Liken It's "Jonah and the Big Fish"

There are very few movies that all of the kids and the adults in the family can agree on watching every Sunday, but the Liken It movies all qualify. We try to watch only "Sunday" movies on Sunday which is usually church movies or a musical. The Liken It movies definitely qualify as both. When we got the set of movies almost 2 years ago we got the soundtracks and the movies. The kids love to watch and hear the stories they have been reading about in their scriptures. We also put the cd's in the car to listen to while we drive to church or everywhere else. The cd's have two parts, the vocals and the instrumental tracks. When the vocal part ends, the little voices from the back of the car say "We want to hear it talk please." They have also started singing along, I think their favorite is "Samuel the Lamanite", with the favorite song being about the "Tarchery Corp" (the Nephite Archery Corp) and yesterday we got a great rendition of "All's well in Zion."

Right before Christmas the cd for the next movie came out and I received it as a birthday present. It went immediately into the cd player and has become a favorite of mine. the songs are great and very singable and I can't wait to get to see the movie/play. It should definitely live up to Liken It's high standard of quality and performance and be a memorable experience for all who attend.

Christmas Quilt

I have been working on and off on this quilt since August and the goal was to have it done by Christmas for someone's present. With everything that was going on, it did not happen, I had issues with inserting some of the seams and then my machine went into the shop and then I had a baby, you can see where the time problems came up. Well, since pictures were asked for, I finally got to pin it together and prep it for quilting and here are the pictures of some of the different sections of it.

First Picnic of the Year

This is for my mom. The weather was about 50 degrees and they really wanted to go outside so Nolan cleaned off their table and let them do exactly what they wanted to do.

One Month

Cyrus is one month old! We survived one month! Wahoo! I have tried with all of my children to take pictures once a month on the same date each month with the same animal. Each child got different animals and Cyrus got this delightful elephant that I love and am trying to find just the right music box to go in it. I have also discovered the main reason why for the first several months baby pictures are all of babies asleep. They like to move around. I snapped a good twenty pictures and these were the only ones that looked remotely clear and good. We are very grateful to have Cyrus in our family and as he becomes more active and alert, the other kids are starting to interact more with him.

My Cutie Pie

As her birthday approaches, I have been doing some sewing for Keileigh. I've had this fabric for a few months now and finally felt like trying to figure this pattern out and make a "twirly" skirt for her. She had picked the pattern and told me that she needed all the different skirts and shirts to match and that we would need to find her just the right shoes and everything to go with it all. This outfit was for her birthday, but she told me that since it was done she needed to wear it and look cute, her words not mine.

Siblings

Trying to assimilate a new baby into the family can be difficult sometimes, but today Knut announced that he wanted to hold his baby brother Cyrus and he wanted me to take his picture. Keileigh decided to get in on the photo op, but Nevan was not getting involved with his. Though later on he looked at Cyrus and announce "Baby. Cy'us." Also we had t take pictures for Oldermor in Norway, the shirt and the booties are ones she had sent a while back, right after Knut had been born.

Shh, he's sleeping

Cyrus still spends a lot of time sleeping, which is good, since Knut was home from school for two weeks and that is a really long time. But I love to watch them sleep and the different positions they can end up in are really cute.

Big Fluffball-a triple threat

My sister Beth had our names for Christmas this year and she got us an awesome cd full of Thanksgiving and Christmas stories. While we had been discussing possible gifts though, I knew she knitted and the kids had recently both picked out some different yarns that they wanted Mommy to make them something with. I am only a beginner at crocheting and so I had mentioned to Beth that I could send her the ayrn and she could make stuff for the kids because she is better than I am. Well Keileigh's stuff came in the mail and she got very excited. I told Keileigh she was my little fluffball, but she turned and looked at me and said, "No Mommy. I'm not little. I'm growing. I'm a big fluffball." Anyway, they turned out cute and she totally wants to take more pictures, but they have to be of the vest with the scarf, it can't be the vest or the scarf on their own.

Christmas morning

I know there are a lot of pictures here, Christmas morning was very full. We feed the missionaries breakfast and then opened presents while on the phone with several of the gifters.


Opening stockings, got to love the dollar store, Nevan and Cyrus got their stockings this year even though there wasn't anything in Cyrus' at least I got it made this year.



Ready to open presents, the guys all got matching pajama pants and Keileigh wore her old Christmas nightgown.
Opening the presents from Grandma and Grandpa

Cyrus received four blankets and a big stack of burp cloths to match, they are such a great size

Nevan got a blanket that said "I make dirt look good", which if you know this little boy is perfect for him.


Keileigh received a pack of chalk and a custom chalkboard




Knut got a quiet book/photo album of Gospel ABC's


Keileigh also got Rosie the train, she loves to play trains with all of her brothers and it is important, at least to her, that some of them are girl trains

Mommy got music for her music maker all the way from Alaska


Daddy got a dvd on World War II and a pie plate




Then Mommy started talking more to Grandma and the kids got to play with another toy, they all got hobby horses, Keileigh named hers Emily Marie and Knut's was named June. Nevan just kept saying "pa-da" when asked about his


New veggie movies, at least for us they are new



While Nevan was opening this, Knut said "a box, that's awesome!" Nolan and I both remember playing with blocks like this when we were little and Nevan had fun for a few minutes stacking until he got distracted by something else.



Then Knut started to open his next rpesent and said "Wow, another box, that's so awesome!"


Inside were two speeder bikes with Luke and a storm trooper, he was really ecited


Cyrus was there, but not really involved, he slept for the most part



Keileigh got a lot of acccessories for her baby doll, we love DI, we got ehr a stroller, and changing table/bassinette, a carrier and a diaper bag, she had to get baby out and was pushing her around for a few days

Nevan snuck a few minutes checking out some of Knut's toys



Reading a book from the cousins while we take a few minutes to calm down after a disappointment


Yes Jared, Knut thinks it's a cool book too


We were visited once again by Santa this year and we were blown away by some of the gifts. Knut and Nevan got cars and puzzles and Keileigh got princess jewelry and a Princess barbie complete with horse. As a family we received the dvd "Up" and Cyrus got some more diapers, always a welcome gift.
If you made it all the way to the end, congratulations. We spent the rest of the day watching some of our new movies and then made pizza for dinner.