12.24.10

 Merry Christmas!

Thank you for all your beautiful christmas cards, we love them all.

Such a treat to check the mail everyday.

And someday when I have enough hands and time to tie my shoes, THEN I will send you one too.

And hopefully my kids will still be as cute. 

Love , The Orton Family

More of December

This month I've been beaned in the back of the head at least 20 times, by who else but Mister Cache.

grocery story parking lots

church parking lots

in my kitchen

Many, many other people including complete strangers, Aunt Julie and the grandpa we bought our tree from have been dangerously pelted. The old man, threw snow balls back, which shocked his whole family. I had the impression that he was either very cranky or very honored. Either way Cache broke him down.

Both of them laughing like crazies...

The thing is Cache KNOWS he shouldn't do this,

But  has decided that any punishment is SO worth it.

He sits in his time out, with a very pleased look on his face, trying not to crack up.

And if he has to stay in his room all afternoon with no toys. He's in there laughing at himself.

Anyway...

Devin and Cache have made a tradition of  snowmen with lego mouths.

This snow man lived for about 45 seconds.
I'm glad Devin took some quick pictures, so I could actually see the snow man.

 Cache yelled:"Mom come look at my snowman!" I got to the window just in time to see 
his head rolling down the driveway.  

In Cache's mind this is the soul reason for building snow men. 

To demolish them.

We had a ward "ho down" Christmas party.

That was a first.

We all dressed up, ate good cowboy food, listened to cowboy poetry, saw Santa and lined danced.

haha!

 We hosted the pre-school christmas party

This is Naomi's li'l friend Avri.

:)

  Devin turned 28.

 I made him the traditonal cheesecake and we went on a double "date" with Julie and Matt.
(Put a movie on for the kids and ate Thai take out just us adults.)

 3rd year in a row I've failed to throw Devin his dodgeball party.

I have all sorts of excuses, but none good enough.

He never asks for anything, Ever. Really.

 except a dodge ball party....

 It will happen Devin. Just YOU wait. and wait.

Anyway.

Devin got a suit for his birthday.

Yes he got a birthday suit.
And if you know Devin.....

There were all sorts of "punny's" That Sunday.

Devin may be the king of puns.

He lives to point them out.

I started making a list of his "punny's"

I will find that list someday.

And share with you.

and then you will all be rolling.

Devin we love you.

I love you.

You are my favorite person that has ever ever lived.

 I don't know how else to say it.
Happy Birthday.

Now bring on Christmas!

I took these pictures the morning of the first snow.

I wanted to hurry and make sure I got their picture in the snow before it all went away.

little  did I know what was coming.

I love it.

And love these two kids in snow gear.

Cache dresses himself in a different snow get up everyday.

He is so fun.

We are lucky if Naomi is wearing clothes at all.

She likes to eat snow a lot.

Grabbed a big black chunk of sludge off the car tire the other day and started munchin away.

nice huh.

Cache is growing up.

Cache is so forgiving with me as mom.

He gives these hugs that melt my heart completely. (only every once in awhile)
He also like to hold my hand and play with my hair. 

And when I feed the baby he likes to wedge himself RIGHT next to me,
 so of course Naomi sit RIGHT next to me on my other side.
 And there we sit.

And this one...

Sometimes i think we act like her grandparents and not her parents.

She is just so very hard to say no to.

So you know in Jurassic park when referring to the velocer raptors intelligence, they said:

The raptor will never try the same spot on the electric cage twice, they just bite and bite till they find a week link in the fence to escape. 

That scene in the movie popped into my head tonight while putting Naomi to bed over and over and over and over....

Each time she appeared standing there in jammies, RED dress shoes and blankies drapped over her shoulder, she had a new "reason" for being out.

 Let me see if I can remember SOME of them:

I need a cracker. -"NO sorry." stick her in bed.

"I have boogie feener me" (I have a booger on my finger)

I need a cookie. -stick her in bed.

I need cookie wis milk pease.  (really? Well a cookie AND milk, okay then, NOT)

I need a candy cane. "Condy con."

