Thanksgiving and birthday fun continued

Preparing stuffing with Daddy for our turkey day!

Cousin fun!  Clara, Benjamin, Dallin
Bennett, Emerson, Ava and Scarlett

Apparently waiting for dinner was exhausting for this little guy!

 Thanksgiving was great this year!  We had Ashley and Sam and their great kids over to eat with us.  Ashely baked 6 pies!  I am still eating leftovers.  Helen and Taylor and Granee also came to celebrate the holiday!  It was a relaxing day filled with family, food and a lot of little turkeys!

Hilarious picture of Bennett!  He was watching curious george while being a superhero!

Cute baby waiting for birthday cake!

We are 5!  Auntie Helen, Uncle Taylor and Granee were on hand to celebrate with another sugar rush!

5 Years Ago...

Dallin, "the superhero" and Clara, "the Princess," were born.  We had friend parties this year and I decided to have them both at the same time!  It was crazy and fun!  We had about 15 various superheros and princess along with my 5 children and about 15 adults for the party!  We ate and played and made crowns and necklaces and superhero masks and superhero cuffs and ran and played...

It was great fun and the kids seemed to enjoy it!  I don't know if this will be repeated yearly.  I was one tired mama!

Dallin's superhero room.  Mason made the telephone booth for the superheroes to come out of (think superman!)

The superhero spread!

The only picture I got of Dallin...he would not stay still...he was running and fighting bad guys along with his fellow superheroes!

Clara's princess room!  We had crowns and wands for all the princesses!

All of our princesses!  Boy was there a lot of girly girls at this party!  They were more than happy to pose for a princess picture!

Happy 5th Birthday Dallin and Clara!

Loving fall!

I love fall!  The colors are gorgeous and the temperature is perfect!  We are not going to have many more fall days here in SLC, so we took a family walk on Sunday in our Sunday clothes (much to Clara's chagrin!) The kids loved the leaves and we convinced them to take a couple of pictures along the way!  I have come to terms with the fact that I will NEVER have a perfect family photo for years to come!  There is always one or more children facing the wrong way or crying or acting silly!  This is our family and we love them!

We are alive!

I really have no excuse for why I haven't blogged since April other than we have been a bit busy with listing our house in Carlsbad, selling it, moving to Utah and trying to adjust to living in a 2 room condo in the city!  I will try harder to blog more frequently.
Here is our Halloween costumes this year!

 We were going to go with the Wizard of Oz theme, but everyone had their own opinion of what they wanted to wear (go figure!) so we only had Glinda the good witch (Clara), a bad purple witch (Ava), Cookie Monster (Bennett), Spider man (Dallin) and a dragon (Emerson).  They all loved their costumes and I was happy that they were excited!

 Emerson is now 9 months old and at his check up he weighed 18 pounds and was 29.5 inches long!  The Doctor called him long and skinny!  He is EVERYWHERE!  He has been crawling since about 5 months old and has been pulling himself up for over a month.  He loves his brothers and sisters and smiles and laughs all day long.  He is such an easy going baby and only gets mad when he is tired or hungry.  He is quite the character and keeps us smiling all day!

 Ava girl is "perfect"!  This is what her dad calls her.  She is all personality!  She is her own person and our best only child.  She plays baby dolls and princesses all day alone and with her "Sissy".  She loves to demand my attention as soon as I am trying to get the baby to sleep or feeding him.  She is quite the talker and keeps us in stitches with her dialogue all day.  She is 2 1/2 and tells us everyday that she is a "big girl!"  Living in a condo has proved interesting as Ava successfully pulled the fire alarm button which required 4 fireman, the HOA Nazi and a call to the alarm company to take care of!  It also shut down the elevators for an hour and caused quite the noise for about 10 minutes!  I thought Mason was going to lose it but he just told her calmly that we don't touch those buttons and went about his day! 

 Clara is our drama queen and damsel in distress!  She loves to wear dresses and be a princess and have her hair done in braids!  She is such a girly girl!  We love her constant singing and dancing and play acting she does all day.  She loves preschool and is in her own class without her brother this year.  She has really developed in her coloring skills and is writing her name quite well also.  She loves playing with her little sister and bossing her around (Ava doesn't approve of this!)  Clara is also in ballet and enjoys it! We love our Clara goose!

 Dallin is all boy and talks nonstop all day long.  He is our little man of the house and loves to do anything Daddy does.  He loves to write and has his name down along with a few other letters.  He loves his preschool class especially on show and tell days!  He is playing indoor soccer with the 5 and 6 year olds and has loved it.  Dallin is our map guy and tells us where we need to go wherever we are.  He also requested his own office in his room and now has quite the set up of a desk and pens and highlighters!  He tells me he is doing "work" when I find him at his desk!

Bennett boy  is such a character!  He loves keys, his daddy, his granee, the color blue, his cowboy boots and his "brother baby"!  He keeps us on our toes and is the reason we have locks at the top of all the doors!  He always has a smile on his face and laughs easily!  He has such a funny personality and conversational skills.  He loves to eat all day and wrestle his brother!  We love our Bennett boy!

I will try to update or back blog as I go along!  We are doing well and are getting adjusted to city living.  Mason starts school in the next week or so and we are excited for this time in our life that we have Daddy home at night!  

