Wyatt's birthday

11 years!!!! I can't believe that it has been that long. Wyatt celebrated his 11th birthday on Saturday (although it wasn't until Sunday the 24th). He had a few friends over and they had fun. He decided that he wanted a water theme for his party. He wanted water balloons, but after the last one, I had to say no way (they didn't pick up the balloon pieces and I ended up doing it). But we did turn the sprinklers on and put our trampoline over them and we had a slip and slide too. I think that he had a great day.....but the icing on the cake was our present to him. Here is his face as he sees it for the first time:

This is what he got:

Since we had a water theme he wanted an aquarium for his cake....so I did my best. This is what I came up with:

I used nerds for the rocks and then found some swedish fish for the rest. I lucked out and also spied some gummy octupus and put a few of those on too. Not to bad for a beginner?

Bethany's Baptism and Birthday

This year is a special one in our religion for Bethany. As this is her 8th birthday, this is the year that she gets baptized. We were on the ball this year and were able to get a date picked and the things ready way before her actual birthday because we wanted to give our families every opportunity to be able to come and help her celebrate this special day. Bethany's actual birthday was on the 5th, but her baptism wasn't until the 9th. We really enjoyed having as much family as we did come and it was a very special occasion for her. I am still amazed at how time has flown. It just seems like yesterday we were brining her home from the hospital, but here we are 8 years later. We have had a lot of fun with Bethany, but we have also had our trials with her. She has been a trooper over the last 2 yrs as we have tried to figure out how to deal with her lack of growth. After discovering that she has GHD (Growth Hormone Deficiency) and starting her shots she has grown a ton! The saying that dynamite comes in small pacakages....that describes her exactly. She might be small, but hey look out when she gets mad!

This is Bethany sporting the cake that I made for her. It was actually two cakes, but they were essentially exactly alike. The cake was a round one that you cut. But since I can't half a cake mix from the box, I had to make 2 round cakes, and since I already had the stuff to make them, I just made them both into her butterfly cakes. I hope that she loved it, she seems to from her face.

This is Bethany and her dad right before the start of the baptism. It is hard to get a great picture of Gabe, but I think that Bethany's face is priceless here. Her smile is one that she had on her face the entire evening.

Bethany holding up her new dress that Grandma Sherry got her.....notice a theme that wasn't intentional? (Hint: purple and butterflies?) No we didn't plan that, it just happens that maybe great minds think alike?

Wyatt's Doings lately.

Wyatt has again had a lot going on. We had a pack meeting recently and he was awarded his Bear.

Then he also had a birthday. We had found a cool website that showed how to make cakes without being too elaborate about it. (Just what I need). So I asked him to pick one and he decided to do the robot. I think it turned out really cute. He had some friends over to help celebrate and I was impressed that Wyatt asked for me to save the "head" for Gabe as he was working and Wyatt wanted his dad to have part of his cake too. His friends weren't too happy as the head had a lot of fun goodies on it: a blow pop, gum drops and some gum. I can't believe he is 10!

Wyatt and his friends being silly as we were showing the cake off.



Wyatt just after we finished the cake. He was a big helper in getting it done.

Holy Gee, we are 3!

Yes, I know I am behind again on my posts as Katherine's birthday was almost 2 weeks ago, but I don't have as much time as I used to for blogging with a new baby around. So Katherine had her birthday and we actually celebrated for 2 days. Gabe had gone hunting with friends of ours to help them get their elk on her birthday and so the kids and I celebrated with her that day and then we had her cake the next day when Gabe was home for it. She was so excited because her Grandma Sherry and Grandpa Lyle had sent her a package. I was the mean mom and didn't let her open it the night that we got it and not even until much later in the afternoon on her birthday as we still needed to do chores. Once I let her open it, she was over the top excited as they had sent her a pillow pet. The first time she hugged it I heard her wisper to it "I LOVE you pillow pet!" I just love this smile for her. So typical Katherine.

We sang to her when Gabe got home and he showed her how to make "3" with her fingers so that she could now show that she was 3.

Overall I think that she had a wonderful day. We are so blessed to have her in our home. I am in awe at the generosity that she shows and how loving she can be to her brothers and sisters. I never have to ask her for a kiss, she is always willing to give them and does so freely. Love you Katherine!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JACOB!!!

