Cont., Hazel's birthday - June, 2011

When we got home from Iowa we had a few more birthday presents for Hazel and here's one of them. She has had so much fun with this and is a pro at scooting down the sidewalk in it now.

I just had to include this! Yes, she is a booger picker, but what two year old isn't? She looks pretty proud of it too!

School Stuff! - May, 2011

Let's backtrack a bit to May. May always has a lot of school events going on and these are just a few.
Lydia's preschool graduation. There were five kids in our little preschool group this year and the moms would take turns teaching each week. Two of the moms are sisters and they did the graduation for us. The two boys in the picture are cousins. Lydia and the girl next to her are the only one's old enough to move on the kindergarten. We had a very successful year together, but I am so glad it's over too!

 

Joy's awards ceremony. She received an award for 4.0 GPA and and award for her high honors project she did. She was so hoping to get an award for perfect attendance, but only missed one day all year when we had the lice problem, and that was because I made her stay home. She was pretty bummed, so I made her my own certificate and presented it to her the next day. She has the same perfect attendance goal this year too. We'll see! Page was visiting from Texas and was able to come and we loved having her!!

Mary had a dance festival which she was completely embarrassed that I was taping her, but she looked pretty groovy up there.

Mary also had Mini society where all the 5th and 6th graders set up a store and the rest of the school gets play money to spend at their store along with any parents or visitors that stop by. Then, what money they make from their store, their teachers have prizes they can bid on. It's the most anticipated day of the year! Mary had a partner this year and together they made waffles with toppings to choose from, syrup, chocolate syrup, whipped cream, and strawberries. It was a hit, and a mess! Page was also able to come to this with us and Lydia and Hazel had a blast.

Mary used some of her money she'd made to get her hair colored at one of the booths, and here is Lydia getting glitter nails done. She also had her face painted and bought lots of treats.

This one was just too cute to pass up. Hazel had woken up, we put her on the couch, and she flopped around for awhile until she ended up like this on some folded laundry.

Iowa Trip & Nauvoo!! - June, 2011

It's a miracle! I'm finally adding a post.The day after school let out we left for Iowa on May 27th to visit my parents and my sister Steph and her family for a week. It was our first big road trip as a family, 20 hours one way! We had a great time, it was so wonderful to be back home and show the kids were I grew up.
On the first day after church, the kids, Mary especially, couldn't wait to take a walk to the river by Grammy Jane's and Grandpa Tim's and collect clam shells. It was a pretty cool day and Mary was even willing to take her shoes off and wade in the ice cold water to get the big ones. Lydia kept busy collecting the tiny spiral shells in the sand, while Adam acted like he was in a race to get the most shells. Hazel was just happy throwing sand around, and Joy, well, it just wasn't her cup of tea, so she stayed home with Grammy Jane.

The next day was Memorial Day and David's 37th birthday. We went to a five minute Waverly parade, but it was worth it because we were able to see Eliza play with the marching band in the parade. We went to see the movie Thor ( a must see!!) and had a fun celebration for David afterwards. He is holding up this body building supplement he'd been wanting for awhile, and showing off his muscles too, which is what he's been doing 90% of the time for the past year since he's been on his exercise kick!

The kids had a little water party the next day. They loved playing in the back yard. So much to explore!

Joy was determined not to get wet. THAT didn't last long!

On Wednesday, June 1st, we celebrated Hazel's 2nd birthday. Mom made a delicious coconut cake and I decorated it. Hazel LOVES ducks!

Aunt Stephany gave these red shoes to Hazel. She is in love with shoes and she loved these so much that she wore a hole in them after a month of wearing them. You can see she is wearing them in several other pictures after this one.

The next day we went to Nauvoo. On the way we stopped at this mega mall in Iowa City where they had this carousel, an ice skating rink, and a children's museum. You can see Hazel checkin out her red sequin shoes.

Me & Joy

At the children's museum, Lydia made fast friends!

Hazel driving an airplane.

 Adam joined us half way through after a failed attempt at iceskating. Him and Hazel went down the slide together and somehow she got all twisted around. She loved it though. The taller the slide, the more she likes it!

Mary ice skating, she loves it, Joy hates it. She sat in the sidelines. That's pretty much how it is with everything with those two. Whatever the one likes, you already know the other likes the opposite!

Adam pouting after falling down.

We left for Nauvoo after that, and an hour and a half later checked into the hotel and headed to Carthage jail. We pulled into the parking lot and who else, but Tammy and Emily had just pulled in at the same time waiting to surprise us! They had driven all day from Ohio to meet us and be with us for just one day! Of course everyone else knew but my family, it was just an awesome surprise!! We were doing some temple work for Grandaddy and Tammy really wanted to be there with us.

The cousins!

Steph and Tam

The next morning after going to the temple, we toured a little around Nauvoo. Adam got to help out in the wagon wheel shop. I think he felt very important there.

The Black Smith's shop.

Tammy and Lydia showing off their horse shoe rings.

I LOVE this picture! Super Cool!!

By this time we were so hot and miserable, but we still managed to get a family picture.

 The children's area, what the pioneer children might have played on.

Thank heavens!! Air conditioning! During the presentation Hazel kept trying to get into everything she shouldn't and one time David got up to get her she pointed to the bench and said, "Dad, sit down!" Very clever that one!

Taking rest before saying our goodbyes. It was an awesome 24 hours and a great experience for the kids. We left for Utah the next day and stayed at an awesome hotel that the kids loved. Thanks Mom and Dad for helping us have a great trip!!

Mary's Mother's Day Poem

Mary wrote this poem for Marby for Mother's Day. I loved it so much it made me cry and it wasn't even for me!

When I think of you there's a smile on my face.
For you brought my father to the human race.
You raised him and loved him and he soon met a girl.
Then later on their relationship unfurled.
That girl became my mother and I love her so much.
And it all started with you and I feel so touched.

She's All Grown Up!

Lydia has been an avid thumb sucker since she was just a couple months old. It has been such a comfort for her through her recent trials, but her Daddy and her siblings wanted it to stop. Me on the other hand could have cared less, but I was sick of hearing the rest of the family complain. I would often hear from Adam, "STOP GETTING YOUR THUMB JUICE ON MEEEE!!!" David of course, was worried about her sucking her thumb at kindergarten next year. So, I came up with a brilliant idea that I am still in shock that it actually worked. Lydia has been sad since we sold our Degu last month and said almost daily how she'll never have a pet that's her very own again! So, the only pet we are willing to get at this point in addition to our two cats and a gecko, is a simple Betta fish. We told Lydia that if she didn't suck her thumb for a whole week she could have her very own fish. She totally bought it and it was just the right motivation for her. Anytime she felt like sucking her thumb I would either put a band-aid on her thumb or get her something to munch on. She was so good about telling us when she was tempted and that week was easy breezy! She only needed a bandaid on her thumb for the first three nights, and other than that she only needed a few extra snacks to satisfy that urge to have something in her mouth. Of course David told her if we catch her sucking her thumb again, he'll flush it down the toilet. Don't worry, I'll make sure she has a few chances before resorting to such drastic measures. We're so proud of her! Here she is with her new pet Betta fish, Rainbow.