Christmas 2011

We had such a great Christmas this year! We talked with the kids a lot about why we celebrate Christmas, and the importance of our Savior in our life. We had our annual Gotberg Family Christmas party at the church. All of my Mom's side of the family gets together and has dinner and plays games. The boys play basketball and then we just visit. Santa came to visit. Marshall sat on his lap and Santa said that Marshall is a great student and does a great job helping with Kambria. He told him he needs to work on picking up dog poop in the back yard. That kinda embarrassed Marshall. Kambria sat on his lap and Santa said he was proud that Kambria threw away all her sippy cups, and that she needed to get potty trained.

We also did fondue at the Cutrights. It was delicious as always. This year we also had the kids act our the manger scene, and sang a few songs. We exchanged gifts, and visited, it was nice.

Christmas morning was great. The kids woke up not too early, we opened presents, ate breakfast and visited with family. Kambria's main present was a big doll house, she loves it! Marshall's main present was a video camera, and army stuff. He got some cool airsoft guns, camo, and a gas mask.We are thankful for our Savior Jesus Christ, we are thankful for his birth, his Crucifixion and his Resurrection. I am thankful that he died for our sins, that we may repent and return to live with our family again forever. It is a peace that nothing else can give us. If we try our hardest, we know that we will have our families for eternity, and I want nothing else then that!

Not 100% sure what Kam is starring at.
Marshall and his loot. He wanted to pose all goofy. Love that kid. He and Jake love playing Call of Duty together!

I got a new video camera for Christmas and it takes pictures while you are recording, I was still trying to figure it out and apparently didn't take a lot of pictures, but I do have a TON of video. I'm not sure what happened to the picture of Kam with her loot.

Kambria's 3rd Birthday

** I have no idea why it underlined this whole post and I'm not retyping it, so OH WELL!! I am so behind on posts. Kambria turned 3 on December 22nd. We had a combined family party with Marshall. Kambria is in love with Blue's Clues and I could not find a cake pan anywhere, so I just did my best and drew blue on her cake.Kambria is our crazy child. She is finally potty trained. She could have been forever ago, but she didn't care and she is very very stubborn, so if she didn't care i wasn't going to force it on her. We tried on and off, and she understood, she just didin't care. I finally told her if she pee's in her underwear she is going to lose her blanket for the entire night (she has a blanket that Grandma Cutright made her, it is her prized possesion). She peed so I took her blanket away, she cried and cried for hours at bedtime, but I didn't give in. The next morning i have her the blanket and said if you pee again I am taking it away again, and she never has peed since. Well she has had a few accidents, but not on purpose. Kambria is very smart. She loves to color, she loves to sing, she loves to talk. She never stops taking actually. She is really excited to start preschool which we will do this fall. She admires Marshall and wants to do everything that he wants to do. She loves babies, barbies and petshop. She talks with them for hours and keeps herself entertained very well. She got a Blue Clues Blue from my Mom for Christmas, Blue and her blanket go everywhere with her. She loves friends, and loves to play.She is very dramatic. Her most recent thing is saying, "I have no friends, no one wants to play with me!" When we tell her yes you do, you play with Walker and Taylor all the time, what about Cadence, or Karson, or whomever ..... she just says I don't like them. Its like she wants a pitty party. It is pretty funny! Kambria still loves milk, she could drink it all day if we let her. She loves beans, black/navy/pinto/green, any beans. She loves noodles, treats, chocolate, cafe rio. We are thankful that Kambria is part of our family. She keeps us on our toes, that is for sure. She is always causing trouble, but our family wouldn't be the same without her!!!

Marshall's 7th Birthday

I can't believe that Marshall is 7 years old. That means next year he will be 8 years old and will be baptized! He has grown a lot this last year. Marshall is in 1st grade and he loves school. He loves to learn and he loves to make friends. Everyday he is in a new club, or has a new phone number, or a new story. He is very smart. His best subject is Math and he really enjoys it. He is also very good at reading. It seems like each week he has moved up to a higher level. He knows words that are hard, I am so amazed at how smart he is! He is our spiritual boy, he always reminds us to have family prayer and always is asking to read the scripture stories. He also makes sure that we have FHE and he is really good at organizing it. He looks forward to church and never complains about it. We are lucky to have Marshall as our Son. He is a good brother and a good kid. Now don't get me wrong, the kid drives me nuts at times, and can be the biggest whiner you have ever met and yell at his sister but 95% of the time he is a good kid!!!

We took Marshall and 3 of his friends to see The Chipmunk movie and then we came back and had Pizza and cupcakes. They had a great time!!! We also had a family party for him and Kambria and had everyone over for tacos and cake.

I love Marshall's smile and how happy he always is!

Marshall is big time into Army right now. Jake made this cake for Marshall. Camo with a knife and blood. Marshall loved it!!!

We love you Marshall and we are so glad you are part of our family!!!