Spider's gonna get me. "bider gu get me."(this almost broke me, to think she was scared, but she wasn't really...)

"I need Daddy jump UH bed."

I need Cache to sleep with me. "Tashy seep my bed me."

My tummy hurt.

"Mommy snuggo me? "

i need to pee potty. - hmm. yah right.

"Daddy Uh nose me"(she likes devin to rub her nose to help her fall asleep.)

Then the nakedness started.

 She just strips diaper and all, except for her red shoes. So we have no choice but to pay attention to her.

2.5 HOURS of this.
 I did give in and lay next to her.

 Super nanny would be so dissapointed in me.

It kept her in bed but no sleep.

So frustrating.

But strangely a reason we are in love with her.

Her tantrums make me laugh out loud. ( some of the time.)

Just her little stomp and her big sad eyes , and tiny voice.
She's got the pout down.

I'm trying to do better at following through with her and not giving in.

And she has started hurting Cache pretty bad.

And nobody hurts my Cache.

Not even you chic-ca.

But even when she is in time out I have to hide my face so she won't see me laughing as she is pouting and glaring at everyone in the room.

I have been having moments lately where I am just enchanted with my own life.

Despite how loud and messy and very frustrating our house can get,

 I get to experience children, a loving husband. 

oh and a garage.  :)
I love my life because of the people in it.

A message to you cache from Stanta.

Au revoir Sista Spratling

My baby sista is now a full time missionary.

She is gonna have a great 18 months, but not talking to her for that long?

Ouch.

Calorado doesn't know how lucky they are to have such a sophisticated sweetheart  in their presence.

oh  my gosh Ash are you taller than me now? We never checked!!!

I took meself and my 3 childrens over the mountain and through the snowy woods  this week
 to spend some time with her and listen to her speak in church.

Devin joined us on Saturday.

It was a good week.

 Here are the youngest 4 of us 6 Spratling sibs at the movies.

(I felt left out too Ben don't worry.)

I don't know what's going on in this next pic, but i like it.

Presenting the the younger and goofier half of the Spratling Sibs:

Joey is holding a gun he caught Cache smuggling back to Boise.

I asked them to smile for a picture: 

(I'm the oldest girl so I can boss like that you know.)

Come on guys...

Okay nevermind,

we're done.

I Don't know if I'm biased or not but Ashley was asked to speak on "Serving the Savior"

and it was the best talk I've heard from a departing missionary probably ever.

It was sincere and honest.

It stung my heart.

I will quote a bit of her talk:

"Someone asked me to state why I choose to serve the Savior.  I had never even thought of WHY before.  So as I was asking myself this question the answer came: Because he answers me. I asks him questions and I get answers. I feel his love always. When I'm Happy and when I'm sad I feel him loving me. I want to share that love with others." 

 I have no doubt people will feel his love through you Sister Spratling.


Because I do.

Right here is where I chose to omit the picture of us looking at the camera and crying.

It's not super perty.

Then we drove away.

Looking at Ash for as long as we could. 

This would be the last time I'll see her for so long.

.

.

.

.

Then  5 minutes later we drove back.

I forgot stuff. 

Doh.

But by then Sarah was awake so we got to take a GIRL picture!(we missed you Cindy!)

Then we drove away again and this time didn't look back.
Au Revouir.
Till we meet again.




***

Just a funny note I don't want to forget. My parents took Ash out out to Olive Garden last night.

Ash didn't finish her meal, but left the tasty left overs for my parents.

My mom said every time she would open the fridge, she would cry because it was Ashley's left overs, and so she couldn't bear to eat them. And threw them away.

so funny.

Before another holiday hits, (tomorrow) and I need to post about a special day.

I have been putting off documenting this day.

Not because it wasn't a special day.

In-fact it was very special.

A day that we or at least I felt a taste of heaven.

It was Gage's blessing day.

The reason i've been putting it off is because

we may are maynot be struggling with changing his name....

And if we do I'll let you know.

