Pappa look alike

Since Kyler was born, we have heard many thoughts on who he looks like.....a little like Mom?...Dad?...Ellie?  Maybe so.  However, it wasn't until we saw the following pic that we realized, he has a long, lost twin.

Walah!....Kyler's twin!  Or is it Papa's twin?  It is amazing how much this Kyler resembles his Papa.  The smile, the hair, but most importantly....

....the swagger!

Ellie's 9th Birthday

This year, Elliana decided she wouldn't let the "cold bother her anyway," and she had a Frozen-themed birthday party.  

As tradition goes, Mommy prepared a special cake -- this year it was an Elsa cake.

Rather than traditional birthday party games, Ellie decided all she wanted was theater-type experience with the movie "Frozen" as the main feature.  Daddy meticulously drew this poster to add to the experience.

Each girl had to show their ticket stubs to get enter the "movie theater" which had a concession stand with lots of goodies and a big screen projection on the wall.

It was fun to see Ellie's friends from soccer, school, and church come together.  Interestingly, their personalities all seemed to match Ellie's sweet little personality.

The Frozen party ended up being a fun, memorable party, even if it lacked the crazy games that we usually do.

About Elliana...
She is in love with Frozen at the moment and loves busting out the songs with her sisters.  She has really excelled in school this year especially in Math, but mostly in her confidence as a student.  She is really small for her age, but that hasn't stopped her competing with the older kids in soccer as she has been playing competitive soccer with kids a year older than her and has continued to thrive.  She loves creating new Rainbow Loom creations and is constantly discovering new ones to master off of YouTube. We love seeing her confidence grow!

Staycation at MOA

This spring break we decided a nice staycation was in order.  As all our kids are now big enough to ride the rides together, we decided to venture to Nick Universe at Mall of America.  

Kyler was pulled over for reckless driving on this ride.

Aubrie decided go on the biggest ride she could find which she was barely eligible for.

Teyah was able to ride the swings solo for the first time ever.

And Kyler was thrilled to go with daddy for his first time "flying" on the swings as well.  Although our spring break was filled with snow-filled days, we had a blast together as a family.

Kid crafted Valentine's Day boxes

After much thought and research, the girls made these Valentine's boxes all on their own.  Aubrie went with the old-school rubics cube.  Elliana went with a cute little Valentine puppy. We were proud of them, but they were discouraged when they went to school to find their peers' Pinterest-perfect over-the-top V-day boxes. It's a different world than the one I grew up in. I love Aubrie's mouth (she made out of a letter "D" sticker) and Ellie's little heart over the puppy's eye.

Jack and the Beanstalk

For the past several years, Aubrie has dreamed of the day that she could have a big speaking part in the week-long school theater experience. This year she finally achieved her goal and was chosen for a fun speaking part in a goofy adaptation of Jack and the Beanstalk.  

Aubrie was chosen for her gymnastic skills to be a "circus clown" and her best buddy, Alexa was chosen as Jack's sister. They were selected for their parts on Monday, learned their parts in a few days, and performed it live on Friday and Saturday.

Aubrie didn't get a whole lot of sleep this week, but that didn't matter.  The excitement of the week pulled her through for a memorable performance -- which probably won't be her last.

Sea World Magic

After spending a few days at Disney, we decided to truly go "under the sea" at Sea World. Our kids loved being up-close to these amazing sea creatures. We had originally booked several days at Sea World, but ultimately decided against it when we learned that the killer whale show had been shut down a few weeks prior to our trip.  After voicing our displeasure with this and other customer service issues, we were invited to enjoy a free day at the park!   

One of the highlights of the day was having the chance to feed the dolphins. Ellie and Teyah took a little longer to be brave enough to do it, but they all loved the opportunity.

Aubrie was the bravest of the three!

Even though the killer whale show was "under construction," we did have the chance to see the orcas training and playing.

Dave isn't the biggest fan of the cheesy animal shows, but I have always really loved Sea World.

Disney Magic

After enduring several weeks of one of the coldest Minnesota winters on record, the troops were more than ready for a getaway to the "happiest place on earth."  

Although the week was filled with temps ranging 45-80 and some rainy, total wash-out days, there weren't too many complaints from our crew as our weather back home reached wind chills of -40, with two days of school being canceled.

This vacation was full of several special moments. Our girls loved the brand new attraction at Disney World where they were able to interact with Belle in her home. Even though it's blurry, we love the expression on Ellie's face in this shot.

Kyler loved interacting with all the new Cars' attractions, but his favorite may have been jumping aboard a Star Wars hoverbike. 

At one point the line to visit Anna and Elsa reached five hours!! No joke. But, we decided to get in line in a total downpour at the very end of the day and only ended up waiting an hour. This put a new meaning to 'Frozen', yet even being drenched we knew we still were in a warmer place than Minnesota. My mom joined us on our trip, and devoted Grandma did most of the waiting in the rain.

