It's Great To Be 8!

Can you believe we have an 8 year old in the house?  That's right, Emily turned 8 years old this week!  She is growing up too fast and what a beautiful girl she is becoming:

For her birthday she just wanted to spent time as a family this year. We didn't plan a big birthday party because all she really wanted to do was go out to eat as a family.  That was fine with us so that's what we did.

Emily is a wonderful girl.  She is very tenderhearted and always puts others needs before her own.  She is always wanting to help with the brothers and sister and is like a little mom.  Sometimes I have to remind her to be a kid and not a mom.  Emily loved playing the piano and reading.  She is doing very well in school and loves going to school each day and learning.  She loves playing "school" at home and being the teacher.  Emily says she wants to be a teacher when she grows up.  She also likes to ride her bike and play pretend.

On the morning of her birthday she was woke up by her brothers and dad yelling "Happy Birthday!" to her and jumping on her.  Though this was not the wake up call she probably wanted, she was excited for it to be her birthday. 

Her first present of the day was of course new birthday clothes for her and Kit.  She loved them.  While she was at school we made Emily's birthday cake.  Since we didn't have a theme birthday party, I decided to just do an 8 shaped cake for her 8th birthday.  On the little round cake I wrote "It's Great to Be..." and then the big 8 cake next to it for "It's Great to Be 8!"

Emily loved it when she saw it when she got home from school.  While at school, her class wrote her special notes for her birthday and her teacher bound them in a special birthday book.  We also went to school during the last half hour and read a birthday story to Emily's class and also told them a little bit about Emily.  She loved being the center of attention.  It was also nice for us to meet her teacher and her class.

After school we opened presents:

Because Emily will be getting baptized soon, she all of her presents were baptism or church related.  She was so excited to get new scriptures with the Bible in it.  We got her a Quad and had her name engraved on it.  She was surprised to see her name on the scriptures and kept asking us where we found scriptures with her name on them.  We told her that we saw them at the store with her name and knew they were just the ones for her.  She also got a new scripture case, marking pencils and a book mark.  She also got a baptism book to record all of her feelings and events of the day on her Baptism Day.  She cannot wait to be baptized.  She keeps telling us it will be the best day of her life.

After she opened her presents, it was time to go to the Mountain Crest Homecoming Parade.  Emily was in the parade with her CCLT team.  She had fun riding on the float with her friends.

While at the parade, the boys collected so much parade candy.  Everyone was chucking handfuls of candy at them and they were gladly picking it up.  We came home with so much candy we filled a gallon Ziploc bag full!

When the parade was over, we headed to Emily's favorite place to eat, Pizza Pie Cafe.  The kids love this place because they can eat as much pizza as they want.  They really like the dessert pizzas the best.  

When we got home it was time for cake and ice cream:

Emily said the cake tasted so good.  She was also very excited about the Huckleberry ice cream we found at the store because it is her favorite at Gossners.

Happy 8th Birthday, Emily!! We love you so much!

First Bath

After two weeks, Charlotte's umbilical cord scab fell off and she was able to have her first real bath.  She was not sure what to think about this bath.  She is not a fan of having her clothes off (which I guess is a good thing because she likes to be modest).  Anytime we change her clothes or put lotion on her she just cries.  Mostly I think she doesn't like getting out of her warm cocoon and gets cold.  So her first bath was interesting.  She was okay for the first little bit.  I even got a little bit of a smile on camera.  Then I had to work quickly to get the bath over with because she was starting to get really scared and sad.  

Once we got out of the bath and wrapped up in the towel to dry off, life was better.  She loves being wrapped up especially having her head covered.  First bath done...and it was overall a success.  

Disney Piano Recital

 Emily started taking private piano lessons in August.  Her teacher is our neighbor, Rowena Bunce.  Emily loves playing the piano and has been really good at practicing so far...  

Her first recital was tonight and she did a great job!  The theme of this recital was "Disney."  Each student performed one song from a Disney movie.  There were some pretty talented kids in this recital.  Emily played "With a Smile and a Song" from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. 

Emily did a great job and didn't seem nervous at all!  She just got right up there and played her song like a pro.  

Here Emily is with her piano teacher, Sister Bunce.

After the recital we had Oreo cookies shaped like Mickey Mouse heads.  They were so cute and very good! 

Good Job, Emily and all of the other students!

No Training Wheels

The annual Bike Rodeo at Canyon Elementary was on September 19th.  Emily is on the Canyon Colt Leadership Team (CCLT) so she was in charge of helping out with the rodeo.

