She's Eight!

I am still struggling with the fact that I now have an eight year old! It still feels like she is just a little girl. This year also means so many different things! She is getting baptized on Saturday with her cousin Mallory, she will start attending Activity Days ( this I am excited for since that is my current calling), and she will start Grade 3 in less than a week! She has grown into a wonderful girl, and even though we have our moments I am very grateful for the sweet, loving, and helpful daughter that she is.

10 months already?

Really I am still in shock that she is 10 months old. I can't believe that she is growing up so quickly. We have loved watching her grow into her own little person.

Here are some of the things she is doing lately.
She has learned how to wave.
She is quite the dancer with or without music.
She is a great sleeper.
She is very stubborn and weened herself just after she turned 9 months. (I am still a little sad about this)
She can't be too far from her sister's and brother, which can cause a little drama. This means that they are sent to the basement and she hangs on the gate and yells at them.
She loves the water but it has to be warm. This means she stays far away from the kiddie pool in the backyard when we are out playing in it.
She has started to laugh at the things the kids do, like when they fall over in front of her or jump up and down.
She is very outgoing, strangers don't bother her at all, and if you hold her she is your best friend. Just make sure that I am far, far away!
She is definitely a mama's girl.

I had to confine her to her exersaucer while I was cooking dinner, but I managed to snap a couple of pictures on her 10 month birthday!

Where did the Summer Go?

That is the question that I find I am asking myself constantly these days! It is officially half over and I don't think that I am ready for it! But then again I am not enjoying the fighting that seems to be going on in our home everyday! I have a feeling that August will be a blur, swimming lessons start tomorrow! A week of vacation once they end and a Birthday to celebrate at the end of the month, all before school starts again on the 30th!

We have a a busy couple of weeks and that is what I am using as my reason for neglecting the blog. First I want to mention that this summer Rawley learned to ride on 2 wheels, and it only took him a day to figure it out. Now I can hardly keep up, but we are really taking advantage of getting out on our bikes as much as we can. I have also started letting the older two ride alone around our crescent. They think it is the best thing ever!!

We also had some great visits from 2 different families we got to know pretty well when we lived in Kentucky. The Roundy's stopped in on their way to Alaska, and the Judi's stopped in 2 weeks later heading back to the States from Alaska! We had great visits with both of them! It was fun to see how their families have grown and to catch up! Of course the camera never made an appearance for either visit!

Pat left me at home for the weekend and went to Montreal, apparently it is a pretty cool place and now on our list of places to visit together. He was also able to squeeze in a quick visit with his parents who are in Ontario serving a mission for our church.

We have also done a couple of trips to Calgary, and today we finally got out to Waterton. We haven't been there since we moved back 4 years ago! Hopefully this will be a place we get to more often in the future! Even if we are only going for a couple of hours! We couldn't stop saying how much the town site had changed, so much is different now. The camera did make it on this trip! Here are a few pictures of our adventure today!







There were so many deer this trip! Everywhere we looked there were more! The kids loved pointing them out! Even Addy would squeal with delight every time she saw one! We had a fabulous day and left just in time to avoid the storm that came through!

Time to Play Catch Up!

I feel like more and more my days are filling up with things, which puts updating this blog on the back burner. So today I decided to multi-task and try and get a post done while watching TV. I probably could do without watching TV, but I just can't for some reason! So where to begin? That is the question. I will start with the last day of school for Rawley. Kindergarten ended a few days before the rest of school with a picnic for all of the kids and their families where the Teachers handed out the diplomas for all of the kids. Here is Rawley on the last day of school.

Wow he looks so different from the first day. He had a wonderful Teacher this year, we are going to miss her for sure.


The next day was Emmy's 3rd Birthday! I can't believe it! We celebrated with family and it was nice to have everyone there for it! Here is the cake and some pictures of the party!

My first try with fondant! I think it turned out alright!




We also had a spur of the moment trip to the Zoo. These trips are so much fun! It was nice to surprise the kids with a fun day!

Hadley's class spent Monday on a picnic and then Tuesday was the last day of school. It seemed so far away back in September! Her teacher this year was wonderful as well! Let's hope they get some great teachers next year as well!


Next up Canada Day! We always spend the day with my Dad and step mom. We watched the parade, ate good food, spent some time at the pool, and visited with family.

I think this was the cutest moment of the Parade! Emmy and Jonas

The mosquito's ate us alive, but we got a nice picture of everyone.

And finally Addy is 9 months old! What a girl! She is constantly changing, laughing all of the time, getting into so much trouble, putting everything in her mouth, and climbing all over the place! I wish she would stop growing up! This is not the best picture, but it was kind of last minute! That's what happens when you have church at 1pm.


Whew! That was a long one! Hope you survived if you read the entire thing! So much more to look forward too this summer. Let's hope it doesn't go by as quickly as the school year did.

This post is long overdue!

I just wanted to let everyone know that I have officially finished my first 8K race! It was this past Saturday! I have been training for this one since my very first race back in March and I think that it paid off! The day was beautiful! Not to warm and not a breath of wind! The adrenaline started to flow as we were waiting for the gun start and then we were off! I did this race with my friends Ada and Nicki who also ran the first one with me. I had hoped to finish in under and hour and when the official times were posted I was thrilled to see 52 minutes 45 seconds! I was also thrilled to see my sweet family cheering me on at the finish line! Thanks you guys! I will hopefully add a picture to this post in the near future, but I have to wait for a copy from Nicki!

Kids Lately!

As the school year winds down there is so much going on with Hadley and Rawley. Between field trips, swimming, home projects, etc you get the idea. So far this month we have already celebrated Hadley's Un-Birthday with these




and built this boat for Science



we will have to wait and see how it holds up to all of the tests they are planning to put it through! All I know is it floats and that is a big part of it!


This is only the beginning, tomorrow Rawley has his Father's Day celebration, and next week a trip to the farm. Hopefully I will tag along for that one, because I think that Emmy would have a blast! And I still have to get the Teachers gifts ready! Looks like June will be a big blur, but we will have some fun things to remember about it! For now though I will get back to reading The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner. You can read it for free until July 5th here.

8 Months!!!

Here she is in all her glory! Only crawling for a couple of weeks and she is already so fast! I have to hold her while I sweep the floor otherwise she is trying to eat everything I have swept up! It is amazing how much she has changed! Solid foods more often, trying to get her to nurse is a nightmare. I am lucky if she eats for 4 minutes total at anytime other than first thing in the morning, so I have been supplementing her with formula. Thank goodness she doesn't care one way or the other in that regard. She is quickly growing out of all her clothes. Right now she is wearing 12 month sized clothes. Not sure on height or weight since we don't see the Dr. for another month. She is still sleeping amazingly well. At least 8 hours straight through the night and sometimes 12. She is such a happy girl, and I love that she is so easy going! I am finding it hard to think that in 4 short months she will be 1!