I love perfect days

And today was one of them! :) With the end of the summer fast approaching, Barth decided to take the day off and we all went to the zoo together as a family. Our family zoo membership expires tomorrow, so we wanted to go one last time before it was up. I love the zoo here. There are so many trees and vegetation that it makes it nice and shady. The flowers are lovely there and the children always enjoy seeing the animals. Today we had perfect weather. It was low to mid 80's with relatively low humidity and a nice breeze. That meant that when you were in the shade, you were cool. We left for the zoo at 10 and got home tonight just before 7. It was a lovely day. Perfect for savoring the last few weeks of summer with all of my little ones. Everyone was well behaved and a good time was had by all. My only wish was that I wouldn't have forgotten my camera!! Oh well! Here is to the last few wonderful weeks of summer that we have left. Thanks Barth for taking the day off!! We all love it best when you are around!!!! :D

Evan - 10.5 months

This morning Evan had his 9 month check up. It was late since we were out of town for the entire month of June and this was the soonest that we could get in for a well check. He did great for his visit today. He got a round of shots since I always wait until my kids are 4 months old to start shots. Aaron also got the last of his boosters so that he can start school here in a few weeks. Evan is growing by leaps and bounds! Here are his stats from today:

Weight: 23 lbs, 3 oz - 70%

Height: 31.5 inches - 97%

Head: 19.37 in - 99%

He is doing great developmentally. He is babbling, (although not as much as some of my other kids) he loves to feed himself and eats all table foods. He never really has liked baby food other than the puff cereal and freeze dried fruit kind of things. He has 4 teeth- 2 on top, 2 on bottom. He LOVES to walk. He is getting better and better at it. He prefers walking to crawling. He puts himself to sleep at night and for naps. The only concern was that his iron was at the very lowest level of acceptable. They will re-check it at his 1 year check. Until then, they gave us a list of foods to have Evan eat to boost his iron. It should be fine though!! :) I am not too worried. So basically, he is growing like a weed and is happy as a clam!!! :D

Evan walking

So fashionable!!!!

Just how fashionable do you need to look when you are busy doing your morning summer jobs? Obviously Amber thinks that she needs to be all decked out! :) It makes me smile all day long! She always has some sort of get up and a different set of shoes on! She is all girl...and so much different than the boys. Don't let her girly get-up fool you though- she can wrestle with the best of them!! She might be all girl, but she has a bunch of brothers and so she isn't going to let anyone push her around. :D I love her fun personality!
And Evan.....well, he is into everything these days! He looks innocent enough sitting there, but he had, 3 seconds before, been sitting inside this basket that was placed in its current spot so as to block the videos and dvds, pulling every single one off the shelf as fast as his little hands would go!!! :) He is getting to the busy stage. I don't really mind it too much though. I am glad that he is healthy and growing!!!!
And seriously, how could you not love that adorable little face of his?!!! He is well on his way to being fully mobile. He can walk 10+ steps at a time. He can walk and stop and then go again. He stands himself up just fine in the middle of the room!! I love it when my babies get mobile because they are really so much happier!!! Hooray for walking! :)

Remembering

I sit here tonight all alone with thoughts running through my head. This is always a hard day for me and my family, and yet a day to be thankful for the knowledge that we will live again someday. This day most of all, I am thankful for the knowledge that my family can be together forever. I am thankful that I will one day be able to see my brother again. That we will laugh and talk and that he will have a good and perfect body. I am thankful everyday that I have a sweet little boy that resembles him.....curls and all. And I am thankful to have a boy that bears his name. I hope that, through me, my children will know and love their Uncle Aaron. So tonight, here are some of my favorite memories and things about Aaron. :)

His generous nature! We called him Uncle Warbucks!! When Weston was little and we were so poor and in college, Aaron was always more than happy to give of his money to help his first little nephew out.

He was the master fisherman!! Now I am pretty sure that Steven fought for that title with Aaron, but Aaron always won out! He could catch anything and everything with his little snoopy fishing pole. And he could catch it on practically anything too!

I can never here the phrase, "You never know....." without thinking of Aaron. Boy was he ever the stubborn red head.....but in a good way most of the time. :)

Whenever I head Garth Brooks playing, I think of him, singing along. Any time that Shameless played at the stake dances, Aaron and I would find each other and dance---all the while singing, "I'm shavin'!!" I swear that is what it sounds like he is saying!

