Christmas Baby...

My mom. {She was born on christmas eve and shares her special day with my Great Grandmother Fay.} Growing up I always felt kinda bad for my mom, having her birthday so close to christmas. But now as I look at it, I think its pretty cool that she was born on christmas eve. Christmas time is such a special time of year. There is just something different in the air when its the holidays. Its the time of year we celebrate the birth of our Savior. And it seems our hearts are more full of gratitude and giving. More softened and loving. So I would think its a privilege to share your birth day with HIS spirit so strong in our hearts. I am happy my mom was born. Not only because I would not be here without her but because she is a very special person. I am grateful for her and her love. Not only is she beautiful on the outside but on the inside too. Happy Birthday Mom! We love you!

10 months...

Nothing like turning 10 months old and having a double ear infection! Poor Carly has been sick for weeks now and today I made a third trip to the doctor in two weeks to see what was going on with her. We have all been fighting the sicknesses and so to be sick and also have a sick baby has not been very fun. When the doctor told me that she had a double ear infection, I was relieved that its something that can be easily taken care of. They are pretty bad, so she had to have a shot and oral antibiotics. What makes me mad about this is I just saw a dumb PA on thursday and she probably missed this. She Carly suffered all weekend with this. I could go on about our health care in the country but I wont:)
About our sweet Carly Jane...
She crawls EVERYWHERE! Has no problem going up the stairs. But coming down is what we are working on. She gets to the top and hangs on the the railing and yells for someone to come and get her!
She has two teeth now
Can wave Bye-bye
Gives kisses, with her mouth open, which I find so dang cute!
Says Hi
Loves food! Anything and everything:)
Says "mama" "dada" "hey" and "Auba" for Aubrie. Its so cute.
Puts everything in her mouth, which can be very gross at times.
Is obedient when I tell her "no"
Carly bug is such a sweetie! I feel grateful to have this little monkey in our family!

All I Want for Christmas...

Is my TWO FRONT TEETH!

Girl's Night Out...

Last Saturday Night I took my girl's {minus Carly} out for some girl time. Mann Dance was having their annual Nutcracker Ballet, Aunt Becky gave us some tickets, so the girls were so excited to go and see it. I told Aubrie and Brynley they could pcik anywhere they wanted to have dinner and of course they picked Blue Moon Diner. I think they only want to go there because they can choose their own milkshake! We had a nice time at dinner and at the ballet. My girls are so sweet and special to me. Both of them make me laugh and are so fun to be around.


Aubs took this picture of me and I promised her i would put it on my blog:)

Vegas...

I am really bad right now at blogging. Sorry. My life is filled with so much right now, I am finding it hard to sit down and have some time to update about stuff. The first of December we went to Vegas for Mary's surprise birthday party. And man, did we have the best time ever.
My dad had a spectacular party planned for her at their favorite restuarant THE PRIME on their private patio overlooking the Bellagio fountains. It was awesome! Thanks Dad for including us and we had a fantastic time!
We did a few things while we were there too. We got to see The Lion King, we went to the Luxor and saw BODIES and TITANIC exhibits. And also the CSI experience at the MGM Grand. Caleb rode the roller coaster at New York,New York. We did some shopping and lots of yummy eating:) We also met Elvis...pic below. heehee.

Blessings...

Thanksgiving. I looked it up in the dictionary and this is the definition:the act of giving thanks; a prayer expressing gratitude; a public acknowledgment or celebration of divine goodness.
I have much to "give thanks" for. If I really think about all that I have been blessed with, I am in awe of the multitude of blessings. I am so very grateful for my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I know that without them, I would not be here. I would not have the blessings I have. My loving husband, my sweet children, my wonderful parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles,stepsiblings,nieces and nephew, cousins, my inlaws and life saving friends. I am grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and I feel gratitude for being a member of the LDS church. I have good health and my kids are healthy. I have a warm home and a car that makes my life easier. My husband has a job for which I am very grateful for. We are able to have fun together and travel and for that I am grateful. But its the little things I find myself having much humbleness for- my children's laughter, their smiles and innocence. I love that my husband calls me to tell me good night when he is working night shift. I cherish phone conversations with my dad and his constant charity, I feel blessed to have a mom who understands how hard it can be to be a mother and listens to my challenges, I adore my stepmom who makes me laugh, I love my sister who lets me call and bug her for recipes, my brother that reminds me how much I have to be grateful for, my grandma Kim who will drop anything to come and help me with something, my grandfather who shows me how strong a person can be, my stepdad for being an example of compassion, for my sweet friends Monique, Diana,Roxanna, Melissa, Katie, Lisa, Rachel B.,Stephanie,Lisa C., Michelle, Lyndsie, and my ward family for being life savers.
And to this I must tell you that I see DIVINE GOODNESS in so many things in my life. Thus I am grateful and feel very BLESSED.

Poor Carly...