It is amazing how time flies. In four short years we have gone from this:

to this:

We have had our ups and downs. We have dealt with the usual illnesses and few that are so usual....but we have survived! This is one little boy that has an independent streak a mile wide. If he can't do it himself, he isn't going to ask for help, but he will sure try and do it no matter what. He is also the happiest little one that I have seen....but of course he has his dark side too. For him it is either really happy or really sad....there doesn't seem to be much of an in between. I am amazed at the things that he can accomplish when he puts his mind to it....for example we potty trained in a weekend! I am thankful to have him in our home. I look forward to lots of years more with him and hope that his smile never changes. It melts my heart and makes me happy to see him smile. Happy birthday Jacob.

Another Year older.....

This is a hard post to write. Not because I don't know what to say, but because I feel like I already said it once. Today is Gabe's birthday. Normally I would have a list of all the things that I love and admire about him (one for each year of his life), but I have already done a post like that (see May 26th for our anniversary post). So I am not going to repeat myself, if you want to know some reasons why I love this man see the previous post for 14 of them. I would also post pictures of him, but if your really know my husband.....he HATES pictures and will do anything to get out of them. Most of the ones that I have are of him making faces at the camera or of the back of his head because he turns away. So I guess that the point of this post is just to aknowledge that today is the birthday of my dear husband. What more can I say that I haven't already said?

14 things I love about.....

Of course it is that time again...another birthday update. This time it is Amanda. I am going to have to stop doing this, not because I don't like listing the things that I love about my children, but because it get harder to find things that I haven't already said about them. So here it goes. 14 things that I love about Amanda:
1. She is always helpful. Since she has been little she has been my little helper. Now she loves to help, but it has gotten to the stage where she is more eager to help somone outside the home than in it (just a teenager thing).
2. Talented Musician. She is able to sit down and play a piece of music a couple of times and then almost play it for memory. This is especially true for her clarinet. She will practice a piece and then she will walk around the house playing it without her music.
3. Generous. She is and always has been a very giving person.
4. Good Cook. This one has come about lately as I have been more willing to let her help out in the kitchen. She has even done the whole meal by herself a couple of times with minimal help from me. That is nice for me as I can have her start something while I am busy with something else and then come help her finish it.
5. Willing to help. This one is a little different than before. She is always the first one to jump in where she sees help is needed.
6. She is alway pretty happy. I am seeing less of it as the teenage grumpies hit, but I can always seem to get a smile out of her.
7. She is going to be a great mother. I have caught her trying to do things that I should be doing for the other children. She loves to play with the babies of the ward and anytime that she can babysit (other than for her siblings) she is always willing.
8. Brave--this one I really saw happening lately. But more on that in a future post.
9. Energetic. I wish that I had half of her energy and stamina at times. She has been know at slumber parties to do just the opposite----stay up ALL night and then just keep going the next day without missing a beat.
10. Relates well to others. It doesn't matter how old they are, she is a people person. She wants to be with other people.
11. Dependable. She has come to be the one that you can rely on. If she says she will do something,then she is going to do it and be there for you.
12. Eager learner. She is always up for the challenge of learning something new.
13. Quick study. She is eager to learn, but she also picks it up quite quickly.
14. And last, but definetly not least, is that she is turning into such a nice and well rounded Young Women. I am very happy with what she has done in her life and the choices that she is making. If we can make it through these teenage years, we will be one happy family.
These are just a few pictures that I found of her that I wanted to share.
This was taken last Christmas. My father-in-law bought a Santa suit and had all the grandkids come and get their picture taken with "Santa". The funny thing is, that is his true beard and he didn't have to stuff the costume at all either.



















This is a special one for Gabe. This is Amanda with her Great-Grandpa Joe. She was born about 3 yrs before he passed away. I believe that she was his first Great-grandchild, but don't quote me on that one.
















This is Amanda and Gabe at her baptism. What a special day for her and us.



















This one is my special one. This is a four generation picture taken after she was born. This was her first road trip to Utah, and hasn't been the last either. I know that somewhere we have a 5 generation one for this side of the family (it would include my great-grandma and Amanda's great-great grandma Kimber) , but not sure where that one is. If any family members can help me track that one down, I would be forever grateful.