Are we the only ones that go through this AFTER a babies' born?

i think we might be.

 Anyway. 

Don't judge.

Much like other religions do christenings (except we don't believe in baptizing babies)

In our religion when a baby is born it is a tradition to give him a name and a priesthood blessing.

Devin gave him his blessing.

It was truly, truly beautiful.

When I think of this day I smile and feel the need to talk about it in a quieter voice because it was that special to me.

 Instead of doing it at church we blessed him at my parents house in Oregon.

home.

I love my home. 

a beautiful fall day 

in the country

surrounded by family

my sweet new baby boy 

dressed in the same outfit that his brother was blessed in.

perfect.

All the men in Gage's blessing circle:

Great Grampa Calvin(my gramps), Grandpa Orton, Devin, Uncle Nick, Grampa Dave(my dad)

A home truly can be a heaven on earth.

I would like to rephrase that last sentence. 

Home can be a heaven on earth and then my huge 17 yr old brother Joey barrells through the house and through all the family saying:

"I'm gonna kill that CAT!" 

(we don't have animals in the house, and a new gray barn cat snuck in the house)

Sorry Orton family of cat lovers.

We tried to get a family pic of this special day.

Failed.

ya these pictures stink,

 But it was THAT one

OR 

this one:

Devin's sister and her five little K's traveled all the way from Boise to be with us.

Thank you.

That meant a lot.

Let's just say their name's cuz it's fun...

Klora, Kendra, Kyle, Krista, Kaleb.

specially when you say it faaaast.

Of course Grandma and Grandpa Orton never miss a special occasion.

i love this picture.

i'm sad I didn't get um ANY of my family...they were all runnin around everywhere.

I will tell you my mom looked extra beautiful that day.

Really.

Perhaps the reason this day just had an extra special spirit to it was that all of us adults 

attended the temple that morning.

My little sister Ashley is going to be a missionary! 

And in preparation went through the temple for the first time.

So special.

All my family, grandparents, sisters, parents, friends all dressed it white.

Thank you Ashley for letting our baby share the spotlight with you on this special day of yours.

If I could tell anyone, live your life to get to the temple!

It was a taste of heaven and I thought of every family member not there, for whatever reason and wished they were there.

Anyway back to home:

My mom made tons of food....

Except for the pumpkin roll. That was made by Devin's mom.  Since all of my babies are fall babies, 

she has made a pumpkin roll at each blessing. Even when we lived in Missouri.

lovely, tasty tradition.

I only took pictures of the dessert table.

A couple weeks before I said: "Mom, I'm thinking I'll make one or two little desserts for refreshment afterwards." 

Mom: "Oh you want to do food?"

Right then and there I knew I had opened a can of worms.

Except it wasn't worms it was my mom's plethora of tasty fall soups and chile and pumpkin rolls and veggie platter, fruit platter, desserts and a bunch of other stuff she prepared/bought and forgot to bring up from the basement because THERE was NO MORE ROOM FOR MORE FOOD!

She did this at all our weddings too.

What can we say?

 She is a mother of 7 children. She knows how to feed a crowd, and feed them good.

Under preparing or taking it easy is just not even possible for my mom.

NO matter how hard her daughters try to get her to.

Love my Mother.

Thank you.

Look who's guarding the dessert table.

Cache was guarding it from Naomi

and Naomi was in turn guarding it from "Tash."

After everyone left, Sarah and I went upstairs and tried to work with what little light was left to take some pictures....not so good.

Low lighting = grainy pictures.

But some are okay. 

 I told myself I was going to retake them... but he grew outta that outfit in like

one day.

Deer in the headlights

still love it though. 

Whoops how'de that one get on here?

:)

OH man I just love Danny.

This was the moment they stared into eachother's eyes for the first time and in baby talk said:

"Hey our mom's think we're gonna be best friend cousins, but I'm just tellin you now, Uncle Sam's light saber is MINE!"

 It was a peaceful blessed day,

 WE just love you sweet baby so much.

You are so loved by your parents and brother and sister.

So thankful you're part of our family.