Catch Up Again

Hopefully I have caught up sufficiently. I know I do this not only for myself but for the select few who haven't given up on this blog. I will really try and be better in the future. Having five kids is really kicking my rear end. I, at first, just put up a bunch of pictures with a title (thanks KelliAnn for your comment) and posted dated them so there was some order to when things happened and have now just finished adding a few comments to the pictures. Done...for now.

Christmas 2011

Ali got this princess dress from Grandma Fraser. She has worn it so much I have to make repairs on it already.

Tanner showing off his new bike from Santa.

Clark in his Christmas PJ's. I can't believe how big he is already!

Traditional family Christmas pj picture in front of the tree.

Christmas day in the kid's Sunday best. The sweaters and dress were all gifts from Grandma and Grandpa Fraser.
What a wonderful Christmas this year! I loved that it was on Sunday. I felt like it was so appropriate to go to church and remember our Savior and why we celebrate this day. It really put things in perspective for me.

Polar Express Day at School

So the twins had to make train cars for polar express day at school and then they had a little parade inside the school to show them off. They came up with their own designs. Impressive, right? I know.

Max's First Piano Recital

Max did an excellent job for his piano recital. I thought we recorded it but maybe it is on Neal's phone. Anyway, he played two Christmas songs: Jolly Old St. Nicholas and O Christmas Tree. He only made one little mistake and that was he was supposed to play O Christmas Tree twice through but got nervous and forgot. I told him it was a mistake that no one would even know about it except his teacher and me. He did a great job and we were so proud!

Ali Turns 3

Alice and Grandpa posing for the camera and showing off the birthday cake. Yes, Reann and did make it and it was a lot easier then I thought it would be. She is supposed to be Rapunzel. Ali loved it so that made the time and effort worth it.

A picture of her new doll from Grandma and Grandpa F. They match! So cute!

Getting ready to blow out the candles. What a fun birthday!

Clark Gets Blessed

What a special day! My whole family was here due to the fact that Sam and Aubrynn had just had their reception the night before. It was so exciting for me to have everyone from my side of the family, minus Sam, staying at our house. Can I just say having the basement finished is so wonderful, it's beyond words to try and describe how nice it is to have done. It was also really neat to see everyone of my brothers standing in the circle to bless Clark. I don't think that has ever happened with previous blessings. I just made me really appreciate my family on both sides and all the do for us and the support they showed by coming that day.

Sam and Aubrynn Get Married

I can't forget to document Sam and Aubrynn's wedding. They looked so cute together. What a beautiful couple, if I do say so myself. Good thing I set them up! It's still strange to think of Aubrynn as a sister-in-law now instead of one of my old Laurels.

Halloween

Halloween was a lot of fun this year. Max was a skeleton pirate, Tanner: black spiderman, Josh: a knight, Alice: Rapunzel (dress made by my mom and the hair made by me) and Clark: Superman (of course because of his name). The kids went out with dad and I stayed home and handed out treats. We actually ran out this year and had to quickly turn out our lights. Probably because it was really nice weather, not like last year when it rained a ton.

Max Gets His Bobcat

Max got his Bobcat in October. He actually had everything done the month before but since I was in the hospital having a baby his leaders decided to wait until I could be there at the next pack night. We were very proud.

Clark Thomas Fraser

My sweet neighbor took the last picture. I just love it. It's the first time I've had pictures taken of my baby just a few days after they were born. He has changed so much already. Anyway, we are so happy to have him in our home. He is so sweet and good. I should add patient as well. Being the youngest of 5 he sure has to wait sometimes and he handles all the manhandling quite well from his older siblings. He was born September 20, 2011 and weighed 8 lbs 10 oz. He's a perfect addition to the Fraser family.

Max Was Baptized

August 6, 2011. What a special day! All of our immediate family was there except Stacey and her family and Jeff and his family who both live out of state and Mike's wife Ashley who lives out of state too but couldn't come with Mike due to conflicting events she had to be to. We even had all of Max's great-grandparents there except Grandma Johnson who was in the hospital recovering from a fall. It really meant a lot to be surrounded by family. I felt so much love and was so grateful for all the help and support. We are so blessed and are so proud of Max for choosing to follow the Savior's example and be baptized.

The Boys Start School

She thought she was going to her class too. She got her backpack and everything and was ready to go.