We are home in Carlsbad

The kids were so excited to be home in Carlsbad.  They constantly tell me how glad they are and have loved playing with long lost toys! It was like Christmas all over again but less expensive!  We have been slowly settling in and I am figuring out how to handle all my babes alone.  It has been crazy but okay.  I have learned that going to bed with a disaster for a house is okay and they it will be there when I wake up!  I have missed my live in laundry lady (Granee)!  I have been drowning in laundry since I got home with no end in sight!  Everything had to be washed from sheets to blankets to rugs!  Lots of laundry but I might find the end soon?! Emerson has adjusted to his life that is a bit neglected in nature pretty well.  He has to stay in his bouncer a lot for his own safety and poor baby rarely gets floor time but I don't think he minds too much.  He is such a mellow little guy!  Ava and Bennett are adjusting to sleeping in their beds and it has been a test for them and me.  More often than not I have 2 big babies in bed with me while I nurse the other one in the middle of the night which equals NO SLEEP!  But what is new!?  Overall, we are doing great and are happy to be home.  We were so grateful to have the wonderful help in Silver City for those many months and miss everyone terribly especially our Granee, Brookie and our Nett.

Sweet Emerson getting big and growing hair like crazy!  10 weeks already!

Chores, the forest and our BFFs...just another day!

Well, another month has past and we are still in Silver City.  I had some complications arise with my incision so we had to stay longer so I could heal.  We are hopefully headed home in the next week.  We have stayed busy with the usual day-to-day activities.  From doing dishes, to reading books to siblings to painting our faces with $30 tubes of lipstick, it is pretty normal for us!  I have enjoyed our stay in Silver and the kids have loved living across the street from their favorite people and having their Granee at their beckon call.  I am ready to be home and back to an "active" life for me.  Having 5 kids in 4 years never leaves a quiet or simple life but it is our life and we love every minute of it!

Dallin is our helper around the house.  He loves washing dishes and I would just assume he will continue to enjoy that chore for as long as it will last!

Clara our pretty girl!

Ava with her babies in their car seat!  She loves playing mommy and boy does she talk up a storm!  She is our most verbal child so far!

Bennett...need I say more!  The color looks good on him though!

Emerson is almost 2 months old and still has the sweetest personality.  He has just found his voice and smiles and talks to all who hold him.  He still sleeps best with noise around him, which is good because our house if anything but quiet!

Our trip to the "forest" as my kids call it!  Little ducks that followed their daddy around!  They loved it!  Ava was carrying her baby in her jacket to be like mommy (I had Emerson in the baby Bjorn!).  She is our little mommy and bosses everyone around.

A rare picture of Daddy on the blog.  He was enjoying the "forest" with his Clara!

Grandma Gertie loving on Emerson!

Our BFFs came to visit.  The kids loved every minute of them being here!  I think the kids wore them out!

A rare picture of Mommy on the blog too!.  Sweet baby Emerson!

Daddy, I miss your snoring!

Emerson is 1 month old now and I cannot believe how fast time has flown!  He is a joy of a baby.  Always clam and mellow.  He enjoys the chaos of our house and sleeps better in the middle of all the other babes playing and crying!  We are blessed to have him in our family.
The other kiddos never cease to amaze with their funny conversations and just plain silliness on a daily basis. for example, Dallin has been pretty vocal and with Mason being gone a lot, he talks up a storm when Daddy comes home.  Here is a few of the conversations Dallin has had with Mason:

Dallin: Daddy, I miss your spankings.  Mommy doesn't spank me as good.
Daddy: Do you want me to teach Mommy how to spank Dallin?
Dallin: No, that is okay Daddy!

Here is another funny statement from Dallin:
As Mason was putting them to bed the other night, Dallin told Mason, "Daddy sleep with me for a little bit, I miss your snoring!"

Never a dull moment in this house and I have to remind myself that these moments are precious and will disappear fast.  Mason called me the other day to say that he was listening to a program on the radio and a woman came on the line who was talking about her six kids ages 12 to 35 years old.  Mason made the comment that he would much rather have our situation where we have 5 kids 4 years old and under than hers because ours will be going through the same stages all at one time.  I don't know if I agree with that, I guess it just depends on the stage!  Even thinking of 5 teenagers at one time is extremely overwhelming!

Snow!

Life in the Mitchell house is as crazy as ever.  Currently I am typing this while Bennett is sitting on the counter surrounded by phones, cell phones, permanent markers, knives and other various items he shouldn't have.  And what am I doing?  Typing and ignoring the chaos!  This is our life and we love it.  I am feeling pretty good just tired and a bit sore.  The kids are good and healthy and we are counting our blessings.  Emerson is proving to be a very mellow baby.  We (especially me) are VERY grateful for this development.  I guess if the Lord was going to sneak in a "miracle" baby, he had better be mellow and good (so far!).

We are having a snow storm in Silver City right now and the kids braved the cold to eat snow, dig in the snow and get really cold!  They had a great time.  

Infant pics of Emerson

These pictures were done by our favorite photographer in Silver City.  Emerson was about 12 days old.  I love them.  I will post current pics of the babies soon.  My favorite pictures are the ones where we have 2 out of 5 crying!  It is so indicative of our lives! Enjoy!