Michelle & Robby's Family Blog

Going Private

2012-02-06T08:07:00.001-08:00

After much deliberation I have decided to make this blog private. I really don't want to exclude anyone from reading this so please send me your email address and I will send you an invitation to the blog. Don't worry, I won't publish them. Thanks!

Christmas at Waters

2011-12-30T16:04:00.000-08:00

We spent December 26th with Robby's family. We started out with a great meal. Will was excited about his Root Beer I think.

Then it was on to presents. The kids were very excited!

Sarah got a cute doll.

Isaac got a remote-control Mater from Cars.

Will got a pinball machine.

Savannah got a DS game and a doll that both she and Sarah are in love with.

The boys all got a HUGE remote-control car.

The girls all got a sweater and a bracelet. Sarah snatched my bracelet up as soon as I got that box open and she put it up on her bicep. She didn't want to give it back so I could even look at it.

We were all very excited about our new stuff!

Then we opened our presents from Ryan and Sunny who unfortunately couldn't be here this year. We missed you guys! Thanks for the presents!

We love Qwirkle. It is a lot of fun!

We managed to get all 8 kids to look in the same direction at the same time. Some of them were even smiling. The biggest achievement was getting them all to sit still for a few pictures.

From left: Gabriel, Sarah, Rebecca, Savannah, Sawyer (on Savannah's lap), Will, Isaac and Jaden.

I love Sarah's face in this last one :)

We also spent a lot of time on Skype with Ryan and Sunny and Jaimee and Scott. It was so fun talking to them and hearing about their Christmas.

On December 27th I took Savannah to the mall for a little girl time and after walking past the store four times she finally decided to get her ears pierced again. Last time was so traumatic that she was really unsure if she wanted to go through that again. Luckily this time was much better.

And you can see the cute hair extensions in her hair in this picture too.

I neglected to mention that on Christmas on our way home from my parents house we stopped by Amber and Spencer's house to visit them and they gave us our presents too. They gave me some stackable cooling racks, a pie server and a cake server and the rest of the family got a table soccer game. I was so excited to try out my new cooling racks. They are awesome! and save so much space on the counter.

Whew! What a great Christmas we had this year! We really missed all the family we didn't get to see, but I'm so grateful we were able to spend time with so much family over the course of three days. We are really blessed to have so much!

Christmas Day

2011-12-29T15:00:00.000-08:00

This is what the kids saw when they came downstairs on Christmas morning.

Sarah got a new Tinkerbell chair but she was a little shy of all the attention we were giving her. Also Robby forgot that you can't turn the camera for video so it is kind of hard to see. She wasn't sure about it at first, but she loves it now.

Isaac was thrilled to find a new bike waiting for him.

Santa delivered for Will too, he got an MP3 player that he had been asking for.

Savannah's pictures all turned out blurry, but I had to include them anyway. She got some feathers for her hair, some earings with her birthstone and a gift certificate to get her ears pierced.

Sarah got a Rapunzel doll that she loves!

She was pretty happy about the stroller too. She kept trying to sit in it and asked us to push her. I don't think she quite understood that she was too big for it at first.

We made short work of the presents and then it was a quick breakfast of cinnammon rolls and it was time to get ready for church. Both boys got new church clothes and they looked really good for church.

Sarah was very much against getting her picture taken, but I had to have all four dressed for church on Christmas regardless of if they are smiling or not. Savannah was a good sport to hold her and smile for the camera even though Sarah was screaming and kicking.

I really liked having Christmas on a Sunday this year. It was so great to be able to do the Santa thing and presents and then focus on what Christmas is really about-the Savior. We only had sacrament meeting at 10:00 and then the rest of the day we spent with my family eating and opening presents at my parents house.

My parents gave me (I mean us) a Kindle FIRE!! I was soooo excited! They said I have to share it with Robby and the kids though. We have all been enjoying it a lot. Even Sarah loves to play on the Kindle.

Isaac got an awesome submarine toy that he loves, Sarah got a cute little whale toy and Will and Savannah got an angry bird stuffed animal and some money to buy apps and books for the Kindle. They were all very happy with their new stuff!

We are so lucky to live by so much of our family and be able to spend the holidays with them. We missed you Dan and Amber. Hopefully we'll be able to see you guys soon.

Christmas Eve

2011-12-28T12:52:00.000-08:00

We had such a great Christmas this year! It started on December 23 when we finally opened our new TV. Robby and I went out with all the crazies on Black Friday and we found a really good deal on a flatscreen TV. So we went from this:

to this:

A big improvement I think and we have really been enjoying it!

December is such a fun time when you have little kids! They love all the little traditions that we do leading up to Christmas. We have an advent calendar where the kids take turns putting an ornament on the tree each day.

And they also love to get the little advent calendars with chocolates inside.

On Christmas Eve we went to a party at my Grandma Aird's house. This was my family's tradition when I was young so I love it when it works out that we can go there on Christmas Eve. It was a great party with lots of my aunts, uncles and cousins and their kids. I forgot my camera but luckily Heather took a few pictures for me.

Sarah loves Uncle Ben so much!

The great-grandkids all sang a few songs and then Ben Marchant talked a little bit about his experiences in Afghanistan and Randy read to us from Luke chapter 2. It was really fun to be together.

When we got home from my Grandma's house we let the kids open 1 present and then they took turns telling part of a story which mostly resembled Twas the night before Christmas with bits of the Grinch and Shrek the Halls. It was pretty funny.

Everyone liked their new Christmas Eve pajamas.

Happy Anniversary

2011-12-19T10:32:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Robby and I celebrated our 13th anniversary. I can't even believe how fast that time has gone by. On Saturday we went to a movie and dinner and it was so great to be able to spend some time together without the kids. Even after all this time I still would rather be with him than anyone else. We have had so many good times over these past 13 years and I love him more than ever. Thanks Robby for being such a wonderful husband and father. I love you. You're the best!
Here's some random pictures of the two of us from the past five years.

(I was 7 months pregnant with Sarah here so that's why I look so fat)

This and That

2011-12-13T14:08:00.000-08:00

Sarah is such a busy girl now. Here are a couple of her favorite things to do. She loves to stand at the sink and brush her teeth. She does this for about 10 minutes every day. She pretty much just sucks all the water off, but I figure there has to be a little bit of brushing going on during this process.

She also loves to climb. She figured out how to climb the ladder to get up on Will's bunkbed and it is one of her favorite things to do now. He keeps a lot of cool things up there like his flashlight. Isaac also likes to be up there, much to Will's dismay.

And her newest trick is this:

Yeah, she is going to fall on her face one of these times. She can't get down by herself either so multiple times a day she climbs up there, plays the piano for awhile and then yells for me to help her down. Fun stuff.

These are from a few weeks ago but I wanted to post them since they are cute. The kids volunteered to rake leaves and they did a great job getting them into a nice big pile.

Aren't they cute?

Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T09:59:00.000-08:00

This year we spent the Wednesday before Thanksgiving with my family and Thanksgiving day with the Waters. We had a lot of good food and fun with family.
At the Aird side my aunt Joan came to Utah to spend the holiday with her kids and my mom ended up offering to let them use her house so we had a joint Thanksgiving with a very large group of us. The food was fantastic and the conversation even better. At one point my cousin Cheryl started talking with her dad about anatomy and she mentioned that the skin on your elbow is called a wenus. Well, that got everyone rolling since half of us thought she said something else that rhymes with wenus. It was pretty funny! Heather was laughing so hard she was crying. That is one that we will probably talk about for years to come.
The Waters Thanksgiving was great too, but in different ways. It was only us, Robby's parents and Richard and Lisa's family so it was small, but after a big group the day before, a small one was nice. We had a great meal and enjoyed just hanging out afterward. I never think to take pictures at these things so lucky for me Richard took some.

Kim went all out with a turkey and a ham. It was so yummy!

The kids had fun watching movies with their cousins. They watched Madagascar 2 and Cars 2.

Sarah in her Little Turkey shirt.

The kids made thankful books again this year and had everyone sign them. That is a tradition that they look forward to I think.

I love being able to see so much family all in a couple days time. We are very blessed to live so close to so much family.

Sarah

2011-11-07T13:26:00.000-08:00

I wish I would have gotten a better picture of Sarah yesterday. I was going to take a couple before church, but I ran out of time (yes, even though it was daylight savings and I had an extra hour) so I snapped a couple after church, but she was hungry and tired and didn't want to cooperate very well. Anyway, she looked really cute! I made a couple of bows to match her dress and I think they turned out really good and she just looks so grown up in her piggytails.

Halloween 2011

2011-11-04T13:50:00.000-07:00

We had a great Halloween this year. It started on Friday when the kids had costume day at school. They were so excited to wear their costumes and have halloween parties at school.

Will wanted to be the Grim Reaper ever since he discoverd my mom had a big plastic ax thing he could use as a prop. Also, there was this awesome display of the grim reaper at our Walmart made out of Pepsi boxes. It had a carriage with moving wheels and everything! Anyway, I bought some material and kind of eyeballed it to make him a robe-like thing and checked out You-tube to see how to paint his face. I was excited to find some skeleton gloves for $1 which really added to the costume. I think it turned out pretty great! They weren't allowed to have weapons at school so this is what Will looked like on Friday.

Savannah wanted to be a pop star after she found a microphone, a feather boa and some awesome high-heeled black hooker boots. So this is what we threw together (minus the hooker boots. She's only 10!!)

We curled and spray painted her hair with red streaks, put a little makeup on and voila. (We are in serious trouble when we start letting her wear makeup for real) It was kind of funny when we were talking about how to do her hair. I was picturing an 80's type style with it a little back-combed and a little crimped and she squished up her face like I was crazy so we googled pop star hairstyles. As we were looking through the pictures she found one of a black lady from the 70's with a huge afro and she said "That! That is how you wanted to do my hair!" I thought it was so funny!
What she thinks I am thinking:

What I am actually thinking:

She turned out looking pretty cute.

Isaac had his choice of three different costumes that would fit him but ultimately he went with pirate.

He was a little disappointed that his makeup wasn't as elaborate as Will's, but I think he looked good.

On Saturday we carved our pumpkins. The kids all drew what they wanted and Robby and I did the carving.

Will and Savannah did scoop out a lot of the guts though.

We also drew on the little pumpkins to decorate them. This one is Sarah's.

Here is the finished product:

On Saturday night we had our ward trunk or treat, which is always a lot of fun. The YM and YW did a cake walk and a fishing pond for the kids and there was doughnuts and hot chocolate. I forgot to bring the camera, so no pictures.

On Monday we went trick or treating at Papa Aird's and Grandma Waters' offices. I tried to get a picture before we left, but Sarah was not too happy about posing. She was holding a bunch of toys right before we started taking pictures and when I took them away she was very upset. So this is the best I was able to get before we left:

Sarah was a sad, I mean cute little cat.

