1 Year Old!

 

 

 

Our little Claire came into this world earlier than expected at only 1 pound 14 ounces. One year later, she is over 16 pounds and the cutest and sweetest little baby we have known. She loves her brothers and sister to play and laugh with her, is chewing on everything, and crawling all around. 

Happy Birthday Claire!

As we celebrate her first year of life, I can't help but think of all of our family and friends who watched our kids, made us dinner, traveled from near and far, stored milk in your freezers, listened, sent flowers and cards, called to let us know you cared, cleaned, prayed and fasted to help us while we welcomed Claire into our family. Not to mention all of the sweet nurses and doctors who cared for her night and day for over 3 months. She is our little miracle, but I hope you know that YOU were also part of our miracle! Thank You!

 

First Grade!

Parker started first grade on August 22, 2013.  His teacher this year is Miss Ostler at Sierra Bonita Elementary School.  He loves school and wants to be a police officer when he grows up.  He was so excited to ride the bus, eat lunch at school, make new friends and get homework.  He discovered that 2 of the kids in his class live in our neighborhood and lots of his friends ride the bus with him.  He was a little disappointed after the 2nd day when he still didn't have any homework.  So he prayed for homework that night.  Parker loves to learn and we are so excited to watch him grow this year!

Camping!

Paul's coworker had reserved a campsite at Payson Lakes for Friday night, the weekend before school started and was unable to use it.  So he asked if we would like to use it.  We had been wanting to go camping for a long time and this put us in motion.  We gathered up our things and stopped at the grocery store for some food items we needed and headed up Nebo Loop right after Paul got home from work.  The camp site was packed, which made me feel safer.  If we were going to be in the middle of the wilderness, at least there were a lot of other people out there too.  While looking for our site, we happened to run into our old duplex neighbors; Jeff and Emily Peterson ands kids; James, Rachel, Louisa, and David. 

We set up our tent and then got our fire going and roasted hot dogs and s'mores with just enough time to set up our sleeping arrangements and get ready for bed.  Well, we only have a 2-man tent and there are now 6 of us in our family.  Paul and I slept right next to each other lengthwise and the kids were perpendicular to us.  I thought, "This will be cozy, fun and memorable."  Well, kids can sleep anywhere, scrunched in any place and apparently, so can Paul, but not me.  I did not get very much sleep, but looking up at the stars was beautiful.

We woke up the next morning to a car panic alarm, which I was certain was ours, but apparently not, since our clicker was not the one that turned it off.  But, Good Morning!  We  were all awake.  It was then that we heard some leaf crunching noises in the distance and saw large brown figure.  I was about to get a little scared, but I saw that it had a big horse-like mouth and was eating leaves.  It slowly made its way through the trees, getting closer to us, so we were able to get a good look at it.  It was a large moose!  (We had been told there was a moose roaming in the area, that was blind in one eye and very old.)  He wandered closer until, he was not more than 5 feet from the opening of our tent.  We took lots of pictures.  He looked at us a couple of times, but didn't seem to be bothered and just kept eating.  Paul kept the bear spray in hand, just in case he decided to charge us.  It was fun to have a morning visitor, although we were trapped in our tent for 20 minutes, until he wandered far enough away that we were brave enough to get out.

We ate breakfast, walked to the lake, played frisbee and were able to hang out with the Petersons.  Parker and Autumn loved exploring with James and Rachel.  We loved camping and think we might be brave enough to do it more often, but first we need a bigger tent!

 

 

Extras

When Lincoln had his 3 year old pictures taken, we took a couple extras of Parker and Autumn.

3 Years Old!

 

 

 

Happy Birthday Lincoln!

Our Lincoln boy is 3 years old!  He is our most adventurous climber and explorer.  He is riding a little Ninja Turtles 2-wheel bike with training wheels and his Cars 3-wheel scooter.  He loves to jump on the couch and off of high places.  He wants to be doing anything that Parker is doing.  He loves being a big brother to Claire and can often be found pulling on her leg, rolling her on the ground or in her face, making her laugh.  He asks "Why?" after everything you tell him.  When the kids are asking whose turn it is to do something and I announce it is someone else's turn and not his, he always responds, "I never!"  This is usually accompanied with arms folded, head down and pouty face.  I try not to let him see me smile, because it is so cute.  He is a sensitive little guy, who walks off and cries when you get upset with him.  He has a great sense of humor and is always smiling and making us laugh.  We love our Linky dink!

 

Favorites:

color: blue

food: strawberries

toy: goggles

game: Trouble

Show: Backyardigans

Friends: Ezra, Kekoa, Lukas