Tag I'm It

Mindy just tagged me, so here it goes.

The name of this game is to answer the following 10 questions and then tag 4 other friends or so to do the same on their blog pages.

1. Best thing you cooked last week?  I made some yummy chicken fajitas the other night, which are made even better with my delicious guacomole.  The family also enjoyed my chicken broccoli cheesey casserole thing last night too, everyone that is except Hunter of course.

2.If money, time and babysitting were no object, where would you go and with who?  I would love to do a little tour around Europe with Mikey and maybe some friends.  I would love to do it with the kids when they are older, right now I don't think they would appreciate it too much.  I would love to spend Valentine's Day with Mike in Venice, strolling along hand in hand along the cobblestone streets.

3. When was the last time you cried?  Probably Sunday night when I heard about President Hinckley dying.  I'm going to miss hearing him speak at Conference and watching his smiling face.

4. Five things you were doing 10 years ago?  Wow, 10 years ago, let me think about that for a minute...  1. I graduated from BYU in Fashion Design and did my last fashion show.  2.  Mike and I were starting to build our very first house.   3.  I found out I was pregnant with Michela  4.  I was working out everyday with Tiffles, until I got such bad morning sickness I could barely get out of bed.  5.  I cut my hair very short, Mike wasn't too thrilled with it.

5. Five things you were doing 5 years ago?  1. I was pregnant with Chase  2. We were trying to sell our 2nd house and starting plans for our 3rd.  3.  Mike and I went on a little weekend getaway to Northern California, before we were outnumbered by the kids.  4.   I was scrapbooking like crazy  5.  I was driving kids around to preschool and Little Gym.

6.  Five things you were doing 1 year ago?  1.  Enjoying our new little precious Aria.  2.  We finished and moved into our final home!  3.  Reading lots of books.  4.  Being very grateful that my Mom was around to help take care of the kids, cook, clean, buy groceries and make me laugh.  Thanks Mom, I love you!  5.  Making a blessing dress for Aria and a baptism dress for Michela.  What a special time that was.

7.  Seven of your favorite hobbies:  OR wanna be hobbies...  1. Reading  2. Sewing  3. Scrapbooking 4. Doing Crafty stuff  5.  Dancing  6.  I want to start Rock Climbing  7. Taking Pictures

8.  Five favorite Foods:  1. The Chicken Bryan, Chicken Gratella, the Mezzaluna, pretty much anything from Carrabas.  2.  Mike's Lasagna  3. Peggy's Potatoes Au Gratin, I'm drooling just thinking about them.  4.  Tiffany's Cheesecake, any flavor  5.  Zachary's Stuffed Pizza

9.  Five places you've been:  1. All over Italy, but Florence and Venice were my favorites  2. Kauai, HI  3.  New York City, NY  4.  Many, LA  5. The Caribbean

10. Five favorite moments:  1.  When my kids were born and holding them for the first time.  2.  When Mike and I got married  3.  Being in Italy with Mike, especially eating all of that delicious food.  4. Seeing my kids' first smiles and hearing them laugh for the first time.  5.  Singing duets with my Dad.  

I tag Natalie, Chelsea, Jessica and Sara (Maybe she will put something new on her blog!)

Dodgey

When we were in California for Christmas my sister had her dog Cassie with her. Aria was a little afraid of her the first couple of days, but after that she couldn't stay away from her. Every time my Mom was holding Aria around Cassie she would say, "What does the doggy say? Arf, Arf." Aria was soon copying her and would say "Ah, Ah, Ah" every time she saw the dog. (Personally she sounds more like a little monkey, but hey, she's only one year old!) The last couple of days she even started saying something kind of like doggy, it sounded more like "dodgey".

Today Aria and I were looking out the window and we saw three deer in the backyard. Aria pointed at them and said, "dodgey" and started her little monkey bark. I was totally laughing, she cracks me up.

Down She Goes

Aria has mastered going down the stairs!  On Friday Aria decided she didn't want to be stuck upstairs while the kids were all playing down in the basement without her.  Whenever she hears the kids downstairs she sits at the top of the stairs calling out to them.  I was doing some stuff in the kitchen and I could hear her voice getting farther away.  Naturally I thought she was going up the stairs, but I didn't see her on either staircase.  I hurried and went to the basement stairs and saw her about halfway down.  She had the biggest smile on her face and was so proud of herself.  Now she can go play in the playroom with the big kids.  The only problem is that they don't always want her down there getting into their stuff.  On Sunday morning I heard doors slamming and a lot of "No, no Aria".  I went downstairs to investigate and found all of the doors closed and Aria sitting outside the playroom door yelling at Chase in hopes that he would let her back in.  Sweet little thing!  