We got her to laugh for a second but unfortunately Isaac was in the bathroom so it was only three of the four.

All four, but Sarah is crying and Savannah is blurry. (How did I manage to get half of a blurry pic? She must have been moving.)

We went to Papa Aird's office first. We picked up Amberly's kids on our way down and the kids were glad to trick or treat with cousins.

Sarah was happy to see Grandma.

After trick or treating Papa treated the kids to hot chocolate and soda from the breakroom. They were very excited.

Clara was a cavewoman and Boston was a lumberjack.

Sarah didn't waste any time jumping into her candy stash.

Next we were off to Grandma Waters office for more trick or treating. The kids makeup was a mess at this point, but no one really cared except me.

Grandma also took the kids to the kitchen after trick or treating and they enjoyed someone's birthday cake and some chips and salsa.

After cake and chips we were happy to find that cousins Rebecca and Gabriel were there to trick or treat. Rebecca was Sacagawea (NOT Pocahontas) and Gabriel was Bumblebee from Transformers-but he wasn't too crazy about wearing his mask.

It's always more fun to have cousins to play with.

We had a great day and boy was I glad to be done with Halloween by Monday night!

Crazy Hair Day

2011-10-28T16:51:00.000-07:00

Tuesday was crazy hair day at school. The kids were so excited. Will and Isaac both have hair so short that you can't do much that is crazy with it except spray it a different color so that is what we did. I forgot to take a picture of Isaac before he went to school, but both boys had a red stripe on their heads.

Sorry all my pictures are blurry. I need a camera that adjusts for me moving it down when I push the button.

Pigtails

2011-10-28T14:40:00.001-07:00

I put pigtails in Sarah's hair for the first time on Monday and she sure looked cute! She looked a lot older to me too. Where did my little baby go?

I don't know why she was carting around that empty milk carton, but she wouldn't put it down for the pictures.

I got it a lot more even the next couple of times I tried. She squirmed around a lot that first day.

I also got her on video on Tuesday singing part of the beginning of Baby Signing Time. She has the cutest little voice when she sings it. (Ignore the dirty house in the background please!) Thanks again Dad for the videos. She loves them!

Piano!!

2011-10-18T14:01:00.001-07:00

I am so excited!! Our awesome neighbor gave us their old piano! A few of our friends helped Robby move it to our living room last night. I have wanted a piano for so long and I am so happy!

The kids are almost as excited as I am. They all wanted to play it first thing this morning.

I played for about an hour after I got the kids off to school and Isaac came up to me as I was playing Fiir Elise for about the 5th time (I'm surprised how quickly it came back to me) and he said "OK Mom, I think you've had enough for one day." It was pretty funny!

Soccer

2011-10-18T13:09:00.000-07:00

Will and Savannah finished their Fall soccer season on Saturday. I was horrible about taking pictures! I only took some at Savannah's first game and one of the middle ones for Will. They both had a lot of fun playing and they both improved a lot too. Will scored at least one goal at most of his games and his team won most of their games too. Savannah's team struggled a bit. They didn't win any games but Savannah came close to scoring a couple of times. She improved a lot by the last game. Hopefully her team will do better for the Spring season. Below are some pictures I never posted of Will's game and one of Savannah's first game that I have posted before.

Robby coached one of Will's games and he did a great job!

Sarah's Nose

2011-10-18T12:39:00.000-07:00

Sarah took a little tumble and scraped up her nose on Friday night. It looks pretty sad! While I was trying to take her picture she was running all over the kitchen so I only got a couple that weren't blurry. In this one she had bumped her head on the cupboard. Poor girl! I hate when they get hurt. She keeps pointing to it and saying "owie"

At the end of the video I asked her if it hurt and I should have kept filming because she said "yeah, I sad." It was so cute, but I didn't get it on film.

Antelope Island/Snow Basin Pics

2011-10-18T11:57:00.000-07:00

Time to catch up here! Back at the beginning of September we went for a drive to Antelope Island on a Sunday afternoon. It was the same weekend that we went to Willard Bay and there had been an event held on Antelope Island the day before. I think they must have herded all the bison to one side of the island because I have never seen so many all together before. We had to wait two or three times for them to cross the road. It was kind of fun to see that many all in one spot.

Also the flowers this time were so beautiful! We thought it was strange that they were all in bloom in September, but it sure was pretty.

We saw some deer and some antelope this trip too.

And a beautiful sunset with a break in the storm. It's kind of amazing to me how ugly and pretty that place can be at the same time.

And to add more scenery pictures to this post: we decided to go for a drive during the Sunday afternoon session of conference so we drove up to Snow Basin while we listened. Then we went for a short walk to find some pretty leaves to press. We only took a couple of pictures, but it was such a beautiful day!

Busy Girl!

2011-10-03T14:02:00.000-07:00

Sarah is almost 20 months now and she is keeping me very busy. She is into everything and she hates to eat in her highchair. She much prefers to eat while walking around the house spilling it all over 3 or 4 rooms and all the way down the stairs.
She loves shoes and I recently found her some cute pink clogs for $1 and she was so excited about them.

One of her favorite things to do now is take my keys and lock or unlock the front door. Luckily she can't actually do it, but she loves to try.

I'm lucky she hasn't lost my keys yet.

The other morning I found her like this:

She had found and put on one of Savannah's headbands and taken a book from Robby's nightstand and turned the stool upside down to use as a comfy seat for reading. Silly girl!

Some of her favorite things to say are "Look!" and she will point at whatever she wants you to look at. (If you don't look she will turn your face and make you look). Lately she has been saying "look at that!" instead of just look. It is funny. She also loves to say sorry. If I get in her way she'll say "sorry, Mommy." and if she hurts her foot she'll say "sorry foot." Yesterday Robby was playing XBox and she kept walking in front of the TV but every time she did she would say "sorry Daddy." It was pretty cute. She is such a big talker!

She also started counting. I'm not sure where she picked this up, but she was in her highchair the other night and she said "6, 7, 8, 9" a few times. Then the next morning I caught her counting her cereal pieces. She said "1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10!" I tried to get her to do it for the camera but her mouth was suddenly glued shut. I'll catch her one of these times though. Love, love, love that girl!

I am so Sick of Canning!

2011-10-03T13:51:00.000-07:00

37 jars of peaches and 13 jars of pears, whew!! Does anyone know how to get rid of fruit flies?

Circus!

2011-09-26T15:49:00.000-07:00

Robby's office moved a few weeks ago to the Gateway. The other day we were having dinner and Robby told the kids he had seen a parade of elephants down the street in front of his work. The kids weren't sure whether or not to believe him, but then he told them the circus was in town and they knew why there were elephants walking down the street. They asked if we could go to the circus and we said probably not. Then a couple days later Robby surprised even me by getting tickets for us to go. We tried to keep it a secret from the kids but my friend and my mom both told Savannah not knowing that it was a secret (my fault! I should have told them it was a secret). But the boys had no idea. We told them we were going for a drive and headed to Salt Lake. Then we asked if they wanted to go for a walk and see where dad's new office is. They were thrilled with that idea. Then we walked outside and across the street to the Delta Center and they got their first clue what we were doing. It was so fun to watch their faces! They were so excited! Sarah especially liked all the animals. There were elephants, tigers, horses and zebras. She loved it. Plus, there was so much to see the whole time. It really was a fantastic show!

Robby's parents were able to go with us and since they were babysitting Rebecca and Gabriel for the day while their parents celebrated their anniversary they got to come along too! The kids were excited to have their cousins there with them. I didn't have a camera so I was lucky to get these pictures from Kim to remember we were there. The other pics below I stole from the internet.

I can't wait to go again!

Willard Bay

2011-09-14T17:49:00.000-07:00

On Saturday of Labor Day weekend we had the best time with my family. My parents decided to rent a boat and a waverunner and treated us all to a day at the lake. We went to Willard Bay and it was such an awesome day! The kids were in heaven playing in the water and the sand with their cousins and taking turns riding in the boat and on the waverunner.

The boat my parents rented. You can see Robby inside and Randy on the front.

The kids playing in the water and on the sand.

We had a nice spot on the beach with a pavilion and plenty of shade. It was perfect!

It was technically a birthday party for Ben and I think he had a great time too!

Sarah wasn't so into playing in the water (or the sand) at first, but she warmed up over the course of the day.

Isaac loved playing in the water with the life jacket on.

Ali with Whitney and Savannah. Whitney had the cutest little ladybug floaty thing that she loved and I was so happy later that Sarah actually liked it too.

Clara and Savannah had fun getting buried in the sand by all the boys and Lily.

I had to laugh at Heather because she was wearing a black coat on the beach while the rest of us were in swimsuits. It was a little chilly at first, but she wore that thing until like 1:00 in the afternoon. She did finally warm up and change into her swimsuit too.

Isaac took a turn getting buried too.

Ali was nice to let all the little girls have a turn in the ladybug. I'm not sure if Lily liked it very much though.

Ali with her cute kids Alonzo and Whitney.

Oh, she is getting closer to the water. It only took 4 hours to move from up the beach to this close.

Robby and I got a turn on the waverunner. I like going with him because he goes a lot faster than I dare to go by myself so it is really fun.

Robby and Isaac took a turn behind the boat being pulled on the tube. They didn't like it very much because the front of the tube went down under the water and Isaac fell off. They were both done after a short turn.

Will loved riding in the boat, and especially driving it.

I loved riding on the tube. It was so much fun! My dad had me flying through the air and barely able to hold on. My neck was sore for days after this, but it was worth it. In the picture above I am riding with my nephew Tyler and below I am riding with Will. Neither of them wanted to go very fast though.

Papa took Savannah and Clara for a ride on the waverunner and they loved it!

I think all the adults except for Heather (who is pregnant) and my mom (who just had surgery on her toe and couldn't get it wet) tried either wakeboarding or skiing. I am so sad I didn't get to see Robby try wakeboarding. I think he got up on like the third try and had no problem getting up after that. I, on the other hand, tried for like an hour before I was finally able to get up. I did get it eventually though and it was so much fun! Thanks Robby and Ali for being so patient with me and helping me figure it out.

Yay!!

Man, that is a good workout. Muscles I didn't even know I had hurt the next day from that.

It was so fun to see my dad have so much fun. He loved taking the kids for rides on the waverunner and the boat. He even let them each have a turn driving the boat (with his supervision) and he skiied for the first time in I don't know how many years. It was awesome! Thanks so much Mom and Dad for making these memories for us and our kids.

Savannah just chillin.

Ben with Will and Ty on the waverunner.

Robby got a short turn alone on the waverunner.

Will trying to drown Ben, I mean Ben playing in the water with Will.

And Sarah finally made it into the water! After that she kept saying ladybug over and over trying to get me to take her back into the water. Even in the days since she has been saying "Play, water" and "Ladybug" remembering how much fun she had.