The Funnest Bike Rodeo in Cache Valley is at Canyon Colt Elementary. Logan was so excited to go this year on his own bike. Last year he took his red motorcycle and had fun, but this year was even better because he had his big boy bike. The two boys had a great time at each station learning about helmet safety, how to look both ways before crossing the road, trying to staying the line course and there was cones to go in and out of. Logan was the funnest to watch when it came to stopping and going around the cones. He was in his own world just there to ride his bike. As for Colby he was funny also. He was so serious about each course. He did a good job listening and learning. This rodeo was so much fun. Every one who is reading this is wondering what about Emily? Don't worry I did not forget her. She had a great opportunity in being part of the behind the scenes work and being in charge of one of the courses. She was in charge of helmet safety and making sure each kid had their helmet fit right and was on right. Emily had a great time with the Canyon Colt Leadership Team she has learned a lot about how to be responsible. The above picture was a race to see how fast you can go before the stop sign and they had to stop. Some of the boys were able to stop while other just skidded right through the Stop sign. Fun time to watch this age group and bring back fun memories of my younger years on a bike. 

A few days after the rodeo, Emily and Colby wanted to start riding their bikes home after school. One day I told them I would bring them up just before school got out. Logan and I loaded up the two bikes in the truck and off we went to the school. As we were unloading the bikes out of the truck, I had a funny thought. I decided to try and see where Logan was at on riding a bike without training wheels. My first thought was he was just going to get on and fall over just as he sat on the seat and began to pedal. Boy was I mistaken. I put him on Colby's bike and held onto the seat and said to Logan start pedaling and he did and I let go for a minute to see what he would do and off he went straight ahead about 40 or so feet by himself. Holy cow I thought, the first time he rode a bike with out training wheels he was off on his own riding that far. So we did this about three more times before we got to the bike rack, and he got better every time he got on and rode. I wish I had a picture of his face when he was riding on his own. He was so excited and proud of himself. I was also a proud Dad that day also. We both drove as fast as we could home to show Mom what his new accomplishment was. We practiced for about another hour and headed up the road to get Emily and Colby. Logan had to show off to his to siblings. The sad thing about being in Cache Valley is once he got good at this the snow fell and now the bikes are put away. We will see how many cobwebs we need to get out of his head come next Spring.

Before I was a Dad, I would sometimes think I cannot wait to teach my kids to ride with out any training wheels. I remember how excited my dad was to teach me and I wanted that same excitement and memory. Emily and Colby were both naturals and caught on quick to ride with no training wheels, but I will have to say Logan beat them both. Sorry Emily and Colby I am not playing favorite, but your brother took off on his first time on a bike and I was not expecting that to happen. He was on his own with just some minor helps on teaching him how to balance and push off and start to pedal. This part took some time, but he soon got it and now he is officially a big boy on a big boy bike. What a day for this Dad. I had a lot of fun teaching him.

Way to go, Logan!  Pretty good for a 3 year old kid.  Logan loves practicing riding his bike now and feels as big as the other kids.

First Weeks

The first few weeks of a baby's life is pretty chill.  (For the baby anyway...)  All she has to do is eat and sleep and poop!  Charlotte has been doing these things like a champ!  In fact by her recent two week doctor appointment she had already gained a pound!  As for me, all I really do is sit in the recliner and feed the baby. 

The first few days though were pretty crazy because we had to keep going to the doctor about every day.  First was her bilirubin.  When we left the hospital, her levels were on the low but OK side so we had to take her back when she was 2 days old to get checked again.  Unfortunately, the day before the test she only had like one diaper change so we thought something was wrong.  And when the test came back, her levels had dropped to the low range so the doctor ordered us to take her back to the lab to be tested again the next day.  If the levels dropped again, we would have to put her under the Bili-lights.  We did not want it to come to that so we opened the shutters and placed her right in the direct sunlight of the window to try and help.  Fortunately she had more wet diapers this second day.  Thankfully, when we took her back in to be tested again, the results came back that her levels were stabilizing and not going down so she was OK.  Just to be safe we kept her in the sunlight for a few more days.  Unfortunately, even with this small amount of jaundice, her skin and eyes still turned yellow-ish.  The doctor said that would go away completely with time.  

Then when she was a week old, we had to take her back to the Mom and Baby floor of the hospital to have her hearing test re-taken.  She failed the first test when she was a day old but thankfully she passed this second test and her hearing is fine.

After all of these tests, and learning what it is like to be alive in this world, Charlotte has just taken off.  She is such a sweet baby and so far really just loves to eat and sleep.

