Lost another one!

Lauren lost one of her front teeth last week. She looks so adorable! Like a true kindergartener!

Happy Birthday William!

It is William's birthday today. And what a day it was! Last night our water heater was making some really funny sounds and so today we had the plumber come over to check it out. After an entire day with no hot water, no water at all for a few hours, seven hours of plumber company, and a brand-new water heater, we have hot water!!! Needless to say, it was a different birthday for William.

Thankfully our dear friends took our kids last night and William and I were able to head out to celebrate with dinner and a hockey game. We had a fun time getting out. The hockey game was great. We watched the BYU vs. BSU game. There was a very educated hockey fan behind us who gave his family a play by play, even though they were sitting right next to him. Some guy had a cowbell and they kept ringing it throughout the game. Someone asked Mr. Hockey-player behind us what that was all about. The guy says, "I don't know, maybe it's an Idaho thing." I almost spit my hot chocolate out my nose! I laughed so hard. I am sure you had to be there and you are all thinking I am crazy, but William and I had a good laugh about it. They guy just assumes that if there is a cowbell and an Idaho team...they are together. Funny stuff. We were thankful to get out and very grateful for our wonderful friends.

William received many wonderful gifts. Thank you to all who helped make his crazy birthday great. We had a delicious Cold Stone cake that just made the day much better.

Happy Birthday William! We love you so much and are so lucky to have such an amazing person as our father and husband!

January

January is usually one very slow month. This year it seems to have just slipped by! I don't know where it went. Here are a few pictures.

We had a few projects we needed to do and Kaitlyn was all too willing to help Dad measure and saw. I love her with the safety glasses on.

We actually did get out in the snow a few weeks ago. It's sad because I feel bad about not letting them play in the snow very much and now I would be willing to let them, but we have no snow. Nathan wanted nothing to do with wearing all those winter clothes. He cried and screamed the whole time I was getting him all bundled up. Once he was outside, he seemed to enjoy himself for a little while, then he was done and ready to go inside.

We made some boxes (long story), and they ended up all over the living room for a week or so until we finished. Lauren was always practical and would move them when she needed space. Kaitlyn and Nathan preferred to be snuggled right next to them.

Occasionally, Nathan has a fascination with gloves. He gets them out of the closet and wants me to put them on. Then he refuses to take them off. I have no idea where this kid gets his crazy and spunky personality.

We bought a new piece of furniture and it came all boxed up with a ton of styrofoam boards. Thanks to Dad's creativity, we had a karate chopping party. They kids all had so much fun! They were kicking and punching that stuff to pieces. It made a huge mess but was so worth it.

Look at those fists!

My parents came down for New Year's. We really enjoyed their visit. We colored, ate out way too much, played games, read books, visited Cabela's and stayed up way too late chatting and playing cards. Thanks so much for coming Mom and Dad!

Sesame Street Live

In early December we took the kids to see Sesame Street Live. It was so much fun! The kids had a blast. Their eyes were like saucers when all the characters came out on stage. Nathan is a HUGE 'Melmo" fan. That is all he wants to watch. And of course, Kaitlyn can't get enough of Abby Cadabby. Even Lauren had a great time. It was a perfect family event. All my pictures are out of order but I am too lazy to fix them.

Here is a picture of Abby Cadabby waving at us. Kaitlyn loved that.


Nathan pretty much had this same expression on his face the entire time. Pure fascination. He was so cute to watch.

Towards the end of the show, we let the girls got down to the bottom of the seating area to watch and get a closer look at the characters. None other than Elmo came over to shake their hand. I absolutely love the expression on Lauren's face. They were so excited to be able to touch Elmo.

There was a short ten minute intermission. Nathan kept looking around for Elmo and couldn't figure out where he went. I told him he would be back in a second. So he starts yelling, "Melmo!", over and over again. I have it on video and it is hilarious! Seriously a highlight of the morning. It was so cute. When intermission was over, the lights started to go down again and Nathan turns around and scrambles into his chair as fast as he could. Here he is yelling for Elmo.

Here is Nathan's zombie face. Seriously, he was completely mesmerized.

We all has such a great time! We love Sesame Street!

A Very Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone! We hope everyone had a very happy and safe holiday. We had a great Christmas this year. We did a lot of fun Christmas activities. We spent a few nights looking at all the wonderful Christmas lights. We saw real reindeer, made yummy treats, had a great visit with Santa himself, made fun Christmas crafts, found new tree ornaments and had so much fun Christmas shopping. This year, we were able to help out a local family in need and it was such a sweet experience. Lauren and Kaitlyn each took some money from their piggy banks to help someone else have a happy Christmas. They were so excited to help out. We loved seeing them give up something of their own for someone else.

Christmas Eve was spent with family. We ate some pizza and had yummy treats. When I was growing up, we had Little Caesars pizza EVERY Christmas Eve. Back then, Little Caesars was really good, remember....square pizzas! Mmm.... So it was fun to continue the tradition of pizza. Grandma Familia made extremely cute outfits for all the grandkids. They had a great time opening them on Christmas Eve. Don't they look so cute?


Last year we started watching a Nativity movie produced by the church and then headed over to our neighbors house to look at their beautiful nativity scene. We did the same this year and hope to make it a yearly tradition. We loved looking at the nativity and singing songs together. It is one of my favorite parts of the season. We feel the spirit of Christmas so strongly with this actvity.

