Now We Are Six!

"When I was one, I had just begun.

When I was two, I was nearly new.

When I was three, I was hardly me.

When I was four, I was not much more. 

When I was five, I was just alive.

But, now I am six. I'm as clever as clever. I think I'll be six now, forever and ever."

~A.A. Milne

Dear ones,

Avalon turned SIX YEARS OLD last Thursday, and had a good birthday celebration, I think. She got a Tinkerbell barbie, new shoes, birthday money from Grandma, an adorable Cinderella apron from Granna, and lots of fun, little things that little girls like-- especially when it's from the movie "Frozen."

Avalon-- I mean, Cinderella

Avalon danced, and giggled, and sang all day long. Oh the joy of being SIX! She told me that she was just like Eloise-- except not naughty. Hee!

I was good and did not comment...

Bonny made her a beautiful snowflake cake ala "Elsa", and we had a nice time together as a family.

We finished reading "A Wrinkle in Time" out loud as a family. And Mom cried, of course. We just started "Howl's Moving Castle" and are reading our Christmas stories aloud every night. Daddy is looking forward to reading "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" aloud, though I am pulling for "A Christmas Carol," since we never got to that one last year.

This week will be hectic, with Christmas parties, a house inspection, Dad's birthday, and comings and goings of all kinds.

Big brothers make great airplanes.

Lliam's new job at --- is working well, and he enjoys it. It's been very busy there, because of all the Christmas shoppers. Lliam works the register and also helps unload the truck when it comes in. 

Bonny got a new REGULAR job last week! YAY! She has started working as a "mother's helper" for a lady in our ward that lives down the street. She does a bit of everything; babysitting, laundry, cleaning, helping where she's needed. She works there for 3 hours each on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. She still teaches ballet on Tuesdays, and attends dance and ballroom dance classes at --- on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. (There's a new building over by us, now. It's nice!) And she studies and does all her school work beautifully!

She is a responsible, organized girl, or she never could manage everything on her plate. She has big plans for attending BYU, and she is working hard to get there. I'm starting to miss her already!

Dierdre is on fire with family history work, and does some indexing every day. And she loves Pinterest, too. ;-) She is working hard in her Key of Liberty class, and is also doing well in my English Literature class. She has some adorable little friends in Beehives with her, and is really coming into her own. She and Bonny are best buddies, and talk and giggle for hours.

Gavin is going crazy with programming-- he LOVES it! And he is catching the indexing bug, too. He is our resident math guru, and loves taking his turn on the computer so he can do math and programming. And he's GOOD. Dad is taking him under his wing, and helping him understand anything he doesn't pick up on. He is moving at a tremendous pace, and I think Daddy is glad to have another programmer in the house. :-D

Ronan is busy taking everything apart that he can get his hands on. Unfortunately, he can't always put it back together! Last night, he figured out how to make a homemade machine work with wires and batteries. But then he got shocked a bit. Luckily, Dad stopped him before he tried to open up an old computer monitor. Those are dangerous; even Dad doesn't mess with them. He is also still Lego crazy, and designs and builds new things all the time.

Sleeping Beauties

MacKenna is reading so beautifully. She reads aloud to me from the Book of Mormon every night, and I can see her improvement every day.

Grayse is becoming quite the artist. She's really good! And she LOVES baby Fiona, and carries her all around the house.

Eryn is growing up so fast. She is doing better about sucking her fingers, but when she gets sleepy, she still can't seem to help it. It's so cute; when Fiona cries, Eryn will come running with her blanket to try to soothe her. LOL!

Davy boy is so excited about EVERYTHING, especially about getting into mischief. He adores Fiona, but sometimes loves on her a bit too much-- which she does not appreciate.

He talks up a storm, and has the clearest little voice. Now, if we could get him to stop screaming: in happiness, enthusiasm, frustration, for anything! It's cute, but only for so long. And he inherited that piercing, ear-splitting scream that Gavin used to have and the little girls all have.

"Oh, the noise, noise, noise, NOISE!" ;-)

Big sisters like to dress up babies

Fiona is now CRAWLING. She is also an expert in her baby walker, and loves to talk, sing, and bang on everything. She is constantly making sounds to match the kids. She will try whatever sounds those around her are making. She will be an early talker, for sure.

We love you all!!! We wish you the peace, love and joy of the Savior, Jesus Christ. We are so grateful for Him and his beautiful example, teachings, and sacrifice.

We have so many reasons to rejoice!!! We hope you are all having a lovely Christmas season, and that you feel the Savior's love every day.

Love, Mama Rachel