What a fun day this was!!

Gangrene Film Festival

2011-09-05T20:31:00.000-07:00

We started the holiday weekend with a bang! Last year we went to the Gangrene Film Festival with our friends the Wheelers and it was so much fun! This year we were hoping to get one of our parents to take the kids overnight so we could stay for the late session as well, but it didn't work out. Robby's parents went to Las Vegas and mine went to Logan so it was a no go with the grandparents. So I tried to get one of the young women in our ward to watch them but they were all going to our neighbors house to watch a movie projected outside and no one was available to babysit so we ended up just taking the kids with us. We were a little nervous about taking them because we knew the theme and the band this year was about Bigfoot. We thought they might be a little scared, but it turned out to be great. The band was Wasasquatch and it was hilarious to watch grown men in bigfoot costumes singing and dancing onstage. They were actually pretty good too! It was very entertaining. We ended up being on the front row and Will and Savannah even got pulled onstage for one of the songs. Where is my camera when I need it? I am so sad I didn't get a picture of that! Anyway, they ended up having a blast and it was actually cheaper to pay for them to come with us than to pay for a babysitter.

The film festival was good too. Isaac was pretty tired and tried to go to sleep about the time the films started, but the other three really enjoyed it I think. Sarah was good the whole time on my lap. I was looking on the Gangrene facebook page and I found a video someone posted of the band's performance of Stairway to Heaven and we are right there on the video. They must have been sitting right behind us. Here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5qdBpEeMZY&feature=player_embedded

What a fun night! I can't wait for next year!

Sarah 18 Months

2011-09-04T17:11:00.000-07:00

My baby girl is almost 19 months now. I was a little late doing her 18 month checkup because I wanted to wait until the other kids were back in school. She had her checkup last Wednesday and she is doing great. Here are her stats:
Weight: 22 lbs 4 oz 17%
Height: 31 inches 25%
Head: 18.5 inches 60%

She is so much fun right now! She is talking like crazy, she is into everything and she is always making us laugh. The other morning I was putting the boys' laundry away and I came downstairs to find this:

She climbed up onto the table and was eating the leftover pancakes on the table. Oh, and she had dumped the bag of chocolate cereal all over the floor. What a mess! She was so pleased with herself though. It was pretty funny.

Later that same day I found her standing up on the table again. Apparently a glass of water tastes a lot better standing way up high. I need to figure out how to break her of this new habbit before she falls and breaks her head.

Sarah has been talking in sentences for awhile now and she trys to repeat anything we say or do. She is still kind of a picky eater, but she is doing better. She even sings sometimes and it is the cutest thing! Today she said "Hey, watch this!" I wonder where she learned that.

Her new favorite food is applesauce. I couldn't even get her to try it a few weeks ago, but she finally tried it and she loves it! She is also loving cereal with milk. Since I can't get her to drink milk at all I have been giving her cereal a lot in an attempt to get her to drink even a little bit of milk. She will eat most anything we are eating and will ask for what she wants quite forcefully if we don't offer it to her. Still her most favorite food is berries. Strawberries and raspberries. The strawberries in our garden are doing really well this year and one of her favorite things to do is go outside and pick strawberries. She will say "Outside, berries" over and over until I take her outside.

Nursery is not going so well. Today when I took her in she started crying as soon as we walked through the door. I was asked to sub in primary (with my old class which I was thrilled to do) so I took her with me and tried again for the third hour. No luck. She cried the entire time and they eventually brought her back to me. I think this is going to be a long road I think. She is really clingy to me right now. She is pretty slow to warm up to new situations unless I am there to hold her and get her used to it.

I think Sarah's favorite phrase right now is WHAT!?! When I call her name she yells back "WHAT!!?" It is pretty funny. She also really likes to say "Daddy home, daddy home!" The other day when he got home she yelled "DAD!!" about 20 times until he answered her. She really demands our attention if we are not giving it to her.

Sarah is still totally in love with animals. Any time we see someone with a dog she gets so excited and asks if she can touch it. This has caused me recently to consider getting a puppy again. Some of you may remember we got a puppy for about a week 4 years ago and I couldn't handle taking care of it and 3 kids. They are older now so I think it would be better, but I'm scared it would be too hard. I am tempted though because I know Sarah would LOVE it.

Sarah is such a good sleeper. She is still taking two naps most days and sleeping from about 7:30 pm to 7:30 or 8:00 am.

She is just so much fun and I love watching her discover new things every day.

HKS Summer Party

2011-08-31T14:47:00.000-07:00

Robby's work had their summer party on Saturday. We all got to ride on the Alpine slide in Park City. Well, Sarah didn't, but the rest of us did. We got to ride the lift up to the top of the slide.

Will and Savannah were tall enough to drive their own cars but they didn't dare to so Savannah waited at the bottom with Sarah (and Robby's coworkers) and Will rode with Robby while Isaac rode with me. (And we totally kicked their butts going down the slide. OK, so they had a slow girl in front of them that they had to stop for, but we still had them beat before that)

There was a little climbing area where the kids played while we waited for Savannah to take her turn.

Robby's coworker Hazel was nice enough to let Savannah go with her but at the top the people running the slide wouldn't let her ride with Hazel and made her drive her own sled. She was nervous but it turned out that she ended up with a really slow sled and it wasn't a very exciting ride for her. We complained and they gave us a free ride for all of us sometime between now and October! yay!

After the Alpine slide we went to a park and had a BBQ dinner. It was really fun!

It's Soccer Season Again!

2011-08-31T14:35:00.000-07:00

Will is playing soccer again this season and Savannah decided to play again too. She hasn't played for four years so we were excited she wanted to give it another try.
Savannah is on a team with 14 girls and they are on a regular size field so it was a lot of running.

They ended up losing but it was a good experience to see what her team is going to be like and for Savannah to see what to expect. She is excited to play again in a couple of weeks after Labor Day.
Will's team is only 7 boys and they are on a smaller field like last year. He was so fired up to play and I was excited to see how they would do since he was on a really good team last year. They won almost all of their games. Will's first game was so exciting that I totally forgot to take any pictures. He wasn't very happy with me. Will ended up scoring 4 goals!!! He was all over the field and playing defence and scoring goals. It was awesome! Someone gave him a big dose of confidence. I hope it lasts through the season because he was so fun to watch and he was so happy and proud at the end of the game. It's going to be a good season I think!

Stuff that Didn't Make the Top Ten

2011-08-30T13:47:00.001-07:00

There were a few things that didn't make it to the top ten list.
The Tetons were a much better place for us on this trip to spot animals. We didn't see very many animals in Yellowstone but we saw a lot in the short time we were in the Tetons.

Right after we drove into the Grand Teton National Park Will spotted what we thought at the time was an eagles nest. As we looked at the pictures later though we think that they are actually Osprey.

We saw an elk with a big rack. The only elk we saw in Yellowstone were females and babies so it was fun to see a male one finally.

And we saw a moose for just a second before he disappeared into the trees.

The road we took in and out of the park every day was really pretty. The first picture is in the morning and the second is in the evening.

We also saw some elk on this road in about the same spot a few times.

One area we visited in Yellowstone that was a bit disappointing was Mammoth Hot Springs.

I haven't been there but I guess this whole area used to covered in water and it was colorful. Now it is all dried up and white. It was still pretty cool looking, but I guess it used to be spectacular.

Overall it was a lot of hiking with not much to see. Kind of disappointing.

We did get some cute pictures of the kids at lunch at the old army base houses.

We stayed in Island Park in a cabin at Henry's Lake which is just a little ways outside of West Yellowstone. It was a pretty area, but the cabin wasn't as good as we had hoped. It was fine and it worked for us, but I guess we were just expecting it to be better.

Henry's Lake.

My memories of Yellowstone from when I was little were full of bison sightings. It seems like they were everywhere! I was therefore very surprised when we only saw ONE bison the whole time we were in Yellowstone.

Due to construction traffic we ended up getting out of the park to go home a lot later than we had planned. We thought we would be in Jackson Hole for lunch and home by dinner but we ended up getting to Jackson at about 7:00 pm and we did a little shopping before getting some dinner at around 8:30. We debated getting a hotel room and just going home the next day since it was so late, but we decided to just drive through and we ended up getting home at about 2:00 in the morning. It was such a long drive! And I must be getting old because I used to have no problem staying up that late but it was SO HARD to stay awake that long!

Luckily we decided to buy the kids each a blanket from the gift shop on the last day so they were comfy sleeping in the car the whole way home.

I think the kids favorite part of the trip was all the gift shops. Next time we decide to go on a trip we can just go to the airport in Salt Lake and let them shop at the gift shop and call it a vacation and they will be perfectly happy. No, they liked seeing everything too, but the gift shops were definitely a highlight for them. They had all saved their money for months and they were thrilled to be able to spend their money on whatever they wanted. Savannah ended up buying a stuffed wolf, a bag of shiny rocks, and a geode and we bought her a blanket and a rabbits foot. Will bought a big stuffed wolf, and a bow and arrow and we bought him a rabbits foot and a blanket. Isaac bought a slinky, a stuffed wolf, a bag of shiny rocks, a geode and we bought him a rabbits foot and a blanket and we bought Sarah a cute little animal backpack that she is in love with and a wooden snake that made Robby's mom cringe. It was funny because she said it was just not right to see a baby walking around holding a snake.

Will is thrilled to death with his bow and arrow. It was a really good find because it was only $10 and it has rubber tips so it is not too dangerous.
The kids also had fun earning their Junior Ranger badges. Luckily we were able to complete everything in time.

We had such a good vacation. I hope the kids are old enough that they will always remember it.

Yellowstone Top Ten #1 (Finally!)

2011-08-28T20:50:00.001-07:00

1. Upper and Lower Falls

This was our second day in the park and we got a bit of a late start leaving the cabin that morning. Then when we got into the park we hit some construction traffic and ended up just sitting in one spot for over an hour. By the time we got to the Upper Falls it was lunch time so we found a spot by the parking lot and had some lunch. Savannah took the picture above and Will took the one below. Kim was nice to let them use her camera. We don't let them touch ours.

Will was ready to do some hiking.

It is just a short hike to the lookout at the top of the Upper Falls and it is unbelievable how much water is flowing down through that canyon!

After looking at the Upper Falls from right next to it we drove across the bridge and over to the other side to get a view from across the canyon.

If you look closely you can see the lookout point where all the people are standing on the right side of the picture in the middle. That's where we were in the pictures above.

Ready to go on the Uncle Tom's trail hike down to the bottom of the Lower Falls

This hike is really fun because you are walking down a huge metal staircase for about 3/4 of the hike. I remembered doing this one with my family when I was here last time and I was excited to see it again. The waterfall is spectacular! Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate to make this a good experience for us and it started hailing (In August! I know!!) right when we got to the bottom to enjoy the view of the falls. Isaac was the only one who stayed there long enough to get his picture taken with that view.