I can still see Aaron now, rolling his eyes and giving me that fake exasperated smile, because he hated that I always wanted to be on time, or as he saw it, early to band practice. He loved to tease me about that to no end!

He loved to jump out and scare us all the time......Momma especially! And we would fall for it every time. He loved to hide and jump out and scare us! :)

I can still see him and Allison playing and swimming at the pool! They were quite the pair! And I can still hear them singing, "Picnic time for teddy bears" and singing the words all wrong. They thought that they were in their underwear instead of being unawares!!!! So, to this day, when that same song plays on the cd in our car, all my kids know to sing underwear in place of the real words!!!!

His dogged determination was, and always will be, an example to me. He never gave up. Never! Even as he was in his last hours, he kept talking about what he was going to do when he got better. I think that he had more stick-to-it-ness in his little finger than I have in my entire being! Just thinking about it makes me want to try harder and harder to be more like him.

I think that my most embarrassing moment that Aaron was a part of would have to have been the summer that I really liked a certain lifeguard at our pool. When he started not paying as much attention as I would like, I decided that playing hard to get was the tactic of choice. It worked. But I can still remember how mortified I was when Aaron came up to me at the pool when I was swimming with this lifeguard and announced, "I thought you were playing hard to get!!" I was soooooo embarrassed!!! Oh well......what are brothers for, right?!! :D

I really could go on and on. I have so many good memories. I am thankful for all the many things that I learned from Aaron. I know that I miss seeing and talking to him, but it won't be forever. And until I meet him again, I choose to think that in between his busy times of teaching those spirits that have gone ahead of us the gospel of Jesus Christ, he is always close by, watching over me and my family. He is our own personal guardian angel. And I will always love him......

Catching up

I am trying to catch up with pictures from our trip to Texas during the month of June! We had a great time. Hopefully I can get all caught up. Amber is sick today and so I thought that I would blog during her nice long nap. I didn't get as much done as I had hoped for because I first had to write a talk for church tomorrow!! :) I hear her stirring, so my time is at an end! Look for more posts in the near future!

Trip to TX- my Friend, Shannon's, Wedding

catching up from my trip to TX...

The weekend after Melissa's wedding, my best friend from my entire life long, Shannon, got married! I am so happy for her and was even happier that I got to be there for the event. My wonderful in-laws watched the kids while I went and so I hitched a ride with my Mom and Dad. It was fun to be with just them. It isn't something that happens all that often anymore now that I have a quiver full of children! My mom and I are the best of friends and it was wonderful to be able to visit with her! Here we are at the reception!
This is my mom and Shannon's mom, JoLynne. They have been friends and neighbors since Shannon and I were in diapers.

Eric, Shannon's older brother, and his wife, Stormy, and their children came in for the big day! It was fun to get to see them as well.

The happy couple! I just hope that Shannon and Tim will have a fantastic life together! They make an awfully cute couple!

And lastly, Shan and I! I was also able to get to see her after she got back from her honeymoon. It was great to catch up and hear all about her big trip! I am grateful to have know Shannon all these years!!!!

Trip to Texas- the BIG event!!!!!

More catching up from our trip to TX......

The main reason that we left when we did was so that we could go and see my little sister get married and sealed in the temple to her sweet husband, Austin. It was a fabulous day! I enjoyed every minute of it! (even the heat!) She was a beautiful bride and looked like an angel. I forgot my camera in the morning for the pictures at the temple, so all I have are ones from the reception. It was a lovely event! I am so glad that we were able to go.
Amber had been anticipating wearing her hat, and "glubs", and "tutu" as she put it! When this picture was taken, she had already gotten strawberries all over his gloves. All the girls cousins looked as pretty as a picture!

The bow ties that I made turned out great and matched the vests really well. I am glad that we did them. At the temple, some of the girls there called Weston a stud! :O I think that he looks mighty handsome!

It was fun to see and visit with those that I hadn't seen in a LONG time! Katie is like a sister to me. My mom babysat for her most of my childhood and then she lived with our family for a while before she got married. I had a lot of fun visiting with her and catching up!