Christmas morning was wonderful as well. I love watching the kids' faces when they come downstairs and when they are opening presents. Their excitement and joy is priceless. We had great gifts to give and receive. Kaitlyn wanted a princess hair salon set. Lauren and Nathan got it for her. She spent a good portion of the day doing everyone's hair. Even Nathan would sit occasionally and let her work her magic. She is combing his hair in this picture. Ignore all the garbage in the background....that is just part of Christmas. :)

Nathan, unfortunately, was sick on Christmas and although he tried to be happy, he just didn't feel very well. The combination of a yucky cough, pink eye and getting in one of his two-year molars was a little too much for him. Thank heavens for his pacifier and blanket. He has started feeling a little better the last couple of days and has started really playing with and enjoying his new toys. Lauren was given a Leapster 2. And this is what she did pretty much all day....

We had to make her turn it off just to spend some time with us! We had a good Christmas dinner and although Christmas was a little quiet, we had a wonderful day as a family. We are so blessed with so many things. We are so thankful to have a knowledge of our Saviour. We have great opportunities to celebrate all the blessings His life has given us. Merry Christmas!

And then there were two...

Yep...that's right. Two slings in our house. Two people, each with a hurt left arm. Thankfully Lauren is getting better and better every day. She only has to wear her sling for another week and she is done! Come January, she is cleared for all of her regular physical activites. She can't wait to be able to head back to gymnastics, participate in P.E. at school and to tackle those monkey bars once again. I am so amazed at how well and how quickly her little bone healed. Each time we go in for x-rays, her bone just looks stronger and stronger. The body is an amazing thing.

As for William, he has a long road ahead of him. He hurt his shoulder playing in a turkey bowl the day after Thanksgiving. After two weeks of pain, we finally know what is wrong. He had an MRI yesterday and it confirmed the doctor's suspicion. He tore three ligaments in his shoulder. Three! Tomorrow he meets with an orthopedic surgeon and hopefully we can get a surgery scheduled sometime soon. I think that I might have to take back all of his presents back....for Christmas this year he gets a new shoulder.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Better late than never, right? We had a great Thanksgiving. Thanks Lowe's for hosting! Thanksgiving is such a perfect holiday. I love eating yummy food and being with family and friends. It is so nice to reflect on the many blessing we have and to feel gratitude in our hearts. As we look back on our life, we see the hand of the Lord guiding and leading us. I don't know where we would be without that gentle guidance. We have three sweet, wonderful children. They are so amazing. We are blessed to live in a wonderful place. Our neighborhood and neighbors bring us such joy and peace. We are so thankful that we have great friends that we can count on for anything. We love our families and are so thankful to them too. We wish we could see them more often and we miss them. We are so blessed to have the gospel in our lives. The love that our Savior and Father in Heaven has for us continues to fill our hearts with hope and peace. We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Leaves are falling!

I love fall! It is such a great time of year. Playing in the leaves is one of my favorite activities! The kids loved it too. Lauren has been obsessed with raking leaves this year. She likes to make a nice, neat pile. The sad thing is, she has a broken arm, so she can only rake with one hand. She was out raking one afternoon in the front yard. She looked so pitiful dragging the rake behind her. I am sure anyone who saw her wondered what on earth I was doing making her rake leaves with a broken arm! Whatever makes her happy.

Kaitlyn and Rachel really got into leaf throwing. They were jumping and screaming and throwing like crazy! Aren't they all such cute kids?

Nathan watched all the action for awhile, probably wondering what we were doing. He eventually figured it out and had lots of fun throwing leaves at people. I hope fall plans to stay for a few more weeks.

Bidding starts today!

Don't forget! The auction for Benson and Claire starts today. Go here to help out an amazing family and to get some really great stuff!

Halloween 2009

October is one crazy, fun month! Every year we check out the Scarecrow Festival and the kids absolutely LOVE the blow up slides. Thankfully we headed up there before Lauren broke her arm so everyone was able to have a good time.

The girls wanted their faces painted this year and I think they turned out really cute.

Nathan loved the games.

We enjoyed some really yummy treats this month too! Check out this amazing spider cake. A lady in our neighborhood makes cakes for weddings and other events. She does an awesome job. The kids thought this cake was great!

We were a little late carving our pumpkins, but at least we got them done. I love Lauren's face in this picture.

We had five Halloween parties/events in the last three days. Needless to say, I am happy I don't have to dress all my kids up in costumes anymore. They sure were cute though. In case you can't tell, Lauren was Snow White, Kaitlyn was Abby Cadabby and Nathan was a lion. Halloween really is such an exciting holiday. Our kids were going crazy with all the parties and activities. We had a lot of fun. Trick-or-treating was a little cold, but I love that we go house to house and don't have to do trunk-or-treat. It just reminds me of being a kid again.

Such an adorable lion!

Bill decided to be Handy Manny for Halloween. It was so fun. Every where we went little kids would see him and say to their parents, "Hey! Its Handy Manny!" He really did look the part too. It's just too bad he can't talk like Handy Manny. ;) I decided to dress up like Kelly from Handy Manny. It was a little bit harder and with Lauren's arm stuff this last week or so, I didn't get the whole costume finished. But oh well, its the thought that counts and the kids enjoyed it. (Yes, that is Nathan lying on the ground crying. Don't worry though, we picked him up right after the picture was taken and he was babied the rest of the night...like always. Good thing the little guy is so cute!)

Here is the annual Familia/Bergin kid photo. Such sweet, fun little kids. We love them. Happy Halloween!