We had decided to leave the rain cover for the kid backpack in the car because we didn't think we would need it so when it started hailing on my poor baby's head I started climbing back up the steps as quickly as I could. Sarah just kept saying "Ow! Head!" over and over and then she started screaming. It was really sad. There was nothing I could really do for her but hurry up to the car. A nice girl hiking in front of me offered to cover Sarah up with her sweater. That helped a little and the girl was even nice enough to hike back up most of the way with us to let her use it even though she wasn't done hiking down yet. I love it when you get such kindness from random strangers. So even though I would have enjoyed the hike a lot more without the hailstorm, it still made number one on my list of things we saw in Yellowstone. Just look at this view!

Before we even got back to the top the hail stopped and the sun came out. We drove a little ways down the road to check out the view of the falls from Artist Point overlook.

Kim was nice enough to stay in the car with Sarah. She was done hiking for awhile.

There aren't many places I've seen that are prettier than this.

Yellowstone Top Ten #2

2011-08-28T20:19:00.000-07:00

2. Old Faithful

It's the classic feature of Yellowstone, the thing that everyone stops to see, and it didn't disappoint. We were able to visit Old Faithful twice and the kids all said it was their favorite part of the trip (besides the gift shops, of course). The first time we saw it we checked the clock that predicts when it will erupt and we had about 20 minutes to wait. We ended up waiting for about 30 minutes before it finally gave us a good show. It was funny because it kept shooting up just a little bit and teasing us into thinking it was going to erupt any minute. I think the kids thought that was it. Isaac took a million pictures of Old Faithful before it even erupted. Then when it did erupt they were amazed!

The second time around was much better. We got there and it was only about 5 minutes before it erupted. The kids liked seeing it without the wait a lot more too.

We were so grateful to Amber and Spencer for letting us borrow their kid backpack. Sarah loved to ride in there and it was much easier than carrying her.

The area around Old Faithful is really pretty too.

Inside the Old Faithful Inn. That is such a cool old building.

Yellowstone Top Ten #3

2011-08-28T19:30:00.000-07:00

3. West Thumb of Yellowstone Lake

This was the first area we went when we got into Yellowstone. I don't think I had ever been here before and it was so pretty. I loved the view of the hot pots with the lake in the background and some of these hot pots were so blue! It was really pretty.
Also, as soon as we got out of the car we saw a big group of elk. We were anxious to see some wildlife and we were so excited to see some right away.

There was a crazy ranger lady who would yell (and I mean yell!) at anyone who was even remotely close to the elk. "Stay at least 75 feet away from the wildlife!!!" The kids thought it was hilarious and we joked the whole trip about the crazy ranger coming after us for getting too close to the animals.

Sarah loved seeing the bubbles in the hot pots and we also saw a snake and some fish in the lake and she loved seeing that. (No, I'm not trying to dump her out of the stroller).

The water was so clear. You could see really far down into the water.

I would have liked to have made it over to see the rest of Yellowstone lake, but we ran out of time. Maybe next time.

Yellowstone Top Ten #4

2011-08-22T21:20:00.001-07:00

4. Midway Geyser Basin

Excelsior Geyser

Grand Prismatic Spring

This geyser was so beautiful! Even the mist coming off of it looked blue and orange. The colors were so vivid. The only thing that would have made it better is if Sarah hadn't been saying "done, done, done" every 5 seconds. Although that was better than when she just started screaming. Isaac pushed the empty stroller for most of the way because Sarah wouldn't ride in it any more. Oh well. It was still very memorable.

This part was so cool! The water from the geysers runs down the hill and into the river and it creates a lot of steam. It was really cool to see.

Yellowstone Top Ten #5

2011-08-22T20:31:00.000-07:00

#5 Artists Paint Pots

On Tuesday morning we got up and had a bit of a leisurely morning and we didn't get into the park until about 10:00 or 10:30 . . . and then we hit the construction traffic. We ended up sitting in one spot for about an hour and a half and it was lunch time by the time we got to our first destination. We really felt like we had wasted half of the day. So to remedy this situation the next morning we got up REALLY early and made it into the park at about 7:00 am to try to avoid the construction. We did not have any traffic issues and it was probably by favorite day in the park because we were able to see and do so much. The park is absolutely GORGEOUS in the morning. We were enjoying a beautiful sunny morning and it was still cold enough that there was steam coming off the river because the water was actually warmer than the air. It was really pretty. And the steam from the hot pots was especially visible as well.

Then in a matter of minutes we went from sunny to completely enclosed in mist. It was such a big contrast.

Driving into the mists.

It was so creepy and so cool at the same time. We were hiking the artist paint pots and it is a bit of a walk through the woods to get to the paint pots. This is what the view looked like as we walked:

All along the path there were webs in the pine trees and even between the pine trees connecting them. It was so cool!

This is one of my favorite photos from the trip. Robby was able to capture the bubble as it popped. I think it is so cool!

On our way out this squirrel ran across the path right in front of us and ran up the tree. Sarah was freaking out she was so excited. She loved seeing the squirrels, birds, elk and other animals we saw.

I think we got a much different experience of the Artists Paint Pots than we would have if we had gone later in the day. It was so cool to see it in the foggy conditions early in the morning.

First Day of School

2011-08-22T19:53:00.000-07:00

I have to take a break from Yellowstone for a minute and post about the first day of school. How is the summer over already? I seriously can't believe how fast this summer went by!
The kids were so excited to start school again. It is always an exciting day. It is especially exciting for me because now I have THREE kids in school! and only ONE at home for half of the day! What am I going to do with all my free time?

Isaac had his first day of Kindergarten today and he was so excited to be able to go like the big kids. The first day for the Kindergarteners is just a 45 minute meet the teacher and then they officially start next Monday. I thought his teacher was great. It is her first year teaching and she seems really excited about it. Isaac was not too impressed because she made the kids do a silly dance and he was seriously about to cry because he didn't want to do it. It was kind of sad. I hope she is able to redeem herself next week because he is not loving her right now. We'll see how it goes.

Savannah started the 5th grade today. (5th!! How is that possible?!) She was put into a 5th/6th split class and she was REALLY nervous about it. She wasn't sure how it was going to be with the older kids in there but luckily she came home very excited about her class and her teacher. It sounds like everything went very well for her today and she is so anxious to go back tomorrow. (Isn't that the cutest outfit on her? She looked so cute this morning)

Will started the 2nd grade today. He wasn't nervous at all, or so he said. He didn't have much to report, but said that everything went well. I didn't get much of a chance to talk to his teacher so we'll see what I think of her after back-to-school night on Thursday.

Sarah gets to stay home and spend some one-on-one time with Mom. She was excited to put her new backpack on like the other kids this morning. We got the backpack in Yellowstone and she LOVES it. It came with four little stuffed animals that pop out through little holes in the front. It is really cute, but not as cute as she is with it on!

Robby gave each of the kids a Father's blessing yesterday in preparation for the school year. I am so glad that he is able/willing to do that for our kids. I know it meant a lot to me that my dad did that for me and my siblings when I was growing up and I am so glad that my kids are growing up with that same tradition. I hope it is a good year!

Yellowstone Top Ten #6

2011-08-18T20:08:00.000-07:00

6. Upper Loop Drive/Tower Falls

We got to the park early on Wednesday (since we got there so late on Tuesday) and we were able to see a lot that day. We drove the Upper Loop and saw the sights along that road and we hoped to see some wildlife, but there were none to be seen (at least not by us). The drive is such a pretty one though. It was about 8:00 in the morning when we stopped to take these pictures and it was full of sunshine and flowers.

We saw Tower Falls which is pretty spectacular, but unfortunately the hike to the bottom of the falls was closed so we only got a far-off view.

The whole family. Sarah liked looking at the water too.

Bill and Kim and you can see the waterfall at the bottom right half of the picture.

We also saw Mammoth Hot Springs during this drive but I'm going to do a separate post about that.

During our drive after Mammoth we needed to stop for one of MANY potty breaks so we stopped here:

It's called Sheepeater Cliff and the kids had a blast climbing on those rocks. There were chipmunks popping up all over the rocks too.

I think they would have climbed all the way to the top if there would have been time.

Yellowstone Top Ten #7

2011-08-18T16:01:00.000-07:00

7. Virginia Cascade

This was another one of those little mile-long loops that we decided to drive and it was totally worth it this time. It was a very pretty drive leading to a very pretty waterfall. It has such a shallow slope that it sort of just flows down the mountain as opposed to falling off of it. It was a really pretty spot that I hadn't seen before.

Yellowstone Top Ten #8

2011-08-18T09:56:00.001-07:00

8. Norris Geyser Basin

Steamboat Geyser
The kids wanted to earn their Junior Ranger Badge while we were in Yellowstone and one of things they had to do was attend an event held by a Ranger. So we listened to a Ranger talk about Steamboat Geyser and it was actually very interesting. It is the biggest geyser in the world when it has a major eruption, which doesn't happen very often. But it has little eruptions all the time so it was still fun to see. I thought it was pretty cool and the kids were thrilled to get that requirement checked off their lists.

Robby, Bill and Will saw these bear tracks while they were exploring Norris Geyser basin. Too bad we didn't see any real bears on our trip. I was really hoping we would see one or two (from a distance, of course).

The bubbling mud pots are so fun to watch.

Overall, a beautiful valley with plenty to see.

Yellowstone Top Ten #9

2011-08-18T09:39:00.000-07:00

9. Firehole Canyon Drive and Firehole Falls

This is a very pretty little loop off of the main road and it's only about a mile long so it is worth seeing. It was also nostalgic for me because I remember swimming in the Firehole river when I came to Yellowstone with my family several years ago so I was happy to go back there and see and remember where I had been before. (Interestingly, the area where we swam was closed off now. Maybe because the water is higher this year? It was too cold for swimming this time around anyway)

Firehole Falls

Yellowstone Top Ten #10

2011-08-18T09:37:00.000-07:00

So, most of you know that we went to Yellowstone for our first real family vacation last week. It was so much fun! I was really sad to be home. I wanted to stay for a few more days. Robby's parents went with us and it was so great to be able to spend so much time with them one on one. The kids absolutely loved it! It was also fabulous to have four adults to even out the adult-to-child ratio. It would have been much harder without them there.

So I was pondering how to blog our trip and I decided to do a top ten list from Yellowstone instead of a travelogue this time. So we'll see how this goes.

10. GIBBON FALLS

This was just a little stop on the side of the road, but was worth seeing. We passed it a lot because it was on the road to West Yellowstone where we came in and out of the park every day.

I love Isaac's goatee in the this picture from eating chocolate pudding.

