End of the Year Festivities

Today was a little award ceremony for Weston's class. It was a lot of fun. Here are some picture from it!

When we came in all the kids were on the floor and we sat in their chairs. Each child took a turn reading something that they had written during the year. Weston read a poem that he had written. Here is a picture of him with the whole group on the floor. He was excited that we were there!!

After that, Weston's teacher, Mrs. Gault, gave each of them reading awards on how many books that they had read during the year. In the 4 weeks that Weston has been in school, he read 36 books. There were kids there with a lot more, but I figured if we had been able to count ALL the books that he had read in Ms. York's class in NC, he would have had a lot more. He said that his favorite book that he read this year was "Ramona the Pest"!!

Here is a picture of Weston with his certificate.

And finally, here is a picture of Weston with his teacher, Mrs. Gault. In his hand you can also see that he is holding a trophy. He got that for having perfect attendance in this school. (He missed several days at his last school, but they said that didn't matter. He just had to have perfect attendance at this school to get the award!!)

See Ya Soon!!

Well, in just a few hours I will be boarding a plane and heading back to my beloved Texas!!! I am so exctied to go to Melissa's graduation and see everyone that I haven't seen in almost a year. I hope that you survive with out my little blog here, but I will post all about my fun adventure when I get back!!!!

Swimming

With Record breaking temperatures the last few days of 83, we decided to cool off at our apt. pool. We went as soon as we picked up Weston from school today and the boys had a lot of fun!!! Weston was swimming like a fish and both of the big boys were doing "splashy cannonballs" just like Tacky the Penguin. Aaron eased in (as did I-since it was freezing) but finally was jumping off the sides with his brothers. So I guess that summer has just about arrived and the we are into the swimming scene!!! This is a picture of our pool (kind of- it was the only one on the website.) The pool is a lot of fun with a big step area and lots of 3 ft water for the boys to swim in!!!! Hooray for swimming time!!!!

Tender Moments

It is moments like these that make me glad that I am a mom!!!

Aaron wanted me to keep reading books this morning, but I needed to make lunch so Brian sat down and read to Aaron. The book was a little lengthy and as Brian put it, "I can't read all those words!" I told him to just tell Aaron about the pictures. The two of them looked so sweet together that I just had to get a picture. They looked up right as I was snapping the picture though. Still, it was a sweet and tender moment.
Aaron decided that he wanted to have his picture taken today, so here he is smiling for the camera. Such sweet boys!!!

Pictures

Okay well I wanted Weston to take a picture of me so that you could all see how big I am geting now that I am 5+ months along. After about 10 tries (most of them of my shoes or with my head cut off) I got a usable one that you can take a look at. It really is not a good picture of me, but oh well!! At least you can see my little tummy!! The boys wanted me to take picture of them at the same time, so I took some and posted theirs before mine (because of course, they are cuter than I am!!) I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Jump Zone

No pictures this time. Sorry!! But I thought that I would post since I have nothing better to do. The house that we put a contract on didn't work out and so now we are looking at looking again. I really don't think there is anything else out there that we haven't seen, but we have to get a house, so hopefully soon!!! Today was a day off of school for us. The last day of school is the last day of the month, so we have a few more days to go. Today was a teacher workday and so we had a play date with another family in our ward. We had heard that Jump Zone was a fun place to go so we thought we would try it out. It is a big place with all of these inflatable bouncy things for the kids to play on. I got a coupon online and so it was 2 for the price of one. Aaron was free and so I only had to pay for one child. We were there for a little over 2 hours and the boys had a blast. It was quite crowded since there were a few daycares there because of the day off of school, but Weston and Brian could have cared less. They had a big inflatable firetruck slide that Brian just loved. Weston was partial to the Superman obstacle course. Aaron was partial to my lap!!! Good thing I didn't have to pay for him!! :) We all had a fantastic time and the boys are so worn out that all 3 of them are now sound asleep!! Looks like I need to go and get a little nap in while they are sleeping!!!!!

