More September Adventures...

September has been a month full of adventures and something new everyday.  Some good and some not so good  Here are a few fun random pictures of this last month:

This little thing is just getting bigger and bigger.  She has grown a lot this month.  Charlotte turned one and also learned how to walk!  She loves cuddling on the couch as long as there is nothing better to do.  She even likes loving on a bald headed mama!  

The boys are totally into adventures.  They especially love making anything and everything out of cardboard boxes.  Here Colby is showing off his latest creation, a robot suit.

They have also really gotten into basketball lately.  Colby likes to play basketball at recess at school and then comes home and shows Logan the new moves he learned.  Here they are demonstrating their sweet slam dunk skills. (They may or may not have had a little help from Dad...)

Not all things have been good things this month.  One of my worst fears came to pass this month (that is besides being diagnosed with cancer...).  Lice.  We got a text from our neighbor saying that their kids had lice and to check our kids.  Our kids had been playing with their kids all weekend so we were praying we were not affected.  Well the boys were clear but sadly Emily had caught the bug.  We found 2-3 little lice in her hair and I freaked out!  We ran to the store and bought two lice treatment kits and lice shampoo and just doused her hair.  We also treated the boys just in case too.  For the next two days all I did was laundry.  I washed every stitch of bedding and clothes the kids had worn and toy they had played with.  Russell and I took turns nit picking Emily's hair for the next two weeks until I was convinced we had got it all.  I have never been so glad to be bald!  Even though I have no hair, my head still itched at the thought of lice.  I was so glad when this was finally over!  The crazy thing about it was that the lice was an epidemic in our neighborhood and ward!  There were about five families that had it at the same time.  I have no idea where it came from.

Now that the lice was over, we could move on to better things.  These pictures were from the Brigham City Peach Days.  We enjoyed seeing all of the vendor booths there as well at the Car Show.  I was kind of disappointed though because I thought there would be more places to buy peaches or peach treats.  Instead of getting peaches at the Peach Days though we drove down Fruit Alley (US-89) and bought some at the fruit stands down that road.  Along with the bushel of peaches, we got a big box of tomatoes too.  Thankfully my mom canned it all for me while I was having my last chemo treatment.  (Thanks Mom!)

I had to throw this picture in because I thought it was really cool.  Russell took it during his Aerial ADO class.  He has been taking this class this month so that when he passes, he can operate and drive the ladder firetrucks.  Logan said it looked like the fire fighters were trying to put out the sun with their hoses!

We also took two trips to St. George this month:

The kids love visiting grandparents and cousins.  While there we enjoyed the warm weather while swinging on the porch swing.  As we were leaving, we saw a hot air balloon land nearby.  We thought it was landing at the elementary school's field so we drove up that way.  Come to find out though, it landed right in front of the Lewis's house (my parents neighbor!).  It was pretty cool to see the hot air balloon right up close.  

Another fun thing this month was the Bike Rodeo and Fall Festival at the school.  As members of the CCLT, Emily and Colby were able to help out with these events.  They each led a station at the bike rodeo and Logan was the only kid in our family to ride his bike in the rodeo.  He had fun until they told him it was a slow race to help him practice balance.  Then he started crying because he wanted to go fast instead of slow.  I am thinking he was a little tired by that time of the day.  Other than that melt down he was okay.  The kids also ran little game booths for the Fall Festival.  They were able to get away and play a few games too.  They also got their faces painted.  This was a fun and busy night because it was also Emily's birthday.  

At the Super Spirit Friday assembly this month, Colby was awarded and Outstanding Student award for being proactive in getting his work done and friendly to everyone in his class.  He was pretty excited to get his award but you couldn't tell from his face...  He is not one for being the center of attention.  The best thing about it though was he got to run in the stampede through the halls.  Emily also got to run in the stampede for making an RC jump (reading points).

The kids and I participated in the Red Ribbon Run 1 mile race.  This was the first time I had ran in like 2 years!  Needless to say I am totally out of shape but I guess I have a good reason.  Anyway I ran with Logan and Charlotte so it was okay that I was slow.  Colby also ran with us and we made it to the finish line.  Emily is our runner and she was way ahead.  This was a good race though because of the prizes at the end.  After the race there was a raffle drawing for prizes.  Normally we never win but this time we did!! We won a pretty good prize package including two Lagoon tickets, $20 to Yogurtland, dinner coupons to a couple restaurants and other fun stuff.  We were so excited for the Lagoon tickets so now we are planning a trip to Lagoon before they close for the season.

