these are the amazing world famous Petronas Towers in the capital city of Malaysia. So beautiful! What an awesome picture Dave!

Dave and Dumbo

Dave's feeding a baby elephant peanuts while on study abroad for counseling in Malaysia. I texted him that I hadn't bought tickets to Eva's performance of the Nutcracker yet and that it was sold out and I that I was super stressed that I may not get to see it and he texted me back "bummer! good luck. I'm going to ride an elephant!" Funny boy. He's meeting lots of very interesting and influential people in his field and enjoying himself as well of course but we sure miss him and will especially miss him for the Holidays! We love you DADDY!

Happy First Birthday Baby Elle-Bell

Welcome home sweet sister

Sooo happy to have a sissy!

so tiny, so perfect...

fresh from heaven,

Grandma and Grandpa Wilson gave her a gift and she didn't want to open it. She just carried it around and when Grandma tore it open for her she cried and carried around the pretty paper all devastated that grandma would ruin her pretty present. The kids all thought it was pretty funny.

Not sure she wants to touch it...

Happy Birthday Baby! ( I didn't have any dowels to use to support the cake and it sank as soon as it settled :( oops it wasn't my finest cake moment)

These pictures didn't post in order but they're still fun. Elena didn't want to touch the cake at first--didn't want to get her hands dirty. We eventually helped her dig in and then we couldn't get her out of it. She was literally 'all-in' by the time we were through. She demolished the cake as well as both our clothes and grandma wilson's tablecloth :)

"maybe this stuff IS ok...."

Eating Face first---Loving it!

Can't get enough!

I can hardly believe it! One year old and sooooo stinkin' funny. This girl is a character. She keeps us all on our toes. She loves her brothers and her sissy and wants to do everything that they do. They love her too and I'm afraid she's sooo very spoiled and loved. All three of the older kids dote on her and she adores them for it. She's also got her handsome Daddy completely wrapped around her cute little chubby fingers.

What a great year it's been we've loved every minute of it. Babies really are little miracles, perfect little hands, feet and bodies that grow and learn so fast. What a wonderful gift to be able to watch and love. We are so blessed to have this sweet baby princess in our family- I just want to know why they all think they have to grow so quickly? I hate that they get so big so fast! It breaks my heart to think that in under ten years our babies will start leaving the nest :( I try to dwell on the positive and every little thing they do that I love. Especially when things are hard or I'm so tired I just have to remind myself to enjoy every minute because it's not going to be like this forever, even though sometimes I wish it could be. Today really is a gift 'that's why they call it the present'

Funny Kids!

So I'm becoming the worst blogger! I blog stuff in my head all the time. . ."oh, that was cute I'll post that..." or " haha how funny I'm gonna remember that for the blog..." or most recently... " my baby is growing sooooo fast I need to document all her progress on the blog!"... then things get busy and life happens and all these awesome blog moments stay in the jumble of blog that is my mind. Anyways I don't have tons of time to make a super long catch up post right now but a few thoughts I need to document before they are lost forever because I tend to laugh and then forget details.

Jax- started some new "day vitamins" to help with some things at school and recently read 21 200+ page chapter books in one month. He also told me last night that he used to hate math because it was "his nemesis"- but now "it's super fun" and he's "really good at it" and "loves it!"
We thank Heavenly Father for the marvel and blessing of modern medicine everyday- he's been able to excel so much. We are so grateful for him in our family.

Eva- yesterday morning at breakfast "may I have some mascara on my waffles?" hahaha! I was so confused- it took me a minute, but we figured it out. . . she wanted 'nutella' we had a good laugh- I'm gonna remember to ask her if I can put nutella on her eyes for the nutcracker bwahaha. ( oh yeah -she auditioned for the Nutcracker Ballet and got cast as a cherub with the 7-8 year olds! She was pretty excited because she's the youngest one in her group, all the kids her age were cast as other parts)

Carter- He loves to sing. He's a singing machine and I love it! The other day he was singing The armies of Helamen and when he got to the chorus he sang "...and we will be the armies of evil-men..." Awesome. I loved it and texted it to Dave right away, we both got a good laugh.

Elena- the other night we were reading scriptures while Sharkey was in the tub and then we all heard this SPLASH! I went running in and Elle had managed to pull herself into the tub and was thoroughly pleased with herself. Now we know to watch out anytime the tub/shower's running because she's likely to invite herself in everytime. She loves water! She loves dancing to and she can mooove! :) I'll try to catch her skills on camera and post them here they're pretty intense.

updates of a Great Spring and a Super Summer!

