Brenna the Birthday Girl

Luckily, the countdown to Brenna's birthday is very short after Grant's special day.  Brenna asked for weeks and weeks how many days it would be until her birthday.  This girl was born old.  She is ready to race through young childhood and can't wait to claim a larger number as her own.  We tried, in vain, to convince her to do a party just with our family and go somewhere special.  

She opted for an at home friend party.  Because Brenna has a winter birthday, we thought we would make it a BRRR-thday party.  We invited her buddies to come in pj's, play games, decorate sugar cookies and drink hot chocolate.  Ironic that this year, for her winter party, the temperature was in the 60's!  Winter has been skipped this year.  It is almost eerie.  We played pin the carrot on the snowman (on the front door), blindfolded kids to scoop snow (cotton balls), freeze dance, popped balloons to find a special snowflake, played frozen peas (hot potato) etc.  I believe it was a hit.  Here is a pic of the group: Katelee, Audrey, Cooper, Kate, Madison, Brenna, Keira, Kinley, Cooper C, Jane, Boden, Megan and Emree.

The friend party was a few days before her actual day of birth, so she still had the 10th to look forward to.  

 It was a preschool day, so she filled out her VIP poster with pertinent information...favorite animal (giraffe), favorite food (white bread), what she wants to be when she grows up (a missionary), her favorite place (Disneyland), what she likes to do (dance, color and play with friends), favorite color (pink) and a wish (Elsa's freezing powers).  And off she went to Miss Amy's.  Brenna has decided she should be done with preschool, and should be in kindergarten.  To her delight, and my horror, it will be here before we know it.  

After school, we prepped for her family celebration.  Dinner consisted of Ham, broccoli, cheese rolls and chocolate dipped strawberries, as per the 5 year old's request.  

She opened presents.  Grandma and Shannon were there.  Grandpa McArthur was in town.  Aunt Amy and Mark stopped by, as well as cousin Michael.  She was thrilled with her gifts, and had to pull a crazy face holding each one.  

Then, cake and ice cream.  Who knows why this pic won't turn for me, but it's a tiara, if you can't tell.  This little darling is one prissy princess.  Everyday she loads on the make-up, to the dismay of Katelee, because most of Katelee's make-up stash has been discovered and used.  Every outfit must be accessorized and she frequently designs her own hairstyles.  I don't even explain to people when she wears one side of her head a piggy tail and the other a tiny clip on top or a braid pinned across her head that she desired it so.  They have to know it was from her orders, or they feel sympathy for my lack of hairstyling skills.  Both assumptions would be accurate.  

Every year we have seemed to capture a photo of Brenna gazing dreamily at her lit up cake.  I love it because each year has the look of  'this is the greatest moment of my life' on it.  She exclaimed after her friend party.  "Best. Party.Ever."  Then she said "Best. Day. Ever." after her family party.  As I was tucking her in, she was asking when her next birthday would be!!  Ha!

 Harry wheeled around Brenna's overnight bag and donned the paper crown. Brenna was so excited to have a special over night sleepover alone with grandma, we knew she needed a new bag for it. 

  It was wild times at our house, perfectly fitting of our wild child.  Our family, no, the world would not be the same without Brenna.  She makes up saucy dances daily, orders everyone around, makes me laugh and scares me all at the same time!  She is a mover and a shaker and we love her more than she will ever know!! (even if she proudly and unabashedly eats her boogers...after being sick the other day, Shannon told her maybe it was something Brenna ate.  Brenna wouldn't believe Shannon because she only eats 'boogers and food."  Brenna tried to convince Shannon on the tastiness of the slimy mucus, but Shannon has yet to be swayed!)

Double Digit Dude

A decade ago, I was learning how to be a mom.  Fast forward ten years and I am still trying to learn how to be a mom!!  But, it has been an amazing and eventful decade and we got to celebrate the boy who started it it all!!

Grant turned the big 1-0 a few days ago!  He had a really busy fun filled week!!  On Monday, Dave took Katelee, Grant and his best buddy, Matthew to see the Harlem Globetrotters!!!  It was an awesome birthday activity (so I hear!).

The kids came back laughing, telling me all about the players, their tricks and the one who wore a skirt as underwear...not so sure about that, but they claimed it was true!  

 A couple of days later, Dave and Grant were back at the Energy Solutions Arena with Grant's junior jazz team.  All the teams got tickets to an NBA game and so we pretended that they organized it in honor of Grant's day of birth!  Ha!  The seats were apparently the second row from the top.  Dave could only handle the nosebleeds for so long.  By the second half, he had convinced Grant and Mikey to find some empty seats closer to the floor.  The Jazz lost, but the night was a win!