Big Bone Lick State Park

This afternoon we went out to Big Bone Lick State Park. It is less than 10 miles from where we live and is a free state park. We had such a fun day!! The state park is a place where Lewis and Clark found some bones of mammoths and saber tooth tigers and other things like that. There were several trails that we hiked. The first was totally paved and all the boys walked. The later ones that we did were heavily wooded and we off roaded Aaron in our umbrella stroller. The park has bison that you can hike out to see and it was just a fun and interesting afternoon. Here are some pictures of our hike.

This was taken at the beginning of the hike. We were having a hard time getting everyone to look at the camera at the same time!! They were ready to be on the hike.

A lot of the hike had trees and shade. It was breezy and just right outside. The boys had fun learning about all the interesting points that were marked along the path.
I thought that it was sweet that Aaron wanted to hold Weston's hand!!
At the end of the hike we took a break for a drink. Nothing like a cool drink to make you feel better!!
Weston enjoying some gatorade.
Aaron wants to be just like his big brothers. He didn't want any help with his drink.
I guess that I should mention that the reason that the park is named big bone lick is because of all the natural springs in the area. Somehow the sulphur and salt that are in the springs would attract animals that needed salt in their diets. The big pools of salt brine that were formed were called salt licks. The ground around the licks were very boggy and many animals died because they got stuck in the bogs. That is why there were so many old bones discovered in this place. And that is your history lesson for the day!!!!

Park Time

While Barth staked out a spot and got our charcoal going, I took the boys over to the park. The place was packed so there wasn't a spot where Barth could grill nearby where we were. The boys had a lot of fun at the park. Even though there were lots of people around, there weren't many that were playing on the equipment. I think that the biggest hit with the boys was the digging machine. It was a piece of play equipment that had this scoop thing that they could navigate to pick up and move the bark chips!!!

This rock wall was steeper than most and Weston loved it!!! He thought he was big stuff to be able to climb vertical and not on the usual dome shaped climbers that they have on the playgrounds.

Aaron's favorite activity at the park was to climb up and down the stairs. He was not really cooperating as far as letting me get a picture of his face, so this will just have to do!!! He was way too busy to want to take pictures.
Here are the boys with the digging machine. I wish that I had gotten a little further back so that you could see the digger part, but it was fun. Aaron thought that it was fun for Weston and Brian to get up on the seat and then he would push them around and around in circles.
Brian loved swinging. It was a fun day and perfect weather. It was about 70 or just a little over today!! The perfect day to be outside!!!!

Picnic Dinner

After our fun day of hiking, we headed up to the picnic area to have dinner. Barth did a great job cooking up the hot dogs and the boys loved them!! We had our fancy dinner of hot dogs, chips, grapes and drinks. After all that was done, we cooked up some s'mores. They were really yummy and a great end to our fun family outing. The boys wanted to stay longer, but it was 7 and bath time was calling our name!!!!

Here is our master chef!!!

Brian and Aaron enjoying dinner. I think that Brian ended up wearing more of his dinner than he ate!!!!
Weston sat next to Daddy at the table. He was thrilled that he got to drink some soda pop!!!!
Here is our little Baron enjoying marshmallows and crackers. This was as close to s'mores as he got!!!

Pink!!!

Okay well today I was finally able to go out and meet my need for pink, girly, baby things!!! It seems like everyday since we found out we were having a girl, there has been something going on!!!! But today, well today was my day to go and find pink things. The only thing that I like better than finding cute, pink dresses for this new little girl is getting them on clearance sale!!! Oh how I love a bargain!!!! I think that only thing better than getting cute clothes on clearance is getting them for hardly anything at garage sales!!! So tomorrow I think I will head out to see if I can find anything else pink for this new little girl of ours. :) In the meantime, you can take a look at the cute little dresses that I got today!!!

Oops, and I forgot that while we were out, Brian said that we needed pink binkies for this new little sister of his and so he chose some for the baby. He insists that we should name our new baby "Rosabel Pink"! Pretty creative huh?

