2015 Highlights!

I can't believe how fast 2015 flew by! It was a busy and sweet year with my herd of five. As usual, my only request of 2016 is for it to SLOW down. We'll see how that goes. :)

McLain's 2015 Highlights:

• McLain graduated from 8th grade and middle school in May and began his freshman year of high school this fall. I cannot believe that my first born is in high school. Just. Wow. 
• McLain went to summer camp with the youth group at our church. He loves going, and we love seeing the spiritual changes that occur in him every time he goes. 
• On his 14th  birthday, McLain had ten friends spend the night. After the party was over, my living room smelled and looked like the basement of a frat house. I told him that on his next birthday, he and his buddies can all sleep in tents in the backyard. 
• This summer McLain got contacts, and a few days after school started, he got his braces off. He looks so grown up! 
• At McLain's well child check-up this summer, he weighed 92 pounds and was 5 feet tall. This past week, he weighed in at 107 and is 5 feet 3 1/2 inches tall. It's tragically official. McLain is taller than his mother. Sigh...
• This fall, McLain took Freshman Orchestra and was first chair in the cello section the entire semester. He worked really hard at home without any prompting from his daddy or me. After playing a piece for testing one day, his teacher announced to the class, "In case you were wondering, THAT's what a 100 sounds like." Love. It. McLain was invited to join the Mastery Orchestra class this spring, and he loves it, although he acknowledges that it's very humbling.
• Santa Claus brought my teenager his first cell phone. McLain was as outwardly excited as teenage boys are allowed to be in public. However, I've gotten a lot of thank you texts. :) 
• McLain has continued teaching himself the guitar and is really good at it too. It's odd though to hear him play "Sweet Home Alabama" or Dave Matthews' "Crash,"  because those are songs I've heard his daddy play countless times. Full circle, guys. 
• His favorite shows are The Office and The Goldbergs. He randomly quotes both shows all the time. 
• McLain loves to eat beef chimichangas, double cheeseburgers, and chicken wings. He doesn't eat like a man yet, but I know that moment is just around the corner. 

Keaton's 2015 Highlights:

• My second big boy turned eight in February. He celebrated by going to Chuck E. Cheese with his dad and his two best buddies. Then, our entire family celebrated his birthday at Long Horn's with lots of food and presents. He was a little disappointed that his new baby sister wasn't born on her due date/his birthday, but I think as he gets older, he'll appreciate that she wasn't!
• Keaton finished second grade and started third grade, which he loves. He has my BFF for his teacher. She has loved him since he was a cave man talking toddler. He's earned all 3s so far this year, and we are really proud of his hard work and big brains. 
• K.P. is continuing in Target, and his teacher is his soul mate. Their favorite project of first semester was a cardboard arcade. Keaton and his dad created a crakin game from cardboard. A box, lots of purple paint, and a roll of duct tape = a lot of KP happiness. 
• Keaty Peaty continues in his big brother's technology footsteps. He still loves to play Minecraft on the computer and Skylander on the xBox360. He's recently learned how to play some games on the PS4, so there are now three big gamer boys in my house. Yes, that includes Daddy. 
• Keaton still loves Duck Dynasty.  He really enjoys watching shows and movies with the family. His current favorite movies are Jurrasic World, Star Wars: The Force Awakens,  and Inside Out. 
• He's recently discovered Star Wars and is always asking questions about it. He loves the light sabers (we had many talks about how it is NOT a light SAVER) that he and Collin got for Christmas. There have been many, many battles in my living room. 
• His favorite foods are buffalo chicken nuggets, buffalo chicken dip, and buffalo chicken wings. Perhaps, there is a pattern. :) 

Collin's 2015 Highlights:

• Collin turned four in April with a big Mickey Mouse party (his second one in a row). He adores Mickey Mouse and has watched Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Road Rally about a million times. 
• Mr. Collin is still a smarty pants and loves to add numbers together and to count backwards. He loves to describe things in terms of numbers, like, "Mom, the three year old is asweep" or "What is the 14 year old doing?" He's so funny!
• In August, Collin started going to preschool three days a week, and he loves it and his teachers, "Mrs. Madeline A-Bunch" and Mrs. Deb. Instead of talking about his friends by name, he uses the names they have on their bags for carpool. He is always saying, "Mama, Bunch 7 is my best friend!" 
• Collin and Amelia-Grace are constant partners in crime. They do everything together. I love to watch them to play mommy and daddy, especially when Collin yells, "Come on, HONEY!" 
• He loves to play PBS games on the computer and on the i-Pad. As long as she doesn't make him crazy, he allows his sassy sister to share the chair with him while he plays. 
• Collin is still my post picky eater and would live on just strawberries and yogurt if I let him. He finally will eat chicken nuggets, but only if I serve him four (because he is four!).  He does love sweets and is always trying to get me to make chocolate chip cookies (so he can eat the cookie dough) and brownies. Collin is also obsessed with gum!
• Collin's favorite TV show right now is Paw Patrol. He has already requested to have a Paw Patrol birthday party this year and said he wants a BIG Paw Patrol cake. Pinterest and I are working on it. 

