May 2022

Baby Charlie

My sister, Erika had a baby girl on May 1.  It was such a beautiful experience being able to be there and Charlie is a beautiful baby!  I'm excited to have another baby girl so her and Charlie can be good buddies just like Harper and Jo.

Happy 9th birthday Graham!

Graham's birthday landed on Sunday, also Mother's Day.  So he had a whole weekend of celebrating.  On Friday Grandpa and Grandma Moss took him shopping to pick out what he wanted and then out to dinner at Village Inn.  On Saturday Graham and I continued our tradition of going to Kneaders for breakfast for their delicious french toast.  Then we went to his cousin, Parker Sorenson's baptism.  Later that evening he chose Zupas for dinner and we ordered him so pudding cake that he was very excited about.  After dinner our neighbor was giving all the kids rides on his four wheeler/trailer.  He had a fun day!  Then Sunday morning he woke up to some presents and no balloons in his room, where were they?  Rem worked hard on Graham's new room in the basement.  There's still more to do but we got it cleaned out and mostly painted so we could move his bunk beds down.  Graham was so excited!  We also got him these fun cushion called a Nugget and he loves them and is excited to make forts with them and more.  We then went to church an celebrated him along with Mother's Day at Grandpa and Grandma Moss' house later that evening.  He is one happy kid!

The following week he got to invite one friend to go do something fun so he invited Zoey and Rem took them to Nickel Mania for a couple of hours of playing games and buying prizes.  We then went to Chuck-a-Rama for dinner and then they watched a movie when we got back home.

Mother's Day

Graham's birthday landed on Mother's Day again this year so we made sure to make the day special for him as well.  Rem made us breakfast Sunday morning and we went to church where Rem spoke and did a great job!  They got me some beautiful flowers to plant in the yard which is the way I like it!  Rem also does all the planting, it's the perfect gift for me!  Later we went to my parents house for a yummy dinner and all the men cleaned up the kitchen afterwards.  We sang Happy Birthday to Graham and had a great evening being together with family!

I have the best mom!  She is so supportive and does so much for me and my family.  She shows unconditional love and is a great example in so many different areas.  

Frozen Play

I took Harper to go see Frozen at the Children's Theater in Orem.  We went with Jamie and Lucy and Erika and Jo.  They put on such a great production and the girls loved it!  Harper and Jo loved wearing their Elsa dresses and when Elsa first came out on the stage, Harper said "it's me!"  Harper loved singing along to the "Let it Go" song and the show was so magical through her eyes.  I loved having a girls date with my Harper!

Fit Fun Run

I'm so proud of these kids for being a part of their schools fit fun run and doing great at it!  This year was my first year of taking on doing a water table in front of our house and blasting some music.  Rem even drew a side walk chalk on the road of a zig zag and some of the parents and kids went along with it, it was fun!  I love seeing all these kids run by.  I will definitely be doing this job for many years to come.

April 2022

Shrek the Musical

Paxton was in the last musical with West Jordan Youth theater and loved it so much!  He was so excited for their next musical, Shrek and came home and instantly was listening to all the music, watching the musical on Netflix over and over again.  When it was about a month away from auditions he all the sudden decided he didn't want to do it anymore.  We were so confused by this, he's been so excited.  I finally put my foot down and told him he had to at least tryout because I have been paying for voice lessons for him for a while now.  I told him if he didn't make it then he could choose what to do next.  I think there was some fear there of tryouts because it was his first time, he didn't have to with Seussical.  Well he made it in and he was so happy he did!  I think he has found another thing he loves to do other than basketball.  

First, Paxton got the roll as one of the 8 knights, part of an ensemble.  Which is what he wanted, he was too nervous to do a bigger part.  Which I think he needs to go for because he would do so great!  He memorizes really fast and he's constantly quoting lines and singing the songs when he's at home.  Well he got the chance to come out of his shell a bit and loved every second of it.  One of the kids that played Thelonious got kicked out of the cast for bad behavior.  Paxton's name was suggested by Setu, the kid that played Lord Farquad and Paxton got asked to do the part which he was instantly excited for and did an amazing job for stepping in at such last minute notice.  