Sarah always makes that face now when people who are not in our immediate family are talking to her. It totally cracks me up! She is so funny!

Grandma with the kids.

My Eyes, My Eyes! or What I Learned Today

2011-08-15T19:12:00.001-07:00

I'm about to work on my Yellowstone post, but I had to put this on here first.
Today I learned two very important things. First, I need a food processor. Second, onions make your eyes water MUCH more when you splatter them directly into your eyes. OK, I guess I have three. Third, a blender is NOT a food processor.

Basketball Camp and BBQ

2011-08-12T21:01:00.001-07:00

Last Saturday my sister Ali held a basketball camp for the kids in her ward/neighborhood and she was nice enough to invite her nieces and nephews as well. My kids were so excited to go. They had a great time learning to dribble, pass and shoot. She had a huge turnout. I think there were 57 kids split up into three different age groups. It was a great time. Thanks again Ali!

Ali directing the basketball camp

My brother Ben helped Ali do the camp. He is currently playing for UVU and my kids think he is the best player in the world. We were excited he rode up with us and spent the day with us.

Ali's husband Ben also helped with the camp. He was great with the kids. I was surprised he was up for it since he had knee surgery a few weeks ago.

Will playing "Coach Says"

Isaac learning to pass.

And learning to dribble.

And learning to shoot.

The 5-7 year old group.

They even got a t-shirt and a candy at the end!

Savannah's turn to practice shooting, dribbling and passing and then they had a real game after that.

The 8-12 year old group.

Savannah got a t-shirt too!

Sarah had a lot of fun watching her siblings play and playing in the nursery with her cousins.

After basketball camp we went out to lunch with my sister Amber and her family and my brother Ben. Then Ben and I and the kids hung out at Ali's house for awhile.

Ali and I took the kids to a park near her house where they had a blast playing in the water and on the playground.

Sarah and Whitney look a lot alike. It was cute to watch them play together.

Sarah wasn't too fond of the water though while Whitney had no problem with it.

They both liked watching the water and the other kids.

Isaac isn't too fond of the water either and he ran around the edges for awhile before he finally got wet.

Will and Savannah had no problem jumping right in.

"Yeah, I'm done with that. What else can I do Mom?"

She had a lot more fun climbing on Alonzo's scooter.

Isaac eventually did get in the water and Will was loving it the whole time.

I also discovered Sarah's new passion:

She couldn't get enough of the swing. I thought she would be scared, but she loved it! I kept asking if she was done and she would say "No, more swing."

After the playground we went back to Ali's house for a BBQ. It was a combination birthday party for her and her husband (whose birthdays are today and tomorrow. Happy Birthday!) and a goodbye party because her husband is going away on business for three months. It was a great party with good food and they had a lot of people come.

We had such a great day! Thanks Marchants!

Guess Who is Old Enough for Nursery?

2011-08-07T19:24:00.000-07:00

I took Sarah to nursery at church for the first time last week and I thought it went well. Little did I know that they got Robby out of sunday school and he had to stay with her the whole time. Today went much better. I stayed for most of the first hour in there and then I left her. They said she cried a bit, but not too much. I hope this will be an easy transition for once. I haven't had any kids who just say see ya mom and run right in. I'm very jealous of those who do have those kids.

How is it possible that she is 18 months old already?!!

Heber Valley Camp

2011-08-02T14:21:00.000-07:00

We were off to another camping trip last weekend. This time it was a family reunion for Robby's mom's side of the family up at Heber Valley Camp. That is such a beautiful camp and the cabins are nice.

This was our cabin and the lady missionary in charge of our camp told us that there was a bear in 5B only a month ago. I'm glad we didn't have any in our camp while we were there.

The kids were very excited about sleeping on the bunkbeds.

The kids had a great time walking around camp and climbing on all the big rocks too.

Little Miss Independent

Robby and I were able to do a Challenge Course (thanks again Kim for babysitting so we could go) and we got to do a zipline. It was really fun! Unfortunately I didn't think to bring the camera so we didn't get any pictures.

Later in the afternoon everyone except for Sarah and me went out on the lake. Robby took Will and Isaac out in a canoe and Bill and Kim took Savannah with them in a paddleboat. It looked like a lot of fun and the kids loved it!

Savannah and Rebecca in the paddleboat with Bill and Kim

The boys about to go out on the canoe

The view from the pavillion where Sarah and I watched everyone out on the water.

Richard, Gabriel and Lisa

The paddleboat crew

All four kids. Yeah, that was the best I could get at that moment. Sarah was way more interested in checking out the pole than smiling for the camera.

We saw a lot of deer around our camp, by the lake and by the challenge course. The didn't seem to be bothered by people at all. The kids loved seeing the wildlife.

We had such a great time getting to know the distant family members and spending time with the close ones and Sarah was in heaven watching the deer and the squirrels.

My Newest Niece

2011-07-30T20:29:00.000-07:00

My brother Dan and his wife, Amber had their third baby girl a couple of weeks ago. Welcome to the family Candace! Amber was nice enough to send me these pictures of the quilt that I made for her since I forgot to take some. Thanks Amber!

This was my first attempt at appliques on a rag quilt, and only my second rag quilt (on my own)

I think it turned out pretty cute!

Congrats Dan and Amber. We are so happy for you!

Fun With Cousins

2011-07-30T18:52:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite traditions is the 24th of July fireworks in Bountiful. The kids love it, its free, and it's really a good show. We always have dinner and hang out at my parent's house and then when it gets dark we go outside and watch the fireworks from my aunt Gayle's lawn. This year Ben and Ben got a bunch of fireworks to do in the circle before the big show. It was great!

Savannah, Jake, Will and Tyler

All the cousins that were there except the babies who were sleeping. Alonzo, Savannah, Jake, Will, Tyler and Lily.

Jake and Isaac are pretty much inseparable when we get together.

It was such a fun night.

Last Wednesday Ali invited us to meet her at the Hill AFB Air Force Museum. We hadn't been there for awhile and the kids had a great time.

Isaac, Savannah, Will and Alonzo

Sarah is signing airplane

Sarah and Whitney (or baby Sarah and baby Sarah as Sarah has started calling every baby she sees)

I know you can't see the kids very well, but I like this picture anyway. The wing on the plane looks huge!

This was the boys' favorite plane inside the museum. It's pretty cool.

My sister Ali with Whitney

And the hit of the museum was . . .

the coin machine. They LOVED watching the coins roll around and down the hole. Awesome. (Sorry the picture is blurry)

Sarah's favorite part was this ceramic dog. She would have sat there looking at it and signing dog all day I think.

Thanks Ali! We had a lot of fun hanging out with you.

$5 Craft

2011-07-21T12:33:00.000-07:00

OK, so I had made all the other kids their name out of wooden blocks from The Wood Connection a few years ago but for some reason it just hadn't happened yet with Sarah's name. I guess it is because I didn't really have anywhere to put her name in her room. Then the other day I was looking through the clearance at Hobby Lobby and I found these for only $1.20 each.

I thought they were super cute as they were, but unfortunately since they were on clearance, the letter selection wasn't very good. In fact, they didn't have any of the letters I needed for Sarah's name. So I decided to buy them and just change the letters out since the frames were so cute. So here's how they turned out.

I am really happy with them, and it was such a cheap and easy project! The most difficult part was just prying the back of the frame open. They were glued REALLY well. After that, it was a cinch.

Oh, and here is what Sarah was busy doing this morning while I was finishing up my project.

She pulled everything out of the doll bed and climbed in herself. She was pretty happy to hang out in there too. I seem to remember that my brother's little girl, Brooke did the same thing last time they visited us. So cute!

More Camping

2011-07-17T19:26:00.000-07:00

We had another fun-filled weekend. We have been so busy this summer!
On Friday night we went to Layton Surf-n-Swim. I can't believe we have lived here for four years and hadn't been there yet. The kids absolutely loved it! They were anxious to show off their skills fresh from swimming lessons and they had a blast riding the waves on the tubes. Even Sarah liked it . . . at first . . . until the waves started. Then she said "No, no, no and started pointing toward the side of the pool. I kept her in though, and she did great. No crying at all until she slipped on the wet pavement right before we left and hit her head. She was OK after a couple minutes though. Once again, I got ZERO pictures of this event. It's hard to go swimming with four kids and keep track of a camera too. Oh well.
Robby met up there with two guys who were in his mission and had fun catching up. He doesn't get to see people from his mission very often so I was happy we were able to go and meet up with them.

On Saturday morning we left for Christmas Meadows in the high Uintas to go camping with Robby's parents and his older brother and his family. The kids were so excited to go camping again, two weekends in a row. Christmas Meadows is one of our favorite places to go. It is so pretty up there!

Don't they look excited to be camping? I don't know what Isaac's problem is in this picture, but Sarah was mad that I put her down to help set up the tent.

We love our new tent! It is so nice to have enough room for all of us AND all our stuff (even the pack-n-play)!

Robby's parents got a trailer last summer and they were excited to get out and use it this weekend.

Will, Savannah and cousin Rebecca.

I tried to put Sarah down for a nap but she wasn't having it. I guess it didn't help that she could stand there and watch the kids running up and down the hill by the tent.

Robby and his dad chillin.

We went up the road a little ways to go for a hike and Bill let the kids ride in the back of the truck. They were in heaven!

Luckily Kim was willing to ride in the back with them so I didn't have to.

Grandma with all the kids except Sarah. She had to ride in her carseat.

Sarah was so happy hiking with Daddy. It was so cute!

We hiked for awhile and then the trail abruptly stopped at this:

Yeah, there was a river pouring down the middle of the trail. That was NOT there last year. We couldn't believe how much more water there was this year compared to last October when were were there.

Robby and Bill decided to brave the river and go on up the trail but we didn't want to take six kids across the river so the rest of us headed back to the camp site. On their way back Bill and Robby saw a moose! Man, I wish we had been there for that!

Last weekend when we camped in Peoa with my family I decided to sleep with Sarah in my sleeping bag and neither one of us slept very well so this time I put her in the pack-n-play instead. It was a much better night for both of us.

Here she is getting ready for bed. She was walking all around the tent with just her hat and her diaper. It was pretty funny!

She looks tired, doesn't she? I thought she would lay down and go right to sleep, but no. She was up until almost 10:00 when the rest of us went to bed too.

This morning we got up and had an awesome breakfast (thanks Kim!) and then we let the kids go for another ride in the back of the truck.

Here they are waiting while we loaded everything up to go home.

I tried to get a picture of just how dirty the kids managed to get in only 24 short hours, but you can't really tell. Believe me they were soooooo dirty! We were all happy to get home and into a shower.

Raspberries!

2011-07-17T19:17:00.001-07:00

Our raspberries are finally ripe and Sarah is LOVING it! When I take her outside with me to pick them she eats them as fast as I can pick them. I don't even end up being able to bring very many inside for the rest of us to eat. If I try to get her to stop or at least slow down she gets really mad.

