2nd Christmas

Every year our family does our own thing for Christmas eve and Christmas morning, and then on Christmas day in the afternoon when we've had our naps and cleaned up we head to my parent's house for "2nd Christmas". We act just like it is Christmas eve, and do all of our normal traditions and wake up and open presents on 2nd Christmas morning. It is a great way to extend the holiday!We played spoons, which got a little violent. My little finger is black and blue and was swollen, and I still wasn't the reigning champ!

Ella, Caden, Ashley, Emma, Levi and Kiara. Naomi went to bed early so she is missing in this photo.
Me, Derek, and Trent listening to dad's recitation of "The Raven" by Edgar Allen Poe. Unfortunately, Trent is the only one who followed what was happening. I liked to listen to the rhyming though! :)
Dad reading out loud from the Edgar Allen Poe book he got from Trent (the literary expert in the family) for Christmas.
Caden was beyond exhausted, two days in a row of Christmas fun and late night partying, but he perked up when he saw the cereal.

Sunday Best and Christmas Fun

Ward Christmas party. Emma was so excited for this party b/c she could sing "Hosanna!" (which she did probably 87 times over the course of the week). Then I came home from Kiara's soccer game to see Emma dressed in blue and red and high heels with a matching snowman headband on all dressed up and ready for the big party. What could I do? She sang her Hosanna's with great gusto and held up her skirt very daintily.
Playing around some more with my camera and indoor shots (garage).

Proving that girls are more expensive than boys, I got the girls Christmas dresses and hair bows and the boys matching ties. D

I love Christmas!

Yes, we get big ol' tall trees. It is tradition. If it isn't nearly touching the ceiling, it just isn't tall enough. It is the one time of year I appreciate vaulted ceilings!

My favorite ornament. I love Christmas ornaments.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Oh Christmas Tree!

We set an Adams' family record of finding the perfect tree in less than 15 minutes! Last year, it took hours and two trips to the farm, and LOTS of grumpy tree hunters (I really like a perfect tree, it is an important part of the tradition). This year, in 25 minutes we had pictures, had it cut down and on top of the burb! Yay! Notice the smiling faces? Last year, there was NONE of that!


We have this tendency to get super large trees...this year was no exception. It took four men to get the tree on top of the burb, and then we had to drive about 5 miles an hour to get home. The girls would gasp every time they'd see too many tree branches out their side of the car and put Spencer and I into a heart stopping panic. Easy tree finding, scary drive home. We made it, and will decorate it tomorrow. If I can figure out how to take good indoor tree photos, I will post the final product. My house smells SOO Christmasy, I love it!

Thankful for Thanksgiving!

You probably can't tell, but it is like 27 degrees outside. The things we do for a picture! This is me with my "little" brothers and my parents, all home for the holiday.
Nanna, Boppa and all the cousins on my side of the family. Had to do a little head swapping in Photoshop Elements to get a picture where all the kids were at least looking my direction!
My little bro and his shadow. Emma can't get enough of him. Wherever he would go, she would go. Literally.

What a fun weekend! I love Thanksgiving. Not just b/c Game On! was over so I could eat again (though I would be lying if I didn't admit that was a huge part of my excitement), but b/c we get to just hang out as a family. It isn't stressful, it is just fun! We had lots of great food, good laughs, and fun family time.

black and white

I am still totally novice at this, and just when I think I figure something out (how to take color out of pictures...), I go to Skate World and Kiara's indoor soccer game and all my pictures are awful! Clearly time to sign up for another class! This is a frustrating, and potentially expensive hobby (I hear my indoor pictures would improve with a different lense....hmm....and of course another class on indoor photography would be so helpful :)), but despite that, I am totally enjoying it!

Photography Class Fun

So after taking a photography class for several weeks, I went ahead and took the plunge and bought a real camera. I have had SO much fun taking a million pictures of my kiddos. Wish I had gotten it in the spring or summer when the weather was more predictable, but freezing or not, we are outside practicing photos! I still obviously have TONS to learn (haven't even begun the art of photo editing for instance...that is my next class!), and I never realized how much was involved in photography, it is a little overwhelming. Here's to the future of better pictures in my blog posts...hopefully!!! :)

Is it another mid life crisis?

I am having another mid life crisis and I can't figure out the solution. Maybe you can help? Let me describe:

I am still weirdo around babies (like: "Can I hold your baby? I know I am a perfect stranger, but he is soo cute!",); I am obsessed with Game On! diet; I am now taking a photography class (seriously do NOT know how I have time for this); bought a nice, new SLR camera to play with; started practicing the piano again; started scrapbooking again; and I have all sorts of plans for future projects. Am I embracing the life of a middle aged mom, or is this a sign that I should have more kids? I feel like I am nesting, but I am not pregnant. I have my hands in about 1403 things, but can't seem to get enough! Whenever I think of having another little baby, it makes me feel scared and overwhelmed and I am constantly reminded of all the things i am miserably failing at as a mom of four (can I add another person to this massive amount of chaos?), but I still feel a pang of sadness when I see babies, or look at how grown up Caders is! Is this just how it is when you are "done" or do people who feel this way end up with 12 kids?

Late and Random

Some photography class practicing sessions. He isn't really a good sport, but since the rest of the kids are in school, he is my favorite subject!!
Pumpkin Patch at Lakeview Farms on our day off of school. Super nice day, and the kids loved it.
After pumpkin patch we made these cute little candy men. Definitely the highlight of the day for the kids (that and eating them after).