Easter
Easter morning the kids were all excited to look for their baskets.  They each got something new to wear to church and some summer clothes.  They got some little toys and of course, candy.  For breakfast Rem made us bunny shaped pancakes and then we went to church.  It was a beautiful Easter service.  When we got home the Easter bunny had come so the kids grabbed their baskets and collected all the eggs.  Later on we went to my parents house where we had a delicious dinner and another Easter egg hunt.  These kids sure are spoiled and had a wonderful Easter.  Sure love them!






Uncle Ryan's wedding

Rems brother got re-married to Heidi, she is such a wonderful person and we are so happy for him.  He got married at this cool castle and all the kids loved it and had so much fun.  Harper loved seeing all the girls in their pretty dresses and called them princesses.  She had so much fun hanging out with her older cousins Lucy and Brielle, they were so darling with her.  Rem was one of the groomsmen and walked down the isle with his niece, Savannah.

March 2022

Wheeler Farm

It's so fun living so close to Wheeler Farm.  We went there with our neighbors Annie and Jules.  The girls had fun looking at the animals and riding on the cow train a couple of times.

Happy 3rd birthday Harper!
Harper was so excited for her birthday!  I love having a toddler and seeing all the excitement that comes out of them.  She played in her balloons and then went straight to opening her presents.   We made her mini pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream and she thought we meant Minnie pancakes so Rem made a few Minnie Mouse mini pancakes for her.  That afternoon we dressed her up in her new Minnie Mouse dress and took her to Disney on Ice.  She loved about the first half and then she got restless.  I should've splurged and got closer seats, but they were a bit pricey and I had to hold off on buying tickets because we weren't sure if Paxton would be able to make it.  Later that evening we took her to Chuck-a-Rama for dinner and of course she loved that.  I sure love this Minnie Mouse loving girl of mine.  She brings lots of smiles to our whole family.

The next day we celebrated Harper and her cousin Lincoln's birthdays at Sunday family dinner.  I made her some Minnie Mouse cupcakes and she thought it was the best thing!  She is one spoiled little girl!

Graham's eye

One Sunday afternoon I was in the kitchen doing some clean up and all the sudden Graham comes upstairs from playing with his siblings crying pretty hard.  I really didn't think much of it because sometimes he over reacts, even Rem felt the same and said something like "did you lose an eye?"  and then he looked up and Graham had his hand over his eye and he was bleeding.  Apparently he had his nice chopsticks and was sliding down the couch on a cushion with them and one of them stabbed him in the eye.  I was worried about his vision with the cut being so close to his eyeball so Rem took him to instacare while I stayed home to cook dinner for the missionaries that were supposed to come over that evening.  Instacare ended up sending them to Primary Childrens Hospital because they didn't have the right equipment to check his vision.  Then they ended up waiting about 3-4 hours for the doctor because she was in an emergency surgery and it took forever.  Luckily everything ended up being okay for Graham and we just had to put some ointment on his eye a few times a day for a couple of weeks.  But because everything took so long I had to give the missionaries dinner to go because your supposed to have an adult male present in the home.  I'm sure they were glad to have a meal without all the small talk though.  They were very understanding and text us later to make sure Graham was okay.

The Children's Museum

I took Harper to the Gateway Children's Museum with Jamie and her kids, Erika and Jo and our friends Ali and Emma.  Harper absolutely loved it!  She mostly played with Jo and followed her around.  It was fun watching her explore and play.

Happy 12th birthday Paxton!

I can't believe my Paxton is 12 years old!  He is such a great kid and we had a great time celebrating him.  It was a school day but we started the morning off with presents and of course he gets a new St. Paxton's day shirt every year.  His big presents this year were a Gabb watch and tickets to go see "School of Rock" at Hale Theater.  His sweet brother Graham wanted to buy him a present and picked out a Snoopy dog blanket which he loved!  He then went to school and that evening we went to dinner, yes he picked Chuck-a-Rama (my kids love that place).  Afterwards he had a church ball game that he did not want to miss, so we went as a family to watch him.  