Birthday and Bethany

Well, as most of you know, I celebrated another birthday this last Friday. I am now at the point where I really don't want to even acknowledge that I am a year older, but I still loved having all the birthday wishes. This year, my birthday was eventful, but not for me. I spent most of the day taking care of the next step in our continuing quest for answers for Bethany's height issue. In June I took Bethany to the hospital for a glucagon test. This was a stimulation test for growth hormone deficiency. They gave her a shot of glucagon (suger water essentially) and then drew blood at 1 1/2 hours after the shot and at 2 1/2 hrs after the shot. We finally got the results back from that.....not very promising. The doctor told us that any result that was greater than or equal to 7 was considered normal. Bethany's results were at 2 and 6. So not good there. We are scheduled to meet with the endocrinologist again in August were we will find out even more about what we are going to do, but for now we had one more step before we can do that. The endocrinologist had told us when we met with him in May that we would do the glucagon test and based on those results we might have to do an MRI. Well, because her results weren't good, we had to do the MRI. I wasn't thrilled about this, because I knew that she would have to be sedated to get it done. They tried to do it without sedation, and of course it didn't work. She held really still, but I guess that even one little twitch can throw the results off. So we ended up having to go back a second time and lucky me, it was on my birthday. I was really nervous, because Bethany has never been sedated before, Katherine had to be for her surgery, but I didn't have to watch that one and so I really didn't know what to expect. The nurse put an IV in and then they injected the medication to put her to sleep into that (I was thankful because Bethany is becoming aware of those needles and really doesn't like it). It was amazing how quickly she went to sleep, but little did I know what would happen next. They sent me back to the waiting room and we waited. It didn't take long and I was able to go back and see her, but she didn't wake up right away. As a matter of fact she would have periods of wakefulness of about 1 to 2 minutes but slept most of the morning. We were in Lander (where we had the procedure done) for the whole morning.....I didn't get home until about 2. Gabe was working in Lander that day, so we took him back to work and I hung around until after lunch, as we were being careful.....we didn't want to have to rush back with a bad reaction. Gabe and I were able to go to lunch and then because she was starting to come around, I went home. When I got home, I found that my babysitters (I had three sisters from church come) had made me a cake and some birthday cards. That was sweet. The rest of the afternoon was spent checking on Bethany and making sure that she would wake up. Dinner was nothing special as Gabe and I had decided that we would do a movie instead of dinner this year.
So we left the kids and went to see the new Harry Potter movie. I was excited to see it, but a little disappointed in the movie itself. As a Harry Potter reader, it was diappointing to see how much background information was left out and how much they had changed. I understand why they do it, because if they put everything in the movie from the book, it would be a 4 hr movie, and then they have to keep you engaged, so therefore they change stuff to be visually appealing. But Gabe has never read the books and throughout the movie was asking me why this was happening or who that was, because they didn't do a very good job.
Overall I had a wonderful day. Thanks to all who wished me a happy birthday. And we will continue to keep you up to date on Bethany and her status.

Birthdays and Baptisms

Yesterday was a special day in our house. We were able to baptize Wyatt a member of our church. We were thrilled that he had made the right decision and also that things went smoothly for all involved. On top of that huge event we also decided that since a bunch of family was going to be here that we would celebrate Wyatt and Bethany's birthdays with some cake and ice cream. Neither one had, as of yesterday, had a chance to blow out candles on a cake and what better chance to do that than when you can have a huge bash. It was a very uplifting day and the kids had fun seeing the relations.







Beth and Wyatt holding the cake. For some reason when I was making the cake I was thinking that I had an "8" candle......I have all the others, but no 8 so I had to make do with the others.














Not really my favorite picture of me and the family.....Jacob isn't even in it as he fell asleep during the services and wasn't quite awake at this time. The pillow that Wyatt is holding is a gift from our primary president. She makes each child a pillow with their name, date of baptism and the CTR logo on it. She asks them for their favorite color and I learned yesterday that Wyatt's favorite color is red, hence the red pillow. On the back side of it, it has red "cowboy" material.....looks like a bandana on the back.













Over all we had a wonderful day, lots of good company and LOTS of food. I now have at least 2 meals of chicken noodle soup in my freezer thanks to Gabe's grandmother, and ended the night with 2 full cakes and a batch of cupcakes because no on was hungry for them last night. I was going to send the cupcakes with Amanda to Young Women's today, but last night they had an untimely demise. Gabe and I went for a walk before bedtime and left the kids watching a movie. When we got back several cupcakes were gone and the frosting on the remaining cupcakes was missing. No one will own up to the deed, but that means no cupcakes for the Young Women today in church.

