Tuesday, December 28, 2010

All My Babies

I wanted to share a picture of our Christmas nativity. Unfortunately, as you can see, we were unable to have all the children together in a presentable manner. At least most of it looks cute. :-) The children did a great job.

Also, I just love looking down into Andrews face and seeing that all my children look like "our" children. They all have traits that look like each other. I decided to put the pictures all together to see if you can tell which child is which. The funny thing was that while I was putting this together David and Rebecca came in at separate times saying how cute Andrew was (the funny part was, none of the pictures I had up were of Andrew).

Now they are all up, plus one extra just for spice. Have fun!


Tuesday, December 21, 2010

2010 Siler Family Christmas Card

Merry Christmas!

I'm sure you've been curious to see how we used the pictures from our Christmas photo shoot (click here) in our Christmas card. Well, wait no more!


We've placed our year-end family summary (a.k.a Christmas letter), along with our photo, on our family website (click here).

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Holiday Clothes

Here are our children in some new holiday clothes:


Let it snow: the wish of Utah expats living in Texas
Wearing clothes decorated by Grandma Siler
(Please note the little one hiding on the right)


New Holiday jackets/fleece they chose themselves!

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Christmas Photo Shoot

We had been putting off taking family photos for our do-it-yourself Christmas picture until little Andrew came. It turns out that we're too afraid to take him outside still, so we ended up doing it piecemeal anyway. Regardless, we think the pictures turned out wonderfully! (In fact, Walmart didn't want to let us print them because they questioned whether we had permission from the copyright holder. It took some convincing for them to finally hand the pictures over--we had to fill out some form, and the children vouched for it, too! All that trouble for an image we threw together in PowerPoint!)

Here are our favorites of the nearly-200 we took today (stay tuned for the official card collage):

The Coveted Squeeze!


Leaning in


A lot of love


Lean On Me


What is the youngest saying here?


Best Friends


Sidewalk Shot


Not Fence-sitters


Did you notice the boots?


Unto us a child is born...


Friday, December 10, 2010

One Week Old


We had our little Andrew, and his family is completely in love with him.

8 lb and 21 inches of sweetness.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

November Pictures

Another month down, another set of fun pictures! Visit our family website to see shots of family fun, a found kitty, a painted masterpiece, rockets and robots, Fall, and Christmas decorating (click here).


Friday, November 26, 2010

Stomping Fun

My children went out to play the other day and apparently we attracted a lot of attention when we actually play in our front yard. We had three different sets of friends come over to play with us in the time we were outside. The children loved to have friends join them. This might be an obvious concept to others, but it is something I still need to learn to do. Getting together with friends is hard for me, because I love when we just play together as a family. I do love seeing them make friends and play!

By the way, no baby yet.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

A Rescued Kitten

We had an experience last week where we found and helped a kitten. We had seen it and I brushed it off as a stray, but was curious since it really looked clean and well taken care of. We saw it the next day crying, and I decided it was not a stray. With the help of another woman who knows more about cats than I do, we took it to my house to shelter until we knew how to help it. Through the process of the day we found its owner.

The children enjoyed the time we were able to spend with this sweet cat and were happy to have had a day to feel like we owned a furry friend. Perhaps someday we will be able to completely fulfill that dream.

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Hunt for Fun October

We've put more than fifty photos of our October fun on our family website (click here). You can see things like butterfly catching, Smurf eating, costumes galore, and a jumping collage.


Friday, October 22, 2010

Birthday Fun

Today was my birthday and decided to make a cake after Rebecca's pumpkin suggestion. The children loved it. We had a lot of fun.

The one little side seemed to be caving in, but it made a very nice spot for a stem.


Here is my little tiger growing big so quickly.

Monday, October 18, 2010

Butterflies, Ladybugs, and Leaves!

I am sorry I haven't posted much, it seems I am struggling to keep up with everything these days. Here are some pictures from the last couple of weeks, in reverse order:


Yesterday, Rebecca was attended a birthday party for a friend she had only met once. Her parents just moved earlier in the year to San Antonio and they used to be our next-door neighbors at the blue apartment complex back in Provo.
Rebecca dressed up as "Ladybug Girl", which is a book about a little girl who pretends to be a super hero. Unfortunately, by the time we arrived at the house her ladybug wings were broken.


She looks cute even without her wings.
Earlier in the day, I had the opportunity to go to the temple and we enjoyed a picnic lunch on the temple grounds as well. The children love walking around on all the big rocks at the temple... not sure if that should be against the rules or not.

Before our temple outing, we spent the morning at the zoo. I thought this picture captured our children's personalities perfectly.