 The next day was the actual birthday.  Grant requested Dad's buttermilk pancakes for breakfast, so Dave obliged.  After school, he got to go to his first Webelos meeting and played outside until the birthday dinner was ready...quiche for dinner and a donut cake for dessert!!

Grandma and Shannon came and as you can tell, he was delighted by their gift-a Kandama.  Apparently, they are all the rage right now.  He has been showing us all the tricks, I can't remember most of their names, but many of them have animal references... so he sounds like he is practicing his zoo techniques nicely!  Who knows?

He also got a new watch and a huge bike.  I mean gigantic.  We shopped and decided he is pretty much into grown up bikes.  What?!  When did this happen?!  I sat up the night before his birthday and looked at old pictures, thought about the memories we've made with him over the last 10 years, and I got a little teary (shocker!). My arms ache for that chubby little red headed baby with the puckered up lips. I miss that sweet little 3 year old stinker, asking for toilet paper as a gift, or the 5 year old Star Wars Jedi twirling light sabers to his very own sound effects.   I can't believe it's been two years since he was baptized.  I miss that little fella, but boy can I say how we are loving this little man.  We had some interesting phases and I know there are so many more challenges to come.  He is a good hearted boy and I have treasured every minute and smile with him.  We sure love our Grant!!!!  Because I know the time passes oh so quickly, I let Harrison do stuff like this everyday:

It drives Dave crazy!!!  Ha Ha!

December's Doings

 So, December has come and gone and with it another year.  Man, I'm sure I say this every year, but where does the time go?  And how in the world did I get here?  The questions of how did this all happen I wonder on a more frequent basis when I look in the mirror and see a grown up and not the 21 year old college student I feel like.  And four kids?!  I sometimes feel like I am just playing house.  Here is what our play looked like last month:

Brenna had a glorious dance recital.  She had her performance smile plastered and loved being on stage.  She loves to dance and she loves feeling beautiful, so recitals are days she lives for.  

Harrison got his first haircut:

He was unsuccessful in his attempts to avoid the razor.  Poor kid and his double cowlicks.  Those little swirls are going to severely limit his hair styling options in the future!  But, he came out with balloon and sucker in hand looking like a big boy.  

The kid thinks he rules the roost.  I can't keep anything clean, but if he is busy and not hanging onto my leg wanting to be held, I encourage the destruction...to a point.  Harrison loves me A LOT.  I know all babies adore their mommas and moms in turn, are enamored by their little ones.  But, this boy really really loves me.  He doesn't have stranger anxiety, its not a clingy-ness due to fear, he just looks at me with unconditional adoration and needs to be with me all the time.  As tricky as that can be, I am trying to soak it all in because before I know it, he will be 4 and asking to have another family (like someone else I know).  

He really does bring so much joy to our home.  I hope I can adopt that open love...loving without restraint, making it apparent on my face when my family walks in how happy I am to be near them.  I wish I could capture the innocence and joy forever...so I have to document it, so I know it was real!  

Holiday festivities were in full swing, of course!  We had preschool programs, 

a ward party, work party, caroling to a rehab center.  Christmas wishes were made-like someones two front teeth!  (How often does that timing really work out!?)

I do not enjoy looking at the teeth hanging by threads or twisting in mouths.  It makes me grossed out.  So, when my kids start tying strings to their teeth and the other end of the string attached to a door knob or bow and arrow, I run and wait for them to show me the result.  

We went to our annual Christmas with Santa breakfast.  It was delightful! Minus me seeing a kid spew all over the floor...at least it wasn't one of our children, I guess!

Christmas Eve party at Grandma's was fun.  With Brad's family in Colorado, Becca in China, Rachel on her mission, and Paige and Jason in California, numbers were smaller.  But, at least we had some reminders of the Cali family...

Christmas morning was extra magical because all month long we were longing for snow.  The kids woke up Christmas to a blanket of fluffy flakes ready to play in!  (After presents and breakfast, of course).

 I had a few favorite parts of Christmas this year.  First, I love the books Katelee makes.  She made the sweetest present for Grant:

It warms my heart when my kids show each other that they do indeed care about one another!  That was the other best part of Christmas.  I think the most excited each person got was when someone was opening a present they purchased.  Like this little stick of deodorant Brenna was thrilled to find at the dollar store for dad!!

 But really, they ran to each other and hugged and were so grateful...it was a proud momma  moment.  We hung out and played all day, rode around on unicorns...

 read books in Santa jammies that dad said can never be sported again!  I can't believe it!  I think Harrison looks mighty jolly!

