Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! Ours was crazy, but good-crazy. We stayed the night at Bryce's parents' house on air mattresses. So fun! But we forgot to bring a few things with us. Like Avery's inhaler and like our camera. So, unfortunately, we don't have very many pictures and the ones we do have are camera phone pics (bad). Oh well. We'll always have our memories, right?

I don't have any excuse for these first two.  They were taken back at home, but still with my phone.  Lazy.

Ethan had kind of a hard day.  He had to learn that you don't always get everything you want.  And it's not okay to be a brat about it.  To be fair he had to go an extra long time without playing with any of his toys.  I'd be mad too.  Poor kid.

 Caitlin had a Monster High Christmas.  What? You think you're having deja vu?  No, you're remembering her Monster High Birthday a month ago.  Yeah.  She's in love.  Only 3 of these dolls were actually from Christmas, but she loved to line them all up.  What a happy girl.

Avery got a Lalaloopsy and a book that goes with it.  She had a great day.  She was so happy.  4 is a really awesome age for Christmas.

 Noelle didn't care too much about opening presents.  She did want everyone else's after they'd been opened, though.

And Preston didn't know what was going on.  He was happy to be held a lot and look around.  Happy 1st Christmas Preston!

I got spoiled again this year and will hopefully have better phone pictures from now on (new phone).  We had a great time, but I'm always ready for the new year to start and Christmas clean up to begin.  I am so so thankful that we have been so hugely blessed.  The real gifts in the above pictures are those adorable kids.  I love them to pieces!

Christmas Love From the Dopps

Jingle Jog

I love my kids' school. They do a lot of fun activities. They do a Jog-a-thon in the spring, but this is the first year that they've done the Jingle Jog. They got to wear jingle bells and run around the back of the school. Each grade had a half hour to run around as many times as they could. Parents could run, too, but we didn't. Yeah, poor sports. I probably should have. It was freezing, it would have warmed me up. I was so glad that Bryce had started his Christmas vacation and was able to come. He usually misses all the school stuff.

This is Caitlin with the Kindergarteners, getting ready to start.

And Caitlin running, she ran 3 laps.

 And the 2nd graders at the starting line.  They were much more into it than Kindergarten.  You can't even see Ethan in this picture.  He was back with the girls.

And Ethan running his 6 laps.

I was glad that they could do this.  I know they don't get as much active time as they should.  I would love for my kids to be in good physical shape.  I was always one of the slowest when we had to run the mile in school.  I've got to make sure I don't pass that trait down.

Repeat after me:  Exercise is good.  Exercise is good....

The Dopps Visit Santa Claus

Thank you Bass Pro Shops for offering pictures with Santa for free.  You made it worth the three hour wait, missing spouses, skinny Santa, snowball fights, and one bloody nose.  I think....

School Sing

Ethan and Caitlin had their School Christmas Sing.  Ethan sang Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree and Feliz Navidad.  Caitlin sang Jingle Bells, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and Jolly Old St. Nicholas.

It's always hard to get pictures of school performances. It's just a bunch of little heads in the dark. Especially since my kids are so tall and they're always on the back row. Luckily they let us get some close-ups before the kids left. Here's my best efforts:

Caitlin

 Ethan

And Grandma Allred was able to come to see the show and to help me wrangle kids.  It was much appreciated!  And isn't she beautiful?  It was so fun to see the kids sing.  I'm so proud of them for singing and doing the actions and not being mopey, like some other kids.  Great job Ethan and Caitlin!

Christmas Lights

Bryce worked so hard on our Christmas lights this year.  Our old house was a one story and was not too difficult.  It was crazy how hard it was to get to some of the corners of our new house.  I'm glad I have a hard working husband, hard working brothers-in-law, and access to a 20 foot ladder.  I love Christmas lights so much.  It wouldn't be the same without them.

4 Months

Preston is 4 months old now!  At his Dr.'s appointment he was doing well.

Weight: 15 lbs. 8.5 oz. (50%)
Height: 27 in. (97%)

He's rolling over and being a sweetie pie.  He loves to laugh and smile.  He is still sleeping great and is good tempered.  I've had pretty good kids, but Preston is awesome!  Such an easy baby!  I may regret saying that.  We'll see what he's like as a teenager....