On Columbus day, we spent some time playing at the park between our appointments for the parent-teacher conferences. David has enjoyed this Fall season because the butterflies are coming through! He sometimes catches other things as well.

Here Rebecca is playing and having fun with other friends that showed up to play at the park as well. She loves to be with the younger children.

Even though we don't have the beautiful changing colors around us, we found out that some of the leaves are actually starting to fall! David and some friends found or made a pile of leaves and were having lots of fun playing in them.

As a side note, I saw them playing in the leaves and my first thought was, "Please don't! You will get dirty, and maybe even have bugs on you." Then I thought of how much fun children have and they don't mind those worries yet, so I let them go at it. I guess I am still learning to let them go and explore nature without a mother hen hovering.

David has been able to catch quite a few butterflies and moths with his net. He loves it! He is the most careful and gentle boy I know. Clark taught him how to use it without harming the insect, and he has followed those instructions very well.

This butterfly didn't fly away when he opened the net, so I had it crawl onto my finger and there it sat for maybe ten minutes before it flew off.

"And they pitched their tents round about the temple, every man having his tent with the door thereof towards the temple, that thereby they might remain in their tents and hear the words which [the prophet] should speak unto them."
Mosiah 2:6


I thought it would be fun to have the children sit in a "tent" of sorts and watch conference. Clark remembered we had a little tent out in the garage that we have never used. I put it up and found it to be the perfect size. They enjoyed it.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

New Pictures

We've added new pictures to our family website; click here to take a look.


Thursday, September 30, 2010

Perfect Little Book

Our littlest one found the joy in this book weeks ago, and it has been a favorite since then. We play "hug" chase games, recite parts of the book--"Bobo!", and laugh and giggle about hugs.

We happen to have a little monkey that is perfect for hugging and Benjamin loves carrying it around. When he is sad, a hug from his little monkey will make him laugh. He loves this monkey and I am thankful he has learned to love reading as well!

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Homemade Fun!

Not too long ago, a friend asked us what we do for fun. As I sat their and thought about what our family does when we have breaks and vacations, my only reply was, "I think our family has a different view of what is fun." We don't go to theme parks, or travel great distances; in fact, the times we have the most fun are when we just stay home and play together. There is something relaxing about playing at a park, in the front yard, or even just inside with toys. The only other place we go to have fun would be when we travel to the temple and make the whole day a family day.

Fun does not have to cost, and in reality it shouldn't cost anything. All it takes to have a great day is creativity!

Here are some moments of fun:

The children love when we make anything from the wheat we grind. I think their fascination stems from seeing something come from what seems to be nothing.

For a boys day out, Clark took them to feed the ducks and found fun in exploring the area as well. Who knew a culvert could be so fun!



All I can say is "a bad hair day". We have some strange ducks.


We have loved having corn on the cob. The children love peeling and cleaning the corn, it makes it feel like we have our own garden. (which I hope to have someday...)

At first we cut the corn off for this little one, but he wouldn't eat it and kept reaching over to our plates wanting to take bites out of our corn. Finally we gave him his own and he devoured it! He must have great biting abilities!


Homemade fun, that is all it comes to.

Saturday, September 4, 2010

New Pictures

Here are some photos from our adventures from August! (click here)



Friday, August 27, 2010

Empty House

It is a strange feeling to have my children off somewhere without me. We have entered into another school year and now David and Rebecca are gone. Here David is going to school, and the next one is Rebecca taking her turn going to school. We just love taking pictures by that funny sign...



Before school started we spent some time together.

The children loved getting to go to the circus, it really was amazing!

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Family Home Evening Jam

We have had fun creating things these past couple of family home evenings. Last week we decided to show our children how to make butter, and they were amazed! Yesterday we tried our hand at freezer jam, and the children are waiting anxiously for their first taste of jam that they helped to make!

I love seeing the excitement in the eyes of my children when we create something on our own. They love making our own flour from wheat we have stored as well. Perhaps someday we can have a garden and teach more of these preserving skills to our children.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

July Fun


We updated our family photos page if you would like to see some of the fun we had during July!
(click here or on the picture above)

Friday, July 23, 2010

A Great Two Years

Happy Birthday!

One of the cutest boys in the world! He fills our life with laughs, smile, hugs, and light.

We love Benjamin.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

A Trim


As I was getting ready the other morning I couldn't stand my hair any longer. I had debated about getting it cut, but really don't like going to hair salons. I grabbed the scissors and trimmed a few inches off my hair.
The things I love about short hair:
It feels so light and airy.
My hair is a bit curly and curls a lot more when it is short.

Well, that is only two reasons, but they are the ones that stand out to me.

I love short hair!