Making Memories in May

Well - this month has been great. Of course, really busy, but fun as well. Graham is now three months old - and is a very social member of our family. Every one loves being around him because of his easy smiles, giggles and baby babble. Graham LOVES being the center of attention - so it works very well. He remains very calm and peaceful most of the day - content to wait for us to get around to him. I want some of his inner peace and serenity! It is inspiring.

Carson has finished Kindergarten! What an exciting event for him and for me. I am looking forward to the longer first grade schedule, but, I am feeling some sadness about losing the one-on-one time we have had this year. He excels at school and has a thirst for learning new things. He still loves to give me big hugs and loves to play with my hair. He is such a good big brother to Graham. Go Carson!

Kate finished Three Year Old Preschool and feels even more grown up than ever. She still sings "I'm a Big Girl After All" whenever she swings and pumps herself. She loves her friends and her "chicken nugget" her stuffed rabbit. She is cute, but she refuses to let us call her cute. She has been my little friend as I did errands all year - and she is actually a pleasure to take with me. What a sweet heart!

Audrey - what a beautiful young lady! This is her dance recital night - and it was just beautiful. She is growing up - and doing lots of new things. She has just started doing tumbling at a gym - she really wants to do the skills other girls her age can do. Her soccer season was undefeated and I am not sure who is more proud of that, her or her coach dad. She loves school and has finally started reading more advanced books for fun - she is on book three of Harry Potter. Previously, she was too busy planning and creating to take the time to read, though she has always read well. My they grow up fast!

This year we visited Dinosaur National Monument for Memorial Day weekend and saw the dinosaur bones there. We were interested in seeing actual rocks and fossils from dinosaur times, and we loved hiking, camping and hanging out together. Camping with kids is such a fun thing - they love the campfires, s'mores, sleeping in tents and sleeping bags. The weather was actually pretty good - no rain! We had a great time - it has been a fun tradition to do a camping trip for Memorial Day weekend for 5 years now.

April has been very eventful - Spring Break and Easter, Soccer, Carson's Birthday and Graham's blessing. It has been very fun to capture these cute kids enjoying themselves!

Princess Audrey kissed a frog at the Aquarium during spring break. Unfortunately, no prince materialized.

Here are the girls in the dresses I made for them for Easter. It has become a yearly tradition, and it is a fun reason to be creative!

Easter morning - Kate is "opening" her Easter basket! You can't see it, but the ground is covered in snow. What a crazy time for a big snow storm. The Easter bunny left the egg hunt inside, thank goodness.

Happy Birthday, Carson!!! He is now 6 years old. Since he has taken off with reading chapter books, he has really enjoyed the Magic Tree House Series.

He had just finished reading all 43 books and 22 research guides, so naturally, he chose the Magic Tree House as his theme for his birthday party.

Here is his birthday cake and his "tree house" for the party. We had fun using "magic" to be transported to many different lands and do tasks at each one. This was a fun party to plan!

So, Graham just had his baby blessing by his dad on Sunday - and it was awesome. Grandma King made his blessing clothes, and then re-made them because I ruined them. But it all turned out well. It was a very neat day. We had a fun family dinner after church and we really appreciated the support of family.

Speaking of Graham and his milestones - he just turned 2 months old!!! We are surprised with how quickly he is growing. He is a little man now, and fun to play with and make smile.

Our Life with Graham

Our cute little boy is one month old now! It has been a wonderful month - and we have loved having him in our life. Audrey yells "Grahammy" whenever she sees him. Carson has played peek-a-boo and talks sweetly with him. And Kate, well her favorite thing to do is be compared to him - because it always goes like this - "let's see who is bigger, Kate or Graham? Look how big you are Kate! You are all grown up!" She LOVES being the BIG sister!

Here is Carson on St. Patricks' Day - I was going to take a picture of the girls in matching shirts, but Carson took center stage. This is his mischievous look, which he sports often when the girls are doing anything together - and not including him. He is going to love it when Graham is older.

We did an Easter egg hunt at our neighborhood park. The kids loved getting a kick start on Easter - and meeting the Easter Bunny was a fun extra. Soccer has started as well, so our Saturdays just got a lot busier!

Here is Audrey in her Spring Hat! She made this hat for her school Spring Program - and is has been very exciting to get ready for it. I am just being introduced to this tradition in our school - but it is pretty elaborate. The kids also made Easter Baskets and prepared a singing and dancing event. The girls started by being escorted by a boy, choreographed to music and their names were announced as they entered the room. "Audrey Iverson escorted by Henry Lawson". Audrey shone as she sang and danced. She really knows how to look excited and energetic. It was a pleasure to watch.

Well - today is the first day of spring break - and the kids built a snowman in all of the snow we are receiving. Spring weather is fickle. We are enjoying the weather humor.

Anouncing the Birth of Graham Jonathan Iverson

Well, Graham was a little stubborn and wasn't ready to come until the day I was induced - so his birthday is February 27th at 4:10 pm. He weighed in at 7 lbs 12 oz - two pounds lighter than Carson and a pound lighter than Kate (our smallest until Graham). I was very relieved, because large babies are much harder to birth!

The epidural was a little crazy, but otherwise - it was a good day waiting at the hospital for Graham to be born.

He is such a little miracle! I really enjoyed being there and seeing a new person born -

one who LIVED INSIDE OF ME! It is amazing how it happens. What a little miracle. He is healthy and a sweet little guy. The kids love him. We have loved being together at home this last week and a half.

