Explorers

Hallie, Gracie and Clara were outside last night just after dark "exploring".  They said they were taking notes on what they saw and being "creative".  This is what they brought for me to read. Spelling and punctuation has been updated so you can actally read it.

Dear Hallie and Gracie,
It's too cold, I could die.
Your friend, Ladybug

Dear Hallie and Gracie,
We worked hard today.
Your friends, Ants.

Dear Hallie and Gracie,
I'm getting ready for bed.
Your friend, Beetle.

Dear Hallie and Gracie,
I climbed a lot before bed so our energy is gone.
Your friend, Cricket

Dear Hallie and Gracie,
My kids are in the eggs, but they're quiet for bed.
Your friend, Spider

Dear Hallie and Gracie,
I was asleep the whole day!
Your friend, Rock

Dear Hallie and Gracie,
I'm smashed so much.  Help!
Your friend, Pinecone

Dear Hallie and Gracie,
Almost all the stars are out.
Your Friend, Star

It's been a while...

So, a lot has happened since I last posted.  So to make things easier for me, I'll just list them and throw in a few pictures to go along. (These are not necessarily in chronological order).

• At the end of April we made a trip back down to Tallahassee so Tony could walk in his graduation!  He could have walked in December but we were a little busy having a baby that weekend. Tony's parents flew in to Tallahassee and celebrated with us.  Then they drove up to Athens to spend even more time with us.   We loved having them here and are so blessed to have such great support all around us!    

It was a long night for Elizabeth but doesn't Tony look handsome in his robes?!  We're so proud of him!

• School pictures--I thought they turned out so great!

Gracie--Kindergarten

Hallie--2nd grade

William--3rd grade

• William spent a week at cub scout day camp.  The theme was "Knights of the Round Table" and they did all kinds of fun knight stuff.  At the end they watch some guys dressed as knights sword fight then got knighted themselves!

Can you see Will in the middle?

• Swimming lessons
• A trip to the Lion's club fair in Athens.  
• Lot's of playing on our porch swing.

William, Hallie, Gracie, Clara, Elizabeth--we miss that swing!

• We moved in the middle of July to a bigger house more out in the country.  It has stairs, which was a priority for Gracie.  It also has a basement for storage with a storm shelter in it, which we actually had to use this weekend when the tornado siren went off.  Luckily, nothing happened, but it added a little excitement to our Sunday afternoon.

• We took a trip to Idaho and Utah!  We drove for 2 days to get to Logan Canyon where we camped with Tony's family for his family reunion.  Then drove to Newdale to spend a few more days with Tony's family.  We did so much fun stuff with them, like going to a Piano Guys concert!  Our whole family loves them, so it worked out so great that they were in Rexburg the week we were.  We bought their CD and listened to it tons on the drive home.  Whenever it comes on Clara yells, "piano guys, Mom!"

• After spending a few days with Tony's family we drove to UT to spend some time with my family.  My brother's kids were their the whole time so we got lots of cousin time!  

• While in UT, Hallie turned 8!  So she got baptized in UT so our family could come.  Beverly had this beautiful dress for Hallie due to a little mix up with my nieces dress, which worked out beautifully for us!   

We took a few pictures of Hallie wearing her baptism dress while holding her blessing dress to display at her baptism.  She looks so beautiful and we are so proud of her decision and the wonderful girl she is!

Right before the baptism.  I'm one lucky lady to have such a great family!

• We took 3 days to drive home so we could stop in Colorado Springs to see Tony's sister's family, then in Kansas to see our good friends.  Hopefully next time we'll be able to spend more than a few hours with each of them!

• A few weeks after getting home we settled into our new house and celebrated Clara's 3rd birthday.  We just had a few friends over to play and had cake and ice cream.

Everyone wanted to help.  And yes, we used Christmas wrapping paper..don't judge !)

• Now we've started at a new school.  So far things are going well and the kids are making friends.  Gracie is also playing soccer and William is playing football which means our nights are pretty full.  Gracie's first game is tonight and she cannot wait!

First day of school--William, Hallie and Gracie.  Clara was all ready  to go with her backpack too.  

• This weekend we took the kids to this little tiny splash park in Ardmore.  It only had 3 fountains shooting up, but the kids thought it was great.  Clara loved sitting on the fountains and Elizabeth loved trying to drink from them.  

•  A quick update on Elizabeth.  She's now 8 months old and crawling all over the place.  She can even go up the stairs but not down.  She can stand for a minute or two and even took a step the other day, but it's a little early to expect her to walk.  It won't be long though.  She got her first tooth this weekend with the second coming any day (I hope!).  She has the funnest personality.  She smiles all the time and loves to be where the action is.  She's incredibly determined (which will hopefully be a good thing when she's older) and extremely active.  We love her so much!

There's a reason I don't like them playing in the front yard

My kids always want to play in the front yard. We have this awesome porch swing that I let them play on, but usually I tell them to stay out of the yard. On Friday they were waiting for a friend to come over so I let them wait out in the yard. A few minutes later Hallie came in and said, "Mom, don't be mad. Gracie is stuck in the ditch." I usually get nervous when she starts something with "don't get mad", but the ditch in the yard is not that big. How could she get stuck in it. I came out to see Gracie's head sticking out of the drainage pipe! She had gone in feet first, but on coming out had wedged her leg perpendicular to the pipe. Here's a picture of the pipe for reference.

As Hallie stood on the side crying I tried to figure out how to unwedge Gracie's leg. Gracie started to get worried when I couldn't get her out right away so she cried, "Pray, Mama! Pray!" At least now she was making good decisions! Every time I tried to move her leg she said it hurt so I started wondering if I would have to call the police. Luckily, after just a few failed attempts, Gracie was able to bend her leg underneath her, go all the way inside until she was under the grate, then she had room to straighten out her leg and slide back out--straight this time.

Tony pulled up from work just as Gracie was climbing out. He had brought brownies home (leftover from a luncheon) so the kids quickly forgot the ordeal and enjoyed their brownies. I kept asking Gracie why on earth she climbed in there. At first she said she slipped. When I didn't buy that she finally admitted she wanted to see if she could fit. Apparently she can, just not sideways.

On a different note, here's some pictures of Elizabeth. She had her one month check up on Wednesday and is now 11lbs. 2 oz. and 22 1/2" long. That's 2 pounds heavier and 1" longer than when she was born. She's already in size 2 diapers since she has chubby little thighs. I've never had a baby grow this fast. All my others were born average (or maybe a little more) then they grew incredibly slow. Like a full 2 months to get to 10 pounds slow. But not Elizabeth! And at the risk of jinxing myself, she slept 6 straight hours last night! None of my other kids did that this early either. Hopefully it wasn't a fluke.

Elizabeth does smile when you can get her to look at you, but it takes a lot more work than it did with Clara. I tried for quite a while to get a picture of her smiling, but this is as close as we got.

Clara loves Elizabeth and always know what she wants. "Baby wants a pacifier." "Baby wants some milk." "Baby wants a bath." "Baby wants a sippy cup." (As she tries to feed Elizabeth her sippy cup) When Clara wants to hold Elizabeth she says, "I wanna hold it." Which makes us think she sees Elizabeth as one of her dolls.

Here's a nice picture of Clara holding Elizabeth.

Here's what it usually looks like. (Don't worry, she's not actually choking!)