Sunday Photo: 25

This afternoon after looking through all the baby scrapbooks Gage was asking us all about where he lived when he was a baby.  So we decided to take a little drive down memory lane and show him.

We packed everyone up and drove up to the University of Utah.  It seems like ages ago we lived in married student housing.  The university has changed so much since I was a student. Driving around it made me feel old and dated.  However, the housing was exactly the same.  They probably still have the same exact pink carpet squares!  707.  We cried when we moved in that place.  It was horrible and tiny (but huge to us) and had cinder block walls and an oven from the 70s.  When we moved out four years later we cried again.  We didn't want to leave.  Funny how that works.

After driving through the courts we headed up to This Is The Place Park.  It was sweltering-record-breaking hot, but I made everyone get out for this Sunday photo.  It's a pretty amazing place.

We have a picture of Wade standing in front of the same monument 11 years ago.  We walked up there to see the Olympic torch run by.  What a difference 11 years makes.  

We've come a long way.  Can't wait to see where the next 11 take us.

Sunday Photo: 24

The kids enjoyed Fat Boy ice-cream sandwiches outside after church today.

(Lucy took a nap)

This upcoming week brings big news.  It's the last week of school!  (Some people have asked how that works...year round is just like traditional in the sense, we have 4 quarters and then we are done and move up.). 

The kids have been showing their true colors this past week: Noah is very excited about field day and can speak of nothing else, Gage is already getting anxious and worried about what he will be expected to learn in fourth grade.  Avery is super mad she has one more year until kindergarten.  (I on the other hand am thankful for the upcoming one year hiatus from the time consuming 3 trips to school day thanks to full timers and half timers.) Eli wears his backpack around faithfully asking when he can have homework of his own.  And Lucy, she just smiles and plays the maracas like she's the boss. 

This week we have a check up at the cardiologist for Lucy.  We hopefully will have good news that her little heart has stay healed.  If only we could judge how healthy her heart was by the size of her chubby little cheeks.

We enjoyed dinner with some friends tonight and finished it off with some homemade snow cones and the kids playing in the mud.  Perfect summer night activities.  Nothing a little bath (or hose off in the backyard) can't fix.

We're all pretty glad summer is here.

Sunday Photo: 23

Happy Father's Day.  

I have been blessed by two amazing Dad's (my Dad and Father in law) who are loving examples to me.  They know when to listen and when to give awesome advice.

And Wade.

He is pretty much awesome just for putting up with all of us.  He even let me take a Sunday Photo with him in it today. (without too much complaints)  We are kinda a crazy bunch.  And he loves us.  He is constancy sacrificing things he wants for us.

The favorite quote of the day came from Noah.  Who told me after church:

"Hey mom, Stop stressing out.  It's Father's Day and he can do anything he wants to do today"

Happy Day.

We love our Dad and Grandpas!

Pinewood Derby

The last week in May Gage competed in the Pinewood Derby.

Gage and Wade had such a fun time planning out the car and working on it together.  Gage wanted a simple design (a wedge) and Wade worked hard at directing - and being hands off! haha!

One time during the painting stage Wade came home at lunch and I found him in the garage checking out the car.  He asked me if I thought Gage would mind if he added another coat of paint?  Ha!  I told him there was no way could he work on the car while Gage was at school.  He looked a little sad, but agreed to leave it alone.  (sometimes, I swear I have 4 little boys in this house!)

The big day!

Each kid got a turn pushing the button for the cars to go.  It was a pretty cool track! 

It showed the time and mph each car ran.  In this heat Gage got first and his car averaged around 173 mph each run!  Wow!

Gage won second place overall.  He was so excited he ran a little victory run around the gym.  He also got a certificate for most florencent paint job.

I don't think that this troop goes to district, so he doesn't get to move on like last year, but he was still very proud of his second place car.  He got 3rd place last year so maybe next year will be his big year!

Way to go Gage!

{7 Months}

Lucy May is 7 months old!

And it is serious business...

Just kidding....

