Everybody is Growing Up!

Isn't she darling? Grace just turned 5!!! Grace is definitely getting older and wiser, at least she thinks. I can't believe she starts kindergarten this next fall! She is full of spunk, energy, humor, compassion, and a little bit of zany. She gets excited about others' successes, and is way too smart for her size. She had a wonderful birthday with family and extended family. Lots of presents, good food and a pretty cake. I can't believe I created something this great that is made with frosting and cake. I wish I had taken a picture of the cake once we cut into it. Grace wanted a rainbow cake after I was already making a butterfly (her first request), so I asked if I could make the inside rainbow. This was good enough for her. Let's just say, some people (I won't mention who, Papa Henriod) almost couldn't eat it, just close your eyes someone said.

Our other girl, Charlotte, is growing up so much and has been for a while. Jeremy always says, "Charlotte is 10 months going on 3 years". Here she is with her first steps. I'm sure in a week she's going to have figured it all out and will be walking everywhere.



As for the rest of us growing up? Well, Tyler of course is still the apple of all of our eyes. He is starting to make improvements in his speech and will be starting speech therapy soon. Jeremy seems to be getting older, but still immature as ever (just kidding), and I look forward to my 30th here in a couple of months! I don't feel old, I'm not dreading, and I'm actually going to celebrate it by running the Wasatch Back Relay!

OUT

Are you Kidding? Is it a Sign?

Charlotte is a busybody. The other day she was playing with pots out of the cupboard and next thing I knew she was in the cupboard. I find her in all sorts of places: the toilet, face down stuck in a half-empty laundry basket, and pulling soil and leaves off our indoor plant. She is so much fun. The other kids play hide-and-seek with her. She is still a mama's girl, even though she self-weaned. She's not walking yet, but very close. She will let go and stand for a number of seconds and is walking along furniture at a good pace.

Boy, our chickens are getting big, they're starting to eat us out of house and home. No, we aren't getting eggs yet, not until around July.


I just don't know how to begin. We bought a trampoline a week and 3 days ago, really excited for the kids to enjoy their time on it. Everyone loves trampolines and encouraged us to get one. Not two hours after we had the tramp up Grace broke her leg. She is now in a purple cast that goes up to her mid-thigh for a full month. Well, this morning I woke up to a horrible thing. It has been really windy for the last 36 hours. I found our BBQ flipped over on its side and was frustrated. Well, then Grace said, "Mom, where's the trampoline?" Oh, no, I didn't even notice that the tramp wasn't there. I run outside to look for it. The wind had blown it through our fence and it is wedged against our neighbors home. It's all bent out of shape not to mention the damage that is done to our neighbor's home. I just can't believe our luck. Well, I guess we weren't supposed to have a tramp. My neighbor, who is so nice, said, "I hope you're not going to get rid of the tramp". Are you kidding me? I guess if it's unusable we don't have a choice because we can't just go out and buy a new tramp. Well, so we're out the cost of the tramp and whatever it's going to cost to fix the fence and our neighbor's house.

It's going to be a great day!

February

Meet our new chicks. You may ask, what in the world are they doing getting chicks? Ask Jeremy. This is his thing. This summer we should be getting fresh eggs. A strange new adventure. We keep catching Tyler holding the chicks, and then when he sees us he throws them back into their box. So, if we're lucky, we will have some chicks that live, despite our children, into adulthood

This was Tyler's batman cake for his third birthday, yeah for Tyler!

And for all of you that need baby updates. Here is Charlotte. She is almost 9 months and is acting like she is 14 months. I am already having to close the bathroom doors and toilet lids. She is busy, boy is it fun!

Happy Halloween

I wish you could see this top one a little bit closer, it is just amazing!

Isn't my mom amazing. The previous three halloween hangings were made by my mom. We have so much fun picking out fabrics and scary halloween faces. I love having my mom's handiwork on my walls.

Our Halloween family. Grace was a butterfly, Tyler a knight, Charlotte a lobster, and I was a seagull. The seagull costume was once used in the days of 47 parade in SLC. Tyler was a knight with all the gear, but by the end of trick-or-treating he didn't have is sword or is shield.

Charlotte and her favorite auntie.

Hats and Spiders

Tyler is so great! He is all boy now. He loves hats, which I see as a blessing since he is a red head with fair skin and freckles. So, all summer long he wore a hat and it was great not to have to worry about the sun as much. He has 2 hats now and you almost will never see him without one on. The one in this picture is a monster hat or reptile hat that has eyes. Just perfect for him.

Seeing spiders around this holiday season reminded me of Tyler last Spring. Tyler thought that anything like a piece of thread or a small dark feather on the ground was a spider. We had more entertainment with trying to scare him with a piece of fuzz. He would be very wary of it, not want to get near it, or just try jumping and stepping on it over and over again. Then we would blow the fuzz toward him and he would flip out again. Mind you he never cried or anything, it was just kind of silly.
Now we have a large fake spider for Halloween, and though he knows it is fake I can still get him jumping away from it.

Bike Riding

Last April Grace got a bike for her birthday and immediately became an expert. We don't have a great driveway or backyard for riding bikes, but with help I can take her on a good bike ride along the golfcourse where there is a really wide sidewalk and flat. A little while ago we went out so Grace could ride. She was showing her pro abilities: swirving along back and forth, no hands, and no legs, and riding while standing up. We were coming up on some people that were also walking in the same direction, but slower. Grace was quite a ways ahead of us, so it was hard to get her attention. She slowed down and was just kind of biding her time, when all of the sudden we hear her bike bell ring, "ding".... and she's off it got the attention of the people, who then of course moved over. She then bent down in cruising mode, and passed right on by, without even waving. I guess she's been in a car enough to know the rules of driving! Gotta love her!

May the force be with you

So, we just let our kids watch Star Wars for the first time, I don't know if I'm okay with this, still. Anyway, the other morning we woke up to lots of rain and then looked out our window to find that we were in a big cloud. Grace went up to the window and with her hands held up she tried to push the clouds away with her mind, and then said, "oh, it didn't work". She was trying to use the force, I got a kick out of that! I guess we might have to get a light saber for Tyler for Christmas. I was just laughing and remembering that I used to think that it was a light saver. Then Jeremy said, "Well, at least you didn't always think that line dancing was "lion dancing". Yeah, Jeff at least I didn't!