January Flies By - Welcome 2011

Well - January has been great and thankfully quick. We have done more around home than usual - and it has been good to be low key. We have gone skiing a couple of times, and Cute Graham got the croup (he sounded so bad, poor little guy!). But, all in all, it has just been a uneventful, easy January. Chad and I are both playing basketball for the ward. The kids seem to have days off from school constantly! And, the weather glimmers warm enough now and then that Kate takes a little bike ride (she LOVES riding her bike). Everyone is good. Our biggest news is that Graham is now 11 months old! I can't believe he is almost a year old. He won't crawl, but gets around without it. Mostly in a modified sitting position. It is pretty funny to watch. What a cutie. Our family will start getting a little more exciting as the weather warms, I am sure. Right now we are just in "training". Happy 2011!

December is a blast!

Well, we are winding up the Holiday season, and we have been having a ton of fun! Carson's teacher gave her class a "recipe" book with lots of fun things to try. The biggest hit at our house was snow paint - food color and water in a spray bottle. We had a couple of days of fun with that - and it seemed all ages liked it. Here are Carson and his friends in their snow spiral - enhanced with snow paint. What a fun idea!


It was our cute Graham's first Christmas. Since he was almost 10 months old on Christmas day, we were mostly expecting him to enjoy ripping the paper off of the presents. The other kids were so excited for him to open his presents from them. It was hard to give him enough space to do the work without all of his sibling helpers getting in the way. It was cute to watch him, but he tired out early and had to have a nap. The rest of us enjoyed the feeling of giving for a long time on Christmas morning.

Well, the fun didn't stop with Christmas day - Brett and Marianne's family introduced us to Trafalga Lehi - and we loved the enormous laser tag arena and the fun climbing wall. What a fun day!

We also finally made it to Incredible Pizza - even though it is only a short distance from our house. The kids had a blast!!!! What a fun place. We rode everything until the parents were too tired. Well, it has been a fun holiday season!

Dreamy Fall Days

Fall is so much fun. Here are the kids Halloween Party pics. Kate loved being a princess and sang fun songs for the moms at her party. Audrey and her teacher had were doing an impromptu ho-down together during her party. And Carson was a spooky vampire this year.

Shortly after these pictures were taken, we hopped on a plane and flew to Texas to spend the weekend. We haven't been back to visit my family there for about 3 1/2 years, so it was quite an adventure for all of us!

We spent some time with my sister's family at Sea World San Antonio. It was a beautiful fall day - and hardly any other visitors, so it was perfect. We got everyone that could on the Steel Eel - one of the best regular rollercoasters I've been on. Here are Josh and Julie up front, Chad in the back, and shorter kids on the other seats. We rode the rides and saw shows until the park closed late that night. The main feature for Audrey was being able to feed the dolphins. What a dream come true and they were eating out of her hands.

Another highlight of Texas was the beach. We played there for a few hours on Saturday and then again on Monday. What fun to be enjoying the beach when the Utah world was receiving cold wind and rain. The rest of our time there was spent with family and yummy meals and we are so grateful the Weatherstons for hosting us!

Here are Audrey and Carson at a BYU game. They had fun getting their face painted and getting handouts at the pre-game tailgate party. What a fun day. In November, my ward volleyball team had fun competing in the regional tournament. We made it to the second phase before losing in a single elimination tourney. Fun.
My mom came to visit for a week at the end of the month - and it was wonderful. She taught Audrey how to sew on my machine and Audrey made a quilt. What a neat project for them to do together. The other kids loved having Nanna around as well.

Thanksgiving. Yum, yum! We filled the gym with Iversons - and enjoyed a yummy meal. Then afterwards, we played a little basketball. We had a blast trying to remember how to shoot. It was fun to work off a little of the calories of the day. The next day - Black Friday - my first experience. I have always stayed away - but I gave it a try. It was definitely an education. Looking back, it makes me laugh, but getting 2 hours of sleep, standing in line by myself for 1 1/2 hours and not getting my top item stand out as deterrents from going next year.

