changes

Liv is suddenly changing so much! It makes me realize that she won't really be a "baby" for much longer. She figured out how to pull herself up to standing, and does it all the time now... including when I put her down to nap. She'll pull herself up and then stand there "stuck" and fussing for me to help her down (although she can do it herself). She stands on her tiptoes a lot and is starting to "dance" to the music. A dancer maybe? She is losing interest in nursing, and in baby foods in general. She LOVES to feed herself bread and cereal, and is starting to figure out how to drink from a cup. She is also starting to yell a bit to let you know that she wants something or that she doesn't like something. [Sigh] Yep, she's growing up!

spring break week two

Rob's oldest sister (JA) and her family joined us for our second week of spring break. The cousins played hard during the day and the adults got in some game playing in the evenings (always a favorite). The kids were able to do some swimming and play outside every day.

Liv and her uncle (watching the swimmers):

JA and I were able to do some shopping and find some great deals at Last Chance and Nordstrom Rack. I am not much of a shopper and so shopping with her is always fun--you know, learning from an expert. We were also able to relax some, visit lots, and eat plenty (at least it feels that way with a large group as there is always a kid that is hungry and some adult in the kitchen either cooking or cleaning up...). On Saturday evening we were thrilled to be joined by Grandma and Grandpa Pete!

What a busy, but fun couple of weeks. I'm exhausted and ready to get back into our usual routine. School starts tomorrow!

spring break week one

Spring break is here and so is the 80 degree weather (it's supposed to get back to the 70's by the weekend). The Haynie family, our very good friends from Utah, were kind enough to drive on down for a visit! It was great to see them and catch up, and the kids had so much fun playing together. Unfortunately, I didn't take many photos until they were about to leave, but we did some fun stuff this week: Went to the park, the Children's Museum, Tom took the four older kids to the Science Center one day (Rob was working and Angie and I were home with the little kids), and the kids went swimming every afternoon!

Tom was also kind enough to pull out the carpet in the kid's upstairs bathroom and tile it (with a little assistance from Rob). As most projects go, it turned out to be a little more work than was anticipated, and he made about 6 trips to Lowes I think... We are so appreciative and it looks awesome! THANKS TOM, we owe you!!!

Here are the girls (quite outnumbered) on St. Patty's Day:

The kids before their departure today (and please ignore the fact that I hadn't combed my kids' hair and that Tosh is shirtless):

Burke and Zac - Best friends since they were three:

Hewitt and Abbi - Would love for these two to get married someday... I can dream, can't I?

Tosh and Carter - These two cuties are so funny together. They played great!

Liv (10 months) and Gavin (5 months), yet about the same size!

Thanks again for coming to visit us! We already miss you!

ten months

Our cutie-pie has hit the double digits! Liv has two teeth now, moves very fast, and is good at feeding herself bits of cheese, bread, and cereal. She is eating a ton and still sleeps like a champ (12-13 hours straight every night). She loves playing with toys and really likes getting her hands on the remote, the phone, and ripping any paper she finds... I got a shocker this week when I went to get her out of her crib from her afternoon nap and found her happily (and quietly) playing on the floor of her room! I had never even seen her pull herself up in the slightest bit! Needless to say, the crib was dropped the rest of the way down right then. She didn't have one mark or bruise anywhere on her (THANK HEAVEN), and I am still baffled because I never heard a "thud" or a cry or anything. Here are a few photos I took this morning:

I love her little face in this last one...like she isn't sure of what is going on around her (lots of noisy brothers, no doubt). I took her to the doctor last week and her head is 35%, and she is 20% for weight (17.8 pounds), and only 10% for height. Still pretty little, and pretty perfect!

pre-show jitters

I am feeling very nervous. Our "Play in a Day" (Youth Conference) is tomorrow as well as my directing debut (ha, ha). I think that all of the pieces are coming together... I'm really at the "let's just get this over with" stage. To get me in the mood for this little production, I went to the Young Ambassadors show with some of the young women and our YW president last night. As I've probably mentioned a hundred times, I feel quite a disconnect from that world, but it was fun to go and I enjoyed the show quite a bit (better than I thought it would be, and only a couple of "too cheesy" moments for my taste). This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Young Ambassadors, and the show was a tribute of sorts. They showed all sorts of old video clips and photos from former casts and years. I didn't see myself in any photos, but recognized several old friends. I visited briefly with the director (Randy) and musical director (Ron) afterward. Rob and I have to give credit to Ron Simpson for the reason we met and eventually got together. Rob was in Ron's songwriting class at BYU, and he recruited Rob to play the piano in the YA band. Rob and I actually went on our mini-tour to Arizona (of all places) 13 years ago this month. We were hardly even friends at that point, and not interested in each other in the slightest bit. For history's sake, I dug out some old photos and thought I'd share them. After searching through photos I realized that I don't have a photo with Rob and me together from our Arizona tour.

Rob at the Mesa temple:

Me with several of the girls. I am second from the right
(and yes, our tour clothes were horrible!)

Me at a "host family" home in Mesa. The un-tucked shirt is a much better look...

Rob with the band. Why is Rob's baseball cap attached to his belt? Not sure.

After one of the shows with our sweet host family (that's a mic, not a hairnet I'm wearing). Notice that one of the little girls is holding a program and pen for autographs.

Isn't that cute? I was such a *star* back then! :-)

in like a lion (well, not really)

It's March! We've had lots of clouds and rain this week. We sure get more rain here than I thought we would. It's nice.

