Never Forget this face!

So I was making cookies today and I looked down and saw this face. This happens frequently when I am in the kitchen. Today Katie was asking for some or-shoes (orange juice). As I looked down at her I thought about how often she will come and look up at me with those big eyes and ask me for something. It's funny to think of how she sees us. We must seem so big to her. I also thought about how much I will miss it as she gets older and stops doing it. So I grabbed my camera and took this picture.

This is what she looked like after I gave her the orange juice. She loves orange juice but I won't give it to her in a sippy cup. I am NOT going to ruin her teeth like I did to two of my boys. I want her to stop growing up so I can always look down at her sweet face!

Fieldtrip to the Zoo

Last week I got to go on a fieldtrip to the zoo with Jake's 1st grade class. I love going on fieldtrips with my kids. It's a great way to spend some one on one time with them.

Jake was excited for weeks before we went. He would frequently tell me how many days until we were going to the zoo. It's been a long time since he's been to the zoo so he was pretty excited to see everything. He thought measuring himself up to a gorilla was pretty cool.

Everyone, including me, loved the baby elephant, Zuri. She was so cute. She just followed her mom wherever she went. After seeing the animals for a couple of hours, we ate lunch. After that, we went to the bird show. That was pretty cool and the kids were pretty impressed.

I had a great day with my little buddy. When we were having dinner that night all the kids were asking him about his day at the zoo and what he saw. Jaxon asked him if he went on the train. Jake said "No, we went on the bus." We all started laughing and a few seconds later he understood why it was funny. I love that kid!

Happy Birthday Dale!

This is what we found when we got up this morning. Apparently, some friends of ours from our ward came over late last night and decorated the garage and drew all over the driveway and sidewalk with chalk. Unfortunately, since it rained all night, we didn't get to see any of the chalk drawings. I thought it was really sweet of them to do that.

Here is a picture of Dale's cake. Notice the bottom right corner of the cake. Whenever I am making dessert or we have a birthday cake in the house, Dale always wants to sneak a bite before we eat it as a family. Since it was his cake, I couldn't stop him. He ate this corner out before we went out to dinner. We went out with some friends to PF Changs. It was so yummy and a lot of fun to visit with them.

When we got home, our family had cake and ice cream together. For Dale's birthday, all the kids chipped in with me and got him season tickets to the Pioneer Theatre Company. He's a very hard person to buy a gift for because he doesn't want anything that doesn't cost a lot of money. We've gone to plays in the past and we both enjoy them so I thought this might be a fun thing for us to do together. I'm so thankful to have a husband like him. He's very sweet to put up with me. He always wants to make me happy and takes good care of me. He has always made it possible for me to stay home with our kids. He's very smart. Whenever I can't figure something out, he can. Even though I may seem annoyed by his paranoia, I love how much he loves his kids and just wants them to be safe. I love how much he hugs and kisses our kids. They will never doubt that their Daddy loves them. I love how he can make me laugh. I love going on dates with him. I love how much he wants to help people. I feel very blessed to have him in my life and hope he had a good birthday!

baseball fence

So this is what happens to a fence when you have boys that love baseball. Dale actually made the first hole in the fence when we first moved in. He had no idea that vinyl fences were so weak and threw a baseball right at it and made a hole. I was pretty mad the first time it happened. As the years have gone by and I have watched Dale play catch with the boys, each hole hurts less. I love to watch them play catch together and holes can be repaired. We can't get this valuable time with our kids back!

School's ouuuuuuuut!

Today was Jadon's last day of school as a 7th grader. He was so excited! For the last week of school he told me every day how many days of school he had left. The last day of school is so much fun. They watched a movie and then signed yearbooks. When he came home with his yearbook, it brought back so many memories from when I was in school. I am so proud of Jadon! He worked very hard this year and finished 7th grade with a 4.0 cumulative GPA and perfect attendance. He loved middle school and I'm so glad that he had such a great year!

Yay!!!! School's out!!! 3 months of summer!!!

Little Graduate

Kyson is so happy that he finally graduated from preschool. He claims that he didn't like preschool but I know it was just an act. He just wanted to go to school with Jake, Jaxon and Kierra every day. Thursday night was his preschool graduation. He looked so handsome and grown up.

He was so cute when he sang the little songs. He's pretty shy and when they were singing the Star Spangled Banner and doing actions, he got embarassed but he he did a really great job!

Kyson with his teacher, Miss Lici. She has been the preschool teacher for all of our kids except Jadon.

My cute little graduate. I can't believe in just a few short months I'll be sending him off to Kindergarten. I will be sad not to have my little buddy around all the time. It will be good for him to come out of his shell a little bit though. He's a really smart little kid and I know he is going to do great in Kindergarten!

18 months old

Katie is 18 months old today. I took all these pictures of her outside because that is her favortie place to be. She never gets tired of it! She loves to swing, jump on the tramp, slide, ride her bike and go on walks. Whenever the kids play outside without her, she stands at the kitchen window and knocks on it and yells "Hi" to them. Katie is talking more and more every day. She says so many words. It's so fun to listen to her talk. She does get frustrated when she can't figure out how to tell us what she wants. When she is mad, she will run around the room and hit things and then colapse on the floor and cry. Katie loves doggies and kitties and gets very excited when she sees them. She likes them from a distance. If they get too close to her, she gets pretty nervous. She still loves babies, especially real ones. If she ever sees a carseat she knows that a baby should be in it. She will go over to it and say "baby, baby, baby" until whoever is the owner of the baby shows it to her. Katie loves music! She likes to dance with her Daddy. She has fallen asleep on his shoulder, while he's dancing with her, several times. She doesn't like her carseat and frequently will freak out and arch her back so we can't get her in it. She loves hot dogs, bananas, apples, grapes, fruit snacks, candy and gum. She knows where we keep the candy and gum and will go over to the cupboard and ask for "nandy". She has learned to say please so we make her say please for everything. She will stand at Kierra's door, when she knows Kierra is in there, and knock and say "Please" over and over until Kierra lets her in. She doesn't care much for TV but loves Mickey Mouse. She watches the first 5 minutes of Mickey Mouse Club House and that's about it. Katie loves shoes and is always putting everyone's shoes on her. She knows when Dale is coming home. When she hears the garage door open, she'll say "Daddy!" and get very excited.

Katie doesn't have much fear of anything. She jumps on the tramp with the kids and it doesn't scare her at all! She will wonder off from us no matter where we are. She doesn't seem to even know she is by herself when she does that. She just keeps walking and exploring.

She loves to climb up to the top of our playground and peak through the slats and say "Hi". Then she'll move to the next slat and say "Hi". It's so cute to see her little face peaking through. She is so much fun and it's so fun to listen to her learning to talk. I can't believe how fast she's growing up!