So, who is the cutest baby in the universe? Our entire house is sure that it is Graham. He is so adorable. He got sick a couple of times this month, and seems to be teething yet again. (he already has seven!) But despite all that, he still wants to smile and play. He has just turned 9 months old and is Mr. Personality. Anyway - we love that cute little guy!

Beautiful Fall Fun

This has been a gorgeous October - and we have LOVED it. Fall brings football, and this has been our first experience watching our boy Carson play a little flag football under the lights. Here we are during his last game of the season. Go Cowboys! It has been nice to enjoy a slower pace in the day time, and be out and doing something every night with the oldest two kid's sports.

We had a fun weekend with Nicole and her girls in town from California! We celebrated the UEA break at Grandma's house with her and many of the cousins and sisters/sisters-in-law. It was really fun to see Lauren again. She and Graham are only a couple months apart. While we were together, we played at a park and enjoyed the Davis High School Soccer Playoffs. Here are Kate and Romy at the park.

We went on a perfect fall hike up to Red Pine Lake in Little Cottonwood Canyon. It was fun to be out in the gorgeous fall weather and be in the middle of the beautiful fall colors. I feel so enriched when I look back on these pictures.

Okay - a little fun. We took a couple friends and headed out to a pumpkin patch last week. What fun to do the corn maze, "ride" the tractors and pick the perfect pumpkin. Here are Audrey and her friend Rylee. Fall is great!

The First Grade Heaven for Moms

Whew! School is back in session and we are all having a breather. With a new first grader, I now have two kids in school full time. Not only are we getting more individual space during school time, we moved into our newly completed basement this month as well! Audrey and Carson are both downstairs, our whole house is reorganized and the garage is finally cleaned out so Chad's car can go back in. We also re-painted the master bedroom, master bath and new "spare" room. It is like we have a whole new house. And, Kate isn't sleep deprived anymore from trying to keep up with Audrey's schedule. We are all a little more calm now. We don't have the cool flat screen TV and cozy couch set - but look at all the space in our new family room!

I have been "patiently" waiting to redo the kitchen - and I am so excited to finally have it done! With a little bit of money, tools borrowed from friends, tons of painting and lots of questions at Home Depot - we have a great before and after story for our kitchen. I am so pleased with how it turned out.

Okay - here is what the kids were up to:

Audrey's been playing soccer.

Carson is learning flag football.

Kate has started ballet (and learned to ride a bike without training wheels!)

It has been quite an athletic month.

Graham turned 7 months old at the end of September, and he has really taken to eating solids. He wants what we are having, and so I have started giving him waffles for breakfast every morning. He is a cute kid - lots of teeth and more on the way. He still loves attention and is starting to sit up for longer amounts of times.

Chad is training for a marathon - it is this weekend - so more details later.

Summer Goes Out with a Bang

Well, we definitely had a blast this summer. It is so fun to look back at the August pics and remember all of the fun summer days. Here are our highlights of August: Friends over, Crazy day trips, Iverson Campout, Audrey's birthday party, and the crazy rain storm.

Chad had his official 20 year reunion in June, but the festivities continue. We had a group of about 6 families over again in August, and it was fun to catch up. The men loved talking high school/BYU antics while the women talked of everything else.

We have also had the Porras family come stay with us a couple of days and a former mission companion and his family over for the evening. It has really been a summer of reconnecting.

Crazy day trips - you said it.
We went to Odgen to the Children's Treehouse Museum. This was awesome! We played most of the day. We would still be there, except Grandma promised Audrey something on our way home! We have loved bringing friends along on our adventures, and it has been fun to share the places with them. We also went to Price, UT to visit the Dinosaur Museum and check out the Cleveland Lloyd Quarry. The kids have been begging for 3 years to make the trip, and it was very interesting to see.

