are all the kids going through their loot.  They had a really fun day.

 

After opening our presents, we ate some yummy breakfast, and then we relaxed all.  day.  long.  We played Rockband, and our kids are now going around the house singing "Faith no More" and some "ACDC".  Nice.

For dinner, we decided to go to Denny's.  Yep.  Denny's.  And the plus was the fact that it was Tuesday, and kids eat free on Tuesdays!!  Cha Ching!  This is the best news ever when you have 5 kids.  We ate, we went home, and we decided that it was a good day.  I loved hanging out with my family.

Bailey Christmas Party

 It's that time of year again.....the Bailey Family Christmas Party!!  We go to a hotel in Ogden, eat some YUMMY dinner, and then we swim.  Oh, yeah ~ we also have a very special visitor...

Here's Grace...proud to test out my camera's exposure for me.  We're JUST sitting down to gorge ourselves on ham and potatoes.

Chance's aunt Debbie is always coming up with fun ideas for all the little kids.  She bought ALL of them these awesome headbands.  After putting them on, she taught them how to do the "bunny-hop".

 

Um.....Crede?

 

You're having a hard time reaching little man.  (we were laughing pretty hard...mainly because Crede was just happy to be part of the whole thing.  He had that smile on the entire time.)

 

Waiting for Santa...

 

Santa was so kind this year!  He smiled, and joked, and didn't want to scare Lilah.

Oh well.