Saturday, May 14, 2011

Hakuna Matata


This is a link to a video of Rebecca performing her amazing solo for the band concert at her school. She did such an incredible job I just had to share it.
(When the video first starts it looks weird but after about 10 seconds it's normal.)


Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Other news

Shari and I had fun going to a Mother Daughter Activity for Activity Days. It was fun to have a date with my Shari. Before we went we had a little shopping trip and found this cute outfit at a consignment store here in Tooele.
Rebecca liked the outfit too, so she wore it to the Salt Lake Valley Science Fair. She was so excited. She went through judging at her Elementary School and was one of the kids chosen to go on to the fair at University of Utah. She had a really good experience and we are so proud of her.
Also, Jared is 9 months old! He's so big and so fun. In fact, in this picture you can tell he's growing right out of all his 9 months clothes. I had to put them all away yesterday so I stop putting him in clothes that give him wedgies. Now we've got the 12 month clothes out so hopefully they'll last him until he's 12 months!

Our Big Boy

Turning 3 is just this exciting!

Donald has been talking about his birthday for weeks. He's had it all planned out because he's been so excited. In preparation for turning 3 he potty trained, because that's what big boys do. He's also amazed us with getting dressed on his own every morning and then in his pjs at night. He even started making his own bed. The best part for him about being a big boy is playing Wii! He loves Wii. He's especially good at Wii sports resort sword fighting and basketball. He's won first place a couple times on Mario Kart.
For his birthday he asked for a basketball hoop and a Wii Monster Truck game. While he plays basketball he calls himself Jimmer and I get to be the radio announcer shouting out Jimmer's every move. It's pretty entertaining. He's learned all the names of the Monster Trucks on his game and before his birthday he wanted me to find monster truck clips on You Tube every day. Boys are so predictable, balls and trucks are all they need.
Oh, and of course dinosaurs and weapons! He got dinosaurs from a friend and he got some guns and a sword from his brothers.
His other cute obsession is Pokemon. His sisters have a bunch of Pokemon cards and it's so precious to hear him rattling off all the Pokemon names. It sounds like jibberish to me but they all love Pokemon.
I had to include a couple more pictures of Donald and his cake because he's just that cute!
While we sang to him he wouldn't turn his head, he just kept looking out of the side of his eyes with this big smile on his face. I love this boy so much.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Young Woman

My baby girl turned 12 this weekend. I have to include some older pictures as well. Here she is in Mobile, Alabama, when she was 3 sitting on her "Thinking Chair" like Steve from Blues Clues. I am sure she had some really astounding thoughts this day.
Here she is her first day of Kindergarten in Ocean Springs, MS.
Here she is in Pensacola, FL with her baby sister. I think she was 3 or 4.
Here she is on her 5th birthday. This ballet dress was her present from Grandma Weir.
Here she is as a 6 month old boy, oh wait, I mean this is Jared but he looks exactly like her!
On Friday night we had a wonderful Piano Recital with all the piano playing cousins participating. It was a night of wonderful music so we decided to include Happy Birthday to Rebecca as one of the songs. It was so fun to hear such a rousing chorus of happy singers.
On her birthday I actually made her help a little with laundry. How can I be so cruel? It isn't so bad because her brothers and sister did her jobs for her while she sat on the couch and picked songs for her birthday CD.
10 fingers and 2 toes this year! Next year I don't know what we'll do.
Here she is ready for her first official day as a Young Woman. She recited the 4th article of faith at the beginning of Sacrament Meeting and came home with tons of hand outs and presents from her first day with the Young Women. She loved it and I know they love her.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Through the Years

I recently had a birthday and while I was looking at pictures to post it occurred to me that there's something of me in each one of my kids. So, here's a little photo essay on me through the years.
Here is what I might have looked like if I had been a big baby boy. He's something else. Every time I look at his cute face I am so happy he's actually mine!

It is nearly impossible to get a good picture of Donald and Charlie together. If one of them is cute the other one looks goofy, or they just look goofy all the time. I think Donald must look like me in some ways, although I can't figure out how. He really is his Daddy's twin, but I decided he can represent me when I was two, although he's much bigger and a boy as well.
Charlie is my twin so he represents me when I was 6. We even share the same proclivity to yell even when the person we're talking to is standing right next to us. Also we both have very strong opinions and they are usually right.
Here I am as an 8 year old. Again, as far as looks go I don't see much of me in this kid, but there are so many times that he reminds me of me. Especially when he takes it upon himself to boss everyone in the house around, including me. It's precious.
Here I am as a 10 year old and an 11 year old. Now, I wish I could say I'm just like Shari, because she's so sweet, but I'll have to just be thankful she looks a little like me and likes things to be organized. Rebecca is also sweet, and she likes things to be a certain way or she gets frustrated and she is very cautious. She also loves being a mommy to her younger sisters and brothers, which is so much like me.
Here's the 33 year old me and man does it show!! That's why I prefer looking at the younger versions of myself. They are all so beautiful, no wrinkles, and sweet as can be!

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Birthday Party

For Shari's friend party we did a Scavenger Hunt. I have never been good at thinking of ideas for scavenger hunts but for Shari I would do anything. Plus, she has such a sweet group of friends. I wanted them to have lots of fun. They started out with a little pizza party and then the fun really started.

First they went outside and rode around on bikes for a little bit.
Then they had to each find a stretchy pet and name it. It sounds like an easy task, but not for my girls. They have to choose just the right name whenever they name something. It turned out that most of the names chosen were from Harry Potter.
Then they went inside and put on a piano concert. They all did so good. Even the girls that had never played had fun.
For one task they dressed up in costumes and took pictures of each other. This was really entertaining and I have lots of pictures but this gives you an idea of their crazy costumes.
For my sake they had a task where they broke up into groups and entertained a little brother. Here they are playing ball with Adrian,
playing battleship with Charlie,
and playing Star Wars/Indiana Jones with Donald.
Their last task was making up a dance to the song Shari Baby. It was so cute. I was super impressed and they had lots of fun. I want to post their dance but for some reason I haven't been able to get videos up on the blog. Anyhow, it was a big hit and I was just so glad it turned out.
Her cake for her friend party was cinnamon rolls. They were yummy. After that the girls played for an hour and somehow they still thought the party ended too early. It was definitely a night to remember.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

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.