Birthday Girl

My Shari girl turned 10 last week. It really is amazing how fast it went by. I still look at her face and see this sassy little girl. (Actually she's really not sassy at all, but sometimes she pretends she is.) Here she is right after Rebecca took scissors to her hair and then blamed it on Shari. Shari didn't even tell me until this year that Rebecca is the one that cut her hair. She was only 2...

I had to include this picture of her very 1st birthday. Since her birthday is right after Halloween I really didn't want to make a cake so she had a Reeses Peanut Butter Cup. She was thrilled. I could even fit 1 candle.
Now she's 10! Here she is before opening presents. We gave her a collage of pictures of herself and some snow pants. Dan also made a nice CD cover and we gave her a blank CD so she could burn some songs that she likes from our Itunes. Charlie gave her the American flag and some stickers.

The biggest present was a new bike! Thankfully the weather was beautiful on her birthday. Since that day it's turned cold and snowy. It's hard to give a bike for a November birthday but she really needed one.
Her favorite cake is coffee cake. She's so adorable. It sure makes my life easy.
Here she is picking out songs with her Dad. She picked Shari Baby and Oh Shari for her first two songs. Then went on to C&C Music Factory, The Smiths, Barry Manilow, The Clash, Shania Twain, no wonder I couldn't figure out what songs to put on for her. She has crazy taste in music. It's pretty entertaining to listen to her CD.
I love her so much I can't express it in words. She's an angel.

Doing the Dishes

Worth it?

Since last September I've been tired and sick. I've had migraines and haven't been able to do even a small part of the things I want to. My kids have had to help out even more and Dan has had to do both our jobs a lot of the time. Sometimes I have to ask myself if he's really worth it. What do you think?

Last Weekend's Fun

I should have blogged all of this last week but I figure better late than never. Last Friday Jessie and I took our 4 little kids and went to the zoo. It's was really easy to have only 2 kids each. I love the bird show at Hogle Zoo and it was the first time I got to see the elephant show. I thought it was awesome but Donald was not as impressed. He enjoyed the lion shaped drinking fountain more. He actually thought the reptile house was pretty cool. He also loved the carousel and screamed most of the time. I was on the sideline taking pictures with Jessie's camera.

The day we went to the zoo the weather was beautiful. It was cloudy and rained a little so it stayed nice and cool. That evening when everyone was home from school we saw a double rainbow that looked like it ended right on our mountain side. It was so pretty. Charlie really wanted to go in our neighbors yard and look for the pot of gold.
On Saturday we went to Utah County to help Kimberly get settled in her new apartment. It was so fun to see her and spend time with Dan's Dad. I also love an excuse to walk around BYU campus. Here are my girls, the future students at BYU.
Melinda called while we were there so we got to see her too:) I was so glad. Here she is with the cutest boy at BYU.

Tribute to Summer Vacation

This is the only picture I took of our last cousin party of the summer. It was so much fun. We played at the park and then brought the party back to our house because we just didn't want it to end!

First Day of School

It's hard to believe that the summer is already over. It's gone by really fast. Just a few weeks ago we found out that all of the kids got into our local charter school. It's called Excelsior Academy. This morning after the girls got all dressed up in their uniforms Shari said, "Mom do I look too fancy?" I said, "That's the point of uniforms." Hopefully she'll feel comfortable once she sees how everyone else is dressed at school. I think they all look adorable.

I can't believe Rebecca is in 6th grade. She is growing up so fast. She was so nervous this morning. I hope she has a good day.
Charlie is ready to rule the school. He wasn't the least bit nervous.
Adrian is excited and he was so proud of the way he put his feet in this picture. After I took it he said, "Did you see how cool my feet looked?"
I just woke Donald up and he's already smiling. However, he wasn't to thrilled when the kids all jumped out of the van and left him behind. In fact he cried most of the way home because he wants to go to school now. I'm sure it will take some getting used to but once we get into a routine we'll have fun.

Pioneer Children

Our last days in Virginia were busy with packing, preparing to leave, and taking care of baby Jared. We were super busy and I kept thinking I should be taking pictures but never had the energy to go and find the camera.

This is our last picture taken in VA. It's the kids watching fireworks from the roof for the 4th of July. Even though we didn't go to a fireworks show we still saw quite a few just from our yard.

In order to all make it back to Utah we had to go our separate ways. Charlie flew back to Utah with his Grandma Weir and stayed with my sister Jessie while we were finishing getting everything packed. I flew back with Donald and Jared and my friend Roni, for help and moral support, on the 10th. Dan took Rebecca, Shari, and Adrian and drove across the country. They really felt like pioneers, except they had Nintendo DS, restaurants, and hotels. Not to mention it took them 5 days instead of months.

In Nebraska they made a stop at the Winter Quarters Temple and Visitors Center. Here are my pioneers.
Here they are at the Steak and Shake.
Adrian was trying to look like Brigham Young because of course some day he's going to play football at Brigham Young University.
I'm so thankful they made it home safely.