Growing up

Dallin lost his front tooth. If it would have happened a little sooner we could have used it to replace Robert's front tooth. Dallin was thrilled that the tooth fairy showed up the very first night!

Christmas magic

We had a fun Remund Christmas party at our house with the usual present swap game. Everyone seems happy now with what they got now but it was traumatic for some. We kind of forgot to explain to some of the litle boys that what they might open could be a girls gift. You can image the surprise to open a girls gift when you are all boy!

Here is a copy of our song we performed at the Shields family Christmas party. It was sung to the tune of "Oh Christmas Tree"

Oh, Lynn wants more hair to grow,

and Lisa wants less gray to show,

Oh, Robert hates the word no,

and Joanna still goes with the flo,

James can grow a wicked afro,

and Taylors weight is way too low,

Dallin is a rock band pro,

and Kyle likes to eat the snow!

We had a great Christmas. Here we are lining up getting ready to run in and see what Santa left. Everyone is holding their new blankets that Grandma Shields made for them and gave them at our fun Christmas Eve party at her house.

Bedroom swap

Taylor got a new space blanket for Christmas with a lamp and glow in the dark stars. We then redid James and Kyle's old room into a "space" room and Taylor moved in. James got to move downstairs in the "Football" room and though I don't have a picture you can imagine he put our new BYU flag right above his bed. He has wanted to move downstairs for awhile now and already thinks he is a teenager. Joanna is loving not having to go downstairs alone anymore since Robert never goes to bed until later.

For some reason this picture wouldn't turn the right way but this is the planet we painted on Taylor's new bedroom wall and the border is stickers and paint. The kids had a lot of fun helping me do it.

Kyle got to move into Dallin's "dinosaur" room and is liking it!

Dallin is the only one that didn't get to move somewhere new but he is still happy with the volcano he helped paint. On the dresser you can see the banks that Lynn worked hard on making for the kids with 3 separate sections for giving, saving, and spending. They have a lock so we can hopefully manage the money a little better.

Winter finally came

The kids have had a lot of fun playing in the snow this year. I can't believe how much more they have played in the snow since having a dog. Emma follows them everywhere and is so fun to play with. She runs in snow that is deeper than her and it looks so funny. I wish I had a picture of Emma when she went on the sled with Lynn. She is such a good dog. We have been able to let her come inside in the evenings when it gets really cold and she will stay right on her bed. She knows if she gets off she has to go out. So far it has been a good system and Joanna hasn't had an allergic reaction. We sure enjoy our snow blower that we got for Christmas. We had around 18" of snow on Christmas day.

Oldest and Youngest

This is Robert's latest look. Church ball is getting a little too rough. A foul by Robert's best friend was made against Robert which caused him to smack his tooth on the gym floor.
Fortunately we have a dentist in our ward who went and glued it back on at 9:00 that night. He said it still has a 50/50 chance of the tooth dying but since we found the piece and got it glued on before it dried up we might have a chance of it being ok without more work done. I know it wasn't Robert's fault but I couldn't help notice that most people don't chip their front tooth 3 times before they are even 18!

My baby is officially four years old.

He enjoyed making a cake and having breakfast served in bed!

Bad mother moment

One of the reasons I don't update my blog or write e-mails as much as I should is because of the neglect my kids get when I do. Tonight I had Joanna take the Costco cordon bleu chicken out of of the oven and told her to start feeding everyone as I was at the computer. The kids were half way done eating before I realized the chicken wasn't done and they were eating raw chicken. Joanna ate the most because she was trying to be nice and not say the dinner was gross!
So, now the waiting game begins to see if any of my children get sick because I'm a neglectful mom. So, what do I do about it? Go write the experience in my blog and spend more time at the computer. I am weird.

Wednesday blues

Instead of having "Monday blues "I have "Wednesday blues" today and I'm not sure how long they will last. As if I wasn't depressed enough after last nights election results then I had to wake up this morning to about 8 inches of snow. It does look beautiful ,and the kids are all excited ,but for me it is a reminder of what I have to deal with for the next few months. Cold, snow, and staying indoors a lot. I could have skipped winter this year! Our poor dog was wondering what in the heck all this snow was after living in St. George her whole life. We are hoping she adapts and that we don't feel sorry for her all winter long.

It was quite wild getting everyone ready to go out in the snow. If each person in our family has socks, gloves, hat, coat, snowpants, and boots that comes out to be 72 pieces of clothing! I was amazed that I was able to find most of them and fortunately being able to pass clothes down the line helps out! Again we appreciate anyone who has given us clothes to help out. We sure get our use out of them.

Lynn and I went on a quick trip to Las Vegas last week as he had a conference there. I got to spend some time with my friend Amy who lives there while he was in the conference. Then we got to go to some shows while there. Lynn surprised me and took me to the Donny and Marie show which we both enjoyed. Then the conference treated us to the cirque de sol? (Ka). It was also very good.

I was sure grateful to my mom for tending. She did a great job. Lynn and I got home about 4:00 on Halloween day just in time to get the kids ready for trick or treating. I will be glad when the candy is gone and Kyle doesn't beg for candy all day.