Dance Update

I finally took a few pictures of the girls at dance. They are loving it! I found out that their first performance is April 25th at Hillcrest Middle School. Reagan can hardly wait to "be on stage" as she calls it. Kairi loves the songs that she dances to, she comes home and sings and practices during the week. Reagan comes home every week with a new skill she needs to practice before her next dance class... and she does. They are both doing great.

Kairi's 4th Birthday!

I can't believe it... Kairi is 4! Where has the time gone. She is growing up so fast. She decided a few weeks ago that she wanted to go swimming again for her birthday. Her birthday is on Feb 23, which was a Monday, so we had her party the Saturday before. Kairi wanted to invite all of her family and Dusting to come. She loves Dustin! We decided to go swimming at 3 so that we could give naps before we went. Kairi and Reagan were the bravest I've ever seen them swimming. We bought them the blow up things that go on their arms and that gave them new confidence. We went down the lazy river several times, played on the slide and had fun playing and splashing. We played for a little over an hour then got dressed to go home and open present. Once everyone got to our house we had Kairi start opening presents. She was so cute! She loved everything she got... she is so fun to watch. She got Barbie's, a boy one finally (thanks Aunt Leslie), make-up (thanks Bailey and Trevor!), clothes (those didn't make her too excited), a V-Smile like Reagan's with games, an ice-cream sandwich maker, coloring books and crayons, doll with extra clothes (just what we needed Dustin), sun glasses and probably other things that I'm forgetting. Basically she got spoiled. After presents we sang happy birthday and had some of her princess cake that she picked out. She had a great day and was tired by the end. Thanks Megan for taking pictures while we were swimming. Thank you to everyone who came and helped us celebrate!














Kairi waiting patiently to open her presents.


Thanks Jannuzzi's


Thanks Jannuzzi's


Thanks Mary, Bryce and Dane




Reagan's infamous homemade presents... Kairi absolutely loves them!


Kairi loved this cake because of the things she could take off and play with.

Up She Goes!

Well, it's happened, Tahlia can crawl up the stairs. She is barely 10 months old, which is early compared to my last 2 kids. She just seems too small to be doing it. She is also walking around furniture. She will be totally mobile very soon.


Leslie saw Tahlia crawling up the stairs first. She was using a toy to try and entice her to show me.


She made it to the landing.


Almost to the top where Alan and toys were waiting.

Temple Open House

Tuesday, Feb. 17th, we had tickets with Alan's parents to go to the Draper Temple open house. Pat got tickets for the 4:40 tour which meant we had to be organized to pull it off. Leslie was great and started getting all of the kids ready before I got home from work. I came home and finished helping and then when Alan got home we all pilled in the van. We drove to a church where we watched a brief video about the Draper Temple and the city it's in. Then we boarded a bus that took us to the temple. We had had a family home evening the night before about temples and why we have them and how we act in them. The girls were so excited to finally be going. When we got off of the bus we walked through a tunnel to the temple. I was a little worried about how the kids would act but they were amazing! They loved being in the temple. Reagan loved to point out all of the pictures of Jesus. Kairi found pleasure in all of the small details. Camden just wanted to pull me along. He didn't want to stop and wait his turn. Tahlia was just content to be carried. The temple is beautiful! It always amazes me. The detail that is put into every aspect takes my breath away. Our final stop was a sealing room. We were able to sit and listen as a couple spoke to us and gave short testimonies. We talked to our kids about being married in the temple and they thought that it was a beautiful room. They loved looking in the mirror... Reagan was amazed that she couldn't see then end. What great promises and blessings the temple offers us. I can't imagine not being with my husband and kids forever. We can wait for the Oquirrh Hills Temple open house this summer!