My third grader and 1st graders. I can't believe how big my boys are getting and how quiet it is here during the day. :)

December: Alice Turned 2 and Christmas!

Okay, so this wasn't taken on her birthday but I had to post this for Neal's mom. She made the dress and gave it to her around Thanksgiving. She just looks so cute in the picture I had to put in on for her to see.

Ali's cake. I attempted to make a ladybug cake. She seemed to love it so that's good.

Brothers helping with the present opening.

A jacket and skirt she got for her birthday.

This was a great present. A garage sale find. We just had to buy a new battery for it.
She loves it.

I just love this picture of the kids. This was the Sunday before Christmas and they are all wearing clothes that my mom gave them as part of a 10 days of Christmas she did for all of us. They are all smiling, looking at the camera, and I love that Max has his hand on Alice's shoulder.

We then tried to take a picture of the whole family. This was the best one. Oh well, at least there is a good one of the kids.

As you can see I didn't take a whole lot of Christmas pictures. I forgot to pull it out Christmas morning. This is a picture of us on Christmas Eve. They boys all got pjs with monkeys on them and Alice and I got strawberry themed ones.
We did do a nativity scene reenactment and I filmed that. Its pretty funny so maybe I'll have to post that but that's about it for Christmas. It was so much fun and we always feel so fortunate for all the gifts we receive both of a spiritual nature and material at this season. We feel so blessed. I always want Christmas day to last forever.

November: Twins Start Wrestling and Our First Snowman of the Season

Josh getting ready to take his opponent down.

Tanner doing something to his opponent, I'm just not sure what.

They boys were really excited about wrestling when it first started but I think their enthusiasm kind of died out by the end (I'm don't think they won a single match). I have always like watching wrestling and still have high hopes that they will learn to love it but they are only five so I will give them time if they want to take a break for a little while.
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The twins, Ali and I built our first snowman of the season in November. He turned out pretty good I think.

She just looked so cute in her snow clothes. All but the jacket and hat used to belong to the twins. You forget how small your kids used to be.

October: We Can't Forget Halloween

The annual Halloween School Parade. Tanner the pirate.

Josh as Frankenstein.

Max as Count Dracula.

I helped out with the twins class party. It was actually combined with all the kindergartners.
Can you say chaotic? They had tons of fun though.

Neal's costume that he chose to share with Ali at the church party.

I'm so proud of this costume. I bought it the day after Halloween last Halloween for like 3 dollars at Children's Place. She would have nothing to do with it until the night of Halloween and we were able to convince her that she would get candy if she wore it.

The whole group ready to get their trick or treat on. You might notice that (1) the twins are wearing different costumes then they did at school (I'm not sure what to tell you. They can be quite indecisive and we have a huge box of dress up boy clothes in the basement that makes it easy to be 3 or 4 different things for Halloween.) and (2) there are a few extra children and adult in this picture. They are my adorable nieces and cute sister-in-law. They came up for the occasion and we are so glad they did because we had so much fun while they were here.

October: Neal turned 31 and Max and I went on a field trip

We got to pick pumpkins and ride a bus. I think those are the highlights.

The boys drew pictures for Neal on this birthday. My favorite is the one that says Dad F. Good thing we cleared that up...Neal might not have known which dad those pictures were for.

And of course, we had to have Banana Raspberry Pie. I don't think we will ever go back to a traditional cake again when it comes to Neal's birthday.

Where to Begin?

It's been awhile. I know. I know. I think I kept putting off the blog because our camera wouldn't connect to the computer and so I couldn't get any new pictures on here. I don't think I have hardly ever posted anything without a picture to go along with it. Family and friends occasionally want to see what has been going on with us and the best way to do that is with a picture or two. Let's face it though, there have probably been about five people max who have even noticed that I haven't posted for awhile. Anyway, Neal was able to figure out a way to get our pictures on the computer a month ago so now what excuse do I have? I guess I better just get going. I'm just not sure where to begin...

Family Photos

I had Kristin Sanchez take pictures for me again. This time I decided to include the whole family. She did a great job. Again, I had a hard time deciding which one to show so I ended up just posting my favorites, which were most of them. . . Here is her website if you are in need of a great photographer:

www.kristinsanchezphotography.blogspot.com