Finally Logan has been working so hard this summer learning to read.  He just passed off all 26 of the Reading for All Learners Level 1 books.  Because of this, he received a certificate from the library as well as his very own book from this set.  He is a pretty excited and happy boy because of this!  Logan is getting to be a pretty good little reader.  Good Job, Logan!

September has been a pretty busy month.  Now on to October and here comes Fall.

Happy 9th Birthday, Emily!

Emily is 9 years old!  She just keeps growing up!!

These were fun pictures to take of Emily in her tree.  The sad thing is that Russell had to cut down this big old tree a few days later... It was just getting too big and leaning too far over because of the wind.  We decided it was time to cut it down before it fell on the house.  Any way back to Emily.

Emily is an amazing daughter.  She is very kind and loving and very tenderhearted.  She tries to do her best in everything she does and when something goes wrong she feels so bad about it.  We are trying to teach her that it is okay to make mistakes and not everything is her fault but she is a perfectionist and wants the best.  She is doing great in school.  She loves reading and drawing.  This year she is learning a lot in school like multiplication and cursive.  Emily loves cursive and actually has really good handwriting when she uses cursive.  Emily is also loving being on the running club.  I think running will be her sport like me.  She likes the group running atmosphere.  She also likes playing the piano but she hates practicing.  We keep telling her that she has to practice to get better but she just likes playing on her own time.  

Emily is a great sister and is always looking out for her younger brothers and sister.  She especially loves playing with Charlotte and being her little mother.  She is very considerate of others.  Emily is just a good kid!

For her birthday she got a lot of fun gifts:

On her actual birthday, we celebrated as a family.  We opened presents before school and then had cake and ice cream that night.  Emily liked the cupcakes because we each got our own cake.

Being the great parents we are, we forgot to get a #9 candle so we used a #1 candle because Emily is #1.  She was okay with it and it did the job.

It was a fun night as a family.  We spent some time at the Fall Festival at the school and the rest of the night partying at home.

Emily wanted a friend party this year so we tried to figure out what to do that wouldn't be a ton of work.  We finally decided to go roller blading at the Cache Valley Fun Park.  Emily loves roller blading and we knew her friends would have a good time too.  What an easy birthday party and pretty inexpensive too!

Emily invited all of her friends including: Ayzleigh, Jadaci, Caylee, Kate, and Mylee.  They all had a great time skating.  They played tag, had races, and held hands as they skated around the rink.  Some girls were better skaters than others but they still had a good time helping each other out.  Because it was Super Spirit Friday at school that day, they all happened to be wearing the same shirts at the party.  That made it easy for Russell and I to keep track of them because they were all in orange.

Colby and Logan also enjoyed learning how to skate and tried to keep up with the girls.  Charlotte enjoyed watching everyone play.  This cute thing was the center of attention with all of the kids.

When it was time for presents, Emily loved everything her friends gave her.  She loved the Hatchimals, and the American Girl accessories she received.  I think her favorite gift, though, came from her friend Ayzleigh.  Ayzleigh knows Emily loves horses so she decided to have her gift be a free horse riding lesson with her.  Emily was so excited to go ride horses with Ayzleigh.  We coordinated with Ayzleigh's mom and set up a riding lesson.

Since we were at the Fun Park, we made the cake simple too by just doing cupcakes.  The ice cream was individual serving cups which was also easy.  Everyone sang "Happy Birthday" and Emily blew out the candle.  This was a really fun party and perfect for a nine-year-old!  After leaving the Fun Park, Emily wanted to go out to eat for her birthday dinner.  She decided on Chuck-A-Rama because she said it was her new favorite restaurant.  

Happy Birthday, Birthday Girl!  I hope you had a great birthday this year.  We Love You So Much!!