Bethany

Well, here it is the next in a series of birthday posts. Having such a large family it is almost a constant thing that someone is having a birthday or celebrating something special. I can't believe that she is now 6. Part of me wants her to go back to this small little being that was dependant on me....but then I am also enjoying her spit fire personality. Yesterday the bishop was asking her how old she was and I had to laugh because she told him that she was five. (Our ward gives each birthday child a card to take to the bishop for a bag of jelly beans.) She has grown a lot over these last five years and I am amazed at the things that she knows how to do. She is going to be in the first grade and her favorite thing to do now is read. This morning she came up to me and I have a shirt on with words and asks me "mom, does your shirt say 'remember'?" (it did). She is always trying to read the words that she knows and wants to have help with those that she doesn't. We love her to death and hope that she had the best birthday a little girl could hope for.
This picture is one of my favorites. We had Bethany on the floor trying to get some pictures to put on a birth announcment and Wyatt laid right down next to her. From the get go he was pretty protective of her.





This next picture is the one that we used on her birth announcement. She was so cute.
This is Bethany showing off her monkey at the library. They have story time every week and this time happened to fall during her spring break and so she got to help sing the song "5 little monkeys" (with the Alligator).

My Little boy, well used to be

This is Wyatt a couple of days after he was born. I can't believe how little he was.



Holy Cow!!!


I can't believe that it has been eight years since Wyatt joined our family. I remember vividly that he was late and I lost a bet. We had a family friend coming home from his mission the day that Wyatt was due and I bet that Wyatt would come first and lost because he didn't (not for another 2 days!). We have seen him grow a lot in the last 8 years and we are proud of the boy that he has become. I know that he is a lover not a fighter. He loves to help out and proves that at school. He has had several star awards come home because he was helping out a teacher or fellow student without being prompted by anyone.
As far as what we did today, nothing special except for the cookies. We did the kids' summer activites at the school.


Then we spent the afternoon decorating cookies. Wyatt has a baseball game so we aren't going to celebrate until we have set the baptism date. That way we can celebrate with everyone for both occasions. Wyatt decided that we would take cookies for his baseball team. He asked that we make baseball cookies. And so we did. It took me an hour and 45 minutes to decorate them all and they did turn out pretty cute.




I also found a couple of pictures of him as a baby with his best buddy Aidan. Of course he was too little to know they were best buds. It was helped that Aidan's mom was my best friend AND that they lived next door to us AND that the boys are only about 6 weeks apart. We have a ton of these pictures of them sitting together or playing together. I really enjoy the ones of them in the sun glasses. Sadly they had to move away and now when I mention Aidan, Wyatt doesn't remember him. What a time we have had with Wyatt. Love you a ton Wyatt, Happy Birthday.

Birthday--revisited

Since Jacob is lucky enough to share a birthday with his cousin, who also lives about a mile away from us, we have decided to split the parties into two seperate occasions (see the previous post 3yrs and counting). We did have a small party with Grandma Sherry, Grandpa Lyle, Uncle Eric and Aunt Mindy on the 1st (his actual birthday) only because they were unable to attend the party date that we selected---today. We did have cake and ice cream for him today and it was pretty special for him. We had both friends and family over, and had a really good time.

Unfortunately for pictures he aslo has a great bruise on his cheek from 4-wheeling with Amanda earlier today. The way that she explained it was that he wanted to go over a big bump, they did and he hit the handle bars with his cheek......but I think that the desire to go over the bump was from another source.

He wanted a "Cars" cake, so I did the best that I could and put Mater and Lightning on his cake. I also do cupcakes for the kids as it seems to waste less cake than doing a big piece of cake.....and those had the lightning bolt on them (or as close as I could make them) surrounded by a "tire".

He was really excited about the whole party, until it came time to blow out the candles. He was smiling and just tickled pink while we sang to him, but didn't want to blow out the candles. Finally Dad had to come and help us......meaning he blew them out. Overall he had a great time and loved the whole idea.....I think that this will be the first party that he remembers.