Cody Rocks!

My children are safe at last!  Mike and (mostly) Cody made a wrought iron railing last week for the stairs that go up to the hut in the boys' room.  Ever since Mike built the stairs I've been afraid that one of the kids would go tumbling over the side.  It is a serious drop off.  Mike and Cody measured it all out and started building it last Thursday.  While Mike was off golfing in St. George, Cody came over and worked his butt off, sawing and welding until he finished it on Saturday.  Mike painted it Tuesday night, and he and I lugged the thing upstairs and installed it last night.  It looks awesome, I love it!  Thanks Cody for doing such an awesome job and thanks Mindy for marrying a man with such sweet welding skills.  

Spanking Time

Tonight during Family Home Evening we were talking about family prayer and Mike asked Hunter if he can feel the spirit and the love from our family when we say prayers together.  Hunter said he couldn't feel anything.  So Mike asked Hunter, "What can Mom and Dad do to help you feel the love of our family?"  Hunter was silent so Chase blurted out, "Give you a spanking?"  Where do they come up with these things?  

Where's the Music?

Aria and I had been dancing around the office to music earlier this morning and were having a great time.  When I went to feed her breakfast I noticed that the music had turned off.  I said to Aria, "Where did the music go?"  She promptly looked down at the floor and looked for the music.  She is so funny, she makes me laugh so much everyday.  Right now she is playing peek a boo with me as she is climbing up the stairs.  News Flash:  Aria took 3 steps today!

Time to go to Sleep

Aria is so cute, everything about her just makes me smile.  When she was first born I tried to get her to take a binky, but she didn't like it at all.  I was worried I was in for another hard year like I had when Chase was a baby.  Luckily she found her soother fairly quickly.  I started to notice that when I would rock her to sleep she would put her mouth on her wrist or arm and kind of suck on it a little bit.  As she got a little bit older I noticed her doing it to her sleeve or a burp rag.  I could just put her down in her crib with a burp rag and she would put herself to sleep.  It was the funniest thing to watch.  When I put her in her pajamas at night she sucks on one sleeve for a second and then the other.  Her favorite things to sleep with are the blankets that Peggy made for her and the other kids.  She loves anything soft and fuzzy she can put her mouth up against.  In the car she often falls asleep with her mouth on the hood of her jacket.  This is when she was about 4 months old.

This is a picture I took of her yesterday while she was taking a nap.  I love how she hugs the blanket to her.  It used to worry me because I thought she was going to suffocate herself or something, but she's always breathing and doing just fine no matter how many times I go in and check on her.

I forgot to write about the funny part!  When she was trying to go to sleep that day I had put her down with her blanket.  About 15 minutes later I heard her crying, which seemed weird because she had been pretty tired and I thought she would fall asleep right away.  When I went in to check on her she had thrown both blankets and her burp rag out of her crib and she was standing there crying because she had nothing to help her fall to sleep.  As soon as I settled her back in with her blanket securely pressed to her mouth she quickly zonked out.

Head Swapping

Megan did me a big favor today and walked me through a head swap on my family picture.  If you noticed something different about the picture on the title of our blog, it is that Chase has a new head.  Now all of the kids are smiling and I love it!!!!!  Thanks again Megan.  And I'm sorry my book list got so darn long, so here are my top five books that I read last year (drum roll please):  

"All But My Life", "The Historian" (Kind of creepy suspenseful, but soooo good), "The Princess Academy", "The Candy Shop War" and three series (I know, I cheated, but they are all so good)- "The Warrior/Wizard Heir" ones, "Uglies, Pretties, Specials" and "The Lightning Thief and The Sea of Monsters".

The Milking is Done

I can't believe it but I am done nursing. I've been weaning Aria for the past month and I was down to weaning her off the last feeding this weekend. Friday night I was trying to nurse her while Mike and I were watching a movie and she decided that she was done. She nursed for a second, pulled off, stuck her tongue out and spit at me. I couldn't believe it! Mike started cracking up and I thought it was pretty funny too, I must admit. I tried to nurse her again and she bit me. So, it's offficial, the cow has been milked for the last time!

