Vivi is 5!

This girl has been anxiously awaiting her 5th birthday for the last 12 months...It was a long time coming for her. She is still our little ray of sunshine, always saying something to make us laugh. 

1. What do you like most about yourself? 

It's so fun that I just play. But one time Asa was coming downstairs and I heard so I stopped playing and asked Asa if he could play with me.  

2. What do you think your future job will be? 

I'd like going and cleaning up other people's house. If they said, my kids aren't cleaning up my house, can you? Then I'll say yes. 

3. What do you love to eat? 

I love to eat chocolate chips, skittles and marshmallows. 

4. How do you like to spend your time? 

I more like to go to places and ice skate. And also, I really love when I visit at JK's and ride the little horse. 

Best Birthday surprise ever!

5. What are you good at? 

I try to swing, but I'm learning how to swing. But when Grandpa was here he was pushing me so I learned how to swing. Also I loved when rainbows go at the sky and its so fun when a bunch of birds go around the rainbow. 

6. Who are your best friends and why do you like each other? 

I like Porter and I like Jack, Mariah and Eliza. But this is my two friends that I like even more, Asa and Porter and Jack. 

7. Who is someone you look up to? 

Asa, he's a little crazy and a little mean but he's also cool. 

And that describes their relationship perfectly...

8. What makes you sad? 

When someone hurts me. 

9. What is your favorite outfit to wear? 

My outfit that I got for my birthday and my Minnie Mouse one. 

She loves being fancy

10. What makes you really annoyed? 

When someone is saying "come on to the park!" "no" "Yeah, come on to the park!" "nooo" They were going to go to a boring park that just had a bunch of boring stuff and it just had cars, and it was boring. 

11. What makes you feel proud? 

If I go to another park thats my favorite one. 

12. What makes you happy? 

When someone gives me presents. I'm like Yaaaaay! 

13. What do you do when you feel sad? 

I go in my bedroom. 

14. What's your favorite thing to do with Mom? 

I like to sneak to mom without waking up all of the kids and tell her, "let's go outside and go on the mountains, if we could find some mountains. And so, can I sit up in a big kids seat?" I'll tell you that and then you'll say yes. 

She loves when she's the first one up in the morning and gets to hang out with me. 

15. What's your favorite thing to do with Dad? 

I like to ask him if he could go and play at his friends house, not our friends, his cousins, not my cousins. 

16. What's your favorite thing to do with Mariah? 

I like to punch her. 

17. What's your favorite thing to do with Chet? 

I like to wrestle him. 

18. What's your favorite thing to do with Austin? 

I like him that when he does do tricks for me and when I'm swinging in a swing he's like, "hey want me to do tricks?" and I say "sure". 

19. What's your favorite thing to do with Eliza? 

I like to draw pictures with her. 

20. What's your favorite thing to do with Asa? 

I like to go in the roses and also we just pick roses and then I would like to pick off thistles, put them in water for one day and then I make them out of decoration. 

21. What do you want to be when you grow up? 

I want to be a kitten because maybe the people will say "AAAWWW". 

22. What is your favorite color?

I like blue, pink, purple. 

Vivi is quite the artist and tells the best stories with her drawings. 

This unicorn doing the splits...

"The mommy cat just had the kitten and is crying happy tears." After finding out that the stressed out looking cat was the mommy cat's sister, we all had a good laugh. 

"Hey Pet Store! Don't go too deep because you might give a shot to my baby!" 

For a while there Vivi was always drawing pictures of Eliza and her "husband". She also would draw herself as their baby. Not sure what is going on there psychologically...Eliza is like a second mother to her though. 

The prince is coming to wake the sleeping princess

These people are walking their cat, dog and alligator.

The facial expressions on some of these are just fantastic...

I mean, look at the bad guy mean-mugging it as he tries to kidnap the girl. 

Vivi loves her stuffed animals, she really wanted them all to be at the tea party one day. 

Vivi is so good at getting hauled around for all her older siblings' activities. She can have fun wherever she is and is always making new friends. 

She has become so kind to Josie. She loves "training her" each day and giving her treats. Every once in a while Josie will go down and sleep with her at night and it makes Vivi so happy. 

She decided she was going to organize the pencil drawer one night. She got so far as dumping all the contents out, then left...Just the kind of help I need around here. 

