For Emily's birthday this year (October 16), my parents rented our favorite cabin in Sundance. We have even been there with Brian's family. We went up and stayed the weekend, enjoying the gorgeous weather and great company. We rode the lift at Sundance and hiked around for a few hours and then went to Provo where we got to eat Blue Bell ice cream from a shop at the Riverwoods!! The XBox 360 was a big hit and we had time for some games as well. It was a great weekend, so thanks to Mom and Dad and Emily for having a birthday!
While we hiked Brian and the boys jumped out of the bushes to scare us and Lincoln got covered in hundreds of burrs. All the kids had a good time helping him clean off. I am just glad it was not McKinley's hair that ended up in that bush!
Happy Birthday Emily! (And the rest of us!)
Spring Flowers
Emily is a blossoming floral arranger. She even did the flowers for Libbi's wedding. In February we used her arrangement to take pictures of the girls in their Easter dresses.
The girls like to be called Flower like Rapunzel is in Tangled. When I brush their hair they ask, "Why can't I go outside Mommy?" and I have to respond with "The world is a dangerous place... do you understand Flower?" and they answer, "Yes, Mommy". (If you are confused, watch the first 5 minutes of Tangled).
Family Picture Time
Brian let me go to Old Navy and pick out matching shirts for our family picture! I assure you the shopping was much more fun then the taking of these pictures. We took about 150 and just a few caught everyone with the fingers out of their nose and their eyes opened. ...Oh the memories.
Just the 5 of them
We tried to get a really good picture of all the kids but McKinley was a complete basket case--which is actually quite unusual for her. In the end, we have a great picture of Reagan and her siblings happen to be around her.
out for a walk
When the weather is even remotely 'springish' we take to the sidewalk. The kids love to push Reagan in her stroller and McKinley loves this little red bike almost as much as she loves her sunglasses.
It's Your Birthday.
These pictures are in order of how it all unfolded. She was the first one of our children to eat her cupcake with any sort of prowess.
These are Dark Chocolate Cup Cakes with Chocolate Butter Cream Icing from America's Test Kitchen and therefore the best cupcakes I have ever had in my life. Much better than the PacMan cake we made for Jefferson's 2nd year birthday which you can see by clicking here.
Can you say Smile?
We are so happy to see Reagan's smile back after her bout with a mouth full of canker sores. For a few days there all she did was drool, mouth open, whimpering, inconsolably.
But she's back. And we love her.
Christmas Morning for the Girls
Reagan was the first one up on Christmas and got her wish of a bottle right away! After that she was in wrapping paper heaven. This picture of her is perfect since almost all of our Christmas came from woot.com and kids.woot.com.
Last Christmas McKinley slept in, so this year, she made up for it by enthusiastically enjoying every moment. When you ask her what Santa brought she says, "Pesents!" She enjoyed a treasure box and a box full of dress-ups that I got from a good friend's garage sale, keeping up the tradition of McKinley's Christmas costing around $5 (thanks to the DI last year). We figure they will be asking for expensive things like iPods and name brand clothes soon enough, so live it up while we can!
I'm a Little Pony
Little Reagan Bagel just keeps getting more beautiful every day. Here she is by her favorite little pony.
Rattled Reagan
She is very easily startled and that's probably because she is so often relaxed. She is a great blessing to our life and such a wonderful baby.
Sarah's Mission Call
You need to click on the picture and it will take you to the place where you can watch the video. As you will see, the video and event was UTTER CHAOS
The video isn't short but gives you a feel for how it played out.
Sorry we gave out Jeff's phone number to the world. If you start getting random phone calls then let us know and we can take the video down.
Congratulations Sarah!
Little Reagan
She is so jolly. Good-natured. Always easy for a laugh. Her brothers and sister just love her to death. We can't get enough of this little ball of cream cheese.
October: Birthdays and Conference
We enjoyed a lot of birthday fun and too many birthday treats over the first week of October with my 30th birthday, Lincoln's 7th birthday, and the girls up for Conference weekend. Dad was also here, which was lots of fun - for us at least!
Reagal Bagel Penguin
Because they don't have any pockets.
Here was (and is) our star of the show. She is such a wonderful baby and I don't remember any of my children being this easy to take care of. She loved her little outfit as well although the beak kept getting in her line of sight. She scooted around for most of the evenings and had a ball of a time. She also had her first piece of doughnut and just couldn't get enough of it.
