Hannah is 5 today!

Goodness Gracious! When did you grow up so fast? You've been SOOOO excited for this day. Somehow you think turning 5 makes you older, more priviledged, more capable. And you are exactly right! Oh Hannah, I love you so much. When you came to me 5 years ago, you scared me half to death. Your birth was nothing like I imagined it would be, but in the end, you were perfect and your dad and I fell madly in love with you. I still remember bringing you home from the hospital.  I sat in the back of the car with you because you were crying and we couldn't bare to hear you cry. Bringing you into our humble little apartment and showing you your room.....oh everything was such a thrill for us! Have I mentioned to you that you were like my little doll and I loved changing you and putting those adorable little clothes on you. Watching you grow, learn, play, sing, dance, make new friends, being an example to your younger brother and sister has been a treasure to us Hannah. You are smart, and beautiful, and happy, and witty. You are a very good little girl. So happy birthday sweet Hannah. You are loved more than you will ever really know.
                                                   Love,  Mom

Now, onto the birthday party! Hannah picked out everything for her party. She chose to have a "fairy" party and made her own list of friends to invite. The girls had so much fun and for November 6th, lets just say being outside was mighty nice. :o)

 As each "fairy" arrived, they were found flying, running, and screaming with anticipation for the festivities to begin!

We started the party off with "Pin the wand on the Fairy"
(compliments of Aaron's handiwork)

Each black spot represents where the girls placed the wand.

After the fairy fun, we were off on a scavenger hunt. Two teams, 10 things to find, winner takes all. Well, winner gets bragging rights.

Did I mention the nice weather? It was unbelievable! So fun to see 8 little girls running with these wings and asking our great neighbors to participate in the fun.

Hannah's team won

(Aaron may or may not have cheated.....no, he deffinately cheated! When the item to get says stickers, you can't go to your own house for them. Cheater right? )

Once the games were done, Hannah got to open all of her gifts. Such a lucky girl to have so many friends. She loved all of her presents.

The one thing Hannah has really wanted to learn how to do is ride a bike. We were so excited to see her reaction when Aaron brought out her first bike.

We think she was happy!

Aaron and I stayed up past midnight the night before getting everything ready for her party. That alone is a true act of love, as those of you who know me know that I am NOT a night owl. But, the cake had to be frosted, room decorated, and the fairy colored. Thank you Aaron for helping me with it all!

Hard to believe that what took us hours to get ready, looked like this in just seconds.

My favorite part of the party was when we gave each girl a balloon to write their own wish on, took them outside and let them go. The girls loved it!

I'm so grateful that my children are surrounded by such great kids. As long as we live here, they will never lack good friends.

Top to bottom: 

Reagen, Sophia, Aubrey, Sydnee, Nathan, Rylyn

Abigail,  McKenzie, Hannah, Grace, Chadley



Thanks to everyone, family and friends, who helped make this a very special birthday for Hannah.

Some things to remember about Hannah at this age:

 - Your hair grows like a weed. Last year, we chopped it off at this exact time and look how long it is already?

 - You wait till the very last second to go to the bathroom. It drives me crazy!

 - You are extremely sensitive. Honestly, you can bring on those tears at the drop of a hat. It's pretty impressive really.

 - Your daddy tells you all the time that you are the most beautiful little girl in the world, and now we are a little concerned that you are conceited. We are working on humility with you. :o)

- Because you love the praise from your daddy, when I get you ready for church, you always march right into wherever your father is and ask, "how do I look" because you know he's going to say, "Oh, my Hannah is so beautiful".

 - You love art. Love to color, paint, play with play dough, do crafts and we think you are quite good at it.

 - You are learning to play the piano, and although practicing isn't your favorite, you love to play a new song for anyone who comes over.

 - We are reading more mature books, like Heidi, and you've surprised me at how much you enjoy it even though it's really long (like it took us over a week to read the whole thing) and not as many pictures.

 - You make your own bed everyday and get dressed each morning by yourself before you come down to eat breakfast. Amazing!

Snow

I'm determined to have a better attitude about snow this winter. I really don't like....well I just don't like the cold period. But, I have children now, and they love it and they love it even more when I come out and play in it with them. So buck up Melissa and get your bootie outside! Well....I did and I even had fun.

I woke up to this....

I woke up unusually early this morning. Had the whole morning to myself, well until Nathan got up at 7:30. I love the first snow fall. It's really about the only time I like the snow. :o) I whipped up some oatmeal, made homemade bread, and sat reading for some time. I was quite the domestic house wife if I do say so myself.

But now the kiddos are up, eating their oatmeal and fighting. Lovely. Well, it was a nice morning to myself for a couple of hours.

Halloween Party #1: Costume Reveal

Hannah, Nathan, and Abigail .........

A train conductor, and two fairy princesses!

Boy oh boy did they have fun in their costumes. Hannah was sooo excited to dress up, she literally was driving me crazy for many days before the day finally came.

Hannah was not just a fairy princess, but a fairy princess bride. See her ring? This little gold band with a small diamond was given to her from her great grandma Rietfors. I keep it in a safe place so she won't lose it, but a bride must have a ring.

This little princess found out that she's not the only fairy and was not well pleased!

He's to die for, don't ya think?

Aaron and I also joined in the costuming fun.

I give you Lieutenant Lombardo

& Lieutenant Lombardo

We're kinda dorks. We know it.

