Reese turns 6

 I can't believe this doll is 6 already. Reese has been looking forward to her birthday all year! For months she has been talking about how much she wants her first American Girl Doll, and not just any doll... 2013 Girl of the Year, Saige. Ever since the first time she saw Saige she has been in love.

 Reese still loves her lalaloopsies, and her friend Addie gave her one of her favorites, Mittens.

 Grandma Debbie has been busy making a bunch of new clothes for Saige, including a crocheted beanie.

Can you see her excitement?

Reese loves her dolls. Her friends and family know her well. These are all the dolls she received from Christmas and her Birthday. She got a fun traveling bag to carry Saige and all her goodies from Grandma Z and Grandpa. It's so funny to see how much she adores her dolls. I myself was never really into dolls at her age so it's fun exploring the world of dolls together.

20 Q's About Reese:

1. Who is your Best Friend? Addie
2. What is your favorite thing to do? Play with Saige
3. What is your favorite color? Pink
4. What is your favorite food? Strawberries
5. What do you like to do with your family?  Going to Outer Limits (arcade/jungle gym)
6. What is your favorite toy? Dolls
7. What do you want to be when you grow up? A Doctor, because they help people
8. What makes you happy? When Daddy tickles me
9. What makes you sad? When someone hurts my feelings
10. What is your favorite show to watch? Spongebob Squarepants
11. What is your favorite book? If You Take A Mouse To School
12. What do you love to learn about? Music
13. What was the best part of your birthday? When I opened presents
14. Where do you like to go? to the Zoo
15. What is your favorite treat? Airheads
16. What do you think about before you fall asleep? my dolls
17. If you could meet someone famous who would it be? Taylor Swift
18. What was your favorite birthday present? Saige
19. What is your favorite thing about your brother? He's funny
20. What do you like best about school? My teacher, because she's fun

Christmas Day

 Christmas morning! The kids sure were spoiled - like usual!

 Later that day we traveled down to Grandma Z's and Grandpa's and enjoyed some yummy french toast and opened a few presents. Next we went to Grandma Nan's with all of my family and had a delicious turkey dinner, opened more gifts and broke open a pinata.

Christmas Eve

 Todd's family came over for Christmas Eve like we've done for the past few years. We ate lots of food and opened a big box filled with new games and puzzles to play.

 Reese and Boston also opened one present. The ones they gave each other. Boston picked out the Draculaura Monster High doll Reese had been wanting.

 Reese picked out a Rowdy Garbage Truck Play Doh set.

 It was a lot of fun playing games like Hi Ho Cherry-O, Headbands, and Connect Four.

Tim, (Kari was in quarantine with whooping cough), Thomas, Grandma Z, Reese, Boston, Grandpa, Todd and I. 

Santa even remembered to come that night!

Reese Loses a Tooth

Reese loses her first tooth! We thought it would have come out a lot sooner, it was loose for weeks!

Christmas Dance Performance

 Reese's dance studio did a little dance performance to showcase what they have been learning the past few months. Grandma Nan, Grandma Debbie, Grandma Z and Grandpa were all in attendance. 

This is about the only picture from her actual performance. We were pretty far in the back so I had a hard time capturing a decent photo. After the show we ate Chinese food at Reese's favorite restaurant.

2013 Christmas ornaments

Boston picked out a Ninja Turtle Ornament this year. Go Ninja, Go Ninja...Go Go!!

Reese fell in love with this beauty one day when we were into Hobby Lobby! Combines one of her favorite animals and ballet!

Happy Halloween

 It was a very cold night for collecting candy.

 Trunk-or-Treating with Grandma Z

 Shake that fin! Boston wasn't ever really sure what he wanted to be. One day we were into TJ Maxx and we found this shark costume. We tried it on and he decided it was pretty cool. The tail is my favorite part, it would wiggle back and forth when he walked.

 Reese wanted to be Merida from Brave this year. She didn't want to to be Merida in the green dress she wanted her dressier blue dress. We weren't really impressed with what was out there to buy so I decided to try and make it myself. We found a medieval dress pattern that was pretty close to what we wanted to do. We made up some as we went along too. Merida's dress is supposed to have fitted sleeves but Reese wanted bell shaped sleeves so we adjusted that and added some additional trim. I also made Reese a quiver and found a bow and arrow set (but I didn't have them with me at the time of this picture).

They were pretty cute!

Various October Activities

Our Wards Trunk-or-Treat.

The Pumpkin Walk in Logan, UT. We hadn't been for a year or two and the only time we could go happened to be during a down pour. So we quickly made our way around the fun exhibits.

Boston's favorite story from our collection of Halloween books. A short story called Zombie, Zombie from Frankenstein makes a sandwich. The story really doesn't make a whole lot of sense, it's probably the voice we use when we read the story.

The Ross Park Zoo Boo.

The kids drew out what they wanted on their pumpkins and we cut them out. 

Just a little fun with some face painting.

 A beautiful butterfly and a spooky Jack-O-Lantern.

Cherry Springs

A friend of mine and myself went up to one of our favorite spots to take a few pictures of our kids. They didn't turn out too bad. It was a beautiful fall day!

Reese and Addie.

It's interesting trying to get children to cooperate for photographs, especially when their friends are there.

They are pretty cute kids!

Tautphaus Park Zoo

We made one last trip to the zoo before it closed for the season. We love that our zoo pass can get us into 2 different zoos. We met up with some of our besties and had some fun! Brody, Reese, Boston and Lola.

Kindergarten

 I can't believe this cutie is already in Kindergarten. Reese couldn't have been more excited!

She's Off!

When it came time to go pick Reese up, Todd and I went to the school and waited by the Kindergarten door...and waited. We watched all the other kids come out and greet their parents but still no Reese. Naturally on the inside I was in major panic mode. Apparently we forgot on the form we filled out 6 months ago we checked she would like to ride the bus. So she was already in line for the bus. We found her before she boarded the bus and asked if she still wanted to ride the bus home and she did. So we drove back home to pick her up at the bus stop. She was a little upset when she got off the bus, because she didn't know when she had to get off. When it came time for her to get off we were there waiting and had to knock on her window to tell her she needed to get off. She never wanted to ride the bus again. We talked it over with her and told her if she would try a couple more times and if she still didn't like it would pick her up from then on. Luckily she got the hang of things saw that she had a few friends from her class and church on her bus and decided it was okay.

The cute handout her teacher gave her on orientation day.