Slump

Alright, so I am in a slump. There is nothing going on. All of our exciting baby news is said and there is nothing to report. I guess that I should take a few pictures of my cute kids and post them. Perhaps tomorrow. Today I am feeling slumpy and Barth goes out of town in a few days. To top it off Weston has been having an asthma attack and Aaron is grumpy due to teeth. So today I am feeling slumpy and grouchy. I think that I will go to bed now!! That's it!!!

It's a .......

GIRL!!!!!!

Yes, you saw right!! We are thinking pink here at our house!!!!!!!! I am very excited as is Barth and the boys!! Everything looked great. This is the very first baby that has run right on for it's due date. I am just over 22 weeks. The heart and everything looked great. During the whole thing, our little girl had the hiccups. It was very cute!! Here is a picture that they took today of the baby's profile. It is a little blurry I know, but I was too excited to post this and didn't want to have to try and try to get the picture right!!! Pink and pigtails here I come!!!!!!

Nightly Family Project

Ever since Monday night, the boys and I have been working very hard on a project. (Barth would have helped too if he was in town!!) Weston got this K'nex double farris wheel from Grandma and Grandpa Yorke for his birthday and we have been working very hard to put it together. Every night I have put Aaron to bed early and then the boys and I have worked on following the construction plan. So far we have put in an hour on it each night and it is really coming along. At first Weston needed lots of help to figure out what went where. Now he tells me, "I don't need help Mommy, you can just be the part lady!!" So I help set out the parts and he gets to work!! Brian uses the unused parts to build other things until Weston needs them. The whole thing is just about done. We have one whole wheel done and in the next day or two, the whole thing should be finished. It is really cool because it has a motor and everything that makes the farris wheel turn around. Here are some pictures of the boys working hard on their projects!!!

The boys with their creations.

Weston getting ready to do some serious building. Notice the parts laid out by the nice "part lady!" All Weston needs to do now is assemble.
Here is the one wheel that we finished tonight. Looks pretty cool in the picture but it is even cooler in person!!! Yea Weston!! Great job building!!!!

Update

I finally found an OBGYN that would take me and I had my first appointment today. I liked the doctor that I saw today. There are 5 in the practice. Since I will be having a scheduled c-section I will meet all 5 doctors and then I can choose to just see one for the rest of the time. Another thing is that they deliver at 2 different hospitals. One has a nursery and is farther away and the other one is closer, but doesn't have a nursery for well babies. I will be delivering at the one with the nursery. It is just too hard to have just had a c-section and then not really have any recovery time at the hospital. Today they also scheduled me for my ultrasound. It will be this upcoming Monday!! It will be fun to see the baby and see if we can find out what we are having!!! Everything went fine at the visit today. The heart rate was still around the upper 150s and I am right where I am supposed to be!!! Can't wait till Monday afternoon!! I'll make sure and post that evening to let everyone know what we find out!!!

The Hunt is On!!!

Tonight I found an old bottle of Coppertone kids that I didn't know that I had and so I sat down and compared all the ingredients from that bottle to the new one. They changed 3 things from the old kind to the new kind. So now the hunt is on to find sunscreen without these 3 new ingredients:

Avobenzone
Octocrylene and
Aluminum starch octenylsuccinate

I guess that I will just have to head over to Wal-Mart tomorrow and look at the back of all the bottles of suncreen to see if I can find one without these ingredients!!! Now that I have it narrowed down, maybe I can find one that won't make Weston break out in a rash!!!!

Happy 7th Birthday Weston!!!!!