The rest of the Eyre family costumes

BYU and Uof U fans

Sassy Witch

Hairy man/pirate and a little devil, or as my mom said, "the devil". (nice mom!)

Lame costume, but scary mask

This terrified Abigail. Poor girl clung to me like a scared little monkey. Nathan thought it was cool though.

The best costume went to Tyson and Liesel. Seriously? That is some serious green!

The rest of the night was spent playing fun games, (thank you Robin!) eating yummy chili, pumpkin carving, and visiting. I really love my family!

Can you believe that we are missing 17 people? That's almost half of what were able to come.

And look who decided the scary mask wasn't so scary after all.

After seeing so many of us try it on and then our real heads came out, she thought it was pretty cool. This is her looking at me when I had the mask on.

Whose funnier..Aaron or Abigail?

Good times. Love Halloween!

Preschool Pumpkin Patch......

........Was incredibly stressful. We went on a day that normal school was out for fall break, so we had a lot more kids with us than just the 4 preschoolers. Twelve to be exact. But we did have 4 adults too, so shouldn't be so bad right? Wrong! The corn maze was frightening since it was so hard making the kids stay with us. I was terrified that we were going to lose children in there. Plus, did I mention that school was out? There were so many other children there as well. We made it through the maze, all 12 kids still with us. We think. Play on all the pumpkin stuff. Kids have a ball. Moms are a little stressed, but we relax a little when we get to the playground and just let the kids go for it. After staying for, what we felt was long enough, we start to gather the children. Where's Judd? The full panic sets in. Amanda starts yelling his name and us moms split up looking for Judd. Poor Amanda, she's 7 months pregnant, this was not good for her or the baby. Katie found Judd (thank goodness). He had slipped by us and was making his way back through the tour of pumpkins/corn field/ animals and such. We promptly gathered up our kids and Headed. Home. I really don't think the kids were at all aware of the stress we moms felt. They had a wonderful time. So glad to be done with the pumpkin patch this year though.

Human Beings

Aaron and I are planning a trip for next spring. A trip back to memory lane of my mission in Holland. To say I'm stoked would be an understatment. Plus, to make it even better, we'll be going with my dear mission companion, Jennie and her husband. Life could not be any better. However, there are two things that could stand in our way. #1, won't be able to fork up the money (but we will and we'll do it in a way that even Dave Ramsey would be impressed!) or #2, because of terrorists and the state that Europe is in right now, we may have to stay put for our own safety. How sad is that. I can easily get discouraged thinking about life, people, the evils of this world (even if it all does seem so far away, I fear that it'll all come closer to home someday). The world is not the same place it was when I was a child and it's certainly not the same as it was when my parents were children. What does that mean for my children? Makes me sad that I have to be concerned to let them run outside and play without my supervision 24/7. Or that I have to lock my door whenever I leave somewhere. Don't get me wrong, I live in the best place on planet Earth really, but it's because of that that I try not to become too desensitized by all the goodness around me, but rather aware and cautious of the evils lurking in.

BUT....there is hope! I had a marvelous experience this morning. With all the bad in the world, and wars and rumors of wars that we hear about, there is much goodness. I found it in bounty this morning. The temple is a refuge, a safe haven, a place of peace and comfort from all the outside distractions. And while I attended this morning, I noticed just how happy everyone was inside. People smiling, saying hello, hugging loved ones, helping the elderly. It was touching. And what touched me the most was a very elderly gentleman caring for his beloved wife in her wheel chair. One did not need to know their story to know how much he deeply loves her. There was almost a spry skip in his walk as he pushed her along. My heart soared with happiness as I saw so much goodness around me. I felt HIS presence in His temple. He is good and He is loving. He gives me hope.

So although I am hoping like mad that we can take this trip come April, if for reasons beyond our control we are not able to, I am grateful knowing that He is in control of what happens and I don't need to fear the wickedness of this world.

Went to bed at 9:11 last night. Zonked right out after cuddling with my man. Woke up at 11:34 to Nathan crying. Went into him. He asked me if I'd lay down with him and sing him a song. (poor guy had a fever from the shot yesterday). Rubbed his back and head while singing "I am a child of God". When I almost got to the chorus Nathan said, "Mommy, you're stinky, I smell you." Apparently I had really bad breath.

Protecting your Innoncence

Dear Children,
      A couple years ago we got rid of cable tv. It was on way too much and we wanted to protect the innocence of your sweet little minds. You've never missed it a bit and frankly, neither have we. (Except when General Conference comes on twice a year and we have to find someone to watch it with). The tv used to be in our bedroom for quite a while, but it was driving your daddy batty that his room looked more like a playroom. So, to the basement it went for you kiddos to watch movies from time to time.

       You should know that on occasion your dad and I want to watch a movie in the coziness of our bed. So this is what we do when we want to watch a movie in bed.

Enjoy an action packed film on a 7" portable dvd player, with our headphones on for better sound. Awesome!

****Mondays Mishaps****
-Took kids in for flu shots. Abby cried just for a minute. Nathan made Hannah go before him and he cried before, during, and after shot.
-Took kids to store to buy some milk after their shots. Walked out to car after buying my things only to find Nathan had swiped a sucker from the check out. Took Nathan back into store to return sucker. Our first experience/lesson on stealing.

Kid to Kid

Perfectly happy to buy gently used clothes. Whole outfit less than $10!