Madalyn's Baptism

Last Friday, the day after Madalyn's birthday, she was baptized at our church. She was glowing the whole night. Such a special little girl. We love our Madalyn!

The family after the baptism. (Why are there no photgraphic spots in the church?:))

My parents and sister came to see Madalyn's baptism. Monday we saw Tryon Palace--governor's mansion and first state capital. We learned a lot about Colonial life as we toured it and other houses nearby. It was a really fun day.

Madalyn Turns Eight!!

My mom showed this cake to Madalyn on bettycrocker.com and of course she wanted it. I love to be creative, but I've never had talent in cake decorating and this cake proves it. The top tier fell over several times. Next time I'll stick with flat 9x13 cakes that you only frost the top of. :)

It was fun making it with Madalyn and seeing her be excited about it. She rarely asks for anything. She's a sweetie.

Blowing out the candles before the whole thing falls over. :)

Snow!!

Thomas and Lexi ready to go out and play in the snow. Since we don't own any snow gloves (why, when it's supposedly a rarity here?), the kids put plastic bags on their hands.

Thomas checking out the snow as it was coming down. We eventually got 3 inches plus a layer of sleet and then a layer of ice.

Having fun in the snow.

The girls on the trampoline. The snow wasn't so good to play in since so much of it was sleet. Last year's was a perfect powder.

Everything was beautiful coated in ice the next morning.

The Girls' Office

Nathan's working nights so one day last week while he was home sleeping I left Kylie in charge and went visiting teaching. When I came home there was a big pile of coats on the floor in the hall. I opened the closet door under the stairs (where the coats are usually hung up) and found the girls playing in there. They informed me it was their office. Kylie had a Target bag full of notebooks and pencils (she can never have too many:)) and they were having a great time.

The thing they're sitting on is our shoe rack where we all keep our jogging shoes. You notice the phone on the vacuum--good girl to bring it in their office since I always tell Kylie to answer the phone quickly when Nathan is sleeping. They played in here everyday last week.

Misc. Photos

Here are a few pictures I found when clearing off photos from our camera.

Nathan snapped this picture of us getting ready for church.

Taking a picnic on Nathan's day off. We had a wonderful drive to the country where we'd eventually like to live and ate lunch at a cute little park in a town of 250. It was a great family day!

First Stitches!

Every morning for P.E./exercise, the kids put on their dancing dresses that spin way out and we dance to music. Last Friday I had jumped in the shower after exercising and the girls got to work on their school work, which was typing up and printing out a winter poem they had written. When I got out of the shower they showed it to me, then went upstairs to hang it in their bedroom. While I was getting ready for the day I heard a lot of thumping and bumping and jumping around. Turns out they were spinning until they got so dizzy they fell down. Next thing I hear is crying from Kylie and she runs downstairs with blood all over her face. While spinning she had fell and hit the windowsill. What resulted was a very deep cut about 1 1/2 inches long. A friend with a newborn very generously watched the other 4 kids so that I could take Kylie to the doctor, where she received 9 stitches. Now Kylie proudly wears the title of the first person to get stitches in our family.

Thomas the Ballerina

Here are some more pictures Nathan wouldn't like to see. :) One day nobody would play dress-up with Kylie, so she recruited Thomas, who will play anything with anybody. One day of dressing up, and he was hooked! Now it's not uncommon for him to ask, "You wanna play dress-up, Kylie?" We do have some boy dress-up costumes like Peter Pan, but that's not what he wants. He's talking about the frilly stuff!

I also have some fun video footage of him dancing around with the girls while they played ballet class. So funny.

New Year's Day

Our New Year's Day party.

Nathan worked all day, but we stayed home and played. It was a very relaxing day and we had a great time playing with our new presents, organizing things, and having a little party to bring in the New Year.

This was the food after we ate. We left it out for Nathan for when he came home. I made way too much, but it was fun spending the afternoon in the kitchen and trying out new recipes.

Christmas in Florida

We're off!!! We got up at 6:40, dressed, grabbed the waterbottles and sandwiches from the fridge, had prayer with Daddy who was just leaving for work, and took off at 7:03am. I had packed the van the night before (including hairbrushes and toothbrushes) so that we'd have nothing to do but put on the clothes we laid out and hop in the car. I had French braided the girls' hair the night before too and packed dry cereal in baggies (put in the car with the rest of the snacks the previous night) to make things as simple and quick as possible. I love getting up and going fast. It made it much more fun than leaving mid morning after multiple trips to the house.