First Haircut

Preston had his first haircut yesterday.  We didn't take off much, but it doesn't look so crazy now.  Also, I'm loving this picture of him and Avery.  She loves him so much.

Smartie Noelle

Is there a correlation between sticking things up your nose and brain power? 

I wonder, because our little Noelle is one smart cookie.  She can already recognize and say almost every letter in the alphabet, count to 13 and recognize 1-9.  I didn't teach her any of it, so it must be Sesame Street.  I'm not sure at what age they should know those things, but my other kids weren't this soon.  She is one smart, curious, wild, and strong little girl.  She brings such awesomeness to our family!

The Amazing Presto!

What a great baby Preston is!  Since we moved him to his crib, he has been sleeping great.  He hasn't cried for a minute when we lay him down in the crib.  He just lays there and stares until he falls asleep.  And last night he slept 13 hours straight without waking up to eat.  And 12 hours the night before.  And I had to wake him up both times, so that I could feed him before taking the kids to school.  A-MA-ZING! 

He's every parent's dream and just what I needed for the 5th child.  We sure love him to pieces!

Happy Birthday Caitlin!

Our sweet Caitlin turned six today!  She is such a great girl and had a fun day.  I had a summer birthday, so I never knew what it was like to go to school on my birthday.  And Ethan has a spring break birthday, so this was our first birthday-at-school birthday.  Not as much fun as spending the whole day partying, but it's definitely fun to be recognized at school.  Caitlin brought doughnuts for her class treat.  But only if they have chocolate, or else get something else, Mom.  She got to wear our birthday crown and had a birthday crown at school.  Lucky girl!

Caitlin got this Barbie wedding set, which I was excited about, because I had one when I was a kid.  But I was quite a bit older.  I won't say how old....  Playing with Barbies is acceptable at any age, right?  I think she was most excited about her Starbucks card, though.  Yeah, you heard me.  Starbucks card.  Ethan was given one at the dentist's office once (that was all they had left), and Caitlin's been pining for one ever since.  I think there are three things on the menu she can choose from.  Haha.

Caitlin dressed up in her new Lagoona Blue wig and Monster High shirt and skirt.  She also got some Monster High dolls!  And if you don't know what Monster High is, just ask Caitlin.  She's an expert.

Monster, monster high
Monster high
Monster, monster high
Come on, don't be shy
Monster high
The party never dies

Happy Halloween!

Eeek!  It's Halloween! 

We had a fun Halloween, but I am so glad it's done.  We sure had some cranky, tired kids tonight!  They got SO much candy.  And we only went up and down our own street.  I counted 23 Kit Kat bars between 4 kids.  Good grief!

THE CAST OF CHARACTERS:

Ethan as the Werewolf

Caitlin as the Wicked Witch

 

Avery as Snow White

Noelle as Dorothy

and Preston as the Pumpkin

SETTING:   Canary Way, dusk

PLOT:   4 kids try to get as much candy as they can in one evening while their parents nag them to say their thank yous

CLIMAX:   Small child has complete breakdown because of itchy costume

RESOLUTION:    Kids sit at Grandparents' houses half naked and eat candy, then pass out in the car on the way home

Student of the Month

Congratulations to Caitlin for being Student of the Month for October.  I'm so proud of my great kids.  Caitlin is sweet and kind and works hard.  We love her!

Thrush

Raise your hand if you hate thrush!

Preston has had thrush since he was two months old. He and I (because I'm breastfeeding) have been on Nystatin for a month with no improvement. Someone recommended Gentian Violet. Has anyone ever used this? It's supposed to clear it up within a couple days, using once a day instead of four times a day. Here's hoping.

In the meantime, my poor baby looks like this.

And if you think that's funny, you should see me.

***UPDATE:  Gentian Violet is the way to go!  Two applications and we're done!  I now have a whole bottle of it if anyone ever needs some.