The way she says berry is so cute and I was trying to get her to say it for the camera, but she was too busy eating.

Camping

2011-07-17T18:45:00.000-07:00

July is already more than half over! I don't know how the time just keeps speeding up.
We had a great 4th of July but I didn't take a single picture! We spent time with both our families and saw some great fireworks and the kids had a blast playing with cousins on both sides.

Last weekend my sister Ali and her husband invited us to his family's property in Peoa, UT to go camping. We had a lot of fun! Ali and I took the kids to see the horses while the boys went shooting. The kids were excited to climb on the tractor and Sarah was thrilled to see the horses. She was signing horse and saying neigh over and over.

The horses walked away and Sarah was trying to get them to come back over to the fence.

My four with Ali's two kids.

Isaac looks awesome in this one!

My kids with Grandma

Sarah wanted a turn on the tractor too.

Thanks so much Ali and Ben! We had such a great time!

Swimming Lessons

2011-07-12T19:06:00.000-07:00

The kids had swimming lessons the last week of June and the first week of July. They were so excited to swim every day. Isaac was excited until we got there and he got in the pool. Then he wasn't so sure about this idea.

He stayed pretty close to the stairs the whole first day.

Don't get me wet!!

Luckily he warmed up to the idea the second day. I had Savannah take him while I let Sarah get a bit of a nap in and he did so much better after that.

Will and Savannah loved every minute of it. They were in the same class (Savannah wasn't ready for the class for the kids her age) and it worked out really well. Both kids did great!

Will was excited that his friend Cameron was in his class, but he was only in the class for a couple of days for some reason. I think Will said he got hurt or something.

Who can hold their breath the longest?

The front crawl.

Practicing kicking

Playtime was always the favorite though.

I took the camera on the first day and on the last day, but unfortunately I missed Isaac's last class so I didn't get any pictures of him doing so well! I'm so mad I didn't get any pictures of him going off the diving board. He went off of it more than the other two kids did.

Savannah (my child who has never wanted to get her face wet) was all about putting her face in the water. I was amazed!! I was so proud of her. She has come a long way!

Will, on the other hand, who is usually so fearless, was a little more reserved than Savannah. He still tried his hardest and did great though.

I liked this picture because it is Will going to the left and Savannah going to the right.

Will noticed I was taking pictures and started hamming it up for the camera.

Savannah swimming through the hula hoop

Will holding up the brick he had retrieved from the bottom of the pool.

Sarah happily watching the kids swim. For the most part she really liked watching.

Isaac also had fun playing while the other kids had their lesson.

We had such a great experience with swimming lessons this year. I hope we can do it again next year!

Zoo Trip

2011-06-23T20:14:00.000-07:00

Robby's sister Jessica is in town from Texas and we went to the zoo together with Robby's parents and his brother Richard and his family. It was so much fun! The weather ended up being perfect and we had such a great day together.

Sarah wanted to sit on the wall with the other kids. She kept saying "up high, up high"

Isaac, Savannah and Jaden

Will, Gabriel and Rebecca

Isaac wanted a turn by himself.

They had a place to dig for dinosaur bones that the kids thought was pretty cool.

Sarah and Isaac watching the giraffes

Jaden LOVES Savannah. It is so cute! He kept asking where she was if he wasn't already with her. Luckily she loves helping with him too so it works out great.

Isaac, Savannah and Rebecca waiting to go on the carousel.

OK, there's Will to be in the picture.

Sarah LOVED the carousel. I wasn't sure how she would react, but she thought it was great!

All the other kids loved it too.

Ready for a nap.

What a bunch of monkeys!

Waiting to ride the train. Thanks Grandma and Papa for taking us on the carousel AND the train! We are pretty spoiled.

Will, Papa and baby Sawyer

Savannah and Jaden

Isaac and Jessica

Sarah waiting while Mommy took pictures.

Me and Sarah. She loved the train too. She is such an animal lover that the whole day was just great for her. She was in heaven seeing all those animals at one time.

Sawyer was giving me (or probably his mom in front of me) some smiles before we got started on our train ride. What a cutie!

Sarah thought she was so big sitting up on this spider. It was so cute!

Isaac's Birthday

2011-06-14T13:43:00.001-07:00

Isaac turned 5 on June 4th. I can't believe how fast these past few years have flown!! He was pretty excited for his special day. He opened his presents right after breakfast.

A kid-tough camera that we have been holding onto since Christmas for him. (He had more gifts than the other kids so we had to save it for his birthday) He also got a slip-n-slide and some glow sticks.

Training wheels for Will's old bike so now he can ride with the big kids. He looked so big on that old tricycle he's been riding for ages.

Much better!

We had a whole day of fun planned for him starting out with the trail-opening. There is a new trail that just opened by our house and they were having a big grand opening celebration on Isaac's birthday. We walked for about an hour and got tons of free stuff and the kids got to play a couple games. It was really fun.

We had planned on going to the zoo after grabbing a bite to eat after the trail thing but unfortunately it didn't work out and we had to cancel the zoo trip. Robby's parents were going to come with us to the zoo so they ended up coming to our house to visit instead.

Isaac was very excited to open more presents.

Tangled! One of our favorites!

A huge acitivity book. Look at Will's face! Hee hee!

And then they surprised us with a present for the whole family: A new tent!!

We were so excited!! We took it out to the backyard and set it up after the kids played on the slip-n-slide.

They took to the slip-n-slide like a fish to water. It was pretty fun to watch them too!

I filmed the kids who were slipin and slidin for awhile but then I realized I was filming the wrong thing and I should be filming Sarah. She thought it was hilarious that the kids were running and falling down and she was laughing her head off. It was so funny! You can kind of hear her in the background on the other video, but I captured her laughing a bit in the video below.

After the slip-n-slide we got the tent set up and it is AWESOME! Thank you so so so much Bill and Kim! We love it!

We went out to dinner at McDonalds (of course) and then headed home for some cake and ice cream. Isaac wanted Angel Food cake with raspberries and whipped cream (but I talked him into strawberries since they are so much cheaper) and he also wanted his name written in frosting and he wanted to eat some frosting so I made him a chocolate cake too. (OK, mostly I wanted chocolate cake and I knew Robby would too)

On Sunday my parents came over to see the birthday boy and brought some presents too.

Another slip-n-slide (a way cooler, more expensive and overall better one, I might add)

New goggles that will come in handy for swimming lessons in a couple weeks.

This one has two tracks so you can race and there is a little pool at the end which Sarah discovered is just the right size for her.

Sarah watched patiently from the sidelines for about, oh, 10 seconds before she was investigating for herself. She is such an outside girl! She loves to be part of the action with her siblings too.

We had such a great weekend celebrating Isaac's birthday. We are so glad that he is part of our family!

Last Day of School

2011-06-03T13:04:00.000-07:00

Well, they made it. Will completed 1st grade and Savannah completed 4th. It's hard to believe it is already over! Here are some pics from the first day of school and then from the last day of school to compare.

1st Day of School above and last day of school below

And Isaac is done being left behind. He's off to Kindergarten next year. That's hard to believe too!

Both Savannah and Will did very well in school this year so I have to brag about them for a minute. Savannah got straight A's (she always does) and she did very well on her DIBELS testing. For reading fluency she scored 180 and normal for her age is 118 words per minute. She is at a 6th grade in the 6th month reading level and normal for her age is 4th grade 9th month. She scored 96% for Language Arts, 85% for math (poor girl got my math skills instead of her genius father's) and 91% for Science. She is a little smarty-pants and we are so proud of her!

Will also got straight A's and he is really turning into a very good reader-which is surprising considering how much work it takes for me to actually get him to sit down and do some reading. He is at a 3rd grade 9th month reading level and average for his age is 1st grade 9th month. We were happy to find out that Will had been chosen to receive a special award for taking pride in his work. They only chose one child from each grade to receive this award and the prize was that they got to go out to lunch with the principal and vice-principal. Will was so excited to have been chosen and he hasn't stopped talking about how good Golden Corral is. (I guess it's good that we don't go out to eat much so it was especially meaningful for him). He really does take a lot of time and effort to make sure his work looks really good and if it isn't perfect he'll start over. We're so proud of what a good student/reader/artist he is becoming.

More Sarah

2011-06-03T10:28:00.000-07:00

Sarah is such a little girly girl. She loves to wear anything that will go on her wrist as a bracelet and she calls it a "pretty". It is really very cute.

Sarah using a roll of packing tape as a bracelet.

And using one of the rings from her stacking toy as a bracelet along with the packing tape.

She knows that bunny can go on as a bracelet somehow, but she can't quite figure it out.

Memorial day was interesting this year. This is what we woke up to:

Yep, that is snow on the ground on Memorial day! It has been so cold and wet this year! We are very ready for it to warm up. We had a great time celebrating with my family. We went to see Kung Fu Panda 2 which was a huge treat for us since we very rarely go to the movies. After the movie we went to my parents house for a BBQ. It was good food, good conversation and fun!

These next pics are from the very next day after the snow came through. It was about 70 degrees and perfect weather to catch up on the weeding. We have yet to get our garden put in (although its probably a good thing since it snowed on Memorial day and may have killed our plants if we had planted earlier).

I got most of the weeding done while Sarah was sleeping, but then she woke up and I brought her outside for a few minutes while I was finishing up. I sat her on the grass side of the railroad tie, but she soon ended up in the dirt.

Isaac is always my helper too and he loves to play with his little sister.

Notice in this picture that Sarah has the shovel in her mouth. Ewwww.

She seems to like eating dirt though.

What a cutie!

Will's Last Soccer Game

2011-06-03T10:11:00.001-07:00

Will had a great season of soccer. It was his first year playing and he turned out to be a great little player! I think with some practice he could even be as good as his dad some day. Here are a few pics from his final game on May 21. Thanks to both sets of grandparents for supporting Will and coming to his games. We really appreciate it!

We really liked Will's coach. He did such a great job and really taught the boys how to play.

Will liked having his friend Brock on the team and we enjoyed watching the games with Brock's parents.

Next year both Savannah and Will are going to play so we'll see how that goes juggling two soccer schedules. Great job Will! We are so proud of you.

15 Months Old

2011-05-22T19:11:00.000-07:00

Oh my goodness, how did my baby turn into a such a big girl already? We just love her so much! I took her to the doctor for her checkup and the doctor said she is a healthy little girl. Here are her 15 month stats:
Weight: 20 lbs 9 oz 15%
Height: 29.25 inches 17%
Head: 18.25 64%
So she is doing pretty well on weight (up from 10% at 12 months) although she has come down from 31% for height. I figure if the doctor says she is healthy then I won't worry about the stats.
May 17, 2011

Sarah likes to say "Ahhhh" after she takes a drink. She thinks it is really funny.