Today my baby turned 7!!!! I can't believe it!!! We had a great day today. We had a fun family party day with Weston. We started off the day by going to Chuck E Cheese. We wanted to go as soon as it opened this morning because it seems like it is always crowded on Saturdays. We got there right at 10 am when it opened and had the place almost to ourselves!! It was great. There were 4 other kids there for a birthday party, but besides that, the place was ours!!!! The boys had fun running from game to game without having to wait for anything. Even by 11:30, there still were not many people there. It was really nice. Weston got a balloon when he came in the door since it was his birthday. He was very excited about it and wore it the whole time we were there. When all was said and done, we were there for about 2 and a half hours and had a fantastic time!!!! Here are some pictures of the fun!!!

Here is the birthday boy!! I think he is telling me something about his balloon. I'm not really sure, but I really like the close up picture of him!

Here is Weston playing ski ball. He loves to play that game. If you look closely you can see his sunscreen rash on his neck, cheeks and ears!! Poor baby!!!
Brian was so exctied that this place had a firetruck to ride on!! He rode it over and over again!!!
This was Aaron's favorite thing to do. I think we have a million of the little pictures that the ride takes while you ride it. Aaron is getting so independent. He only wanted to ride it if he was the one to put the token in!! I think the 2's have arrived!!!
Weston and Daddy playing air hocky!! Barth is such a fun dad and had a great time playing with his boys!!!!
Just a cute picture of Brian waiting patiently for his turn to play air hockey with Weston!!
Weston kept talking about how he wanted a cake from Chuck E Cheese when he went there because it was his birthday. I kept telling him that this wasn't going to happen because that was really only for parties and we were just going there as a family for his birthday. Well, as we sat eating our pizza for lunch, one of the girls that worked there came up and aked Weston how old he was and what his name was. He was excited that someone was asking about his birthday. Well, about 5 or so minutes later, after Weston and Brian had left to go climb in the big climby thing, and Barth and I were waiting for Aaron to finish, the girl came back and asked us if Weston would like a slice of cake and for them to sing to him. I said that he would love it. We called the boys back over and they sat down. Then a group of the kids that worked there came out and sang to Weston and gave him a slice of cake with a lit candle in it and everything. Weston was SO excited!!! It was a fun end to our morning at Chuck E Cheese!!! Here is a picture of the girl singing and Weston enjoying his moment of birthday recognition!!!

The Presents

After a fun morning at Chuck E Cheese, we came home. Aaron took a nap and Barth went out to get a haircut (which he never actually got because the lines were too long) and Weston and Brian had fun playing together. Once Aaron woke up it was present time!!! Weston was so excited!! He had been looking forward to this for days!!! I think that Brian was almost as excited to give Weston his present as Weston was to get it!!!! Here are a few pictures of present time...

Here is Weston lovingly reading the "card" that Brian made for him. It was a bunch of letters, but Weston took lots of time and asked Brian what each thing said. It was very sweet.

Oh how I love Brotherly Love!!! Weston hadn't even opened the present yet. This hug was for the nice card!!! It was so sweet.
The present from Brian. It was some Pokemon something or other that Brian really wanted to get Weston. Weston was thrilled. I think that Brian was going in for another hug here!!!!
Weston got K'nex from Grandma and Grandpa Yorke. If you make the picture bigger you can see that he is saying, "COOL!!!" He was very excited about this present!! Thank you Grandma and Grandpa!!!
Weston with the present from Aaron. Weston let him help open the gift. I think Aaron is a little puzzled here on why Weston is looking at the gift and not him!!!! After all, he did get to open it....
Here is Weston opening his favorite present from Daddy. It was a Pokemon ball with a gold card inside that Daddy got on Ebay. He loved it!!! (As a side note, Weston wanted a Poke' party. I don't know where he got off on this Pokemon kick, I think from his friends at school back in NC, but he got lots of fun Pokemon things and even colored Pokemon pictures that we hung up as part of the decorations!!!)
Weston with his new planet blanket that Grandma Whitley sent to him. Weston loves the Solar System and everything space, so it was great. Thanks Grandma!!
He also got a fun camera from Grandma and Grandpa Whitley!! Thank you!! Weston and Brian both think it is a cool thing!!!
Thanks to everyone for the presents, cards and money. The boys had a great time playing with all Weston's things this afternoon!!!