Caden. Couldn't get the boy to smile long enough to take the picture. But, I thought this was cute anyway.
5th grade, Levi has a man teacher for the first time ever. He seems really great so far.
Kiki in 3rd grade also has a man teacher, and I was nervous for her, but she loves him and we've been super happy with him so far as well.
Emma's first day of Kindergarten. Pretty sure she was more excited than any of my other kids have EVER been for anything EVER in their lives. It is so Emma to be this excited about everything!
Bus is definitely the highlight of the day.
Football season is in full swing. He is in the 5th/6th grade level and being a 5th grader he looks so scrawny compared to most of the other players, but he still loves it!

Life is busy in the fall, I am admittedly looking forward to soccer (I am coaching Emma's team) being over, and football too. An occasional just chill evening would be SO wonderful!! I enjoy watching their games (Kiara is a soccer playing machine, Emma still circles the ball three times before actually kicking it. Even if no one is on her.) and I love love LOVE fall...still an occasional evening. Just an occasional one, I wouldn't complain about at all!

Game ON!

OKay, so I don't have a picture that actually goes with my post, but I am really tired of seeing that bloody fish-hooked toe every time I open up my web browser. This is a little cuter!

I have started doing the Game-On diet with some friends and I am in the middle of my third week. If you have never done this, it is awesome! You team up with a huge group of people and divide into small teams (my team has three people, and I think we have a total of 21 people participating). You pay some money (we paid $10 to join, the winning team divides $210 up between them, thus the smaller the team the better) up front and then you have to follow all of these rules to win points each week (rules such as eating 5 small meals/day, sleeping 7 hours/night, drinking 3 Liters of water, exercising, etc.). You total up your points each week and compete with the other teams for the money at the end of a month.

I have NEVER been this disciplined in my life! Exercise is easy since that has been my go-to health thing since the dawn of time. But, watching everything I eat is annoying at best. I am competitive, and I don't want to let my team down, so this has been really successful for me. Aside from the fact that 3 liters of water each day is cause for FAR too many visits to the restroom, I am mostly adjusting to the diet part. I do print out a LOT more recipes than I used to (pumpkin bread, chocolate anything, etc.) b/c you get one day off per week and well, I like to spend that day baking. :) Even with a day off though, the program works and I like it (well, sort of like it...tends to make me a little grumpy in the afternoons when I can't snack my way through carpooling heck for survival). Anyway, I am thinking of playing again when I am finished to get through the holidays without gaining anything so if you are interested in joining us, LMK!!! You can do it from anywhere, just have to form your own small team and pay up. Might consider reading the book "Game-On diet", but I hate to recommend b/c of a ridiculous amount of bad language. Rambling, but at least the picture of the toe is far enough down the screen I can't see it when I open up to google! :)

In Which We discover the Benefits of a clean room

By some small token of luck, this is not MY toe in the picture. It is Spencer's. Going in to tuck Caden in bed (who unfortunately for all involved shares a room with Levi), Spencer made the mistake of not wearing shoes in their messy room. I get a holler from upstairs and I casually came up to to find Spencer stuck to the floor (the other end of the hook embedded in the carpet) with this barbed hook in his toe! Not sure who was more horrified: Spencer with the hook; me having to pull it out; or Levi knowing that his neglect in cleaning up his fishing gear earlier in the week was cause for so much pain. Yuck!

Grants Pass Adams Family Reunion

This is Spencer's immediate family (minus Benson). His mom and dad are in the middle, and the TWELVE siblings (okay, 11 since Benson wasn't there...I get the feeling I am repeating myself here.) Is anyone else overwhelmed by the idea of 12 children? They are all some of the most opinionated, strong-willed, stubborn people i know so I am sure it wasn't an easy task raising them either! But, they are also some of the most honest, hardworking, generous, and intelligent people I know, so they obviously did a great job raising such a large family. I hope I can figure it out half as well with my FOUR children! Yikes.

Okay, there were better pictures of the whole group, but I didn't want to surf through my stock of like 589 pictures to find one of everyone smiling. This is a group picture of most all of the family. There was one family missing (Benson and his family), and a couple of my nephews who are serving LDS missions.
Emma got stung by a bee, about an hour after arriving. She was not happy about it either, that is until someone mentioned the bee must have thought she was a flower b/c of her yellow dress. This changed things in a terribly good way.
Many fun (and some not so fun, depending on who you ask) hikes. Pictured here, Gemma, Isabel, Aunt Kif, Daniel, Savana, Kiara, happy Caden, and Emma.

Lots and lots of pool. Turns out, I am not half bad at pool. Too bad I didn't know about this earlier in life, it might have altered my future in many interesting ways.
Slingshot (compound bow, bow and arrow, hand gun, though not pictured to avoid overwhelming my small group of viewers :)) fun.
Levi's birthday was celebrated while on reunion. He is now 11 years old! How did this happen?
Pull up contest. Uncle Nathan won with a whopping 19 pull-ups. I lost with a whopping 1/2 (can't get myself all the way up, despite all my best efforts!).
Pebble Beach California. Kiara and cousin Isabel freezing their patooties off in the ocean. It was an uncomfortable 56 degrees on the beach, not sure the temp of that water, but you couldn't have paid me money to swim in it. The girls were in the water the whole day! Crazy kids!

Family reunion was a total blast for my kiddos. I am so grateful to have married into such a big, fun family. My kids look forward to family reunion more than just about any vacation we've been on. We are so blessed!