Amelia-Grace's 2015 Highlights: 

• Amelia-Grace became a big sister in January and has been the sweetest, bossiest little mama on the planet. She loves to take care of her baby sister and doesn't hesitate to tell others how to do it. Many times she has yelled, "Mama! She MEEDS her bink-bink." When the baby first arrived, Sassy would attempt to nurse her baby dolls. Then she would fuss, because "It's not working." Funny, little mama. 
• My sassy girl is a song bird. She loves to sing. All. The. Time. Her favorite songs to sing in the bath tub  are "You Are My Sunshine" and "I Had a Little Puppy." In the car, she and McLain perform an outstanding duet of the "Little Einsteins" theme song. She can rock the alphabet song and tries to sing "Jingle Bells" but leaves out half the words. 
• In the fall, Sassy started Mommy's Morning Out two days a week. She has the same teachers that Keaton and Collin did, Mrs. 'Ria and Paige, and what a comfort that was! They already know how scattered I am, and I know how great they are. Amelia-Grace loves to go to school and talks all the time about her best friend, Kelly (McKinley)! When I picked her up one afternoon, her teachers said that she led the kids in making snow-angels in the floor. A born leader! 
• In November, Amelia-Grace turned three. We celebrated her birthday with a pink tea party that included lots of mini brownies, cookies, and a huge princess cake. She wore a fairy princess dress with wings and a crown and loved every minute of her big day. 
• This year Amelia-Grace has learned to recognize almost all her letters, to count to ten, and to write the A and hyphen in her name. She can sing all the letters in her name, but if you ask her afterwards what she spelled, she will tell you "Sassy!" :) Close enough. 
• Her favorite things to do are watch Nick Jr. or Netflix on the i-Pad, play with baby dolls, make creations with playdough, and to color. She loves to play in the bathtub with bubbles and soap paint with her big brother and little sister. A-G loves to have mama paint her nails and prefers her hair in pigtails these days. Like Collin, she loves Paw-Patrol and Sky is her favorite character. Recently, she has fallen in love with the movie Cinderella. 
• Sassy loves to eat yo-grit (yo-gurt), strawberries, chili, fires with ranch, shredded cheese, and vanilla ice cream. 

Annalise's 2015 Highlights: 

• Annalise has hit countless milestones this year! It's been a busy time for my sweet number five. In the last 11 months, she has learned to roll over (about 4 months), sit up (7 months), crawl (9 months), and cruise (10 1/2 months). Thank goodness she's not walking yet. Let's leave something for 2016! 
• Annalise is my best sleeper by far. She started sleeping through the night at two months old. Doing that may have earned her a permanent place in my heart as my favorite. 
• Annalise has cut 5 teeth. She was an easy teether with her first tooth. We had no idea that she was even teething until we saw a tiny tooth on her bottom jaw. The others came in with a little more fussiness, but that's understandable. 
• Starting on Labor Day, Annalise started following in Keaton and Amelia-Grace's tradition of continuous ear infections. Because she had four ear infections in 4 1/2 months, she now has a surgery date in February with our favorite ENT for tubes. 
• Just like her big sister, my sweet girl LOVES baby dolls. She picks them up and snuggles them. She loves to drag them all over the house, especially the little bald baby dolls. I think she likes knowing she's not the only baldy in the house. 
• Annalise has started talking. She's pretty quiet in general, so we really listen and get excited whenever she talks. She started with Mama and Dada. Our favorite thing for her to say is uh-oh and bye-bye. We call her our mocking jay, because she likes to repeat whatever someone else has just yelled. If my mom yells Boppy, then Annalise follows with Booop. It's pretty darn cute. 
• Annalise loves to crawl after her big sister and brothers. She loves to snatch Amelia-Grace's paci out of her mouth and to eat Keaton's Legos whenever we turn our back. Sassy can make her laugh harder than anyone else, and they love to hold hands, especially in the car. She has McLain completely charmed, even though he would never admit it. :)
• My baby's favorite things to eat are rice cereal, Ritz crackers, and cheerios. She also loves when I sneak her bites of french fries and brownie a'la mode. 

Mommy's Highlights: 

• I finished my tenth year of teaching this spring and started my eleventh with the largest class of my career. It's a lot of fun but tough. 
• I transitioned into being a mom of five. Annalise's 20 hour labor was worth the 3  1/2 minutes it took me to push her into this world. Her arrival into our family has been seamless and feels like she has always been a part of the herd. 

Daddy's Highlights: 

• This summer our new pastor asked Clay to become a deacon at our church, and he was ordained in August. 
• Clay became a father of five and proudly sports the new gray hairs that transition inspired.