Evan is a big favorite. We are often having to remind her of personal bubbles and how it's important to give Evan some space. He's a good sport though. 

She requested a pink smoothie for her birthday lunch. 

Vivi love being a chubby bunny, and it makes me laugh everytime she's waddling around in this getup. 

Not really sure how the conversation was started, but she was so flabbergasted when she learned that even queens toot. "Do they stink?!"

She came to me with a baby doll and said, "Mom! I just borned this baby!"

One day she had a long conversation with me about how sad it was that Cinderella's step sisters made her do all the work. "I wouldn't do that. I would help Cinderella." Meanwhile, Mariah was cleaning up the toys in the living room. She thought this was the perfect time to ask for Vivi's help. Vivi stared at her for a long moment, and then slowly gave Mariah a thumbs down motion. So yeah...maybe she hasn't quite given up being like the wicked stepsisters. 

She was talking about if someone did something bad, "Then when you died you would to go the boring heaven." 

She often talks about what she'll do when she's a mom. They are often little passive aggressive jabs at me: "When I'm a mom I'll let me kids eat all the candy they want." She also talks about how she is still going to live with Tanner and I so we can watch her kids. She has it all figured out. 

She hates having her throat touched and if there is any kind of slight pressure on her throat she panics. "It's actually choking me!!" 

Grammie got her heels for her Birthday and she was thrilled. She wears them everywhere she goes. 

She loves moving from family to family during Sacrament Meeting. Always checking to see who has the best toys are snacks. She isn't afraid to ask people for gum either. 

We sure love this little firecracker! Life wouldn't be the same without her spunky personality. 

February

We kept busy this last month so it wasn't surprising when it went by so quickly. 

Eliza and Vivi had a lot of fun decorating Valentines boxes for two different parties they went to. 

They really enjoyed the slime they made at one party...

Chet and Austin had lots of archery. Austin has improved so much his first year, even getting a first place at one of the tournaments. They have spent a lot of time working on the house too. They learned a lot about roofing and feel confident they could roof a house now.

Our contractors paid them each one hundred dollars in dollar bills. They were pretty excited about that. They used some of their hard earned money to buy a 3D printer from a friend. They've kept that thing busy mainly making toys for their younger siblings. 

 

Vivi enjoyed making cookies with me one day. 

Chet finished up his basketball season. It was really fun to see how much the boys improved over the season. 

The oldest four had another concert with SEISO and in his hurry Austin grabbed two right shoes, different sizes. It didn't really phase him though. Mariah and Eliza had solos and it was another great concert. 

Asa and Vivi were much better this time around. I think Asa's nap on the way there really helped. 

We had a Valentines Day party with the cousins and Evan. The kids worked all week long on their cards and did an amazing job. Here's a few of my favorites:

I had a hankering for a chocolate raspberry cake and it exceeded my expectations. 

Chet and Austin went to a skate park in Des Moines with friends and had a blast. 

All the kids are officially downstairs right now because the upstairs bedrooms are gone...Eliza, Vivi, and Asa were so excited about their new bedroom. Mariah...not so much. But we will survive this stage of renovations. At least thats what I keep telling myself. 

Eliza decided to wear Chet's boots to feed the chickens...

Mariah went with Tanner and I to babysit during an adult activity at the church. Chet watched his younger siblings and even made dinner for them. This is the picture he sent to us of his extra runny mac and cheese. But he kept the kids alive and happy so we're calling it a success. 

My friend got this picture of me helping my girls at an activity. I still have to stick my tongue out when I'm concentrating on something. I'm just like Michael Jordan. 

Asa and Ryann had a good time too. 

Asa is getting nicer to Skippy and Josie and they are beginning to trust him more. This is the most chill cat I've ever seen. 

And an angelic sleeping shot just because. 

Chet had his last basketball tournament at the big sports complex in Ottumwa so we felt brave enough to bring all the kids. Asa got pegged hard in the head twice with a soccer ball...yet he still wanted to be running around with all the big kids. I took the youngest three to the skate park while the older three ran errands with Tanner. That evening Chet and Austin had their last archery tournament and both did really well. 

We went bowling and Dad and Asa tied for first. It was fun to do something together as a family.