Welcome Sophie Lyn Oveson

Sophie Lyn is our twelfth grandchild and our second granddaughter. She was born June 15th in Ogden, Utah. Her parents Mark and Tara and older brother Van, as well as us all, are very excited to have her joy our family.

Sophie surprised us by being so small. She weighed in at 6 lbs. 7 oz. and was 19 1/2" tall. She is a little bit darker than Van so I think she may have a little bit more of her mom's blood in her but she looks a lot like Mark and Van.
It took her a while to get here. We really was hoping for a May baby but she had her own mind when she would come. She has very long fingers and toes. I envy her fingers. She is going to be a great pianist.
Van struggled with her for the first day and after his parents and Sophie returned him, he struggled with Grandma. I loved spending this time with Van, Mark and Tara, helping them and getting closer to Van. I don't get this one on one time very often with him. I don't think he liked it as much as I did though. He was more than ready for me to return home.
He is doing great now with his little sister. He is very protective over her. Making sure she doesn't get hurt, well by anyone but him. I just pray that he doesn't follow the example of his father, getting Sophie out of her crib when she is just a couple of months old. Mark did this with Cyrena and to this day I haven't figured out how he got her out, on the floor, and into me without her crying or being hurt. I'm looking forward to the many years ahead of us getting to know this special gift from our Heavenly Father.

Happy Birthday Bauer

Bauer's birthday was on June 3. For the past several months he has told his Mom that he was going to have his birthday in Utah. Neither Cyrena or I thought it was going to happen. She found a great deal on line a few days after his birthday to fly here. So Bauer was almost right. Last Monday we celebrated Bauer's and Josh's birthdays together. Josh's is today and I will post about it on Monday after we got back from Riverton this weekend. For their birthdays we went to the Classic Fun Center. They have a bounce house and the kids all went wild. We had ten of the grandkids there. Bauer loved every minute of it running, climbing, screaming and sliding. None of the kids wanted to leave.

Bauer is getting to be a very big boy. He is such a big help to his mom. I still don't know how she dared to fly alone with three little boys. It is because she knew she could depend on Bauer to help her. When you tell Bauer to do something, he makes sure that his little brother Emmett fully understands. Bauer loves to play soccer and he had his last game this week. Again he has taught Emmett how to play. Being the oldest means extra responsibility and Bauer is doing a great job. He loves to play with his littlest brother Reece and takes few good care of him also.
Of course you can't come to Utah without spending time on the four-wheelers with Grandpa. Bauer learned how to drive one but not by his self. He also wanted to climb a mountain and was a little bit disappointed that I wouldn't climb to the top of one. He just didn't understand that it would take us a full day to do that. But we did climb a short distance. He was able to see a doe up close as she tried to jump a fence.
The best part of being here was to play with his cousins. Him and Josh are very close and love each other. It was touching to see them hug each other at the airport and tell each other good-bye. Thank goodness it won't be for very long since we will be seeing them again in October in Disneyland. Happy Birthday Bauer and we love you

Happy Birthday Emmett

Emmett Jonathan Grimm celebrated his second birthday on the sixth of this month. It is a very difficult thing to not be able to celebrate with Grandchildren because they live so far away. He did have a great day according to his mom and even celebrated a couple different days. Cyrena made him an Elmo cake. I would really like to see a picture of this cake. It was her first time in decorating and I know that she did a great job even though she doesn't think so. I know it was great because all that counted was, she pleased her son.

Emmett is a very strong willed little boy. He knows what he wants and tries to get it. He is learning to talk more and I love hearing him in the background as I talk to Cyrena. He loves to perform when we Skype. I don't know what I would ever do without Skpye. It makes things more bearable with them in Illinois. At least this way we can still talk to the kids and see how much they are changing and growing. Emmett is going to be a leader. He has a very strong personality and he can even get Bauer to do things. He doesn't like to eat much but I'm sure one of these days he is going to love food and then watch out. He loves his little brother very much. I know that they are going to be close when Reece becomes old enough to play with.

For Halloween Emmett was Cookie Monster. This fits his personality great because he does love to eat cookies, crackers, and well any junk food.
Again Happy Birthday Emmett. Grandma and Grandpa miss you dearly and we hope to see you some time this summer. I don't think I can let a whole year go by without seeing you and your brothers. I love you and I know that you had a great day.