The whole trip was perfect. We only stopped 3 times--the first two times for potty breaks at 9:30 and 12:30 and 10 minute run around the rest stop. The third time was for gas at the Florida border at 2:30. We made great time and made it in just over 10 hours. (Don't ask how long it took us to get home with Nathan driving. Haha. Actually, since we drove overnight home we stopped more to switch drivers and let a certain little person throw up. Not the best trip.) The kids were excellent and tons of fun to travel with. We honked and cheered at every state line. I'd do it again anyday. In fact, seeing how cold it is here, it's tempting not to drive back down tomorrow!

Here are some pictures from our wonderful trip to Grandma's house.

Our 5 munchkins sleeping on the floor of our room. I loved walking in to bed each night and seeing them all together sleeping soundly.

One night the older 3 kids begged to sleep in the tree house. It should more accurately be called the "tree mansion" considering its size and the fact that it can withstand any hurricane.

Besides playing in the tree house, sandbox, trampoline, and skating, the cousins spent their time writing recipes for a cookbook they put together. They got pretty silly, but came up with a few good ones too.

The little boy cousins playing with dolls. I just had to post this picture!

(Wait till Nathan sees it. :))

Grandma took my older 4 to the beach with other relatives while I enjoyed a relaxing day at the house with Thomas and finished Spencer's stocking I was stitching.

DISNEY!!!

Uncle Seth had some free tickets to Disney so he took his girls plus Kylie and Madalyn. The four cousins had a blast together.

I think this picture was on the parking tram.

I think this picture was on the boat that takes you from the parking tram to Magic Kingdom.

I liked this picture of Kylie studying her map.

There were over a hundred more cute pictures of them taken by Uncle Seth--whizzing by in the tea cups and such, but I'll stop now and post about something else. :) Just know they had a super dooper time and came home beaming.

Girls Night Out! Mom plus the 3 Holladay girls plus the 4 of us who married Holladay boys. We went to Olive Garden for dinner and TooJay's for a "death by chocolate"dessert, then to a friend's house to hang out and chat. What a fabulous night! I love being a part of a big family.

The married couples go out for lunch at Panera Bread. Great time and yummy food!

The angels resting after doing their part in the family Nativity.

Christmas morning. Kylie got a mixer and Madalyn got a blender for their kitchen set. Alexis got a high chair/swing for her baby doll. Those are our girly girls!

Aunt Kira made all the girls matching dresses for Christmas. They turned out gorgeous and the girls love them!

Cousins and Uncle Aaron saying good-bye. What a wonderful vacation!

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas!

We are off to Florida to celebrate Christmas with Nathan's family, where all 8 siblings will be there. I'm driving the children down tomorrow (12 hours) and Nathan will take the train down on the 23rd. Then we'll all drive home together on the 28th. We are excited to see everyone.
We hope you have a wonderful Christmas and get to relax and enjoy the holidays.

Kid business

In November we enjoyed a wonderful weekend with Nathan's sister and then Thanksgiving weekend with my sister. We love having company, especially these fun aunts and uncle. Since then we haven't been too busy, just the usual kid fun and games going on.

Kylie and Madalyn showing their elbow trick and asking if I can do this. No, I cannot. Can you?

Decorating pumpkin chocolate chip brownies for FHE treats. I got the recipe from nestle.com and they were delicious!

Crazy girls! They love these ridiculous, but fun outfits.

Carolers!
The kids love to go around the house, knocking on doors and caroling. Or just standing in the living room and singing their hearts out. This year Thomas is happy to join in and actually knows a lot of songs.

More carolers, these ones outside our dining room window.

Thomas enjoying a cupcake leftover from when I had the Activity Day girls at my house.

Lexi moving into the girls' room. We had a moving day last week where we moved Thomas into a toddler bed and moved Alexis into Kylie and Madalyn's room, where we put up bunkbeds to make room for her.

Spencer and Thomas helping to take the crib down. Now they have lots of room in their room--at least for a few months.

Madalyn, Spencer, and Kylie at their "School of Song" choir concert. They did great and loved their class this semester.

Playing doctor the other day. Spencer and Alexis had head infections that required surgery and bandages. I'm not sure what the halos were for. :)