Natalie is 6

 

Natalie is growing up beautifully! She loves to keep up with her older siblings, but still loves to be a little girl. Out of all the kids, Natalie picked up reading faster than anyone else, which isn't really surprising since she's been surrounded by reading her entire life. She is already an excellent reader and is working on getting better everyday. The boys were excited to decorate for Natalie before she got up in the morning. Heidi was a good sport about keeping her busy in their room getting all dressed up for the day while the boys finished. They made a crepe paper and balloon web for her to run through, which as you can tell, was very exciting for her.

All the kids love birthdays because of the treats and because we cancel school for the day; however, Grandpa wanted to do science with the boys in the afternoon, which was fine since we didn't have a lot planned anyway.

We started with traditional chocolate waffles. I think she mostly just ate the whipped cream and strawberries with a few bites of waffle before she ran off to play. Heidi got her dressed up "beautifully" before she opened presents.

Austin and I gave her a new dress which she changed into immediately.

Her siblings gave her a certificate to pick out a new Calico Critter set.

We had family over in the evening to have chocolate raspberry cake. Her crazy eyes show how excited she was for cousins and for cake.

Here is Natalie's Birthday Interview:

Who is your favorite person? Mom

What is your favorite color? Turquoise

What is your favorite thing to watch on TV? Swiss Family Robinson (a cute little cartoon series lightly based on the movie)

What is your favorite outfit? Pink heart dress (The one she just got for her birthday)

What song do you like the best? The Italian song Mom sings at night sometimes

What is your favorite cereal? Rice Krispies

Who is your best friend? Trevor

What do you want to do when your grow up? Ride horses

What is your favorite book? Fairy Tale books

What are you really good at? Tumbling

Where do you wish you could go on vacation? Oregon again

What would you buy if you had a lot of money? A lodge and a horse

What is your favorite dinner? Chicken rolls

If you could have a wish, what would it be? A stroller for my dolls

What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? Chocolate

Who do you want to be like? Myself

What do you like to do with your friends? Play

What do you hope you'll get to do before your next birthday? Dance in my ballet recital

What is your favorite thing to do? Play with balloons (Heidi made all her birthday balloons look like puppies and she drags them around on their "leashes")

What are you proud of? Tumbling (she isn't in a class, she just likes to do it on mats in the living room)

What are you afraid of? Nothing

What is Mom's favorite thing to do? Bake cakes

How strong is Dad? Really really really strong

What does Dad do best? Pick me up

What does Mom do best? Teach

What do you like best about Dad? That he is silly

What do you like best about Mom? When she reads to me

Sledding

 We finally got enough snow for some sledding. It came with some extremely cold weather- which was good to keep the snow on the ground, but not quite as pleasant to play out in for extended periods of time.

Asher started the day by helping my shovel the snow after Torben and I got back from our walk. He's a good, fast worker. We often do our neighbor's driveway and sidewalk for them (they only have 2 little girls and no strong boys!). Asher also does their neighbor's driveway too sometimes- he loves "snoveling snow" (that's what he called it when he was little and his love for it started)

We met cousins at the sledding hill pretty early and the kids went sledding for about an hour and a half. I stayed with them for about half the time, but I was getting cold and eventually Natalie got snow in her boots and insisted that we go back to the car. We turned on the heater and the heated seats to get her feet warmed back up and wait for the older kids to tire out. 

 

After sledding for awhile, the older kids decided to try "snowboarding". Ben and Asher were good at it, but Asher slammed his knee pretty hard when he fell and decided that was enough of that.

I usually like to get a picture each year of all the kids at the top of the hill with the Rocky Mountains in the background, but it was pretty foggy in the distance and the mountains weren't visible anyway, so we just did it down lower.

Torben had the greatest time running up and down the hill for the 45 minutes that he was out (Natalie and I took him to the car with us when we went because he was getting a little wild and not listening very well.) Also, he often tried to run downhill with the kids as they went down, biting at them and trying to get them to play while they wanted to sled. I think the kids were glad when I took him away.

Obviously, I didn't get any pictures while we waited in the car, but the kids told me they built a ramp to sled off of. They got to go sledding again a couple days later after we got a bit more snow. I just dropped them off with their cousins, our brother-in-law took them to the hill, and I picked them up afterward. We are so glad we finally got to sled this winter!

Birthdays

Torben turned three this year. He is getting to be a little calmer and well-behaved in his old age, but still needs lots of exercise. To celebrate his birthday we gave him a big ball of raw beef (his favorite!) with a candle in it.

Luckily, the candle was extinguished as soon as he dropped it on the floor. I was hoping the kids would blow it out for him, but they let him have the whole thing before they did.

The kids had ice cream instead of raw beef ;)

Austin's birthday is a few days after. He never makes a big deal about his birthday, but we had brownies with family to celebrate.

 

Heidi's Ballet Recital 202

Heidi played the role of a lullaby in her ballet studio's production of Frozen 2. Heidi loves ballet and is getting more graceful in her dancing. We treat her January recitals like a girls' day with Natalie and I taking Heidi out to lunch between her morning rehearsals and her afternoon show. We were hoping to go to the pizza place we ate at last year, but it went out of business and we ended up eating at a little Italian restaurant called Pinnochio's. I ordered a pizza for us all to share because I figured that would be the fastest thing (we only had an hour to get there, eat, and get back). It was okay, but unfortunately not nearly as good as the pizza place from last year and the girls thought the crust was too soggy.

If you can't tell, Heidi is the third in from the left. Her part was at the very beginning of the show and she said it was pretty boring waiting for the rest of the show to pass until the end when everyone comes out on stage. After we brought her home, she only got a few minutes there before Grandpa Brent had to take her back for her evening show. He stayed to watch that then took her out for dinner- with Spanish rice of course!

 

Trevor's Baptism

Trevor got baptized this month. It was a chilly day so we didn't get a big family photo like I was hoping for. Also, quite a bit of family was missing because of all the sickness going around this winter. In fact, Leif started feeling very poorly at the lunch after the baptism and that was the start of a big wave of sickness for our family. But Trevor had a very special day and loved having as many family members as could make it witness his first ordinance and then join him for lunch at the Crepe Restaurant we love.

There is only one option on the menu that is dairy free, but he loves it, so it works- a BLT with specialty mayo on a baguette.

 

Winter Wonderlights

We accidentally came across this lights display while we were out getting some gift cards to send my family. Only Heidi and Natalie were with us, but they were so excited to have a fun little excursion. It was the middle of the week, so there was hardly anyone around and we had fun walking around looking, although we were a little hurried to get our errands done.

The boys were interested in going when we got home and told them about it. We kept planning on going, but never quite found the right time. I knew New Year's was the last day it was supposed to be up, so although I wasn't really up for it that evening, (and Austin didn't want to go at all) we made hot chocolate and went.

We haven't really had any snow this year, so a little of the magic that could have been there, wasn't. But all the kids loved making hot chocolate and sipping it as we walked along. They all said their favorite part (other than hot chocolate) was the bridge (which we didn't have time to see with the girls the first time).

The rest of the park was fun too, except that the hightlight (snowflakes and a tree on a hill that flashed on and off in time with Christmas music playing nearby) wasn't on. It was still a fun little, memorable adventure.