I'm really going to miss it though. I have throughly enjoyed nursing each of my babies. It was so much fun to sit in my big chair, put my feet up and cuddle up with my sweet little ones. It makes me kind of sad, but Aria had so many teeth she made the choice quite easy. I will really miss all the time I got to read. The pages were flying and I buzzed through a ton of books this past year. Mike would often poke his head in to Aria's room and ask if I was done nursing. I would look down at her, she would be totally asleep, look at the great book I was deeply into and reply that she would probably be nursing for a little while longer. Sometimes I even looked forward to getting up in the middle of the night because I knew I would be able to get back into a great story. Crazy me, I know. I was talking to a friend the other night and I was telling her some of the great books I've read this past year and she said I should put them on my blog. So here it goes, here is a list of the books I have read since Aria was born (At least what I can remember, who knows what I got from the library). Maybe this will inspire someone else to pick up a good book. (Sorry it's so long!)

Inspirational: "The Traveler's Gift"-Andy Andrews, "A Heart Like His"- Virginia H. Pearce, "The Gift of Pain"- Dr. Paul Brand and Philip Yancy, "All But My Life"- Gerda Weissmann Klein Fictional Good Reads: "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever"- Barbara Robinson, "Blue Shoes and Happiness"- Alexander McCall Smith, "Austenland"- Shannon Hale, "The Memory Keeper's Daughter"- Kim Edwards, "Can't Wait to Get to Heaven"- Fannie Flagg, "Gracelin O'Malley"- Ann Moore, "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan"- Lisa See, "As Time Goes By"- Jerry Borrowman, "Stardust"- Neil Gaiman, "The Golden Compass", "The Amber Spyglass", and "The Subtle Knife"- All by Philip Pullman (These are in the children's section but they are not children's books! The content is better suited for teens and adults.) "Dear John"- Nicholas Sparks Mysteries: "Strong Poison"- Dorothy L. Sayers, "Crocodile on the Sandbank", "The Curse of the Pharaohs", "The Mummy Case", and "Lion in the Valley"- All by Elizabeth Peters Thrillers: "The Alexandria Link" and "The Third Secret"- Steve Berry, "The Historian"- Elizabeth Kostova, "Split Second"- David Baldacci, "The Bourne Identity"- Robert Ludlum Young Adult Fiction: "Girls in Pants"- Ann Brashares, "Eclipse"- Stephanie Meyer (Read the first two if you haven't read them, "Twilight" is incredible!), "Uglies", "Pretties", and "Specials"- All by Scott Westerfeld (Very Cool Sci Fi), "The Warrior Heir" and "The Wizard Heir"- Cinda Williams Chima, Older Children's Books: "Esperanza Rising"- Pam Munoz Ryan, "Enna Burning", "River Secrets", "Princess Academy" and "Book of a Thousand Days"- All by Shannon Hale, "Bridge to Terabithia"- Katherine Paterson, "The Tale of Despereaux"- Kate DiCamillo Older Children's Adventure and Fantasy: "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows"- J.K. Rowling, "Fablehaven", "Fablehaven Two" and "The Candy Shop War" (This book was so much fun!)- All by Brandon Mull, "Of Mice and Magic"- David Farland, "Half Moon Investigations" and "Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony"- Eoin Colfer (I love all of his books, great books for boys or tomboys), "Magyk" and "Flyte"- Angie Sage, "The Lightning Thief" and "The Sea of the Monsters"- Rick Riordan (another great series), "Leven Thumps and the Eyes of the Want"- Obert Skye, "Widow's Revenge"- K.L. Fogg Children's Books: "Shiloh"- Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, "Surfer Dog"- Elizabeth Spurr, "Latter Day Spies Resuce"- Michele Ashman Bell, "From the Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler"- E.L. Konigsburg, "Heat"- Mike Lupica, "Invisible Stanley"- Jeff Brown, "Ready Freddy, The Pumpkin Elf Mystery"- Abby Klein, "Midnight on the Moon"- Mary Pope Osborne, "The Mouse and the Motorcycle" and "Ralph S. Mouse"- Beverly Clearly

How Little is She?

Look how much she has grown!

Well, it's official, yesterday it was confirmed that Aria is the teeniest tiniest little peanut out of our bunch.  Aria had her 1 year checkup yesterday and I was not at all surprised at her stats.  Here they are:  Height- 28.5 inches (23%), Weight- 19 lbs. 3 oz. (17%), Head Circumference- 44.3 cm.(24%)  She is such a sweet little thing.  My other kids were at least 3-4 pounds heavier and 2" taller.  Hunter was about 4" taller!  It was nice to know that she got my little head, at least one of my kids did.  I would be worried about her, but she is developing so well that I just have to come to terms that she might just be a wee little lass.  She's almost walking by herself, she took one step the other day.  She's just too worried to do it on her own.  She'll just stand there waiting for you to take her hand and when you don't she'll just get down and crawl.  She wants to eat all of the time and even though she doesn't weigh too much she still has chub in all of the right places. She babbles all the time, her voice is so sweet, and her favorite thing to say is "Ah, Oh".  We just love her to pieces!

