I Love to Dance!

We decided to start January off with a bang! We had the chance to get Emma into dance with her aunt Skippy (Brook's sister Megan - long story!) as her teacher! Her first week was as wonderful as she thought it would be! It was so wonderful in fact that she had to sleep with her dance bag! Aunt Becky even made her a tutu for Christmas - all grown up and ready to be a ballerina!

Star Student!

At Westland - the kids Elementary School - they give awards to the students, this year it is called Star Student. Their teachers "nominate" them and they have a time when the parents can come and see them get the award! It is alot of fun! Connor got the award this week for being super nice and very imaginative! That's my Connor! We love you bud and are very proud of you!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy New Year! I hope you enjoy and I will do my best to keep this updated often! And I hope you get as big a kick out of the Collins Clan as we do! Now keeping in mind that Brook is a little slow right now (we'll blame that on the 5 kids) if you want to read it like a letter go to the bottom and read it backwards - otherwise be prepared to read about our year in reverse!

Christmas Christmas Christmas!

And now another Christmas has come and gone. Another year of trying to make sure we got all the right things on all the lists while at the same time teaching them why we celebrate this wonderful time of year. That our Savior was born - that he came to this earth to teach us so many wonderful things and then to die for us. Sometimes I wonder if those things are getting through and then I see the joy that comes when they give a gift or the appreciation of a present (even those that are not as expensive or neat as someone else's) and I know that something is getting through!

November-So Many Wonderful Things!

November was just as full this year! On Sunday the 2nd Maycie Jayne was blessed by her Daddy, and it was beautiful! On the very same day Jaxon was ordained to the office of a Deacon in the Aaronic Priesthood! It was an exhausting, wonderful day. The mom cried alot!
On the 15th we had another big birthday. Porter is now 8! He is so grown up and hansom! We are very proud of the wonderful choices he is making. He was baptized on December 6! I think he glowed for a week!
Thankfully the Lord knows me and my memory! He put mine and Jeron's parents birthday's both two days apart! Our mom's in August and our dad's in December! Jeron's dad turned 60 this year so we had a surprise party for him! It was so much fun to watch the grand kids! They had so much fun decorating grandma's whole house!

October-The Month Of Birthdays

October is a very full and exciting month for us. On the 7th Emma had her 3rd birthday. It's hard to believe she is so big! She is a wonderful big sister and loves it. She also loves pretending to be a mommy herself! Right after I had Maycie she started changing her baby's diaper. One time she asked her "daughter" to get her a diaper. Apparently her "daughter" was not being very obedient because she ended up in time out!
On the 27th Jeron and I had our 13th anniversary! Wow! I feel very lucky to be married to such a wonderful and honorable man! I love you Jer!
And if Jeron and I have been married 13 years that must mean Jaxon hit the big 12 on the 30th! He is a wonderful young man and a fabulous big brother! We are so grateful to have him as a part of our family. I do not know what I would do without him!

September-All Things Maycie!

September came and we got very excited for our beautiful baby to come! Mom was getting stressed because we still had no name but we kept busy with all the other things we needed to do to get ready for the arrival. We were hoping for the 25th, our precious little girl had other plans! My doctor had been out of town and got home on the 25th so I went to the hospital in the afternoon instead of the morning. I was still expecting a baby by about 9:00 that night considering my longest labor was Jaxon at 7 hours! By 10:00 we were getting phone calls from everyone in the family wanting to know what was going on. As it turned out the cord was across her neck and was keeping her from dropping. Finally about 12:30 Dr. Later decided we were going to have a baby! She arrived at 12:56 am weighing in at 8lbs 11oz 21 in long (our biggest baby)! She kind of looked like she had been through the war but it only took a look or two to tell she was our little Maycie Jayne!

August-Much Of The Same!

August was much of the same. We celebrated Grammy's (Brook's mom) and Grandma Sue's (Jeron's mom) birthdays. And then we went back to school and mom had to start waking up again! Emma missed her brothers but got used to it being just her and mommy - eventually! One of her favorite things was to play Tea Party with mom!

July-Fun In The Sun!

In July we spent the 4th at Rockport with Jeron's family! It was a blast! Mom had a wonderful time watching everyone else play in the water! It was a wonderful fun filled day with cousins and family! The very next day we had a great big 80th Birthday for Grandpa Wixom (Jeron's grandpa). There was alot of family here from California that we got to see! Connor got sick from being out in the sun for two days. Some day he will learn to listen to mom and drink water when she tell's him to! It was a long, hot and totally wonderful day!
The rest of the month was spent settling into the house and enjoying the neighborhood! We loved being able to just be outside! The boys were on their bikes almost all the time! And Emma and I sat out talking with our new next door neighbor. She would sit with me and tell me who people were as they drove by! It really helped me get to know people.

June-Grand Canyon!

In June we went on vacation with my (Brook's) family to Arizona. We stayed in Flagstaf. One day we went to the Grand Canyon. It was AMAZING! Truly an amazing sight! Before we went I thought that is just what was said about the Grand Canyon but once we saw it we realized people were not exagerating! And in my opinion everyone should see it at least once in their life time! The area is also where my dad served his mission. We all had a blast listening to old mission stories! It was the first time my dad had been back to his mission and it was wonderful watching it all come back!