Thank You Leslie

On President's Day, our babysitter had a family emergency come up and told us that she wouldn't be able to babysit for us all week. We were immediately stressed! It is hard finding a babysitter short notice but especially for 4 kids. We tried calling people but finally I thought to call my sister Leslie. She was at work so we had to wait for her to call us back. When she did, she willing accepted to drive from Idaho Falls and spend the week babysitting our kids. What an amazing thing to do! She had to leave her husband, house and job, but she did! She has always been so willing to help. She got here late Monday night and was up early Tuesday morning before Alan and I left for work. Our kids love her so much! She plays with them and knows just how to handle them. She is going to be an amazing mom someday. I felt so calm having her here all week. She was going to come for Kairi's birthday last weekend anyway, so she just stayed through the weekend. Well, Sunday night, we found out do to several things, that we had lost our babysitter of nearly 3 years. We were devastated. We didn't know what to do. Reagan was going back on track on Monday and I had parent teacher conferences and possibly jury duty and Alan had a big week at work. We needed to go to work but we had to take care of our kids first. Alan immediately text Leslie. I felt so bad asking her for help again, but she again was great! Dad brought her back down late Sunday night and they stayed through Tuesday. We are eternally grateful for her willingness to help us. When I told people I worked with they were all amazed that she had to drive 3 hours and still came. That is just the type of person Leslie is! Thank you Leslie for helping us through this hard time ... WE LOVE YOU VERY MUCH!

Cute!

Tahlia is growing up so fast. She will be 10 months old on Kairi's birthday! She follows Alan and I around and tries to be involved in everything we do. She loves her sisters and brother and they all love her. What would we do without her!

Sick Boy

We were home today because it's President's Day. I took Kairi and Reagan and we went and had Kairi's 4 year old pictures taken and Alan stayed home with the babies. He fed them lunch and put them down for their naps. Around 4 o'clock Camden still wasn't up from his nap so we asked Reagan to go open his door and check on him. He wouldn't get up. A little while later we were all up stairs and I went in to check on Camden and he had a fever. I went to get some tylenol but he wouldn't take it. I had Alan come pick him up out of bed and carry him to the chair we have upstairs so I could give him medicine. Just as I was about to try Camden got threw up. It was all of his lunch. We quickly got things cleaned up and gave him a bath. Then we took him down stairs to lay on the couch. Camden is usually so happy that seeing him sick was so sad. He wanted to watch Sponge Bob. He layed there while we ate dinner and then when we had family home evening he fell asleep. Tahlia is the only one that hasn't had a little 24 hour bug in the past week. We are going to the temple open house tomorrow so I hope he's feeling better.

Valentine's Day

We started our Valentine week off by labeling valentine's cards for family and friends. We decided to do it for our family home evening activity. The girls have had them for several weeks just waiting to put names on them. We did Bailey and Trevor's a few days early so we could mail them (hopefully they have them by now... if not they're coming). After we labeled valentines we decorated sugar cookies. The girls love decorating cookies, Camden just likes eating them as you'll see in the pictures. These activities allowed us to talk as a family about love and the people we love. They were able to come up with quit a list! It's amazing the love that kids show... it has no limits!

On Saturday, Alan arranged for Megan, my sister, to come babysit so we could go to a late lunch. We went to the Grille from Ipanema, a Brazilian restaurant. It was really nice to being together and not worrying about kids. Alan gave me a camera that fits in my purse so that we don't have to carry our bigger one everywhere we go. It has great zoom and some fun features. After lunch, we took the time to go do some birthday shopping for Kairi. Her birthday is Feb. 23rd. I commented how her future husband will have valentines day and birthday to do in a little over a week! We got home around 5 and said goodbye to Megan. After the kids were in bed we watch a movie, not a romantic movie... why would we do that? We watched Eagle Eye. It wasn't as bad as I thought it could be, it kept my attention the whole time. We got to bed a little after 10, which is soooo late for us, well mostly me. It was hard getting up for 9 o'clock church the next morning. It was fun spending time with the man that I married a little over 6 years ago. I love him so much! I can't imagine life without him.




Camden's new favorite thing is coloring. So while the girls labeled valentine's Camden colored.




Camden had 3 unfrosted cookies while we frosted the cookies. He didn't even want to frost, he was just content to watch and eat.


The girls were taking decorating very seriously and as you can see below Alan was having fun.




While we were decorating cookies Tahlia crawled under Alan's chair and was trying to sit up. Every time she tried to sit up she bumped her head... so got so mad!