Our life with 7 kids

Grace is 12!

Hard to believe that this awesome girl is 12! I know that everyone says it but, time really has flown by! Grace is such a AMAZING kid! She is fun, creative, so helpful, responsible, kind, and a great artist. She plays the piano a ton and has recently discovered the joys of youtube.com and being able to learn all the new modern songs she loves on the piano! She is very good at it! The big "12" birthday is a big one in our house-we plan a weekend getaway to the temple with just Mom, a trip to the mall for a makeup how to session, clothes shopping and of course a hotel stay is included in all that fun! Grace and I went to Spokane for our weekend and had SOO much fun! The temple was the highlight of course!

Grace had a birthday party at our house with some of her friends.

She took doughnuts to her home room and Claire and I brought her pizza for lunch!

Pictures before our big Spokane trip!

The Spokane Temple

Manicures

Make-up time!

Grace's first eyebrow wax--she's not a fan!

Stopped by a gas station to get a "f-real" ice cream and then we were headed home! Grace has decided this is what she wants to do every year for her birthday! It was a great trip. I'm so lucky to be Grace's mom.

12 things we love about our Graceie girl!

1. She is fun to be with!

2. She is great at organizing and coming up with ideas to make everything more organized.

3. She is an amazing big sister to all 6 of her siblings-she's very patient with them.

4.She is a fast runner!
5. She is a natural athlete

6. She is kind and considerate

7. She is always trying to be better and improve herself

8. She is a book worm and is often found asleep in her bed with a book on her lap

9. She is friendly and makes friends easily

10. She is reliable and responsible

11. She is a great babysitter

12. She is a great cook!

Halloween

Halloween is here again! This year we were lucky enough to have Thomas (our favorite hitchhiker) with us-he was great entertainment for the kids..I think the constant chaos is more entertainment for him though!

Claire was a princess-of course!

Logan-a skeleton biker

Lauren-a magical monkey

Grace-a vampire

Mom and Dad- I was a hunter and Dad was a deer.

Checking out the candy is always fun, but the highlight of the year is always the "Halloween spook" who visits our house, takes all the candy we left on the porch and leaves us presents! It's always a treat to see what he leaves us!

My Utah 1/2 Marathon

My awesome persuasive friend Alison Malouf convinced me to do a 1/2 marathon with her in Utah in September. I was not the best at training consistently but, it ended up being a fun, but hard race! I made great time and kept up with Alison until about mile 7 and then just couldn't keep up with her-she is FAST! I am so glad I did it, but, not sure if another one is in the cards for me..I feel old!

After the race we all headed to Kneaders for breakfast and since I was the only one that was kid free for the weekend, I went back to Alison's and took a nap while the rest of them had to be responsible!

Logan's Braces

Logan was so excited to get his braces! He couldn't wait to show them off to all his friends at school!

Fall break!

For our Fall break this year we decided to go visit Uncle Sterling, Cute pregnant Aunt Ellen, Devry and Brayden in Idaho. The kids were all so excited to go to Idaho and have some cousin time! It was so much fun! Nana came for a day and hung out with us. It was so low key and relaxed-a perfect weekend!