 Played Legos, Clue, watched movies and just chilled.  It was fantastic!!

 We loved having the two week break from school, staying up til midnight for New Years Eve and getting moved to 11 am church!  Wahoo!  While I don't know where time has gone, I do know that I want to appreciate each day with this crew of mine.  I want to live 2015 fully and with purpose!  May it be one of our best!

 

A Hallmark Holiday

I love this time of year for so many reasons.  I love the stories and movies of relatives across the country gathering together.  Many times the family members haven't seen each other for years and before you know it, they are laughing, eating, dancing and arm wrestling.  Yep, we lived that holiday special at our house over Thanksgiving!

The week started with our fist set of visitors- Russell, Lisa and their girls, Megan and Lizzy.  While we missed Daniel, Jordan and Adam, it was great to show Megan and Lizzy a couple things the great state of Utah has to offer.  

Grandma, Grandpa came next and were so surprised to see Curt and Anna in town from Georgia.  It was a Thanksgiving miracle getting 7 of the 8 McArthur siblings together!  We missed Serena and lots of the cousins/grandkids, but when a family is gi-normous, you take what you can get!  

The day before Thanksgiving, we cooked for hours, awaited the driving family from Arizona, saw a movie, and some went to Park City.  It was all in preparation for the big feast...

The tables were done up so festive-ly!  The warm candle on the main table, pine cones and glitter, a photo booth name card for seat assignments all courtesy of Anna and Amy (and the Joseph Smith Memorial Building Catering Department- nice to know people in high places!  Thanks Amy!).

The turkey bowl was played, no major injuries occurred-a few pulled muscles, but what do you expect?!  I have the best neighbors who let us use their ovens and refrigerators, so we had 5 places to chill things and 3 ovens in use.  It made it so much easier than I anticipated and the spread did not disappoint::

We dined on: rolls, turkey, ham, gravy, veggie tray, cheeseball, cheeselog, crackers, broccoli salad, squash casserole, pretzel jello, baked pineapple, sweet potato souffle, sausage stuffing, cornbread dressing, mashed potatoes, and yes...lact-aid pills in the middle.  There were gluten free cheese rolls for Katelee (in the above picture), she put a sheet of paper over them that said "gluten free-ALL MINE."  I took it off the bowl a few times but she had cheese roll radar and ran over to place it back on whenever someone eyed those precious bread balls.  

Happy faces at the girl table:

Big bellies at the boy table:

My parents stopped by to say hello to the out of towners.  Here is my mom with Catherine, Kimber and me.  

 Russell, Lisa, Carl and David anticipating the big event....DESSERT

 Time to indulge on pumpkin pies, banana pudding, brownies, four layer dessert, caramel pecan pie, chocolate silk pie, pecan tassies, chocolate chip cookies and apple pie.  We thought this would cover it, but apparently McArthur boys can not live with out strawberry pie...which totally says summer to me, but whatever.  It was demolished first!

 And then, we just chilled.  Here is Ben, Matt and Brian letting it all settle...

 Malia looking cute, Brandon in a sugar coma...

Baby Jack trying to call someone on Michael's phone...

 

Baby Harry being entertained by cousin Lizzy...

It was all pretty laid back with the 30+ people at the house,

 

So, we thought we needed to add more spice to the mix!  

Aunt Sophia, Uncle Skip and most of their Lehfeld crew came over, topping it off with some dancing, a program by the kids and an arm wrestling tournament.  

My money was on Dave's cousin Ben here, from the beginning...sorry Russell!

The next day some family went up to see the snow in the mountains.  Trenton's first time experiencing snow at Snowbird was fun for everyone there.  There was a group who went bowling.  Aunt Anna and Grandma took Brenna and Katelee to get their nails painted at the salon.  Then, we all gathered downtown to see the lights at temple square.  

I'm not gonna lie, that was slightly chaotic, but the weather was fantastic and the lights beautiful, as always.  

I wish I could photoshop Serena in, but here are the original McArthur 8 (7 of them) with their parents.

Anna, Amy, Dave, Russell, Catherine, Carl, Dean, Brian and Brent

Most of the family left that weekend, but Carl and Catherine spent a few extra days with us to see the Festival of Trees, Savior of the World, Katelee's diving, Grant's junior jazz, the First Presidency Devotional, etc.

So good to see everyone!!  This last pic pretty much sums up how we felt with our family...there were definite tears saying goodbye.  We hope to gather again soon, but for now, I am pooped!