Birthday Party

The next day we did a big birthday party for Paxton.  He said he wanted a basketball party which was easy enough for me.  So I reserved the church gym, bought a bunch of food and hired some 9th grade boys, one of which was on the Murray basketball team to come run the party.  They did some drills with the boys and then they played a game.  One of the 9th grade boys got nicknamed "pink shorts" that night, I still wonder if that nickname will stick with him longer than that night.  They all had a great time, Paxton has some great friends!

Spring Break

We headed to the Hurricane house for spring break with my sister Erika and my parents came for some of the time as well.  We didn't get out and do a ton of things because Rem still had to work (it's nice to have a job that he can work remotely) and I am very pregnant and have a hard time doing a whole lot.  But the kids were happy to have a fun yard to play in, do some hot tubbing, go on some side by side rides with grandpa and more.  We did go into St. George a few times and climbed the red rocks at Dixie Rock which is one of my kids favorites.  Erika and I had a girls night and went to dinner and got prenatal massages which was amazing!  And then I took Graham and Harper (Paxton wasn't feeling well) to an ice cream shop, rode the carousel and played in the water at river walk.  I wasn't planning on taking them to play in the water so we weren't prepared with swimsuits but they still had fun getting their feet wet.

February 2022

We had fun going swimming with Erika and Jo.

Church Ball

Paxton loved that being part of the Young Mens meant that he got to play church ball.  He had so much fun playing with all these boys!  It was fun to watch him play and even make some 3 pointers!

Valentines Day

We continued our tradition of stringing red yarn all over the house.  It's one of those things you do as a parent that later on you regret because you just have to keep doing it because the kids love it and would be so sad otherwise.  The kids each opened a little present from us, Harper might be a little spoiled and got more than one thing and then we just had donuts for breakfast which the kids thought was great!  The boys then went to school and had their fun class parties which I sent in a craft for Graham's class, but his teacher didn't want parents there, I guess for Covid reasons.  So Harper and I had a fun day together and we made heart shaped sugar cookies and shared some with our neighbors and friends.  And then of course that evening we had to have our candle lit fondue dinner.  Paxton says it's his favorite meal of the year!

Hurricane

My parents recently purchased a vacation home in Hurricane and we are so excited!  Most of my family was headed down to help do some shopping and cleaning to start putting the place together so I decided to go too even though Rem wasn't able to come with me.  Rems parents live in Hurricane so I decided to stay with them since there wasn't going to be beds at my parents place yet.  It was nice to have Grandma Sorenson babysit Harper so I could go do some shopping with my mom and pick out furniture, decor, bedding and more.  My boys slept at my parents place so they could spend time with their cousins.  We had a great time!

I was a little worried driving by myself to Hurricane and especially with a newly potty trained toddler.  So my sister recommended a travel potty in case we needed to exit quickly and maybe there wouldn't be a gas station around to go potty.  So I bought the travel potty never intending to use it the way in the picture.  In fact I was even making fun of the ad for the travel potty when I was purchasing it because it showed a kid using the potty in the car.  Well I'm sure glad I had it!  And I'm sure glad that Rems mom was in town and needed a ride back to Hurricane so I had her help.  We had stopped at a gas station for a break and Harper refused to use the potty there and of course just as we hit traffic she said she needed to go.  There was no where to pull off and after checking traffic reports we realized we'd be stuck in traffic for at least an hour.  So we pulled out the travel potty and everything went smoothly with the help of my mother in law.

Hot tubbing with Grandpa Sorenson.

Young Mens St. George trip

The very next weekend Rem and Paxton joined the Young Men for a weekend trip.  They got to stay at a huge house and did some hiking, played in the dunes, hung out at the house and played some basketball and football and more.  They had a great time!  Paxton just wasn't thrilled about driving to St. George two weekends in a row, he hated long car rides.

January 2022

Aquarium

Sandee invited us to join them at the aquarium.  It's so much more fun going with cousins and we hadn't been in a while.  It was fun taking Harper around and watching her enjoy all the fish.  She really liked the penguins!