We had more visitors this week which was great. I got a call on Friday from my cousin Bob telling me that he and my Aunt Pat were down from Vegas for the day. They stopped by and visited for a while and then my aunt stayed and joined us for lunch while Bob ran to a work meeting. Bob has a dog (Carmella) that my boys LOVE. They love running around with the dog, and Bob and Aunt Pat ALWAYS bring some sort of toy or treat for the boys. I had a great time visiting with my aunt. She has always seemed more like a Grandma to me (she is 50 years my senior) and sends thoughtful cards and funny letters, and has given each of my children a beautiful handmade quilt. I love her and our visits.

Friday evening we were fortunate to have Rob's brother John and his wife Julie over! Rob and John were able to go golfing on Friday afternoon and we stayed up way too late visiting that night. We sort of took it easy on Saturday. John helped Rob with a little yard work (trimming branches off of one of our big front trees) and Julie was an awesome aunt and played football with the boys while we were outside (thanks Julie!). It really has been a blessing that we've had so many visitors down here. KEEP COMING! We love it.

Burke finally lost his other front tooth. The tooth fairy left a note under his pillow giving him a clue as to where to find a full-size candy bar (and a reminder to brush his teeth after eating it). The tooth fairy somehow knew that this would be more of a treat for Burke than money...and Burke thought that was pretty great.

Hewitt starts a tumbling class tomorrow! I don't know which one of us is more excited (probably me). I *showed* Hewitt how to do a cartwheel last night and couldn't believe how old it made me feel. Rob said that he could hear my back cracking from across the room. Of course, Rob had to give it a try and did a nice cartwheel with straight legs. Can't I do anything better than this guy anymore?

One of the aides in Hewitt's preschool class stopped me today (when I was there picking him up) and told me how awesome he is (and he really is. I love age five!). There are mostly girls in his class and I guess that they all "love" Hewitt. He offers to play the "Dad" when they play pretend and the girls love being the "Mom" and will want to hold Hewitt's hand. This is a new one for us. I think that Burke would rather eat dirt than touch a girl. Hewitt is starting to pick Liv up and carry her around. It still makes me a little nervous, but he is so careful with her and she just adores him.

Tosh, Liv and I have all been a little sick this weekend. The kids with runny noses and me with Laryngitis, itchy nose,throat and eyes, and sneezing constantly. I'm guessing that my problem is allergies, because I really feel fine otherwise--just tired.

Liv took her first bath in the big bath tub this week (time to get rid of our baby tub!). She loved it and didn't mind a little splashing from Tosh. I'm hoping that her next pool experience will be much happier than her first. Her little "rolls" are so cute, aren't they? And can you see her little tooth in the second pic?
She is starting to do some silly things like spit out food and blow raspberries after taking a bite (she only does this with the veggies though...). I am seriously going to have to start wearing an apron to feed her because she is getting so messy. Her "crawl" is getting faster and I have her wearing a sock on her hand most of the day now because she got a sore between the fingers she sucks on. It seems to be working okay (until she figures out how to pull it off).

Our computer is acting up so I can't get to a few good photos that I wanted to post today. I'm on the home stretch of Youth Conference prep. It's this Saturday and I'm getting excited for it, but will be relieved when it is over for sure. I signed up for another round of tennis lessons. I was pretty embarrassed on Saturday when I *served* the ball and hit my doubles partner (a nice guy with a thick Middle Eastern accent) in the back. Our teacher was trying hard to hide his laughter and I apologized about three different times. I'm still not much of an athlete, but I think I entertain the class with my witty comments and effort...or at least I think I'm funny anyway. Yep. I think that wraps it up! Have a great week.

watch out!

Liv is on the move! She is "army" crawling and tries to follow her brothers around. She is getting her second tooth (and a runny nose to go with) and seems to be taking a special interest in balls lately (her favorite toy?).

Here is a video clip I took on the day she really started "moving." Life just got a little crazier for me now that she is mobile. Also, am I mistaken, or did I happen to catch one of her first words on tape too?:

Things feel super busy right now. Rob and I were asked to be directors of a play that the youth are doing for our stake youth conference that is in two weeks. I feel like I am spending most of my time making preparations for this (music, script, choreography, set, costumes...), and losing sleep over it too. Things are coming together pretty well, but I'll be glad when it's over. I keep waiting for things to slow down in general, but I'm realizing that life is probably just going to get busier and busier from now on.

We've had a stressful week house-wise. I won't bore you with all the details, but I feel like we are spending money left and right on really annoying things. The two biggest stressers are that our spa/pool is losing water (possible leak in one of the pipes going to our pool?!?) and we discovered that one of our huge shade trees was damaged in the storm we had in January (the roots are half out of the ground). We had an expert come out to see if they could save the tree and they said no. They also quoted us $1100 to remove it and to stabilize one of the large trees in our front yard. Seriously? Rob will be recruiting some friends with chainsaws to remove the one in our backyard. We need to do it before the next storm or it will most likely fall on our house or break through our fence. The list goes on and on with other things like this, but I don't want to sound like I am complaining so I'll stop...

Hewitt and Tosh decided that it was warm enough this week to put their feet in our pool. For the record, I think that the pool is still "freezing." It all started with just the feet and ended up in some skinny dipping (on Tosh's part).

He'll forgive me for this photos when he's older right? Besides, he'll take comfort in the fact that it's only our closest family and friends that read this blog anyway :-). Rob said that this last shot reminds him of Big Foot walking (or something like that anyway).

Well, there's probably more to say that I'm forgetting, but I need to get back to it. Adios!