Jack's Baptism & 99 Years Young

We made another trip down to St. George this weekend.  I was feeling much better this weekend than last.  We came down last weekend for Grandma Farnsworth's funeral and this weekend we traveled down for Jack's baptism and Grandma Morwood's 99th birthday party.  

It was a fun weekend full of family and parties.  First we attended Jack's baptism on Saturday morning.  

It was good to be with family and see Jack take this important step in his life by making the decision to be baptized.

Look at this big group!  After the baptism, we all hung out at Lacie's house and had lunch and just visited.  I was really glad I was feeling better from the last chemo and could spend time with everyone.  I had missed seeing everyone.  

That night we were able to attend my grandma's 99th birthday.  I also got the opportunity to talk with Grandma for a few hours the day before.  We sure miss living next door to her and she said she missed us too.

By looking at Grandma you would not guess she is 99!  She is still as alert and fun as always and she is still as independent as she could be.  She still lives on her own and drives to the grocery store and church each week.  I love visiting with her and the kids have fun with her too.  Charlotte is still getting used to her but that is understandable since she has only seen Grandma a few times.

We still needed to drive home so we cut the night short and headed out.  Before leaving Emily and Brielle needed a picture together.  These two have missed each other since we moved.  Every time we get together, though, it is like we never left.  They are great friends.

This was a fun, quick trip but totally worth the time we got to spend with family.

Charlotte's First Steps

Charlotte has done it!! She has taken her first steps!  The best part about it is that her first steps were taken to me.

She thinks she is so funny when she walks.  She just laughs and laughs.  Charlotte mostly just dive walks right now.  Meaning she dives into my arms as she moves her feet.  She is still pretty wobbly but I know she will only get better.   

So the funny thing is that she will only walk to me.  I tried to have her walk to Russell but she won't do it.  She will only take steps to me.  

Her first steps were taken in the boys' room as I was getting them tucked into bed.  I had stood Charlotte up against the bed and just for fun put out me arms and coaxed her to walk to me.  Normally she would just plop down on the ground and crawl to me, but not this time!  She actually took steps to me!  I was so shocked and excited and so was she.  Charlotte laughed and dove into my arms over and over again as we practiced her walking skills.  All the other kids were so excited too.  They kept yelling "Charlotte's walking!  Charlotte's walking!"  Here is  video of her first steps:

Isn't she the cutest?  She is getting better and braver as she walks and will occasionally take a few steps on her own to something close.  I know it is just a matter of time before she is running everywhere but it is so exciting to see this milestone.

Good Job Charlotte!

Some Pretty Cute Kids

I may be a little biased but I think I have some pretty cute kids!  They are the light of my life and give me the strength to keep going and striving to be the best I can.  Over the last little while I have really come to know how precious they are and how great they are.  They have really been very supportive, loving, and helpful through this whole cancer ordeal.  I just love them!

Here are a few cute pictures:

For the girls' birthdays Grandma Morwood gave them these beautiful matching dresses.  They are so sparkly!  Glitter was everywhere!  They just love the dresses for especially that reason.  

Aren't they good lookin'!  I have to take about a million shots in order to get two good ones but I'll keep 'em.  They were all dressed up this Sunday for the Primary Program.  They did so well on their parts for the program.  They spoke loud and clear and sang all of the songs.  The Primary Program is my favorite sacrament meeting of the year!  For some reason though it always falls on a bad week.  Last year Charlotte had just been born so we kind of hid out in the back to protect her from germs and then left after the Program.  Then this year was a week after my chemo treatment so it landed on the "bad day" or lowest day after chemo.  So once again we hid out in the back and I wore a mask to prevent from catching any germs from church.  Oh well we made it and it was a great Program! 

Here are some more fun pictures of these four:

These girls just love each other.  Emily is the best big sister and is always watching out for Charlotte.  Charlotte loves Emily too.  They have fun reading books together and playing.

These boys are like two peas in a pod.  They do everything together.  Especially get into mischief.  If one doesn't think up the trouble the other one does.  

I don't know what it is about kids in matching clothes but I love it!  It just makes everyone look like they get along or something.  They love being twins too.  Even though they all have there moments when they are fighting or arguing, for the most part these four little knot heads get along and have fun.  They sure do love each other and we love them!