Cake Time

We did the cake at the end of the day. We had pigs in a blanket, grapes and rolls for dinner as was the requested dinner by Weston. It was all very yummy, but we had to wait a little bit before we were ready for the cake. The cake was chocolate per Weston's request and was quite yummy if I do say so myself. It was a perfect ending to a great day of fun for our family. We are happy to have Weston as part of our family and I am glad that he had a very happy birthday!!!

Here is the birthday boy with the cake before the candles are lit and everything so that you can see the actual cake.

We are singing happy birthday here. It took a little longer than usual because my camera batteries died mid-song. We changed them out and the candles continued to burn. After another round of "Happy Birthday to you..." he finally got to blow out the candles!!
Make a wish!!
We all loved the cake and ice cream. Especially Aaron!! For most of the time when he ate his cake, he used his fork, but by this point he had finally given up and turned to his hands!!
Happy Birthday Weston!!!!

Allergic Birthday Boy!!

Well, today is Weston's 7th birthday!!! I can't believe that he is that old!!! I can't believe that I am old enough to have a 7 yr old!!! Where is the time going to? I don't know!! Yesterday Weston and the rest of the 1st grade had a field trip to Big Bone Lick State Park. It is about 10 minutes from here and they spent the day exploring and looking at the places that they discovered things like Mammoth and Sabertooth bones here in Kentucky. Since it was an outside trip, they asked that the kids be sunscreened before they left that day. Now, you may not know, but Weston is very allergic to most sunscreens. He gets a terrible rash that borders on hives. We have tried all sorts of sunscreens and the only kind that ever worked for us was the Coppertone Kids 6 hour waterproof. Well, last year they changed the formula away from the prolonged waterproof but I was lucky enough to find the old kind (what was left of the 6 hour kind) at Target one day and bought both bottles that they had. Well, we used them all up last summer. Knowing that this trip was coming up and the reactions that Weston has had previously to different sunscreens, I decided to go ahead and try the new Coppertone Kids and hope for the best. He came home from his fieldtrip and I saw red on his neck. I just figured that I had missed some spots of the sunscreen and didn't think any further about it until this morning when he woke up looking like a rashy tomato on his neck, face, ears and insides of his arms!! Poor little birthday boy. He doesn't seem to be too itchy, but I guess that Coppertone is now out too!!! If anyone has heard of a good hypo-allergenic sunscreen, I would love to know about it!!! Most of the sunscreens say that they are hypo-allergenic, but Weston still reacts to them. We have tried most of the ones that are available at Wal-Mart and Target. I just wish that I could find a good one that would work for him. We are having a great birthday day today and I will post some pictures of that later on this evening when all is said and done. Happy Birthday to my little (or I guess that I should say NOT so little) boy!!

My Westy Pesty

Well, this Saturday marks Weston's 7th birthday!! I can't believe that he is that old!!! Time sure does fly by it seems. It seems like just yesterday I was graduating from BYU and expecting him in the next month. I was sure glad to have him early. He was a big baby and got bigger day by day. Now he is turning into such a big boy. He is so responsible and a great helper to me. He is a great friend to Brian and Aaron. He loves to spend time with his Daddy and has a very strong sense of right and wrong. He loves Heavenly Father and loves to go to church. He is a happy boy. Everyday as I watch him go into school I have to smile as he skips the whole way into school. He almost always has a smile on his face. He loves to learn and try new things. I am so glad that he is a part of our family. Here are a few pictures as I take a trip down memory lane!!!

Here is Weston at 4 and a half!! Oh how he loves to camp!!!

Weston on his 5th birthday. And I thought that he looked big then!!

I just love the no teeth pictures. I had to throw this one in just because!!!

Here he is at 6 yrs. I just love pictures from Kiddie Kandids. Too bad they don't have them here!!!

And finally, a picture taken recently!! He is so big now and such a great boy!!!
Happy almost Birthday Weston!!!