The cousins had a grand old time being together and playing at the reception. I have to admit that they didn't have the best supervision (as all of us adults were busy visiting). But really, some of those times are what brings the best memories in the lives of the little ones. If you ask Brian what his favorite part of the whole day was, he would tell you that it was being able to eat 3 pieces of cake at the reception. (Mind you, it looked like he was wearing one of those pieces.) I am glad that the kids had fun as well!

It was fun seeing my Grandmas and my Aunt and Uncle! My Grandma Cameron lives all the way in Washington, so it was fun to see her and let her see all the kids!

It was so great to see people that I knew growing up! Seeing the lattice work that my mom and I had painted 12 years before for my own wedding took me back to my big day so many years before......

Melissa and Austin looked so in love. It was fun to see!

I think that they were the daintiest cake eaters that I have ever seen. :)

Our beloved Auntie M!!

And our new Uncle Awesome!!! Weston came up with his new name! He said that since Auntie M had a special name that he needed one too! The kids adore him already! He won over the hearts of my boys on the 4th of July when he let them do all his fireworks!!!! Thanks Uncle Awesome!

They had the traditional Daddy/Daughter dance. I think that it is good that she will be living close by to home, otherwise Daddy would have had a harder time I think! :)

The newlyweds sharing their first dance.

Everyone had a great time dancing the night away!

You can't forget the throwing of the bouquet!

And by the end of the night we had one tired group of kiddos! It was a wonderful, wonderful day. One that I am sure no one will forget!!!! We love you Auntie M and Uncle Awesome!

Trip to TX- G &G Yorke's

Trying to catch up from when we went to TX.....

The first few weeks that we went to TX we stayed at Grandma and Grandpa Yorke's house. As always, they had lots of fun activities planned for us. The pictures from this particular day were from the science museum that we went to. The kids had a great time seeing all there was. We dug for bones and saw a 4-D movie and then watched a show at the planetarium during which almost all of our children fell asleep. I think that it had something to do with the fact that in the days leading up to it, naps were in short supply because we decided that having fun was a better idea! :D
Some of the other fun things that we did while we were there was play lots and lots with our cousins, shoot off rockets, swim and launch water balloons. The kids especially enjoyed picking vegetables from their garden and so were so excited to come back to our garden that was just getting going!! Thanks for the fun time!!!

How does your garden grow?

Okay Momma....here is the update on the garden! :) Weston was so excited that the watermelons that he planted are finally getting some little melons on them! Aren't they so cute there?!
This morning we went out to pick the few tomatoes that were ripe enough to pick! I wanted to get to them before the birds did. Aaron and Amber wanted to help me out. Here they are standing in front of our garden. It is outgrowing the raised bed that we planted it in. I am glad that everything is growing so well though!!!

Here is a better shot of the tomatoes that we picked this morning. Aren't they big and juicy looking?! They are huge! When the other boys came out and saw that we had a couple of ripe tomatoes, they decided that we needed to have tacos so that we could eat them up! At least they want to eat them right?!

Aaron and Amber with the yummy tomatoes!! They weren't looking, but the picture was too cute not to include!

Aaron loves to pick the veggies from the garden. I just wish that he was just as excited about eating when he picks.

The cucumbers grow like crazy! It seemed at first that they were taking over the garden. They are delicious though and they grow so fast that it gives the kids lots of things to pick. It has been so fun for all of us to see how just a few little seeds can grow into so much!

More cucumbers... Can you spy it in there?

Here are the green beans on the vine for you Momma! We get enough just about every other day to have them with our dinner. The kids are enjoying eating them. We did plant carrots and peas as well, but the vines took over their spots and choked them out so we didn't get any of those. Well, at least we will know better for next year right?!

And this is so that you can see how long the beans are. The kids love to pick them, but they don't get to pick them until they are big like this!! :) I am really enjoying our little garden! Who knows? We might even expand it next year!!!

Happy 5th Birthday Aaron!!

It is hard to believe that my sweet little Aaron is really 5 years old! He is getting so big. It seems like just yesterday that he was being born. My how the time has flown.... Here are five fantastic things that I love about Aaron:

1. His sweet smile and adorable little voice. I wish that I could just bottle it up and save it forever!

2. His strong determination and patience. I think that this will work well to his advantage in the years to come. He can accomplish most anything when he puts his mind to it!