Freezing at a football game! That's Carter and Eva buried under all those blankets

Fire House fun

Jax w/ Sparky the Fire dog

Jaxson's 2nd grade class Luau

Old Papa and Elle at the Cemetery (90+ years of history and 4 generations)

Cute kids, sweet puppies

Chewy and Adina, Wilson kids and Old Papa at Old Nana's Grave (my grandma)

Adorable Princess!

This monkey loved Carter! Followed him and kept putting his hand up to match his. He loved it:)

Awesome Jaxson-eating-Dinosaur, Hogle Zoo had a really neat "Zoo-rassic" dino exhibit

Funny Kids at Hogle Zoo SLC

Carter, Elle and Evy in Ellie's crib- I heard lots of giggling and when I went in they said that they were "putting her to sleep"

Best buddies

Boys "hunting"

Very Pregnant Audi

Daddy's new motorcycle

Easter Egg hunt at Mommer's w/ cousins and all new rain galoshes

Eva as the 'old woman' in her school play with her good buddy Ben (my mom made that dress she's wearing for my baptism day-- funny)

bye-bye mullet

Pretty Ballerina

We've had a great spring, super summer and fantastic fall. For beginners we . . .

We had a huge Easter egg hunt at Mommer's with all the cousins/ aunts and uncles.

Watched Eva graduate Kindergarten and star in the class play "Jack and the beanstalk"

saw Jaxson lip sync to "you aint nothin but a hound dog" with his class at the school talent show (hilarious)

Watched Eva's Ballet/tap dance Recital (so adorable!)

Elena got her first haircut ( no more mullet)

We went to Hogle Zoo with friends ( Elena's first time)

Rode a fun Train and Carousel

Went to our local zoo tons and tons!

Ate and played at park lunch

We went to the fire station open house with the scouts and wore the outfits in a smoke house simulator, shot the fire hose and toured the fire engines.

We spent Memorial day with Old Papa- we went to the 'field of hero's and the cemetery to Old Nana's and other family graves

We Saw an amazing "hands on" taxidermy exhibit at our Library

Elle learned to sit, scoot, "handi-army crawl"( one elbow, one hand, one foot and one knee), really crawl and now stand

Carter learned to count to 25, dress alone (quite uniquely!), put on his own shoes and ride a two wheeler all by himself!

Jaxson played quarterback on his flag football team, and scored lots of touchdowns and threw lots of touchdown passes (so fun to watch!)

Our dear neighbor Farrell turned ninety!

Eva is aspiring to be a world renowned artist and draws nearly constantly- also now that she's become more of an avid reader/ speller she is also writing stories with her illustrations ( very cute :)

We had Family Pictures taken AGAIN ( twice in one year! I'm feeling really happy about that, these kids grow so fast and are sooo adorable) I don't have these back to post yet but will hopefully have them soon.

We bred our sweet boxer Audi with another purebred boxer and had 7 adorable puppies. ( unfortunately 4 had cleft palates and dies with in a few days- but we had 3 to love and play with all summer) We were fortunate enough to sell the remaining 3 pups and make some $ to help pay for grad school.

We had an awesome fireworks show put on by daddy and the kids.

I turned 31 ( Crazy huh?)

I made my very first wedding cake for some friends. It turned out really nice and boosted my ego :)

Jaxson and I made a Rain gutter Regatta Boat (without any manly help) then I ran the actual competition and Jaxsons boat did awesome. It was really fun and we learned a lot about spray paint and sanding wood etc:)

Eva learned how to ride a two wheeler ( only because she was tired of Carter being able to ride one and hers still had training wheels on- I'm pretty sure had he not learned she'd be content to have training wheels forever- funny girl!)

We went on lots of fun summer walks together.

Went swimming/ did slip n slide

played out front together A LOT!

We went to the Mount Timpanogos Temple to see our Dear Aunt Jen and Uncle Nick get sealed for time and all eternity after 9 years of marriage!

We had a fun at an impromptu Wilson Reunion

Dave sold the truck and bought a Motorbike so we saved literally hundreds in gas $ yay!

Jaxson got very brave and moved downstairs into his very own room!

Jaxson found a hobo spider on his pillow two weeks later and moved back upstairs into Carter's room

mommy rearranged all the furniture in nearly every room

Elena rearranged all the contents of nearly every drawer/ cabinet and cubby in every room

Mommy child proofed the house.

Daddy took the boys to scout camp and the scouts on high adventure, mommy and the girls had a ladies night- ate ice cream, did nails and watched pride and prejudice.

Eva learned to hold her breath under water.

The faucet on the house broke so we had to use Farrell's hose overt the fence to water the Garden for a while. looked pretty funny

The dog ate most of the garden :(

We helped Grandma and Grandpa Wilson move from Island Park to Idaho Falls.