We made our first trip to church on September 18th at just 10 days old.  Isn't she pretty in her dress:

The reason we ventured out this young was because it was the Primary Program during Sacrament Meeting and I told Emily and Colby I would be there.  They did such a great job in their program and I was glad I was able to be there.  After Sacrament meeting we came home to rest.  Charlotte did fine and slept the whole time!

Also in the first few weeks we had a few visitors.  Here are some fun pictures of our favorite friends, Cousin Calen and Rochelle.

While they were there, they shared ice cream sandwiches with us and snuggled Baby Charlotte.  We also visited Uncle Paul and Aunt Charlene.  They were so happy to see us especially Charlene.  Charlene recently had knee surgery and has had some complications so she has not been able to get around.  Because of this, she has not been able to see Stacey's new baby, Charles, who was born a week before Charlotte.  When we walked into their house and handed Charlotte to her, Charlene just started crying.  She was so happy to see a baby and just loved on her.  We told her since she couldn't see her grandson, Charlotte could be an honorary fill-in grand baby.  She loved it and held Charlotte the whole time we were there.  There is just something about babies that just brightens people's day.

Charlotte sure has been loved at our house too.  The kids just love holding her:

She, on the hand, doesn't seem to love all the attention...  She tolerates it for a while but then gets really overwhelmed and wants to be done.  "But we love her!" they say. 

Here are some cute pictures taken on her 2-week birthday.

She almost smiled!  The clothes she is wearing were clothes I wore when I was a baby.  She looked so adorable and alert I had to get a picture.  

A few other fun things going on in our family are making friends and getting awards.  The picture below is of Logan and his friend Elliana.  When Logan saw Elliana on the way out of the Chapel on the way to Nursery, he said, "Come on Elliana. Let's go to class!"  They grabbed hands and held them all the way to the nursery room.  As you can see she was pretty excited and so was he!  It was so cute.  I was glad Marisa (Elliana's mom) got a picture of it because I was wishing I could have.  She told me later that she didn't really know if it was appropriate to take a picture during church but she said she just couldn't pass it up. 

Here is Colby showing off his Principal's 300 Club sticker.  He was caught doing something good at school and was able to get his picture in the 300 Club.  At the end of the month, he will get to run in the Colt Stampede as they run through the halls of the school.  He cannot wait!  Colby was so proud of his sticker that he took it off this shirt and put it on the shirt he wore the next day and wore it to school again.  Funny boy.  

Photo Shoot

Picture overload post coming up!  Once a year or so we have a big photo shoot day and get updated pictures.  I don't think we did this last year but this year, with the addition of Charlotte, we needed updated pictures.  Mostly I wanted to get some newborn pictures of Charlotte and since Emily will be turning 8 and getting baptized, I wanted some baptism pictures of her too.  While we were at it we got updated family pictures as well.  Our neighbor, Kari Jones was awesome enough to take the pictures for us.

First Charlotte's newborn shots.  Nothing is sweeter than newborn photos!

We thought this firefighter one was pretty creative.  Russell liked it a lot.  And here are some of Charlotte and me:

We took Charlotte's pictures at our house and Kari wanted the house to be super warm like around 80 so that Charlotte would be nice and warm and content for the pictures.  Kari even used a small heater to warm the area before placing Charlotte in the pose. It worked really well for the baby but the rest of us were sweating to death!  Oh well it was all about Charlotte anyway right!

Later that day when Emily got home from school, we met Kari at the Logan Temple grounds to take some baptism pictures of Emily.  I love how they all turned out.  Emily loved being the center of attention as well!  Here are a few of my favorite pictures of this beautiful girl:

I especially loved this jumping picture!  We also had Kari take a few of Emily and Charlotte.  They will both share a special day because we are doing Charlotte's baby blessing on the same day as Emily's baptism.  Also my mom made both of their white dresses out of the same material so that they would match.

Pretty sisters and beautiful girls!  While the girls were getting their pictures taken, I pushed the boys in with them to get a fun picture of all the kids:

Logan was just being funny so Kari snapped this fun one of him too.

While we were all dressed up, we had to get a new family picture too, of course.

I really like the temple in the background reminding us that Families are Forever!  We kind of are a good looking bunch when we clean up nicely.  I love how all these pictures turned out!  

When we got the pictures back, we realized that we had a new picture of everyone except Colby...  So Colby and I went out and had our own photo shoot of just him.  Look at this handsome little man: 

Colby's favorite was this once with the tractor.  He wanted his own picture of it for his room.  I have to say it is pretty cool.

He also wanted one in his favorite climbing tree, the willow tree by the river.  Colby loved showing me how high he could climb in that tree.

There you have it our updated photos for 2016.  I can't believe how fast everyone is growing...