Ninja stance!!

I'm not exactly sure what's going on with this picture!

We were fortunate to not only have my mom join us, but my sister Lauren joined us for part of our trip. Lauren wasn't too excited about the weather, but we were sure excited to have her with us!

This little pirate loved watching the Jack Sparrow show, even though Mr. Extrovert was too shy to go up on stage!

Argh!!!

Hit it! Even though he had her do it right handed! Haha!

Such a cute crew!

I love my mama! She's so beautiful inside and out!

This is the first time we've been to Disney that we've actually stayed after dark!

It's fun having our kids be a little older where we all can enjoy things -- like Big Thunder Mountain!

Aubrie's 11th B-Day

For Aubrie's 11th birthday, she chose to throw a glamorous, star-studded event to celebrate the big day.

She had an evening full of Oscars, popcorn, and movie treats to create an evening of movie-making magic.

Everyone was dressed as a famous "star" and walked the red carpet as they entered the event.  Aubrie was dressed as Ashley Tisdale.

We had a famous train in attendance....

The very well-known "Jeremy" from Studio C.

We even had an honorary member of One-Direction "Harry Styles" join the fun.

Aubrie's theme fit in perfectly with all of her friends' bubbly, theatrical personalities. They pulled together some hilarious short films that we later watched on the big screen. 

About Aubrie...

1. Aubrie is a sweetheart who is empathetic and kind.

2. She is an all-around all-star -- there's not much she's not good at doing.

3. Aubrie is an amazing speller and spells better than her teacher.

4. She is a talented writer. Her teacher keeps telling her she is certain writing is in her future.

5. Aubrie is a talented ballet dancer. She works hard and is quite attentive -- not to mention flexible, strong, coordinated...

6. She loves to talk and talk and talk and talk. She never misses a single detail about her day.

7. She is nervous to graduate from elementary school and start middle school next year. At this point, she's not excited but just worried.

8. Speaking of worried, she definitely is a worrier.

9. She's becoming quite the pianist! She's been playing prelude music at church for Primary.

Winter fun

We enjoyed a few firsts to help enjoy this year's extra cold winter. Kyler went ice skating for the first time! They loved it even though the wind made it pretty miserable out. This adventure occurred during one of our six days of cancelled school! School is almost never cancelled here, so the fact that we missed so many days speaks to how cold AND snowy our winter was. It was a rough one to say the least.

When it got too cold, we went indoors to enjoy some roller skating instead. This was a first for Kyler too.

Playing in the backyard snow is definitely not a first, but this is a cute winter picture anyway!

The most wonderful time of the year!

Kyler loved his Joy School nativity program. I think he may have been the super singer, leading the group.

Sometimes we realize there are many life experiences we accidentally forget to give to children #3 and #4. We have done them a couple times with the older two, so we don't realize the younger two have never done them. And, sitting on Santa's lap is one of those! Grandma waited in the hour-long line so we could have a visit with the Man in Red. Kyler and Teyah LOVED it! I'm so glad we took the time -- and even more grateful to Grandma for doing all the work!

With our nutty Nutcracker December, no cookies had been made at our house. As soon as it was over, Grandma made sure our cookie Christmas was saved!

Years ago, I instituted a self-indulgent tradition that we give our kids Christmas pajamas on Christmas Eve. I don't think the kids appreciate it, but I think it makes for awesome pictures. If you look closely, we had Santa, two elves and reindeer pj's!

 

We all worked on this terribly difficult puzzle all December. But we accomplished it!

I love the literal fashion sense of a 4-year-old! There is nothing better!

The kids planned and carried out our family Christmas Eve program. It was pretty typical to the plays these kids incessantly plan and perform.

I love when these kids love each other and play well! I'm actually quite lucky because they usually really play well together.

Ellie had a special Christmas because our kids have begged for a pet for years. We always said no, but Santa didn't listen and brought Ellie a fish, she named Sparkles. Sadly, the Beta fish lived only a week. We replaced it, however, and the new one, she named Aquamarine (or Aki for short) is faring much better.

Kyler's dream came true by receiving TWO light sabers! I didn't expect to have a son who is so into weapons -- this has completely come from him. But, it's fun to see how totally different boys are from girls and to have different things to shop for!

We love our little elf Teyah! She is the biggest sweetheart and this outfit fits her so well!

Grandma always comes through with the best gifts! This is their reaction when they went downstairs and saw this...

An indoor trampoline is the perfect gift for our looooooooong winters. Clearly, Grandma is definitely the Christmas hero -- well, of course, other than the hero Jesus Christ, who is the reason for the season.