A Very Special Day!

So as you all know Hadley had her 8th birthday last week. She has been eagerly awaiting this birthday because she could hardly wait to be baptized. We were able to share this day with not only 1 but 2 of her cousins. It was a beautiful day and she did amazing along with her Dad! I know that she will never forget this day!

Hadley with Mom and Dad
Grandpa Price and Grandpa Selk the witnesses to her baptism

There was a wedding reception set up in the gym at the church so we had to take a picture with the decorations!
The entire family just before the baptisms

With Dad! This is before we even got into the church! She is beaming!

August was Crazy!

Need I say more, our August has been the busiest month of the entire summer! We started with swimming lessons. This was our only session of the summer, but it was a huge success. We usually do the 2 week class, but Rawley has struggled in the past so we went with private lessons for him. It was great he passed 2 levels and is actually way more confident in the water. Hopefully this will continue the more lessons he takes. The question now is whether or not to keep him in private lessons, or try again in a group class. The girls did awesome as well. Emmy finally got to start her own lessons. After a couple of classes full of tears she warmed up to her teacher and passed her level with flying colors! Hadley did awesome as well, she is a little fish in the water! This session she learned how to dive and tread water. She is still trying to figure out the treading water technique, but with a little more practice I think she will have it down.





We also took our one and only family vacation of the year. So far they have always consisted of heading to the condo in Montana. We had a beautiful week! We couldn't have asked for better weather. We hit the water slides of course, did a fair bit of shopping, spent a day at the lake, ate more food than we should have and got to spend it with Pat's sister and her family which was great! She has all of the pictures from the trip and as soon as I can get my hands on a few of them I will be able to show all of you just how much fun we had! I just have to wait until they get home from Mexico!

Next up is Birthday time! We had a small celebration with the Grandparents which was nice. It was also nice to have Pat's parents there! The got home from their mission just in time! We all went for dinner and then back to our house for cake and presents! This was Hadley's choice for her cake.



Not perfect per say, but I was trying to make it a little more substantial than the actual idea. It was originally just cupcakes on a wooden artist palette. I made the palette out of cake!

I have also chosen to allow my kids to have a friend party every other year starting at age 6. This means that we will be having 2 friend parties this year! The only trouble with friend parties and a summer birthday is that I can never figure out when the best time is to have it. Thankfully Hadley's birthday is at the end of the summer and I don't feel all bad making her wait a couple of weeks until school is back in to celebrate it! I mean she technically already had a party! I have decided to make it smaller this year with a maximum of 5 friends. Last time it was crazy! This choice of course is for my sanity alone! Now I have to figure out how to entertain 6 eight year olds for 2 hours! Any suggestions?

Hadley is also getting baptized tomorrow! Where has the time gone! I am not sure I am ready for this, but I know she is! We are very excited to be able to watch her make this choice, we know she is ready and has been anticipating this all year long. Let's just say we have been to quite a few baptisms this year so far! More on that hopefully tomorrow, but for now I am off to bed!

The First Pony!

Addy finally has enough hair to do this


I am sad it is kind of blurry but it was the best I could get. She tends to crawl right up to the camera every time she sees it, and she is way to fast for my liking! I was lucky to get this shot at all!

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.