FIVE

I am the mother of a FIVE year old!

It seems like just yesterday, when I was holding a tiny perfect bundle in my arms. Five years ago today, I became a MOM. I have loved being a Mom, especially to this rambunctious, energetic, to smart for his own good, loving little boy.

The first thing he said to me when he woke up this morning was, "MOM, I am five, now I can go to SCHOOL!". I had to remind him, that school for him will not start until the end of summer, which is more than six months away.

I have to admit I was a little selfish this year. As my friends were sending their four year old children to preschool, I was keeping mine home. I have loved snuggling with him this year and will be sad a little sad to have to send him to school when the time finally comes. I have also loved teaching him how to count, add, subtract, learn his letters, and their sounds. He is so smart, that at times I wonder why I am trying to teach him-HE ALREADY seems to know everything. The only thing he struggles with is what letter looks like what, and what sound some of them make. Hopefully we will have it down before he starts Kindergarten!

Here are some of my most favorite pictures of Derrick these past five fabulous years.

This I my ABSOLUTE favorite picture. It is Derrick at 18 months with one of his cousins. I love his dirty little face!

We can't forget last year when he got a hold of the hair clippers-I felt so bad shaving all of his hair off. He called himself the, "creepy boy", and cried for hour saying over and over, "my beautiful hair". I cried a little myself. PLUS it was the middle of winter, his poor little head.

He was SO DANG cute!!

Always trying to be like Dad. He he is waring one of Daniels Head Lamps.

This was taken about a week after Riley was born. His face is COVERED in Rocky Road Ice Cream-Umpqua Ice Cream- THE BEST EVER!

 I love his BIG, beautiful brown eyes.

 Playing in the snow in Vernal. This is THE only picture I got of him outside all winter long last year. We were sick almost the entire winter, and stuck in the house.

Playing out side. He is always ready with a smile as soon as I pull the camera out!

 He feel asleep, snuggle up to Riley who was snuggled in her car set. He loved he from the moment we brought her home.

 Derrick and his best bud Owen. He was SO excited to have a brother. He is ALWAYS helping me out with Owen. I feel so blessed that he is the older sibling. 

Derrick I have LOVE watching you grow and learn. I have loved being you Mom. You are always telling me how much you love me. You are a GREAT big brother always lending a helping hand to Riley and Owen. You have the BEST laugh. I am so proud of you. Although I hope the next five years go by slow, I can not wait to see you grow and learn even more. I am so grateful that Heavenly Father trusted me to raise you. I am so glad that you are mine forever!

HaPpY BiRtHdAy DeRrIcK!!

We LoVe YoU!

Tasha's Visit and Temple Square.

A couple weeks before Christmas Tasha came down for a visit. Me and her had a girl morning and went and did  a little Christmas shopping. I do not remember the last time I went ANYWHERE without the kids or  Dan by my side. It was SO nice! Especially since it allowed me to pick up Dan's Christmas present! A Bobby Flay cast iron grill! Daniel had been wanting one FOREVER.

That same Afternoon, we loaded the family up and headed to downtown Salt Lake. Our first stop was the Grand America Hotel were they had a display of Ginger Bread houses. Tasha also took some pictures of our family outside in the Court Yard. I left my camera in the car during this outing, so all the pictures were taken on Tasha's camera. We did download them to my computer when we got home. Sadly however, I can not seem to fine what file we downloaded them to. I will keep searching, and post some of the picture when I find them.

Our next and last stop for the night was Temple Square, to see the beautiful lights.  This time I made sure I grabbed my camera.  I seemed to have failed to capture the beauty of the lights. They were AMAZING. My only regret is that there was no snow on the trees- I love the look of Christmas lights twinkling under the snow! My favorite part of the night, was going into the meeting house on temple square and listening to a youth choir sing!

Below are a some of my favorite pictures taken at temple square. My most favorite one is the very first picture on this post. It was taken at the refection pound where they had tons of lights floating in the water surrounding a breathtaking nativity statue, (which you will see below).

A Clement Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas. It was so nice to stay home and enjoy our little family. As a tradition we let the kids open a present Christmas Eve. It is always the present  Granny Nette and Papa Joe's send-which is ALWAYS pajamas! Derrick was so excited that him and Owen's matched.

Here is a picture of them. Right before we sat down to watch Despicable Me! 

In this picture we told them to give us their "pretty" smiles!

Derrick ended up falling asleep at 7:00 Christmas Eve. Since his normal bedtime is 8:30, I thought it would be fine. By 10:00 ddecided to put the "SANTA" presents out and go to bed. By 10:30 Derrick had woken up giddy with excitement! After a quick scare of him going into the living room, he was sequestered to our room. THEN out of no where the BABY and RIE woke up! I finally gave up on keeping everyone in the room, threw a blanket over the "Santa" gifts, and dragged the kids out to the living room to watch a second helping of Despicable Me.I was surprised that no one went near the blanket! After Despicable Me was over, we watched another movie-I have no idea what it was-I think it was Monster Inc. BY 2:30 everyone was back to sleep and snug in their own beds! Christmas morning, everyone slept in until about 9:30. They probably could of stayed in bed longer, but I was just to excited, so I woke them all up!

Christmas Morning was filled with wonder and excitement as the kids opened their presents. I loved watching their faces as the discovered what was under the wrapping paper. I also loved watching the two older ones giving each other hugs, and helping Owen unwrap his presents. Riley who LOVES pigs, recieved a stuffed one as her Santa present (a Scentsy Buddy). We thought she would fall in love, we were wrong. She tried to give it to Owen. WHY? She wanted the guitar Derrick had recieved! Now, that the jealousy of the guitar has worn off, she is in love, and cuddles it everynight as she is falling asleep. Owen-we could have wrapped up boxes and he would have been happy. I guess he does like the camera Derrick got for him-it SINGS! Derrick's favorite present(s) by far were the bakugans. They are little round toys that transfrom into dinosaurs. He is now saving his money so he can by them battle gear?!

It was a wondrful Christams, and just like last year I enjoyed spending it at home with our little family. Next year I want to make it more magical and add some new traditions!

Our little heart breaker!

Riley LOVE books, this year I think she got around four or five!

 Derrick's FAVORITE present(s) was the Bakugan's. He got 4!

The Baby chewing on one of his presents!

 Rie as cute as can be with her big grin and her cut off bangs!