What a neat thing! We are glad to have Graham here.

Oh, What do you do in the Wintertime?

It has been a little bit of a challenge to find activities this winter to do as a family. It seems like the kids need to run off energy - but we don't always have good ideas. However, here are a few things we have tried.

On the left, Carson and Audrey are hanging out in the dome theatre in Clarke Planetarium. This was a good trip because everyone enjoyed the free exhibits and it was a good change of pace. The show we saw was not free - but, we have never done a show in the dome, and Audrey was so impressed!! Kate was not, she was freaked out and it took a lot of persuasion to keep her in the room with us.

The weather has actually been fairly mild, and so here we are taking a walk on the trail that runs parallel to our street and house. We always call it the spooky woods because of all the trees there, but it is a lot less spooky now that they built a running trail there last summer. It was wonderful to see the kids run and run and enjoy being outside.

We took a trip to BYU to their Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum. It had been a little while - so everyone was pretty excited to see the animals there. Chad and I had a good chuckle over the placement of the grizzly bear. They moved him into the Yellowstone National Park exhibit, and he faces the back wall, so even though you have to walk around him, you don't know what it is until you turn and face him in those close quarters. The kids had already commented that they wondered where he had gone to . . . and when we spotted him we pointed him out. They all looked up, and up, and up and up till they saw his face. Then Kate let out a shriek of terror and all of the kids ran out of the room. The rest of the visit Chad spent daring the kids to go back and visit him. I guess it didn't matter that he was dead, stuffed and behind glass - he was still pretty frightening to them.


Well, one of our most recent attempts at "getting out" together was a family kick-ball game at the church gym. We had fun playing together - parents versus kids, and as long as the kids were winning, there were no tears. We did have fun - and it might be worth a rematch before the end of the winter.

Our next adventure will be the birth of our little son this week! He isn't due until next week, but I will be induced on Saturday, February 27th if he doesn't find his way out before then. We will keep you posted - we are very excited!

Welcoming 2010

We had our own family celebration to welcome the New Year, complete with confetti poppers, horns and handmade hats. The kids loved it, and it was fun to all play games together leading up to our celebration. The kids are all getting quite good at Uno. Even Kate knows how to play and frequently beats everyone else out! It is wonderful to start a new decade with our family. Chad and I welcomed in the start of 2000 as newlyweds on our honeymoon. Now look at us 10 years later with a growing family. I can't even image how old everyone will be in 2020! We will be a house of teenagers. I get ahead of myself. It is good to remember how special today is and enjoy what we have today.

On New Years' Day, we met up with Brad and Melissa's family and shot rockets and went sledding. The kids all had a blast, I enjoyed watching - a little too pregnant to enjoy the crazy journey down the hill. It was a great day.

Our next adventure was bowling together. The kids all did better than me, and Kate had the highest score. It is helpful that the gutter guards were up and she had the bowling contraption that little kids can just roll their ball down. What a fun family activity.

Our other activities this month included watching all three Jurassic Park movies (Kate would go play in her room, but the older two were spell-bound), and helping Audrey recover from a combo bacterial pneumonia/walking pneumonia. It took 8 straight days of high fever and a continuous dry hacking cough, 3 antibiotics and 3 doctor visits to finally get her healing. We are glad to see her healthy again.

While I have been very tired and sore from being pregnant, I feel tons better this week. Overall, it seems harder on my body this time around. I have had to learn to say "No" and let things go that I normally accomplish. Kate and I even had a nap together after trying to go to the Aquarium together and finding I was too tired to enjoy being there with her. It was pretty sweet to both curl up in my bed and fall asleep together. I am feeling more energy this week and Carson and I made the trip to the Aquarium on Monday together. It was much more enjoyable and here he is in front of the tetra tank.

Chad and the older two kids have had some great skiing this month, and both kids are passing me up. By the time I hit the slopes again, they will be teaching me! It is a pleasure to see them learn and grow. It is some of my greatest joys.

December and Family Fun

The kids have gone skiing 3 times in December - and they are getting pretty good. Audrey gives Chad a run for his money - and Carson is starting to find his skiing legs. This has been a fun activity for Chad and the kids.

Audrey had a ballet class demonstration in December. It was fun to see her showing off the ballet skills she has been learning. She is very confident and it was fun to watch.

Because it has been so cold in December, we have found ourselves playing inside a lot.

Here is train world that we made one morning. On other days, we have built Dinosaur World, CARS world, and Hot Wheels world. It has been fun to play along with the kids using their toys. It has also been my goal to focus more on them now that I have more "spare time".


Carson finished his learning to read book, and it suggested 100 additional reading books to try, so, he skipped to suggestion 100 and started reading the Tree House Series (several levels above him). The amazing thing is that he is enjoying it and is very persistent. We have a new reader!!!! His kindergarten teacher will be very surprised next time she hears him reading.

Our family went to Dimple Dell Rec Center for a Christmas Eve swim. It was very fun to play with the kids, and they are all getting to be swimmers, which is a different sort of swimming experience. It was a fun day.

Christmas morning, wow! What a neat thing with little kids. They get so excited about everything. We sure are in a wonderful time of life.

Christmas was wonderful, and I think we all truely felt the miracle of the birth of the Savior this year. We are so blessed.