Happy Birthday to Bekah! You're 4!

Bekah has been the sunshine of our lives. She is truly a joy. It was fun to see her get so excited for her birthday party. The other kids had a countdown going (mostly Kelsey) but even they were busy planning how much fun they'd have with their friends. So fun!

I can't believe how big Bekah's getting! She planned her own birthday dinner (complete with veggies) and was very specific on what kind of decorations for the birthday cake. She's in love with Tangled. For someone with blonde hair, she wants to look just like Rapunzel. Awww...but here's a few highlights from the friend party and then our family party. Enjoy!

Thanks, Grams, for the dress! Bekah's so excited about the butterflies! She even wanted to enjoy the card for as long as possible.

"It's so fluffy!" Bekah was so excited to get a unicorn pillow pet! Wow! Thanks, Aunt Helen and clan!

Ooh! A warm, winter coat that's pink. Bekah compared this to John's coat...but she said, "This one's red not pink." Yes, very astute! She's excited to try out her new mittens that came with it. Now all we need is some snow. My phone washed out the second picture...but the coat fits great!

And the pink/white tutu was a great hit! Here's Bekah and Kelsey dancing...one of the few times Bekah gets to be the princess. And she makes a cute princess too.

Bicycle Fun

Here's behind the scenes from taking school pictures with John and Kelsey. The other kids (Jack and Bekah) were feeling a little left out of the spotlight. I can only imagine they won't want to have any part of picture taking in the coming years (eg. teenage school pictures with boys are going to be fun...hah!), but they were sad not to have pictures taken of them. To keep them happy, Mom let them ride Bekah's bike. Shawn came up with this idea...and it made the rest of us laugh!

And Jack wouldn't be outdone by his big sister...so, he had to have a turn too.

Hooray for wheels and little kids! It makes us all have smiley days!

Happy Fourth of July

Happy Freedom Days! We spent Friday morning before the fourth watching hot air balloons inflate and then rise into the sky. The kids were pretty impressed by the amount of fire it took to get the balloons into the air. It was awesome! The wind actually allowed the balloons to go up this year but wasn't cooperating enough to let the balloons play their games. Ah well. I guess you can't have it all.

We had a few "characters" show up this year for the festival. Smokey the Bear (as seen from below) and the pink piggy bank are regular attendees. The Coke bottle showed up after all the balloons had left the field. But the main attraction was the Darth Vader balloon all the way from Belgium. Wow! There were even stormtroopers, Darth Vader, and the Emperor who made their appearance. It was fun!

Speaking of the Coke balloon. It inflates but rarely flies. The crew actually had volunteers from the crowd (preferably those under the age of 12) come roll the air out of the balloon before it got stuffed in the giant bag and put in the trailer. We talked John into helping out with the crew. And before the end of the line, Jack decided to help a little. We got that on video.

All of the kids were pretty good. We all tumbled out of bed and they showed up in their jammies. It was so much fun. Maybe we'll see some of you next year and we can show you around the festivities!

Friday Field Trips

This summer I have tried something "new." It's called "let's keep the kids entertained, busy, and educated all summer long." We've had John practicing his penmanship; Kelsey's been working on recognizing upper and lower case letters; Bekah's been coloring; and Jack has been working on listening. We've had varying results depending upon the week.

But every Friday we've tried to get our work done early to do a little "exploring" around Utah. We've had some fun hiking to a waterfall, checking out the dinosaur museum at BYU, and going to the zoo. Here's some of the memories we've made.

The Hogle Zoo had a Zoorassic experience this last summer. They had lots of dinosaur models around the park. Some of them, like the T-Rex, were life size and somewhat interactive. The eyes moved as though the dinosaur was looking at you and his head turned. It was rather intimidating. Little Jack backed away from T-Rex and growled at him...so tough!

This was at the base of Bridal Veil Falls. The kids decided to go wading in the "pool" made at the base of the falls. John was the most adventurous and was all over the rocks, water, and generally having a great time. Jack couldn't understand why the water was so "hot." I kept trying to convince him it was really "cold" and not "hot." But I think he's a little backward.

I guess this is the only picture I got from the dinosaur museum. Bekah was the only one brave enough to climb up onto the brachiosaurus's vertabrae. The kids enjoyed seeing students working on real dinosaur bones. It was pretty cool! What kid doesn't look forward to field trip day?! It's been fun trying to find fun, free places to make things exciting.

Easter Egg Hunt

This month has proven fun for the kids. They've waited sooo long for Easter to arrive. It's almost as if Christmas was coming. Well, we are celebrating the Saviour, so...I guess there is some correlation. But they've been so eager for the candy too. Ah well, they enjoy all parts of the season.

We had a church egg hunt a week before Easter and that was a lot of fun. Bekah got lots more eggs than her brothers or sister. She's got this game down! Jack had to be coaxed into looking for his eggs; but once they were all found, his shining moment was eating the candy from everyone else's egg and handing back the empty "shell." He didn't care if it was a golden egg or not. He only wanted the candy. Smart boy!

Joe didn't get much into the thing of things. But he was a good sport and let everyone else find the eggs.