Our neighbor was getting rid of this huge panda bear and knew Graham loved pandas so she asked if he wanted it.  I made him get rid of two other big (not as big) stuffed animals before I'd let him have this one.  He loves it so much!  Now he has someone to sleep in his other bunk bed ;)

Potty Training

We started potty training Harper this month which is always something I dread to do, but she was almost 3 years old and it was time.  The first day we went through 20+ pairs of underwear and I wondered if she was every going to understand it, it was a hard day.  The second day about 10 pairs of underwear which was better, but still a hard day.  The third day was only 4 pairs of underwear and after that she seemed to have it down(at least the pee pee part), I was so proud of her!  Going poop in the potty has been a lot harder for her to do.  She's done it a couple of times, but most of them end up in her underwear which is so frustrating.  She soon had it down though after about a month, it just clicked for her one day.  About a week into potty training Harper learned the word "privacy" and now almost every time she goes to the bathroom she wants everyone out "privacy" she says.  Yet she doesn't know how to give me privacy when I ask for it.

She loved putting stickers on her chart and earning little toys when she got to the star.  She filled up about 5 charts or so before we took them down and just had her earn a gummy bear every time she went potty, which she called "teddy bears", so cute.  We sure love her and are so proud of her for doing so well!

Ice Skating

We put Graham in ice skating classes to get him ready to sign up for some hockey lessons.  Harper had fun coming to the rink and watching him skate.  Graham was always one of the best in his class, I wondered if he really needed the lessons.  I guess he did learn a few new things like how to skate backwards.

Girls outing

We first went to Wheeler farm with Erika and Joelle.  The girls had fun picking up hay off the ground and feeding it to the horses.  After we were done there we went to Gardner Village for lunch and a little shopping to buy Harper so new bedding for her soon to be big girl bed.  She was excited that we picked out something pink, her favorite color.

Paxton got ordained

Paxton is officially in Young Mens even though he's not quite 12 years old.  We set a date with the bishop and invited my parents to join in watching him be ordained to the office of a deacon.  It was a special day for him and he's excited but a little nervous to pass the sacrament.  He sure is growing up fast!

His dad teaching him to tie a tie.

He did a great job passing the sacrament for the first time.  I loved watching him do so and Harper got a little vocal about wanting "Pattin's bread".  We had a different young man pass the bread to us, but they made sure Paxton got our row when passing the water.  Silly girl, she sure does love her big brother!

Date Night

Rem and I finally went on a date night, we aren't very good about going out and we should be because we have a built in babysitter now.  We went downtown to the Van Gogh experience.  It was pretty cool to see all his art and read about his life.  Afterwards we went out to dinner at R & R bbq, it was delicious.

Every grandchild and great grandchild loves to hide in this end table of Rems grandma's.  Harper loved it too!

December 2021

Paxton's 1st Voice Recital

We had Paxton in piano lessons for a couple years and he has never loved it.  So when he signed up to be a part of Suessical the Musical we decided to switch over to voice lessons since his piano teacher taught both.  He has decided to stick with it even though he still complains about having to practice.  This was him at his first voice recital.  He definitely was nervous, but he got up there and did it and I'm so proud of him!

First Snowman this winter




It's a GIRL!

We got to find out the gender super early of this baby!  When I went in for my first appointment at 9 weeks pregnant my doctor asked if I wanted to take the blood test where you find out gender and other chromosomes.  Since I'm over 35 years old I'm considered a gereatric pregnancy so the test would be covered by my insurance so I did it.  He said the results could take up to two weeks, but I got them in a week.  When I opened that email I was feeling excited to see the gender and then was even more excited to see the word FEMALE!!  I wanted to tell Rem right away, but I decided to do something a little more fun.  So later that day when the whole family was together I swaddled up one of Harper's baby dolls and put a card in it and told her to go take it to daddy.  It was so fun to watch them open that card and see all their excitement!  We are so excited to have another little girl join the family.

