Young Woman

My baby girl turned 12 this weekend. I have to include some older pictures as well. Here she is in Mobile, Alabama, when she was 3 sitting on her "Thinking Chair" like Steve from Blues Clues. I am sure she had some really astounding thoughts this day.

Here she is her first day of Kindergarten in Ocean Springs, MS.
Here she is in Pensacola, FL with her baby sister. I think she was 3 or 4.
Here she is on her 5th birthday. This ballet dress was her present from Grandma Weir.
Here she is as a 6 month old boy, oh wait, I mean this is Jared but he looks exactly like her!
On Friday night we had a wonderful Piano Recital with all the piano playing cousins participating. It was a night of wonderful music so we decided to include Happy Birthday to Rebecca as one of the songs. It was so fun to hear such a rousing chorus of happy singers.
On her birthday I actually made her help a little with laundry. How can I be so cruel? It isn't so bad because her brothers and sister did her jobs for her while she sat on the couch and picked songs for her birthday CD.
10 fingers and 2 toes this year! Next year I don't know what we'll do.
Here she is ready for her first official day as a Young Woman. She recited the 4th article of faith at the beginning of Sacrament Meeting and came home with tons of hand outs and presents from her first day with the Young Women. She loved it and I know they love her.

Through the Years

I recently had a birthday and while I was looking at pictures to post it occurred to me that there's something of me in each one of my kids. So, here's a little photo essay on me through the years.

Here is what I might have looked like if I had been a big baby boy. He's something else. Every time I look at his cute face I am so happy he's actually mine!

It is nearly impossible to get a good picture of Donald and Charlie together. If one of them is cute the other one looks goofy, or they just look goofy all the time. I think Donald must look like me in some ways, although I can't figure out how. He really is his Daddy's twin, but I decided he can represent me when I was two, although he's much bigger and a boy as well.

Charlie is my twin so he represents me when I was 6. We even share the same proclivity to yell even when the person we're talking to is standing right next to us. Also we both have very strong opinions and they are usually right.
Here I am as an 8 year old. Again, as far as looks go I don't see much of me in this kid, but there are so many times that he reminds me of me. Especially when he takes it upon himself to boss everyone in the house around, including me. It's precious.
Here I am as a 10 year old and an 11 year old. Now, I wish I could say I'm just like Shari, because she's so sweet, but I'll have to just be thankful she looks a little like me and likes things to be organized. Rebecca is also sweet, and she likes things to be a certain way or she gets frustrated and she is very cautious. She also loves being a mommy to her younger sisters and brothers, which is so much like me.
Here's the 33 year old me and man does it show!! That's why I prefer looking at the younger versions of myself. They are all so beautiful, no wrinkles, and sweet as can be!

Birthday Party

For Shari's friend party we did a Scavenger Hunt. I have never been good at thinking of ideas for scavenger hunts but for Shari I would do anything. Plus, she has such a sweet group of friends. I wanted them to have lots of fun. They started out with a little pizza party and then the fun really started.

First they went outside and rode around on bikes for a little bit.
Then they had to each find a stretchy pet and name it. It sounds like an easy task, but not for my girls. They have to choose just the right name whenever they name something. It turned out that most of the names chosen were from Harry Potter.
Then they went inside and put on a piano concert. They all did so good. Even the girls that had never played had fun.
For one task they dressed up in costumes and took pictures of each other. This was really entertaining and I have lots of pictures but this gives you an idea of their crazy costumes.
For my sake they had a task where they broke up into groups and entertained a little brother. Here they are playing ball with Adrian,
playing battleship with Charlie,
and playing Star Wars/Indiana Jones with Donald.
Their last task was making up a dance to the song Shari Baby. It was so cute. I was super impressed and they had lots of fun. I want to post their dance but for some reason I haven't been able to get videos up on the blog. Anyhow, it was a big hit and I was just so glad it turned out.
Her cake for her friend party was cinnamon rolls. They were yummy. After that the girls played for an hour and somehow they still thought the party ended too early. It was definitely a night to remember.

Birthday Girl

My Shari girl turned 10 last week. It really is amazing how fast it went by. I still look at her face and see this sassy little girl. (Actually she's really not sassy at all, but sometimes she pretends she is.) Here she is right after Rebecca took scissors to her hair and then blamed it on Shari. Shari didn't even tell me until this year that Rebecca is the one that cut her hair. She was only 2...