Halloween 2011

Halloween was a lot of fun this year. Both Marshall and Kambria were very excited, and they each knew what they wanted to be. Marshall wanted to be a SWAT guy and Kambria wanted to be a pirate, which worked out perfect because Ary had a costume we could borrow. Marshall loves ARMY right now. He loves to play Call of Duty with Jake, and loves guns, swords or anything of the such. On Friday Kambria and I went to the school to watch the parade, Kambria thought that was so much fun. Last year Marshall was on D track, so he was off track for Halloween. I was able to help in Marshall’s class after with the class party. Marshall is such a good brother and loves Kambria. He was bringing her around to all of his friends and telling them she was his sister. He let her sit on his lap on the rug and then brought her to each station with him and helped her. After school we headed down to meet Jake at the Sherrif’s office. They put on a massive Spook Ally/Carnival for all the employees. It was a lot of fun. The entire building was decorated and you followed the footprints to get to different bowls of candy. In one room they had lots of games for the kids to play and then at the end they had a TON of cupcakes, cookies and yummy stuff to eat. It really was a fun time.
On Halloween, my sister and her family, my parents and us had Pizza and homemade rootbeer at our house and then we went trick or treating around the neighborhood. Kambria was gung ho for about the first street and then she couldn’t care less. She just wanted her blanket and milk. We had a great Halloween and the kids got way to much candy!!!

The Crew
The rootbeer

carving pumpkins at Paige's Birthday party

The big pumpkin

At Jake's work party

Marshall's school

Marshall was in heaven holding Jake's gun!!

Marshall

I LOVE Marshall. He is at such a fun age right now. I love that he can read everything he sees. I love that he is a crafty kid. He will cut paper, material and stuff and glue, staple things together to make the most fun projects. I love that he is into coloring two pictures and then getting people to vote on which they like the most. I love that he is the BEST brother Kambria could ever ask for. He is always helping her, playing with her, teaching her and just being her friend. Marshall is very smart and very quick witted. Marshall is into ARMY like crazy right now. His letter to santa was for :
A breathing mask
A JUGGERNAUT
a sniper
army clothes
guns

Everyday he would talk about how he has been so good and he hopes he gets everything on his list. So I explained to him that Santa has a lot of people to get presents for. I explained that Mom's and Dad's have to give money to Santa to help pay for the gifts. I then explained how not everyone has a lot of money right now, so he should just be happy if he gets a few of the things on his list!! Then our Dog Ellie got really sick and we had to take her to the Dr. It cost us $200.00, Marshall realized this was a lot of money and said, its okay Mom, I'd rather take Ellie to the Dr then get lots of presents :) So stinkin cute. Santa wrote a letter back and thanked Marshall for being such a caring person, and such a good brother. He explained that he wasn't able to find the material to make a JUGGERNAUT suit but has a few surprises Marshall will love. He can't wait for Christmas.

Marshall wanted a new Halloween costume, it was a bit pricey, so I had told him with Dad's next paycheck we will go and buy it. A few days later, he put his winter coat on and it didn't fit him, I said its okay we will go buy a new one. He said so sincerely, "Mom, i can just wear a Halloween costume from last year, because its more important to have a warm coat." It kind of broke my heart that he was worrying about money, because I wasn't. I said, you can get a costume and a coat Marshall. He said, its really okay, I would rather get a coat and be warm, I'll be just fine with a costume from before.

He is honestly the most selfish, caring kid. I love Marshall like crazy!!!

( jake just had me read what I wrote and I laughed so hard I cried!!!). This should say that Marshall is the most unselfish/selfless and caring kid!!! So far from selfish!!!)

Kambria

I just love the ages of my kids right now. They are so much fun. Kambria is SO animated and I could just watch her all day. She talks all day, non stop and I'm not teasing when I say all day!!
She loves Marshall and everything that Marshall does. If he is eating something, she needs to eat what her brother is eating. If he is playing something, she needs to play what her brother is playing and so on. She is a crazy girl that never stops.

Our kids wrote letters to Santa and sent them. Kambria told Santa that she has been very good and she would like a doll house, barbies and puzzles.

A few weeks later she got a letter from Santa in the mail. She didn't really care at first, but since then she talks about it all the time! Santa thanked her for being so good and then told her that he needed her to do 2 things.
Santa needs Kambria to throw away all her sippy cups and be a big girl. No hesitations, the sippy cups were all thrown away and life has been 100% better. She sleeps better, she eats better and she seems more happy!!
Second, Santa needs her to get rid of her pull ups and be in big girl underwear by time Christmas comes. We are doing much better with this as well.

Today she said, Mom lets write to Santa and let him know I throwed away all my sippys cause I'm a big girl! And I pee in the toilet too Mom!!!

Kambria is very entertaining and we love her so much!

St. George Trip

Mid August Jake had a training for work down in St. George. He went down on a Monday morning and then on a Thursday I checked Marshall out of school and we drove down to join Jake. I was kind of dreading the drive down, but it was so much fun. We sang to songs, stopped at the gas station and bought some treats for the drive and time flew by so fast. We had so much fun!!! We spent Friday swimming and shopping while Jake was in training, and then over the weekend we went hiking, and played in the water and ate lots of yummy food!!! Then we traveled home following each other. The best part was we only had to pay for our gas!!!!