3. He loves the scriptures. He is always wanting to read them and learn more about the gospel.

4. He is my biggest snuggler and is just the right size for a good cuddle. He loves to be my snuggle bug in the mornings!

5. He loves to be outside in the summer-time and swimming. He is my little fish!!

I am so privileged to have Aaron as my sweet little boy!! I love him so much and all that he adds to our family! Happy Birthday Aaron!!!

How Cute are these?

Yesterday we were supposed to go to a birthday party for Brian's good friend from school. Our families are good friends and all the kids were invited. However, Friday night Brian mentioned that he was feeling cold. He never says that he feels cold unless he is coming down with something. So Barth and I watched and waited. Saturday morning came and Brian didn't want to eat. Even though he didn't have a fever, he knew that he wasn't going to get to go to the party if he was sick. So, he gave it his best try at being well and ate some lunch. The rest is history. He really was sick. Poor guy. He gets sick every July......without fail. Who knows?! At any rate he was bummed about missing the fun party. So, today he was so excited (and feeling better) when his friend's mom came over with these cute cakes from the party that she had saved for us! Aren't they adorable?!!!! They are 2 huge cupcakes put together and then frosted to look like cute little dogs. The party had a dog theme and I have to admit that they were perfect!! Kim also brought over plates and napkins from the party and party bags for all the kids! She is such a sweet friend and it brightened Brian's day. I am just thankful that his vomiting only lasted about 12 hours and that he is on his way back to being his old self. :)

Red Letter Days (and nights)

This week has been full of red letter days for our littlest guy!! :) Some may laugh because their babies have been good at these things from the get go, but for me, they are fantastic!!!! Evan, for the first time this week, laid in his own bed and got himself to sleep!! Yay and Hooray!!!!!! :) Last night he slept from 7:30 pm to 7:45 and and only woke up once at midnight!!! I feel so much more rested today. :) And, of course, as you can see, Evan can stand on his own now with no support. A few days ago he took his first step. Yesterday he took 4 in a row a ton of times and has taken 5 in a row this morning all ready!!!! I am so excited! He is later and earlier walking than others of mine. So I guess that you could say that he is probably pretty average. :D I love that he is happy and learning to get around!!! I am glad to have him in our family. We all love him so much.

As a side note, I really am going to get some pictures up from my trip to Texas. The trouble is that I am working from a little bitty netbook computer since both our big computer and laptop are shot. Hopefully in the next day or 2 we will be getting our new computer that will be easier to work from and get some other things posted!

Let Sleeping Babies Lie

That is my motto anyway! :) Yesterday evening I took the kids out to ride bikes and play while Barth watched the soccer finals in peace that he had recorded earlier in the day. When I came back in, this is how I found Evan. And that is how he stayed till about midnight. So sweet! When did he get to be so big? Just looking at him there makes me think that he looks half grown already and so much less like a baby. His 4th tooth broke through today. He stands well on his own for short amounts of time. He wants to take steps but is still shy about the whole thing. My how the last 10 months have flown by.....

Home at last

After being gone for a month, we are finally back at home! The car ride home was good. The kids did fantastic! it was actually hotter and more brown here than it was there in TX! Crazy! it was good to be back, although we had a wonderful visit! I was so excited when we got back to see that the garden that we had planted just before we left was doing great!!! the kids went out and picked some veggies as soon as we got home!! This was our first little harvest from our garden!!!!

Below is how our garden is looking!!!!!!
Tomorrow we will have to go and get some of those tomato thingies that hold up your vines! Our tomatoes are getting huge! I can't wait for them to ripen!

We have 3 bushes of tomatoes. There are supposed to be medium and large tomatoes. Don't they look yummy?!

And here are the beans! Yum, yum!!! The peas and carrots that we planted seem to have been overrun by the vines of cucumbers, watermelon and cantaloupe in the garden!!! I can't wait to see if we get some watermelon and cantaloupe!!

As I get more time I will blog all the action from our trip to TX!!! We had a great time while we were there! Thanks to all our family for allowing us to stay with them and put up with the mess that is created by having 5 children!! :) We love you all!