Happy Birthday Emmett

Happy Birthday Lexie

Grandpa and Grandma's beautiful little princess turned five on Monday the 7th. She has been awaiting this special day for the past couple of months. She was excited on Monday when I gave her a call at daycare. She loved all the special attention that she recieved, especially the special delivery of balloons that her Dad and Brittany had sent.

Lexie is a very special little girl who is learning to become a mother. I know that she has several more years to go but she loves to take care of her brothers and cousins. She is a little mother hen. Even though she loves to help and is always the first one to help do whatever she has been asked to do, she still has a mischeious side. The other day her and Ashton decided to take a bath in the toy room by filling all the toy containers with water from the bathroom. Needless to say there was more water on the toy room floor than in the containers.

Lexie loves going to Pre-school. She loves to color and makes things to hang on my walls all the time. She is going to be more than ready for Kindergarten this fall.

When I asked Lexie about her cake she said she wanted a mermaid cake. This is what I came up with. She was able to help me finish it and made sure that I put the eyes on the fishes.

Danielle fixed Lexie's hair so she was beautiful for her special day. Again she is a little princess. Most of her presents were jewlry and she loved each and every present. She loves getting her picture taken, again a princess.

How we love her and love every minute we have with her.

We made Lemonade

When life gives you lemons then make lemonade or so the saying goes. I personally don't think that getting lemons is a bad thing and especially snow is never a bad thing but I know that several people don't feel the way I do. Needless to say with the kids all home for this past weekend and wonderful snow falling, what else is there to do than to play in it. Mike and Mark's boys have gone sledding this year but Paul and I haven't been able to witness just how much fun they have had. I have yet to find a child who doesn't like to go sledding, no matter the age. We really had fun on Saturday and I felt bad that we could only be out for a little while. The snow was a very wet snow and so we were wet before we really even began. At one point the snowflakes were bigger than two inches. I tried to get a picture of them but it didn't work. Also I thought about videos but I didn't want to get the camera to wet.

Paul was excited about the snow because in December he purchased a new plow for the four-wheeler and really hadn't been able to try it out. It works great but I think that next time he won't have the grandkids helping him. They would rather plow the road than my drive-way which still looks like we didn't do anything.

Bring on the snow if it means this much fun.
Lexie pulling Van to the top of the hill.
Lexie, Xander (Alex) and Josh. Josh tried several times to get the sled to tip over. Josh loves coming to grandma's for the clean air. He hates their dirty air that makes his asthma worse. Xander's boots kept falling off so he had to leave for a few minutes to get his other shoes on. They were to big. He shared his boots with Van.
Lexie, Van, and Ashton.
Ashton loves to eat snow and doesn't care what color it is.
These two little boys, Xander and Van couldn't get enough of zipping through the snow. Van has no fear with anything and I'm afraid he is so much like his Dad at this age. His dad is concerned about him but thank goodness his mom isn't going to hold him back.

I thought I had a picture of Kyler coming down the hill face first but I can't find it. Tara paid him a dollar if he would do it. After several attempts he finally became brave enough and loved it. He is growing up way to fast.

It was a great day and surprise, surprise I even remembered the camera to capture these moments for a lifetime.

Happy Birthday Hunter

I know that it has been eleven days since Hunter's birthday, February 10, I still need to post about his birthday. Hunter is now a very energetic six year old. He loves to talk to anyone and everyone. He loves to play with Legos and is very talented in making things. On his birthday while I was visiting with him and Brittany he made his mom food, hamburgers, out of Legos. He even had the catsup and mustard on the burgers.

Hunter loves Transformers also and is very talented transforming himself. He moves his arms, legs, and head and if he had a car body around him, he would be a transformer. Hunter loves to play games on the Wii and is very good at it.He is doing very well in Kindergarten and loves school. Brittany made a cookie pizza for him to share with his classmates.

The day after his birthday he went to Hurricane to celebrate it with his grandparents. Hunter is so full of energy, I can become exhausted just being around him. Oh, to have that energy again. We love him and are happy to have him in our family. I just wish that we could see more of him. But we understand.
Again Happy Birthday Hunter.