Ward Christmas Party

The ward Christmas party was a yummy breakfast that was catered from Kneaders.  They did an ugly sweater contest which we didn't really have anything and then they had the primary kids dress up in nativity clothing and sing a song, it was really cute.  We got some pictures at the photo op spot and the kids colored some ornaments.  It was a fun party.

New Christmas Pajamas

Harper loves Minnie Mouse so much that I couldn't resist getting her some Christmas pajamas with Minnie on them.  Buddy the elf once again found the pajamas I bought and hung them on the tree on December 1st for the kids.  My boys love the onesie pajamas so they were super excited and of course Harper was thrilled!


        

It was so fun to get lots of snow!  The kids instantly wanted to be out in it and had a blast.  And of course we always follow up with hot chocolate.

Gingerbread Houses
This year for our annual gingerbread house contest we decided to do it somewhat virtual again.  We sent out invites and set a deadline for people to send us their pictures.  Then we posted them on social media for voting and the next day had a party at our house.  It was nice being able to enjoy the company of our friends and family instead of worrying about making a gingerbread house.  I think everyone likes being able to make their gingerbread house at home on their own time.  And since we had the kitchen a mess and all the stuff to make the gingerbread houses we did a night with the kids so they could make their own.  I had fun helping Harper, I let her do most of it by herself.  She had a fun time with it and wanted to keep eating all the candy.

Desert Star Christmas Play

We had fun taking the boys to a Christmas play on the 23rd.  We went to a matinee showing so we got some lunch while watching the show.  We all loved it!

Sorenson Christmas Party
We had the Sorenson party on December 23 and pretty much everyone was able to come.  We decided to have the party at GG Hughes so she could be a part of the party since it's hard for her to have to go anywhere.  She loved having everyone over so much!  We made it easy and just had everyone pick up their own food.  We ate dinner, then did a little nativity where the kids dressed up.  Harper got to be an angel and Graham was a donkey.  Then we had a gift exchange.  Grandma Sorenson made all the kids these mini size pillows and gave them some money to go shopping.  They also exchanged gifts with cousins and the adults did their traditional food gift stealing game.  

Santa came to visit

When we got home from the Sorenson Christmas party we heard some bells outside, it was Santa Claus!  The kids were all excited to see him, even Harper this year!  After Santa left Graham was sure to tell us that that was just Grandpa, not the real Santa.  

Moss Christmas Eve Party

We went to my parents house for Christmas Eve.  We had a yummy prime rib dinner then Jamie showed us all a video she made of our recent trip to Florida.  It was so fun to watch!   Then we opened gifts, Grandma knows Harper so well and got her a bunch of Minnie Mouse stuff and a unicorn!  Graham got a bracelet making kit and a 3D pen and Paxton got a Jazz basketball jersey, they all were super happy!  I contacted an old family friend to do a painting of our family cabin that was recently sold to give to my parents for Christmas.  My parents got each family 2 electric scooters, a nice check and announced that they are going to put a pool in their backyard!  We sure are spoiled by them and can't wait for this summer to go swimming tons!  Then we went home, read a new Christmas book and put out cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer.  Then the kids all wanted to sleep together so we put my big U shape pregnancy pillow down in Paxton's king size bed so Harper wouldn't roll off and all three of them slept together.  Harper ended up coming in our room in the middle of the night.

Christmas Morning 

The boys were up early, but Harper was still asleep so they played video games until she was up around 8:45 am.  They read some Christmas books about the true meaning of Christmas with dad while I got breakfast started cooking.  Then it was time for presents, the kids all had the biggest smiles and were so happy with what they got.  I love watching them and seeing them so happy!  After presents we had breakfast which was a total flop, I had decided to try something new but when I first pulled it out of the oven it was still pretty doughy and so we put it back in and then all around the sides got really hard.  Oops!  The kids didn't seem to mind too much though, at least there was bacon and sausage.  My parents came around 1:00 and stayed for a couple hours playing with the kids and their new toys.  Then later that evening we decided to go see a movie.  It was a great Christmas day!