Birthday and concert

We have had a busy week with Katherine's birthday and Wyatt music concert falling on the same day. We decided to have cake and ice cream today for the birthday as the concert was a must do and we didn't think we could do both. Wyatt did a really nice job at his concert. They sang all patriotic songs and it was fun. He didn't have a special part this year, although he did help the music teacher in moving the microphone. He was excited as his grandparents were able to come and see him. (Thanks for coming and we hope to see you soon)
We had a fun time celebrating for Katherine and she looked like she REALLY enjoyed her cake (see the picture). As per being a year old she wanted to play with the packages more than her toys. And as for having older siblings she didn't get to play with her toys much the first little bit. We had a good turn out and don't have much cake left, YEA (for some reason I don't like left over cake). Thanks to all who made it over--we had a nice time.

Time

You know the saying "time flies when you are having fun"? Well I really have to disagree with that. I have found that time does what it wants and when it wants. It will slow way down when you are looking forward to something, like Christmas, so that it seems to take forever to come. Or it will speed up so fast that you can't remember where it has all gone like when you are spending time with family. Or it just passes without any sort of acknowledgement. So as I am looking at the date today, I realize that this time time really has flown. My littlest daugher, Katherine, is now a year old. It doesn't seem like it has been that long since we brought her home, but that is time playing tricks on us again. She is indeed a year old and growing bigger everyday. She loves to love on the other kids, blow kisses and give hugs---if you get close enough. She is learning to walk on her own, but doesn't feel that she needs to because she has others willing to carry her (and crawling is faster anyway). She will laugh out loud, especially when others around her are laughing. We are celebrating her birthday on Saturday, because Wyatt has a music program tonight, and I will post pictures then. But I wish that time hadn't flown and that I still had my newborn, but yet I am enjoying watching her grow and progress day by day. She is such a sweet little girl that I can't imagine not having her a part of our family.

Happy Birthday!!

Okay, so when you get as old as I am you really don't want to celebrate any more birthdays, but this one is not mine. Today is Gabe's birthday. I didn't realize how hard it was to buy presents for him until a good friend of ours called to find out what he wanted for his birthday. Gabe is a firm believer in getting things that you need for any gift giving occasion. (that is why the kids gave him socks, a belt, and some aftershave lotion.) But when he has everything that he needs, what do you get him?? I even asked him about making him a cake--doesn't want one. I asked about a special dinner (we have the tradition of the birthday person choosing the meal for that night) and he just said he wanted something to eat. But I think that he really enjoyed this morning. I woke all the kids up a litte early and then took them into our bedroom (as Gabe was still sleeping) and then the all climbed up and wished him a happy birthday with hugs and kisses. I am really thankful at this time though for his companionship, his ability to fulfill his duties as a father and at times his sense of humor. (Ask mom about this because she doesn't like that about him sometimes). So Happy Birthday Gabe, your family loves you a bunch.

13 candles

Wow, I can hardly believe that 13 yrs have gone by. Yesterday my oldest turned 13. I don't feel ready for that, nor can I believe that I am old enough for that, but it has happened. We decided to do things a little different this year. Amanda had a friend over Friday night to spend the night. Then we just hung out Saturday and had her "party" this evening. Most of that was because I was lazy in getting a cake mix and frosting until Friday. And then because we had been to another party Friday evening I just didn't feel up to have cake 2 days in a row. But then the weather had a lot to do with it too.....it snowed all day Saturday, and when it is like that I just like to hole up in the warmth and not have to go many places. It is all over and done now, and she is celebrated up for another year. All I can say is that I am dumbfounded, what do I do with a teenager?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY/Labor Day Weekend

Today marks Mariah's fourth birthday. We had the best intentions of doing something fun for her day. We thought that we would take the motor home and go camping for the last weekend of the summer, but were sidetracked because of church obligations.....Gabe had to fill in for the Elder's Quarum President who was out of town, I had to fill in on the organ and Bethany was giving a talk. Then we thought that we go somewhere just for the day, but the weather had other ideas for us. So instead of traveling the state (or at least the county) we stayed home. I made the children do chores for the morning and then they vegged with Dad in front of the TV. In the afternoon we had a block party with our neighbors (Mike and Melany and Lance and Kelli). The BBQ was a bring what you have and then we had cake and ice cream for Mariah's birthday. We are very thankful to have such a sweet little girl in our home. She is getting excited too because this birthday is the milestone she was looking for, as she is now old enough to start preschool (which happens on Wednesday). Thanks to all for the phone calls and/or presents for her. She was just thrilled for her birthday.