My sweet baby has been sick for the past two days! We took her to the doctor and he said that she has a bad stomach virus and there wasnt much we could do but push the fluids and make sure she doesn't get dehydrated. I was up with her most of the night, she hasnt been keeping much down. However, a little bit of progress happened tonight, she ate soem baby rice cereal and apple juice and has successfully kept it down now. So crossing my fingers that she is on the mend. Never has any of the kids been sick like this before. I can say that Carly holds the record for puking the most on both Mitch and I! Thought these pics were cute that Mitch got of her at the dr. last night.

One for Aubs...

I have recently realized that I haven't done a personal post for my sweet Aubs lately. I know it can be hard to make sure that each child in a large family gets the same amount of attention and recognition, being that I have four! My time is so hard to give equally to all of the kids each day. I literally have to split myself into four and sometimes with the needs of other people and responsibilities, I find it hard to "do it all." But someone who is so patient with me and doesn't ask much from me is Aubrie. She is content with doing what I ask of her and calmly waiting her turn for my attention. Lovely Aubs. You melt my heart with your thoughtfulness and love each day. You are my precious.
Aubrie came home today with a award from school for RESPECT. She was so thrilled to show me! Love that she is so good in school- Makes my job easier as a mom:) So happy and proud of you Aubs.






Also she just finished up her soccer season and really enjoyed her team this year. This year it wasn't co-ed like in years past, it was an all girls team. She had some of her friends from school on her team Chaos, is what they called themselves. They did really good, even beat a boys team in their same age group! Love watching my kids play sports and have fun doing it. Go Aubs!

Nerd Mom...

Yes, I am a nerd. I took a picture of Caleb's name at the school bulletin board. He was the only boy in the entire 6th grade to be on the All A's Honor Roll. So proud of him!

And she's out...

Carly feel asleep after she ate lunch, while eatin her cookie:) So sweet baby!

Cookie Cutters...

I have always loved Halloween! It's the one day of the year when you can be someone you aren't and get away with it. SO I have always been big on letting my kids choose their own costume even if it wasn't something I agreed on. I think its cool to let kids be what they want because you only get so many Halloween's before it becomes not cool to dress up.
My kids always get the saying "Gosh they are cookie cutter kids" I guess because they all look so much alike and like me. {Sorry honey its true.} But cookie cutters on their personalities...I think NOT! As you can see they all chose something different for their costumes. Crazy kids!

Caleb found this scary mask at the Halloween store and just had to have it. For those of you who don't know Caleb is a huge fan of scary movies and being scared. His main thrill in life is to scare people. Just ask his sisters! So he went as a "cereal" killer. Get it. PS- Caleb layed on our front porch and played dead by the candy bowl, and had his cell phone playing the Halloween movie theme, he scared half the neighborhood.


Aubs loves the play WICKED and so she was Elphaba. Because there isnt any cooler witch out there than her- except Aubs!


Bryn has been wanting to be a vampire for such a long time. I remember when I asked her she said "I want to scare people and be a vampire" She is our gross girl. She loves blood and scary things, just like Caleb. When someone has a cut and is bleeding she has to see it and hear all the gory details about it. She loves CSI and I cant help but let her watch some parts because she is fascinated with it. When she grows up she will either be a surgeon or a "cereal" killer. Let's hope for the surgeon.






Carly poo was a monkey. She was so cute, I couldnt bring myself to put makeup on her cute mug. She had her first sucker and loved it!





PS- My dad is super cool. He called the house and left a message with lyrics from the Thriller song for the kids. He made a cool voice and laugh and when it was over Bryn asked "Who was that?" I told her it was Papa Terry and she replied "Wow, he is a good storyteller!" Cute.

Pumpkins...The Lybrook Way

Here are our Pumpkins for this year! Each of the kids picked out their own one and chose their own stencil. (Sorry my pics are kinda blurry, my camera is having issues)


Carly's Kitty Pumpkin


Aubrie's face that she made


Caleb's weird one


Bryn's vampire one (I swear this child will be some weird gothic girl)

Climber...

We have our hands full...

Pumpkin Patch...

Today Brynley's preschool class went to the Pumpkin Patch. When Aubrie found out that Bryn was going I could tell she really would love to go too. So I allowed Aubrie to go along with us and even miss school. I felt bad about Caleb missing out so I extended the invite to him, thinking he wouldnt dare miss school. But to my surprise, he wanted to go tag along too! So I let the kids miss school to go with us to the Pumpkin Patch. It was so very cold this morning but the kids still had a good time together. We rode the hayride, the train, ate popcorn, played in the corn pit and went through the corn maze. Mitch was cool to remember the camera but I forgot that I had been using the camera card and it was still in the computer at home:(
So I didnt think I would get our annual pictures of the kids showing their height. But my sweet friend Cindy took thier pics for me and sent me them. Yay! I cant believe how big they are getting!
**Notice they are all about a foot apart. Cool huh!

He isnt going to be tall or anything! Geez, Cal slow down would ya!

Gonna be tall like her mama!

Our shorty!


Trying to pick the perfect "little" pumpkin.