I told Isaac to go sit by Sarah on the stairs so I could take a picture and he started making funny faces which didn't surprise me, but I was surprised that Sarah started to copy him. It was really funny!
May 20, 2011

Sarah adores Isaac. She says his name "I kick". It's pretty cute.

These are the two crazies I spend most of my time with. Love them!!

I was outside doing some weeding while Sarah was taking a nap and then when she woke up I brought her outside while I was finishing up. She hasn't spent much time on the ground outside so I was very surprised when she started crawling around on the rocks in the area I was weeding.

May 21, 2011

And, drumroll please . . . She is finally walking!!! A bit. She started taking a lot more steps the past couple of days and I think she is headed toward walking more than crawling. She really just wasn't interested in walking and I didn't try to force her. It is really cute to watch her toddle around the house now. We all get very excited and clap and cheer when she takes some steps. She just eats it up.

So she IS walking, but she IS NOT drinking milk. In any form. She won't even drink breastmilk from a cup. Sigh. I'm just going to keep trying. When I took her to the doctor I mentioned that she still won't take milk and he said "You should try chocolate milk. Kids love chocolate milk." Really, you think I haven't tried chocolate, and strawberry, and whole and 2% and 1% and everything I can think of? At least she is healthy and not super underweight or anything. Hopefully she'll take the milk eventually.

Sarah is still taking two naps a day and she is a really good sleeper. Most mornings she sleeps from 9:30 until 11:30 or 12:00. It is great! And she sleeps all night most nights. She loves the bath, she loves to watch tv, mostly Sesame Street, Dora the explorer and Signing Time. She is going through a phase of throwing everything off her highchair tray. Gotta love that. She is very vocal. She loves to talk and to read stories and she loves to be sung to. She is so much fun and we all just love her so much!

Aird Easter Party

2011-05-22T18:29:00.000-07:00

My brother Dan and his wife came to visit from Texas at the end of April. It was so fun to see them and their two girls. We had a family Easter party while they were here on April 30th and we had everyone in the family there except for my brother-in-law Randy. It was so fun to get together! My parents had a treaure hunt for the kids. They took off like a rocket out the front door and ran past about 4 bags of candy. It was pretty funny.

We convinced Isaac to slow down and look in the front yard and I think he was one of the first kids to find his bag.

Eventually the big kids made their way back around to the front and found theirs too.

After the kids played it was the adult's turn. My parents have started doing a game for the adults a few years ago. They started with Deal or No Deal, then they did Minute to Win It and this year it was:

Lets Make a Deal!! It was fun to see what people decided to take and what they ended up winning. Thanks again Mom and Dad for a great party!

Savannah got to be the assistant for the game.

We had to take some pictures of all of us while we were together again. This one is in height order. I'm technically the shortest but I had my tall boots on and Heather had flats so she got to be the shortest this time.

Ben, Dan, Ali, Amber, me, Heather

It's so fun to be all together!

All the kids except for the sleeping babies Sarah and Whitney.

Amber took some pictures of all the couples. Here is me and Robby and below are my parents. I think that is such a great picture of them!

4th Grade Utah Program

2011-05-22T15:23:00.000-07:00

April 28, 2011
Each of the 4th graders were assigned a county to do a report on and then they had a program for the parents. Savannah did her report on Beaver county and I think she did a really good job. Unfortunately this is the only picture that turned out from her program day. My pictures taken at school functions never turn out.

Savannah's Haircut

2011-05-22T14:55:00.000-07:00

Savannah decided it was time for a change and she meant a BIG change. She has mentioned cutting her hair from time to time over the past couple of years but I always just wait to see if she changes her mind (which she usually does) but this time she decided she was ready. I asked her several times how short she wanted it and at first I thought it would only be a bit more than a trim but we ended up cutting off 9 1/2 inches! I have had several people ask if we donated it and I honestly didn't even think about it until after. Oh well. Here are the before pictures:
April 25, 2011

And after:

I think it turned out really cute and she seems to really like it-although she thought it was a bit too short at first. The best part is that she was letting me do something with it besides just leave it straight and down. Look how cute she looks in pigtails.
April 27, 2011

That phase has passed now though. She only wants it straight and down again. Oh well. It was good while it lasted.

Easter Weekend-Sunday

2011-04-26T19:48:00.000-07:00

Easter is one of my favorite holidays. I love being able to focus on the Savior and also do the fun stuff with the kids too. We spent the week reading in the scriptures about what the Savior was doing in the week before the first Easter and I was really happy with how interested the kids were in reading each night. It is so nice as they are getting older that we can have a spiritual discussion and I feel like they are really understanding what we are talking about. It was also good for me to have a little refresher course on what really went on the week before Easter. I had forgotten some details about what led up to the crucifixion and the ressurrection of the Savior.

It was also fun to do the traditional Easter activities with the kids. They were very excited on Saturday night to put out their baskets for the Easter bunny.

We had to get started really early on Sunday morning to get everything done before 9:00 church.

The kids waiting to come downstairs and see what the Easter bunny left for them.

They wrote a note asking the Easter bunny to hide their baskets this year. Isaac was the first to find his basket by the couches in the family room.

Sarah was starting to act a little bit sick on Saturday so she wasn't too interested in her basket at first, but she warmed up eventually.

Sarah really liked her stuffed dog. She is such an animal lover.

Isaac dove right in to his candy while the other two were looking for their baskets.

Will found his basket in the lazy susan.

Savannah was last to find hers, but she finally found it in the dryer.

Before we headed off to church we took a few pictures.

the kids

the girls

the boys

What a great weekend. Happy Easter everyone!

Easter Weekend-Saturday

2011-04-26T19:32:00.000-07:00

So, we live on the outside of the neighborhood and we don't usually feel like we are really part of the neighborhood most of the time. Don't get me wrong, everyone is always very friendly with us and we feel like we can go to these neighbors if we have a problem we need help with, but we just haven't really felt that neighborly camaraderie. So imagine how much it meant to me that we were invited to the neighborhood easter egg hunt. It was so much fun and it really meant a lot to us to be invited.

Easter Weekend-Friday

2011-04-26T19:12:00.000-07:00

Last Friday Heather brought her kids over to play for the day and it was so fun! We sat and talked while the kids ran around together. We also decided to have an easter egg hunt for the kids and they loved that.

Heather hid an egg up on the trellis thing over our patio and the kids couldn't find it for a long time. It was pretty funny.

After the egg hunt Heather and I made these rice crispy eggs with m&m's inside. The kids were pretty excited about these too and they were surprisingly easy to make.

Thanks again for coming up Heather. We love it when you visit!

14 Months Old-a little late

2011-04-26T18:31:00.000-07:00

I forgot to post about Sarah at 14 months a couple of weeks ago and I just found these pictures on the camera so I had to post them still. Look at that face! I am so in love with this girl! She just makes me (and all of us really) so happy. She is such a sweetheart.

Sarah's favorite things to do lately are:

Climbing up on anything she can manage to climb on,

Pulling everything out of the cupboards, (She especially likes the lazy susan)

and climbing and then emptying all at once! I seriously can't keep her off of the dishwasher when I am doing dishes. She LOVES to be up there pulling all the dishes out.

Silly girl.

Sarah is still not drinking milk in any form (she won't even take breastmilk from a cup) but other than that she is a really good eater. She is a really good talker too. She is signing and talking all the time. She knows over 15 signs and just as many words and animal sounds. She still loves animals and loves to look at books with animals in them. She is taking a few steps now (but she wasn't at 14 months) but she still prefers to crawl. She gets around the house by herself just fine and she has only fallen down the stairs twice ever. She is really quick to learn and she loves to be around her brothers and sister. She is just such a joy in our lives!

Taking Some Steps

2011-04-23T08:55:00.000-07:00

My sweet Sarah is finally starting to take a few steps. She is now 14 1/2 months old so she is a little behind, but I am totally fine with that! I've had an early walker (Will started walking at 8 1/2 months) and I think I prefer the late one. Thursday was the first time I have seen her take more than two steps and she took 4 steps and then bent over and picked up a toy and took two more steps. She is getting so big!

These videos are from yesterday. She loves to walk to Savannah.

Last weekend was my birthday. I love birthdays! Robby and the kids made this one great. The only pictures we got were of me opening my present from Robby's parents.

They got me a blog book of my blog from 2007-2008. I was so excited!! I just wish I could afford to print 2009 and 2010. Maybe someday. . .

The night before my birthday my parents watched the kids while we went out to dinner and did a little shopping and they even kept the older three for a sleepover so we could enjoy our evening together. The next day started out rainy but turned into a beautiful day. We went for a walk and had a picnic at the park for dinner. Robby even sat through a really terrible chick flick with me. What a great husband! (I really should have spent more time finding a decent movie since I only get one day a year when he will watch those with me)

Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes. Life is good!!

Spring in Utah

2011-04-08T10:30:00.001-07:00

Once again we are plunged back into winter. Last week I was taking my kids to the park in flip flops and today my spring flowers are covered in snow. Isn't it summer yet?

Sarah's New Favorite Word

2011-04-08T10:19:00.000-07:00

We are raising a little couch potato. Almost every day now Sarah looks at me and says "Show" meaning "I want to watch TV". It is the cutest thing, but I'm a little concerned that she is so young and already so interested in TV. Luckily she also loves to read. She will grab a book and climb up on my lap. I think she would read all day if I were willing and able to read to her all day.

Wizard of Oz

2011-03-29T14:52:00.000-07:00

Will and Savannah participated in the school play again this year. They were a little hesitant at first because they remembered how much work it was last year, but both kids decided to go ahead with it. They were assigned into groups this time (last year they got to pick which group to be in) and Will was happy to be a citizen of Oz but Savannah was less than excited to be a flying monkey. It turned out to be better than I expected it to be and the kids ended up having a great time doing three performances for the parents and two for the school. Will was front and center for his parts of the show which was great for picture taking. I told her to smile and look like she was enjoying herself, but this was mostly what we got from Savannah.

Cute kids between the Friday night performances. Thanks again to both sets of grandparents for coming to see the kids perform. It meant a lot to them (and to me!)

Last week Isaac had to get his shots for Kindergarten. I was kind of worried about him because he has been a little on the dramatic side lately, but he did so great! He sat there and didn't make a peep or even make a face. I was kind of thinking it didn't even hurt because he was so stoic. I promised him an ice cream cone after if he was brave and he definitely earned it.

It was Sarah's first ice cream cone and she loved it! She got down to the bottom and looked over at Isaac's cone which was much bigger than hers and she looked at him and said "Thank you!" in her nicest voice and held out her hand for him to give it to her. It was so cute! (It didn't work for her though)

Sarah is getting so big, but she is still not walking by herself. She loves to walk around the kitchen holding on to the cabinets and the fridge though.