Hole-in-the-Rock

Today we hiked up to hole-in-the-rock at Papago Park.  It was so fun.  It's the perfect hike for kids.  I'm a big baby about heights, so I was scared to death of my kids sitting in that great big hole, but we all made it.

 It was so beautiful.  We had a picnic lunch afterward, played with the wildlife, and then went to the Chandler Espee splash park.  Such a fun and relaxing day.

Phoenix Zoo

Yay for the Zoo! The zoo is always a good time, especially when you have all your cousins with you.  Unfortunately, it was also crazy hot.  What's going on, October?

Caitlin and Brooky with the flamingos.

Brooky, Kyler, and Ethan being flamingos.

Avery watching the rhinos.

At the petting zoo, this goat really wanted Noelle's snacks.

So, of course, she obliged.

We ate lunch there and had fun together.  We were tired out after our long day.  Hooray for the Phoenix Zoo!

Cerreta Candy Company

The Cerreta Candy Company tour was a little disappointing.  It's a fine little presentation, but maybe not worth driving an hour to get there.  It's in Glendale, so it took some driving.  And when I looked at their website I thought it said tours were from 10am to 1pm.  It actually said 10am and 1pm.  Teach me to be more careful when I read.  So, we got there at 11:00.  It was two hours before the next tour, but we had just driven an hour to get there, so we stuck it out.  We hung out at Target and got some lunch.

Now I have to tell you I was invisioning some Willy Wonka action up in there.  You know, vats of chocolate and such.  It turns out that it was not really a tour, but a presentation.  We all stood along one wall while their employee pointed out what everything was.  We never got to go behind the little pony wall.  And it was REALLY loud, so I could only hear about half of what she said.

The saving grace for us was that Caitlin got picked to make a chocolate treat.  I'm so glad they picked her.  She was beaming!  She made some white chocolate & pretzel "bacon and eggs".

Sorry to be so down on the place.  It was kind of fun and they give you free chocolate.  It just wasn't what I was expecting and not worth the time we ended up investing (5 hours due to my poor reading skills).

Children's Museum of Phoenix

This may be a long post because I LOVE the Children's Museum of Phoenix. It is full of awesomeness and I now want to rebuild my house to look just like it. It's true, ask my husband. I think he thinks I'm crazy.

Tada!  The Climber.  This is the first thing you see when you walk in and it took us almost an hour to get past this point.  It is amazing!  You could lose your kids in there.  I'm not saying that we did.

Okay we did.  But only a couple of them. 

Avery wouldn't go in, which was kind of good. I didn't want to go in after her if she got lost. Noelle, on the other hand, was all about the climber. Lucky for me, my sweet husband went in with her.  Haha.  He did not know what he was getting into.

See how happy they look here?  This is before Bryce knew what was coming up around the bend.

Hmm...this is starting to look familiar.

Poor guy.  He had to go through row after row of this to get out.  He barely fit through there.  Watching him try to figure  out how many more there were was probably my favorite part of the day.  Back and forth.  Back and forth.

They also had these vacuum tubes.  You put a scarf in and it sucks it up and spits it out somewhere else.

It also just about knocks you over with air when you try to stick in a scarf. This is where Avery spent most of her time.

There was a ton of other stuff, too.   Noelle played in the sand.

The big kids painted a castle.  Guess which kid got paint in their hair. 

If you guessed Ethan or Avery you'd be wrong. 

Oh, come on.  We all knew it was going to be Caitlin.

They had a trike wash where the kids got to hop on trikes and zoom through this "wash" over and over again.  Well, to be honest, you could only zoom if you weren't in back of Avery.  She had a little bit of a hard time handling her vehicle. 

I'll be crossing my fingers in 12 years.

They had a grocery store and kitchen where Noelle measured dried peas to her heart's content.  She loved them so much she stowed one away and brought it home. 

In her nose.

Avery cooking in the kitchen. 

They also had a room for building forts, a pool noodle forest, and tracks for racing cars.  It was awesome.  So, if you can't tell, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND.  It's a little expensive, but we were able to get a deal on one of those deal sites.

And just in case you wondered if Preston was there, too.

He was.