We went to Newport Oregon with Grandma and Grandpa Wilson for a week. We saw lots of fun things- a huge aquarium full of sharks, a pirate store, went whale watching on a big boat and saw grey whales, caught and ate lots of fresh crab (yum!). Daddy, Jax, Auntie Heather, Gramma and Grampa all went on a deep sea fishing charter and daddy was really sea sick almost the whole time! Sooo sad :( We walked a lot because the car's starter went out and was in the shop most of the trip. We toured a neat 100+ yr old light house, ate great seafood, went to the beach and swam a lot- we had a great time and I will post pictures soon but my camera died on the second day so I only have a few so Grandma Wilson's gonna get me copies of her pics hopefully.

Elle learned that she really likes eating dirt.

Aunt Krista got her Mission Call to Argentina, Mendoza- leaving Oct 19th

Our sweet puppy Audi went to heaven :(

Elena got 8 teeth, and graduated to a forward facing car seat

We ate ice cream and popsicles to cool down, played with puppies, cousins and friends

We all got some awesome sun tans and funny tan lines

Built forts, played hide and seek, freeze tag, were very very silly and laughed a lot!

We feel very blessed to have had sooo much fun together:)

Mommy will post more pictures/ updates soon!

"I'm Still a Boy"

This is when we decorated Easter Eggs, Carter mostly just decorated himself, and I'm not sure why the other too are so solemn looking. . .

Here's a close up of the silly Sharkey, he's always keeping us laughing!

These are some funny spongebob sunglasses he picked out with his tickets at the arcade

(He usually wears them upside down though)

So the other day Eva and Carter were playing Robin Hood in Eva's room. I was in the kitchen listening while feeding Ellie. It was pretty cute to overhear their make believe. At first Eva was being Robin Hood as a beggar- she was walking around with a fake cane wearing a baggy old cape type thing and carrying a cup saying "alms for the poor" in a funny old-person voice. Carter was alternating between being Prince John and sucking his thumb and holding his ear and being Skippy the boy bunny with a bow and arrow. They played that way for a while and then they switched roles and Carter was the blind robin hood but instead of saying "alms for the poor" he walked all around he house saying "I'm Still a boy". It was pretty funny! I was dying inside but he was so serious I couldn't laugh out loud and hurt his feelings:) But in case there was any questions. . . .he's still a boy lol. I love these silly kids.

Growing up tooo fast!

"Catching butterflies" in her bouncer (there are toy butterflies on it so that's what the kids call it) and Chillin with her baby. She loves this little mommy doll. Eva loved it too, but Elena uses the poor thing for a binky.

Pretty Easter Dress from Mommers

"Look how strong I am!"- she loves being more mobile I'm pretty sure she's dying to run around with the other kids.

VERY FIRST BITE! Hilarious, Mary's feeding her so I could take pics but I was laughing really hard so they're not gret pics:)

Our sweet Baby Ellie is growing so fast! in these pics she's six months and pushing up on her tummy, eating her first bite of baby cereal (and absolutley hating it!), rolling over and babbling to dollies. She was on the 75-90th for head (hooray she's growing into it!) and her weight and off the charts for her height. She's gonna be tall like her Daddy.

Eva's 6th!

When we asked her what she wanted most she said "dangly" earrings- now I was never allowed to wear "dangly" earrings and I wasn't so sure this was a good idea but . . .I absolutely love them now and so I bought them for her, and she loves them! :) Funny the things we do huh?

She also wanted stuff from the "American Girls Magazine" accessoried to go with her American Girl Doll "Lori" she got for Christmas.

The vanity chair came with fake scissors, hair dryer, styling cape and a brush so fun:)

Hooray for new littlest pet shops!

So Eva turned six April 16th and I am really behind --but here are some of the highlights:) We are so blessed to have this sweet little princess in our family. She is always the first to say I'm sorry, give hugs, write little encouraging love notes and draw pretty pictures/cards for everyone. She is a great peace maker and has a big loving heart. I'm so grateful that I am blessed to be her mommy! For her birthday she wanted to take pumpkin chocolate chip cake to school with pink, purple and blue cream cheese frosting. It was a hit! I didn't get a picture because of the morning craziness with a newborn, baking and getting two kids off to school, but it was cute and everyone in her class loved it and had seconds! Her teachers all asked for the recipe and she was completely thrilled:) That was Friday and her birthday wasn't actually until Saturday so we opened presents and had her "real" cake and family party the next day. She got a bucnh of accessories for her Lori doll ( thank you Wal-mart/Target:) and she asked for a littlest pet shop cake which turned out pretty cute too. I LOVE THIS LITTLE GIRLY GIRL!