And here are the pictures from our family egg hunt. We had two visitors that are the kids' friends. Christopher and his sister wanted to help look for eggs. We had enough to share and it was fun to see them all scampering around the yard looking for eggs.

John kept saying it was too easy. And it probably was, but we're dealing with a large age range here. Jack wasn't as interested in finding the eggs today. He like picking them up and throwing them. Thank goodness we left the hardboiled eggs inside. The joy of finding plastic eggs was enough for them all.

Happy Easter! From our family to yours.

Happy Birthday Bekah!

Our Bekah Mae Mae has just turned 3! Really? It doesn't seem like she's only three. She acts so big (and she's quite tall too!) that it surprises me sometimes that she's still so "young." Ah well. I guess that's what happens when you try to do everything your four and a half year old sister does. What a big girl!

When we went to the store to pick out a special birthday cake, Bekah wanted three different cakes, "Because I'm three," she said. Shawn liked this thinking but Mommy squashed the idea. With just us celebrating together this year (sorry if you felt left out...but I didn't feel like hosting after such a difficult past couple of weeks), I knew we would barely be able to handle this little cake, let alone three! Bekah and Kelsey didn't fight much over the rings: each got two and they were content.

Both of her gifts were a big hit, although I'd say the Mr. Potato Man was the best loved by everyone. Even Jack wanted to try on the glasses-- to be like Mommy and Daddy. But Bekah has loved the baby doll more than I've seen her love any other baby doll. Yeah! Thanks to all of you who love and support our little Bekah!

Autumn Leaves and the Kids

It's been a pretty mild Autumn this year and the leaves have been pretty slow to fall near our home. The maple trees across the street have finally all turned yellow and are dropping their leaves. But the sycamore trees in front of our house are barely starting to turn brown. We'll see how quickly that changes after the next couple of days when the cold storm finally hits.

The kids have loved going across the street to pile up leaves and jump in them. Jack loves to run through them and listen to the crunch! Kelsey and Bekah pretend they have bouquets of flowers and they love to throw them in the air to see them fall again. It's been lots of fun to see them playing.

Shawn and I were remembering back to our first home with the Box Elder tree that dumped bags full of leaves on our lawn. We had such fun piling them together to let John play in them. Ah well. Memories and photos are what we keep of that. But it's great to see all of the kids enjoying the changing seasons.

Zoo Day With Three of the Kids

On a whim, and because John had been begging to go, we decided to go to the Hogle Zoo. Shawn was home working on school stuff and "volunteered" to "watch" Jack take a nap. That made it so much easier for me to get around the zoo. The kids asked where the red wagon was (that has been a constant companion for the past two years) but we didn't have to take it this time! Everybody walked! Ah, such freedom from a stroller or a diaper bag! Sorry, Jack...we didn't really miss you. Love ya!

We had such a good time taking it slow and looking at whatever we felt like seeing. Bekah was excited for the baby elephant. John wanted to see poison dart frogs (Kelsey plugged her nose in the animal house). And everyone wanted to ride the train at the end. There was hardly anyone at the zoo (poor Shawn would have LOVED this part of the day!). So, we got some good pics to prove the fun we had.

We were the only ones on the tail end of the train. The kids thought it was great fun to be by themselves. And to show how empty the zoo was, check out the following picture of the parking lot. Usually, it's packed and you have to search for a place to park. This is what it looked like as we were leaving the zoo at 1600 (one hour before the zoo closed).

This is what Shawn would have loved. Ah well. I did think of you!

Bridal Veil Falls

The kids and I decided to go for a little outing and a picnic. We took along Macher (who thought to bring an extra pair of sandals!) and what a big help she was! We were all hungry before we started out on our hike to the falls so we ate our meat and cheese sandwiches first. The wind was blowing just a bit and the kids were cold by the time they had finished their food. Ah well. Who knew it could be chilly in August? It wasn't, really.

Anyway, we took a leisurely stroll up to the base of the falls and the kids were eager to get in the water and start playing--until they discovered how cold mountain water really is! Kelsey froze up in the water and wouldn't move until someone came to rescue her. Yea, Macher!

The kids thought it was great fun to pose together on rocks in the water. Too bad we couldn't get them all looking at the camera at the same time. There was just too much to look at. Jack was fascinated by all the rushing water over the rocks. He wanted to splash in the water too.

This was the best we could do. Enjoy!

Pioneer Day Parade

Our neighborhood has done a Primary Pioneer Day parade for the past two years. The kids have enjoyed walking the streets on their bikes, decorated wagons, or scooters. At the end of the parade route (the church building), they get to play games. The favorite with the boys (young and old) is the giant sling shots. If you park on the opposite side of the street, you can bet your car may become a target for those water balloons launched at a high speed. The kids love it!

The girls had fun walking the "trek" route with their stick horses and eating watermelon at the end. I don't know what John did all morning but I assume he stuck pretty close to the water balloons and sling shots with Daddy.

My pretty girls!

Enjoy the girls and their ring toss game! They both won a prize for their ability to get the ring on the stick!