I had to include this picture of her very 1st birthday. Since her birthday is right after Halloween I really didn't want to make a cake so she had a Reeses Peanut Butter Cup. She was thrilled. I could even fit 1 candle.
Now she's 10! Here she is before opening presents. We gave her a collage of pictures of herself and some snow pants. Dan also made a nice CD cover and we gave her a blank CD so she could burn some songs that she likes from our Itunes. Charlie gave her the American flag and some stickers.

The biggest present was a new bike! Thankfully the weather was beautiful on her birthday. Since that day it's turned cold and snowy. It's hard to give a bike for a November birthday but she really needed one.
Her favorite cake is coffee cake. She's so adorable. It sure makes my life easy.
Here she is picking out songs with her Dad. She picked Shari Baby and Oh Shari for her first two songs. Then went on to C&C Music Factory, The Smiths, Barry Manilow, The Clash, Shania Twain, no wonder I couldn't figure out what songs to put on for her. She has crazy taste in music. It's pretty entertaining to listen to her CD.
I love her so much I can't express it in words. She's an angel.

Doing the Dishes

Worth it?

Since last September I've been tired and sick. I've had migraines and haven't been able to do even a small part of the things I want to. My kids have had to help out even more and Dan has had to do both our jobs a lot of the time. Sometimes I have to ask myself if he's really worth it. What do you think?

Last Weekend's Fun

I should have blogged all of this last week but I figure better late than never. Last Friday Jessie and I took our 4 little kids and went to the zoo. It's was really easy to have only 2 kids each. I love the bird show at Hogle Zoo and it was the first time I got to see the elephant show. I thought it was awesome but Donald was not as impressed. He enjoyed the lion shaped drinking fountain more. He actually thought the reptile house was pretty cool. He also loved the carousel and screamed most of the time. I was on the sideline taking pictures with Jessie's camera.

The day we went to the zoo the weather was beautiful. It was cloudy and rained a little so it stayed nice and cool. That evening when everyone was home from school we saw a double rainbow that looked like it ended right on our mountain side. It was so pretty. Charlie really wanted to go in our neighbors yard and look for the pot of gold.
On Saturday we went to Utah County to help Kimberly get settled in her new apartment. It was so fun to see her and spend time with Dan's Dad. I also love an excuse to walk around BYU campus. Here are my girls, the future students at BYU.
Melinda called while we were there so we got to see her too:) I was so glad. Here she is with the cutest boy at BYU.

Tribute to Summer Vacation

This is the only picture I took of our last cousin party of the summer. It was so much fun. We played at the park and then brought the party back to our house because we just didn't want it to end!

First Day of School

It's hard to believe that the summer is already over. It's gone by really fast. Just a few weeks ago we found out that all of the kids got into our local charter school. It's called Excelsior Academy. This morning after the girls got all dressed up in their uniforms Shari said, "Mom do I look too fancy?" I said, "That's the point of uniforms." Hopefully she'll feel comfortable once she sees how everyone else is dressed at school. I think they all look adorable.

I can't believe Rebecca is in 6th grade. She is growing up so fast. She was so nervous this morning. I hope she has a good day.
Charlie is ready to rule the school. He wasn't the least bit nervous.
Adrian is excited and he was so proud of the way he put his feet in this picture. After I took it he said, "Did you see how cool my feet looked?"
I just woke Donald up and he's already smiling. However, he wasn't to thrilled when the kids all jumped out of the van and left him behind. In fact he cried most of the way home because he wants to go to school now. I'm sure it will take some getting used to but once we get into a routine we'll have fun.

Pioneer Children

Our last days in Virginia were busy with packing, preparing to leave, and taking care of baby Jared. We were super busy and I kept thinking I should be taking pictures but never had the energy to go and find the camera.

This is our last picture taken in VA. It's the kids watching fireworks from the roof for the 4th of July. Even though we didn't go to a fireworks show we still saw quite a few just from our yard.

In order to all make it back to Utah we had to go our separate ways. Charlie flew back to Utah with his Grandma Weir and stayed with my sister Jessie while we were finishing getting everything packed. I flew back with Donald and Jared and my friend Roni, for help and moral support, on the 10th. Dan took Rebecca, Shari, and Adrian and drove across the country. They really felt like pioneers, except they had Nintendo DS, restaurants, and hotels. Not to mention it took them 5 days instead of months.

In Nebraska they made a stop at the Winter Quarters Temple and Visitors Center. Here are my pioneers.
Here they are at the Steak and Shake.
Adrian was trying to look like Brigham Young because of course some day he's going to play football at Brigham Young University.
I'm so thankful they made it home safely.