Baby News

What do these balloons have to do with a baby?  Nothing.

But, the shot is the nicest one I took at the 4th of July Balloon Launch in Provo, Utah.

We are having a baby girl in November.

In case you are ready to scroll down and recount the number of children we have, this will make for our 8th child.  

You may wonder a few things:

Will she make a houseful?  

 Is life going to be crazy?

Will there be enough love for another child?

The truth is that we already have all of those things covered.  Our home is full, we sometimes feel crazy, and we have already stretched our love many times to include more. 

XOXOX

School Photos...

Oh, not for this upcoming year!  I am finally getting them done for the 2013/14 year.

Fabulous Family Vacation

To kick start our summer, we visited Yellowstone National Park and the Tetons, after an afternoon of seeing Pioneer Trail sites (Martin's Cove, Devil's Gate, Independence Rock Wyoming).  We wrapped up the week with a stop in Idaho to see two LDS Temples and visit Grandparents in Cove, Utah.  Fun filled week!  Typical sibling issues, fatigue and  what you'd expect from having multiple ages on the same trip.
Here are some pictures of the trip.

Tucker did a report on Justin Cash.

He had the best time researching and writing his report, then creating the poster to represent facts about this singer.

He chose Justin Cash because of his favorite song that Cash sings: If you try.  Tucker even has the song memorized and surprised me a few months ago by singing the song all the way through!  I can't believe in a few short months he will be 10 years old.

Here is the song Tucker likes so much:

If You Try by Justin Cash 

Kami, Incredibly Dramatic, Near 3 Year old, Master of Cheese

Kami

I thought that for today's post I would just post these cute pictures I took of her a little while ago.  She had me smiling with her antics.  I am not always smiling.  Sometimes I am REALLY frustrated with this independent and curious, yes, even mischievous little girl. However, she is my girl, she has been for a long time (she came to our home when she was only 3 months old).  She touched my heart the other day when a friend of mine was asking her a question, sometimes we've wondered if she realizes yet how similar our names are.

My friend: What's your name?

Kami: Gami (Kami).

My friend: What is her name (pointing to me).

Kami: Mommy.

My friend again: But what's her name?

Kami: My mommy.

Yes, I love this girl.

Jenna's Baptism

 Jenna and her Dad.

 Jenna and Mom, after the baptism.

 I don't know which family picture turned out the best.  Seriously.  Between the arched eyebrows, crossed eyes, crying child, shoeless feet, gazes off camera and nose picking.... what better can I do?  9 family members together.  Who said they have to be looking at the camera and smiling decently?  I certainly shouldn't be asking for that, right?  Even right after a baptism.

We are so pleased to support Jenna in this decision to be baptized.  She is a sweet smiling girl with a lot of love to give.  Her desire to follow the example of our Savior Jesus Christ shows an inner conviction to do what is right throughout her life.  We don't have to be perfect to come to Him, we just need to desire to do our best. 

Art Lesson

Tabatha has some friends from BYU that come over as part of a mentoring program.  One night they went to the library and drew pictures.  When they came back, Cade (the artist of the picture above) left his picture on our counter when he and his partner Tabitha (yes, nearly same name as our girl) went back to Provo.

When Gwen saw the picture, she was impressed and got out crayons and paper of her own.  She created this picture to look like the one Cade drew.  She did her best, she really tried hard.  In the end, she was disappointed that it didn't turn out the same though.  This little five year old didn't get deterred from doing what she had meant to though.  Although it was nearly bed time and I wanted her to don her PJ's and brush her teeth, she didn't want to give up.  The bargain was struck that she would hurry and get ready and maybe have a few more minutes to work on her art.  She was quick, and by the time we were ready to have prayer, she was nearly done with her second picture. 

Voila!

All those little blue tick marks at the top of the page are where she carefully checked the colors of the crayons without wrappers to make sure she used the color she really wanted to use in the picture.

As with Aesop's Fables; I find a moral at the end of this story.  I wanted to share it because as and adult, I can use the reminder.  Life will give us opportunities to do something that looks interesting to us.  We will try, we might not do too well.  However, with effort, good attitude and a little strategy, we can try again and see the remarkable results! Yes, at this point scroll up again and view the difference between Her first attempt and her second attempt.  Then compare the original with the 5 year old's finished work.  I still swell with pride when I do.  She has informed me she wants to be an illustrator when she grows up.
 

'Tis a lesson you should heed:

Try, try, try again.

If at first you don't succeed,

Try, try, try again'

As an old adage, the author of the quote is hard to trace.  This is what wikipedia has to say though:  William Edward Hickson popularized the writings by Thomas H. Palmer in his 'Teacher's Manual' and 'The Children of the New Forest' by Fredrick Maryat