It's For You

Aria is obsessed with telephones and remote controls, pretty much anything with buttons.  She picks up everything and pretends to talk on the phone.  She loves her phone because it plays music too, music is also a favorite of hers. ( Anyone who has seen her shake her booty knows she has some serious rhythm. )   I caught her chatting it up on the phone yesterday while she was watching the kids play out in the snow.  She picks up the phone and yells "Hah?", it's so cute.

In this picture she was standing all by herself!  

I love how she has it over her shoulder and halfway down her back half the time.  She is just so cute, I can't resist her!

Spiderman

Some mornings when I ask Chase to go get dressed for the day he comes down in dress up clothes.  Luckily today was not a preschool day, so I got a good laugh when I heard him say he was dressed and looked up to see him in his Spiderman costume, mask and all.  We got some great action shots of him jumping off the couch and doing spidey poses.  Sometimes you've just got to love your little boys.

Let it Snow

Yesterday we got a ton of snow!  The kids were so excited when we were driving to school in the morning, all they were talking about was getting home from school so they could go play in all of the white fluffy stuff.  Chase looked so cute out there tromping around in the knee high snow.
He and Hunter made snow beds.  So creative!  Michela and Chase buried Hunter in his bed. 

They were falling backwards into the soft snow to make snow angels and Chase even tried a frontwards fall, but he didn't really enjoy the face plant in the snow.

     They were outside until dark having a great time and climbing the snowy rocks from down by the basement windows.  Chase was a little too short to get up some of the rocks so Hunter was giving him a lift.  One time he was trying to push Chase up with his head under Chase's rear!  It was a pretty funny sight.  I always start making hot chocolate for them as soon as I hear them come in the garage.  Nothing says love like a hot cup of cocoa from Mom.

They are Growing up too Fast

I loved this picture even before I took it.  I love pictures from behind.  It was so cute seeing the three of them walking down the steps.  Chase was trying to keep up with Hunter and Michela, something he has to do all of the time.  I love it when they are getting along and playing so nicely with each other.  It makes me love these moments so much.  I wish they didn't have to grow up sometimes.  I love them just the way they are.     

3 Little Monkeys

While we were in California I took Michela, Hunter and Chase up to my old elementary school to play on the playground.  It was super windy, but we still had a lot of fun.  Hunter and Michela are getting really good on the monkey bars and Chase will climb just about anything.  Chase looked so funny swinging in the baby swing.  He almost got stuck when he was trying to get out because his shoes were too big.  Makes me feel like a kid again to watch them and act like a silly monkey myself sometimes.

Ready to Roll

Aria was making us all laugh last night.  She has gotten so good with her little push walker.  She goes around and around the coffee table and the island in the kitchen.  She had a few tumbles when she first got out on the tile, but now she is a pro.  She was making a car motor sound last night as she was cruising around the house.  I thought only boys were supposed to make that noise?!  I guess I am going to have another tomboy on my hands again.  She loves pushing cars around too!  I wish I had sound to go with these pictures, but I need help getting my videos onto the computer.  You can see her lips out in one of the pictures.  Enjoy the cuteness!

Four More Grandkids

Here are the four newest cuties. Aria is 1, Daynen is 8 months, Gage is 4 months and Logan is 2 months. Aria better hurry up and learn how to walk so she can get a head start when she has to run away from all of those boys!

Staker Grandkids

We tried taking pictures of all of the Staker Grandkids but it is pretty impossible to get all 13 of them smiling and looking at the camera at the same time. They are all so darn cute that it doesn't really matter.

Look Mom, No Pants!

These pictures are the reason I wanted to start my blog.  A couple of days before we left for California for Christmas I had a funny episode with Aria.  She was up in her crib taking a nap and I could hear her talking and playing around over the monitor.  I let her play for a while and when I went in to get her I found her standing up in her crib with no pants on!  How in the world did she get her pants off by herself?  She looked so proud of herself and was dancing around and smiling.  She gave me the biggest cheesy smile and I just had to go get my camera.  What a funny little girl.