The Iverson Campout at Bear Lake - WOW! What a fun time with so many fun people. And, we were almost constantly doing a fun activity. There were four wheelers to ride, beaches to play at, marshmallow shooting, crafts, and a family triathlon. Good times, ya'll.

For the last two years, Audrey's birthday has been depressingly cold (September 3 shouldn't be cold!). Audrey decided that she wanted a summer birthday party, so we celebrated the last week before school starts. We planned a pool party and fun. Unfortunately, August 18th turned stormy, windy, rainy, lightning-y, and cold just as we were gathering for the party. With a quick change of plans, we partied at In-n-out Burger until the storm blew over and the pool reopened. Audrey was flexible and it all turned out okay. It is crazy that she is now 9 years old! Chad keeps worrying that half of her first 18 years are already over!

The Crazy Rain storm. This was crazy. We were out for a peaceful bike ride at the Jordan River Trail, as you can see on the right. We saw the black storm coming and started packing up. By the time I finished getting the bikes on, buckets were falling on me. Since our bike ride was shortened, we decided to drive around and watch the rain. I should have taken pictures, because this was a once-in-a lifetime rain. The streets turned into white water rivers roaring down the hill, the storm water collecting parks had fountains of water shooting out 10 feet high, lakes were formed in yards, streets, everywhere. I guess Draper broke the state record for the most rainfall in 10 minutes and then 15 minutes. I think the heavy rain continued for about 40 minutes followed by slightly less heavy rain. We had such a blast! The best part was playing in the Cranberry Hill Park "Lake" 10 hours later and seeing all the park wood chips 50 yards away from the playground, where they had floated during the worst of the storm. Cool!

Our cute Graham is now 6 months old! How has a full half year passed by already. We are so blessed to have him. He just got two teeth, and he is so social, he doesn't want the party to stop. He is having a harder time falling asleep and doesn't ever want to be put down. His smiles are so worth any effort he requires, though.

Having the Brightest July

We have been out doing so many things! I don't think we could have packed anything else in and stayed sane (but maybe we're not?).

Once again, here are the highlights of the month: The Fourth of July, Swimming lessons, Lagoon and Chad's birthday.

On July 4th, the kids ran in a 1K kids' race - then they rode their bikes in the neighborhood bike parade, then we joined with Brad's family at Mona Lake for a little swimming and boating. We helped the kids complete their first triathlon! Just kidding, but it is funny that we did all three events in one day!

July has been swimming lessons for the kids. I always see so much progress, it is fun to watch. Audrey's class was learning to do the strokes well enough to do laps in the pool. It was challenging, but she learned a lot. Carson class was learning more about the strokes. Whenever he could, he would do the back float, which he loves. Kate loves to jump in and then "swim". She motors around the pool, face in the water and "swims".

Lagoon was a great adventure, as always. We arrived as it opened and stayed until close - and then bounced back the next Saturday! The kids and Chad did all the big rides they could, Kate did every thing she could - and even rode them alone at times. I did the Rattlesnake Rapids, Wicked and Rocket for the first time this year. Favorites this year: Audrey - Wicked, Carson - Colossus, Kate - Tidal Wave and Dinosaur Drop, Graham - Train and Carousel. Fun, Fun, Fun!

July is Chad's birthday - and as Kate describes it - it was a "short party". He considers Lagoon his actual party. So was fun to celebrate Chad for an entire week.

We can't believe school will start soon, and we only have a few more weeks to finish off our kid requests. One thing new this summer is our Park Adventures. I have a list of parks we have never been to before, and we drive to them, play a little and search for new amazing parks. We have actually found a few treasures!

Here is our 5 month old! Can you believe how big he is getting? He has started rolling, sitting up (with his hands supporting him), and wanting to walk while you hold his hands. He still is a champion smiler and makes friends with everyone! He doesn't mind if I leave him with new people and is always so pleasant people comment on his cheery disposition. We love this little Graham!

By the way . . . . our basement is almost finished - we hope to move everyone in soon!