Look who turned 2!!

That's right, as of January 27, 2008, Niekelle Anij Child is now 2 years old!

She gets a birthday cake...

And some clothes...

And pink shoes...

And lots of love and attention from Mom

And her family.

Her favorite part was when we sang Happy Birthday! We had to sing it to her several times to make her happy. Then she started singing it to herself. You couldn't make out all the words, but it was definitely the birthday song.

Help, I got a booger in my ear!!

It's 3:00 in the morning and someone has to wake up Mom. She couldn't possibly sleep through the night.

Connor (almost 6 yrs old): Mom, can you help me, I got a booger in my ear.
Mom: What?
Connor: I got a booger in my ear and I can't get it out!
Mom: How did you get a booger in your ear?
Connor: I picked my nose and put it there.

Oh my!

Our Newest member of the Church

There he is....Taylor Hayes Child. Baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on September 29, 2007. Just 18 days after his eighth birthday.

Taylor with all the Priesthood holders that where present; Brother Kano, Grandpa Donald, Dad, and his brother Justin.

His beautiful family that was there to support him in this big step!

Taylor asked his big brother, Justin who just got home from his mission, to baptize him. Justin was honored. His Dad confirmed him a member of the Church.


Gotta get that "bad-boy" pose in even on this spiritual day.

"Now what do I do?.... Endure to the end??

"Bop to the Top"

This girl can dance! She loves to do the splits! This year she stole the show at our New Years Day Party. My family always gets together on New Years Day and the last couple years we have had a family talent show. My mom said that we would start the talent show and whoever wanted to go first could just get up on the stage and start.... and guess who got up first.... none other than Brinya Child. She always has me "announce" at home that..."Brinya Child will now sing and dance"....this time she got to do it in front of a real audience and I got to announce her too. She got up there and "shook her booty" to High School Musicals "Bop to the Top". Then very unexpectedly, the CD player malfunctioned and the music stopped...what did Brinya do?? What else could she do but smile her biggest smile and do the splits! She was and is fabulous!

What happens when you shut the TV off....

A while back, I was wondering how I could get our children to read more. They have always enjoyed being read to, but how could I get them to read on there own more without being told?

Well, a couple months ago, I started reading more myself.... I finally finished reading Uncle Toms Cabin and I am currently on book 6 of The Work and the Glory. No more watching TV at night, I've been too busy devouring books. I can't believe I lingered on the first few chapters of Uncle Toms Cabin for about 2 years and finally I committed to reading it and finished it in less than a week. I absolutely loved it! Now I am hooked on The Work and the Glory Series. Anyway, what happened quite naturally is that my children started reading with me without being ask. They have been begging to stay up late so they could finish this book or that book. Coleson told me yesterday that he was currently reading four books at the same time. Kashée was my most difficult child to teach to read, and she is half way through her second Harry Potter book. This is just too great! I guess example is everything.

Playing Patty-Cake with Jesus

Mom to Niekelle (almost 2 years old) & Brinya (4 years old) : Do you remember when you lived in momma's belly?
Brinya: Yes
Mom: You swam around in there for 9 months. Did you ever get bored? What did you do in there all day?
Brinya: We played Patty-Cake with Jesus.

Thanksgiving 2007

The anticipation of a yummy Thanksgiving meal!

This year it was just Steve (he's manning the camera), me and eight of our children. Justin had already moved out on his own, but he came home for Thanksgiving.

We had a nice day although, I couldn't help but wish we where able to have more people over. To me, Thanksgiving means uncles, aunts, grandparents, cousins. Both Steve and I's families are getting so large that everyone just does there own thing. My family gets together on New Years Day and Steve's Family gets together for Christmas. I was feeling very lonely this year until I thought about how in the near future, we will have daughter-in-laws and grandchildren of our own.

Check-out how much my first-born son, Justin, loves me! It's so great to have him home from his mission! As we went around the table expressing what we where grateful for, Justin mentioned that next Thanksgiving Jared will be with us too. What a great day that will be to have our two missionaries home.

Colesons 10 year old birthday-- Nov 2007

What a handsome man on his tenth birthday. He is growing way too fast!

No, he does not have a black eye, it is a lovely pink-eye/eye-infection that he got for his birthday.

Plus, he got everything he needs to be an official "air-soft gun guy"; the gun, the holster, the eye protection, and the BB's.

BTW, the whole family got the same gift that Coleson got: Pink-eye!

Halloween 2007

Our little trick-or treaters: Shautel and Kashée where too grown-up for costumes this year, so they just dyed their hair. Coleson, Taylor, and Connor where Ninjas; Brinya was a Japenese princess again this year; and Niekelle was a cute little pink poodle. I found the poodle costume at a yard sale for a quarter and everyone loved it!

Here's a few pictures of us at our Stake trunk-or-treat. It was the largest trunk-or-treat we have ever attended. There must have been 50 or more trunks. We had no idea how many people would be there and we ran out of candy about half way through.