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.