13 Months Old

2011-03-18T11:48:00.000-07:00

I was finally able to go to the doctor and do Sarah's 12 month checkup and get her stats. She was sick for her appointment in February so I had to postpone it until this week. She is doing really well!
Weight: 19 lbs 10%
Height: 29 inches 31%
Head: 18 inches 60%

I was so happy to see her percentiles go up in all three areas! She was at 5% for weight and 17% for height at 9 months so she is doing great! She is not quite walking yet, which is still fine with me. She will take one step here and there and she walks along furniture just great. She can turn around to go down the stairs or get down from the couch by herself. She is really quite the talker too. A lot of the time she will go on for 5 minutes straight just jabbering in baby talk. It is pretty cute and she really seems like she thinks she is saying something. She also knows a lot of real words. She especially likes the animal names and sounds. She will say meow for cat and moo for cow. She knows about 12 or 13 signs now and she uses those as much as her verbal language.
Much to my dismay she hasn't taken to milk very well so I am still breastfeeding. I asked the doctor what to do about it and he said just to keep trying. Great. So helpful. I reintroduced milk this week after taking a couple weeks off and she seems to like it a bit more than she did before so I am hopeful that I can stop breastfeeding soon. Other than milk she is a very good eater. She loves noodles in any form, cheese, crackers-especially graham- and chips, and she is starting to like apples, although she doesn't actually swallow much of it when she eats a slice of apple. She loves pancakes, cinnamon toast and eggs as well as dry cereal so breakfast is easy. She really is a good little eater.
Sarah is my cuddler. She will usually give hugs and kisses when we ask her. She is daddy's little girl. She just lights up when he is around and she loves to see pictures of him when he's not around. She loves to sit on his lap and just be with him. She also adores Isaac. Everything he does is hilarious to her. They are really cute together. Isaac is usually good to play with her or read her a book. She loves to read books! She loves to point to the animals that she knows and turn the pages. Pulling the books off our bookshelves is one of her favorite pastimes as well and I end up picking up the books 4-5 times a day most days.
Sarah is a great sleeper. She takes two naps a day and they are usually 1-2 hours each and she sleeps from 7:30 pm to 7:00 or 7:30 am most days. I am so glad to have a good sleeper this time around!

Sarah's hair was finally long enough for a ponytail this week but she ripped it out about 10 minutes after I put it in. She pretty much won't leave a headband in either but I'm going to keep trying.

Love that girl!~

Savannah's Birthday Extravaganza

2011-03-16T19:09:00.000-07:00

It seems like our birthday celebrations are turning into 3 and 4 day events. The kids love it though. Savannah's birthday was no different. Her celebration started on Saturday and went through her birthday yesterday. Friday night we went to UVU to cheer for Ben and his team in the conference tournament. Unfortunately they lost by 2 points in the end, but it was still fun. We slept over at Robby's parent's house so we could spend some time with them on Saturday.
Savannah was very excited to open a few presents before we went to McDonalds for lunch.

A very cute card

And then all her dreams came true. She has wanted a Nintendo DS for a long time and she was sure that Santa was going to bring one, but he decided to get her something else. Robby's mom suggested after Christmas that I look online for a used one and I was able to get a good deal on one on ebay and Robby's parents bought it for her. We got her some games to go with it. That look on her face says it all.

Since I was giving her two games I decided to wrap them differently so she wouldn't suspect they were the same thing. I wrapped one of them in a huge box and stuffed it full of my t-shirts so it wouldn't roll around in there. She was a little confused about her gift when she first opened it. It was pretty funny!

There's the game. She loves it!

After McDonalds we came back and had some cake and ice cream. We were glad that Richard and Lisa and their kids could join us for lunch and dessert.

On Sunday (after we got up super, super early to get ready for Stake Conference which started at 9:00 in Ogden but due to Daylight Savings it felt like 8:00) we went to my parents house for a birthday dinner for 4 of the grandkids. It weas really fun since we had all of my sibling except for Dan (miss you Dan!) and we got to meet Ben's new girlfriend. She's really cute! Maybe I'll get to talk to her next time.

I tried to rotate this picture, but it didn't work and I don't want to mess with it any more tonight.

Savannah got the other thing on her wish list from Grandma Aird: Squinkies. I didn't know what they were either until Savannah dragged me to the toy aisle at Walmart. She was very excited.

The kids had so much fun playing with Uncle Ben. He was a good sport to play with them for a lot of the party too.

Yesterday was Savannah's actual birthday and she wanted a fairy cake. She helped me decorate it on Monday night. I think it turned out pretty cute.

After dinner Savannah opened the rest of her presents.

She was sure that this one was another DS game but Isaac and I tricked her by wrapping up one of Sarah's books and hiding the game inside. It was pretty funny to see her face when she saw the book.

And another game. She is pretty happy with her new games and DS.

Glow sticks are a must for our birthday celebrations now. The kids love them!

After presents we went to Classic Fun Center to play for awhile.

It doesn't get much better than this!

And then home again for more cake and ice cream.

After we sang Savannah sat there for a minute and Robby said "Go ahead and make a wish and blow out the candles" and she said "I can't think of anything because all of my wishes already came true!" Awwww. What a sweetheart. She also wrote me a very sweet note saying thank you for making her birthday perfect. I'm so glad it was everything she wanted it to be. We sure love that big 10 year old girl!

Blueberry Pancakes

2011-03-16T18:41:00.000-07:00

OK, before I blog about Savannah's birthday I have to post this recipe for Blueberry syrup. It is really easy and sooooo good!! I have been raving about it to anyone who will listen, but seriously it was so good I wanted to lick my plate. I found it here. You really should try it.

Blueberry Sauce

2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
1/4 cup water
1 cup orange juice
3/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup cold water
3 Tbsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon

In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the blueberries, 1/4 cup water, orange juice and sugar. Stir gently and bring to a boil.
In a cup or small bowl, mix together the cornstarch and 1/4 cup cold water. Gently stir the mixture into the blueberries. Simmer gently 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in almond extract and cinnamon. Thin sauce with water if it is too thick for your liking.

That's my Little Brother!

2011-03-04T13:43:00.000-08:00

I just have to brag about my little (Six foot 10 inch) brother for a minute. He plays basketball for UVU in Orem and he is so awesome! We love to go to his games and cheer him on. The kids especially love to cheer for Uncle Ben. He has been voted player of the game for three games in a row and player of the week for the Great West Conference two weeks in a row! http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700114355/UVU-basketball-Ben-Aird-again-honored-by-Great-West.html

This video clip below is from a couple of weeks ago.

ksl.com - Utah Valley edges North Dakota 67-64

UVU won again last night to clinch the number one spot for the regular season play. http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=294&sid=14595254

We are so proud of Basketball Ben!

Catching Up

2011-03-04T13:14:00.000-08:00

February is already gone and I have some pictures I never blogged. Will had a President's Day program at school and it was so cute. They sang a few songs and recited a poem. Isn't he cute with his hat and flag?

We had cookies in the classroom after the program. I love how I captured Isaac mid-bite.

Sarah is so funny. I have caught her twice unwrapping Hershey's kisses and she didn't eat a single one either time! She just likes to unwrap them. Silly girl.

I gave them to her this time to see if she would eat any and she didn't.

Sarah is still not walking (which is fine with me) but we have been working on turning around to go down the stairs and today she has gone down the stairs by herself twice.

Love that girl!

Valentine's Day and Will's Birthday

2011-02-17T12:37:00.001-08:00

We had a very interesting Valentine's day this year. It started out normal enough. The kids were excited when they came for breakfast and found Valentine's surprises from me and from both Grandmas as well.

Sarah enjoyed smashing her chocolates more than actually eating them.

Robby came home from work on Friday a little early and said he wasn't feeling well. He got progressively worse on Saturday and Sunday and he asked me to drive him to the instacare on Monday morning. So I got the older two off to school and we drove to the Instacare. It was packed since it was Monday morning so we waited for a long time. While we were waiting Robby's cell phone rang and it was the school saying that Savannah had passed out and to please come pick her up. So I left Robby at the Instacare and ran to the school and brought Savannah back to be seen too. We finally got in and found out that Robby has the flu (the doctor called it Para Influenza) and Savannah ended up with a diagnosis of Strep Throat (after they drew her blood for testing, gave her an EKG and a chest x-ray, in addition to the throat swab) She was pretty emotional about the whole thing. She was especially upset about having to miss her Valentine's party at school. She hadn't eaten anything that morning and the doctor thought that with the combination of not eating and being sick with strep made her pass out. Luckily her teacher caught her when she passed out so she wasn't hurt and her teacher said that the other kids were occupied and no one really noticed that she passed out. I was worried that it would be traumatic for the other kids and embarrasing for Savannah, but it doesn't seem to have been a problem on either count, thank goodness. So we finally left the doctor and went to the pharmacy for more waiting while we filled two prescriptions for Robby and one for Savannah. Over three hours and $175 later we were finally on our way home. Not exactly how I planned to spend my morning, but that's how it goes some days. Luckily Sarah and Isaac were really good the whole time. I have never seen Robby so sick (and he says he has never felt this bad either). He could hardly sleep due to the congestion and coughing and he was finally able to go back to work today-nearly a week after his symptoms started. I'm just grateful I didn't get it (yet).

Sarah had been sick with a runny nose for awhile, but I already had her twelve month appointment scheduled for Tuesday so I just changed that to a sick child visit and took her in to be seen. She ended up having an infection in both ears so we have her on antibiotics as well. Luckily she is doing much better today. I think we are through the worst for all three of them.

Wednesday was Will's 7th birthday and he was so excited for the day to finally come. We had a party for him on Saturday with Sarah, but we told him he could open his gifts from us on his birthday and then we are going to go swimming as a family on Saturday. I always let the kids decide if they want to have a friend party or do something as a family and Will picked to go swimming.

So yesterday morning Will was so excited to open his gifts.
He has wanted a slingshot for a long time now and we finally got him one. I hope I don't regret that decision. Robby has talked to him about how to be safe with it.

He got a Spiderman game set from Isaac.

We only had time for a couple of gifts in the morning so he opened the rest after school.
He got a new sleeping bag and he even slept in it on his bed last night. I think he likes it!

A toy microphone from Savannah

And some glow sticks from Sarah. My kids are loving those things! Will got some from a neighbor for Christmas and now my kids want them for every party.

It has been a crazy week of parties and sickness. We are so glad that Will is part of our family. He is always a lot of fun and can always make us laugh. I can't have a birthday post without looking back over the past years to see how much he has changed.

Will-2 months old

One year old

3 years old

Will's 4th birthday party

Will turning 5

Will turning 6

And Will on Saturday

We are so glad that we have Will in our family and we are so proud of the grown up boy he has become!