At seven months old Lucy is such a fun girl!  She is very happy sitting up and playing with toys.  She is trying to reach things and falls on her tummy when they are out of her reach.  She has moved her legs a couple times while attempting to crawl, but she mostly just gets mad.  I'm sure she'll get it eventually and then we'll have to hide every lego in the house.

Lucy tolerates baby food every afternoon while I try to feed her.  But mostly she just looks at me like I'm shoving poison in her mouth.  Although, she does like banana baby food, and it's pretty funny when we try to feed her baby puffs.  She just pops them right out and then tries to get them back in her mouth with her tongue. 

Just when I thought I got her diaper explosions under control (by moving her up 2 diaper sizes) she proved me wrong yesterday.  All over my white shirt.  Gross!  Good thing she is cute.

Lucy loves her pink blankie.  She sleeps with two of them every night.  If you can call what she does sleeping.  She's pretty hit and miss.  She is still in our room.  Some nights she does great, others I feel like she is up all night long.  Who knows.  She just likes to rock in the chair with me.  And since she is my baby, I guess I won't complain.  She doesn't have any teeth yet. Maybe that is why she is up some nights.

Lucy loves the baby piano toy.  She will sit and play on it all day.  

She is so proud of herself for making music.

She loves anything that makes music, shakers, the piano, rattles.  She also is clapping and waving.  I love the clapping!  

Lucy loves bath time.  She gets so excited and splashes like crazy.  Last Saturday we took her swimming for the first time and she had a great time in the pool.  I only got one picture of her before we got in, I've decided that with 5 kids to watch at the pool, it is not the time for pictures.

 Lucy has her cardiology follow up appointment at the end of the month.  Hopefully her little heart is doing fine after her surgery.  We shall see.

She is the cutest little girl.  We love her chubby cheeks.  

Happy seven months!

Visitors!

I am behind on blogging again.  

Sigh.

My slow computer makes me so mad, and life gets in the way.

~~

A couple weeks ago...back in May....our best friends from Washington came to visit us!  

We love these guys!  

We had been counting down the days till their visit since the day we drove away from Washington. 

Have I mentioned how much we love these guys?  They are what got us through residency.

Saturday they got here and we just played and hung out.  

It was so good to catch up.  

Noah made a list of things to do with them, but the kids were totally happy just to play the whole time too.

Sunday bright and early we managed to get 7 kids and 4 adults ready for 9 am church on time.  

Not to bad!

Lucy made her self at home with baby whisperer Doug.

First up on Noah's list - Kangaroo Zoo!

Monday night we went to Temple Square.  

These two cracked me up.  I asked them to hug.  Linkin said, "NO!" and Avery said, "Why not?"

Give them both 20 years and they'll be standing here again.

They will get married someday.

Their moms are going to make sure of that!

We spent a lot of time outside riding bikes.  Luca wanted to bring her bike on the airplane.  I am glad we had enough bikes and strollers to go around and they didn't have to check that in their luggage!

All kids love Courtney.  I wonder if we could fit anymore around her?!

Wednesday we went to Thanksgiving Point.  The dinosaur museum is always a big hit.

And we finished off the trip with mini kid ice cream cones.  

Not to bad considering it cost $1.13 total for everyone!

Courtney and Doug were here when Lucy had her surgery, so Thursday they watched our kids for us.  I don't have any pictures but they took them all to Tracy Aviary and then to Chuck-A-Rama.  I can't express how relieved I was that they were here when Lucy had her surgery.  I know that my four kids can be a handful, but I didn't worry at all with them.  And I can't believe that they took them to a buffet!  Six kids nine and under at a buffet does not sound like a fun time, but they all said it was a blast.  I know it was a blessing that they were here that week and could help us.  Wednesday I was able to pick Doug's doctor brain about everything he knew about hearts and cath labs.  Two doctor brains in the house to pick at the same time! I was still nervous, but I felt a little better after talking to them.

~~

We were so sad to see them go.  We are counting the days again until we can see them again.  They really are some of the best friends we'll ever have.  They really are family and we love them.

Sunday Photo: 22

We are celebrating Father's Day early today with Grandpa Christiansen.

Tidbits from our week:  

Gage:  I got an email from Gage's teacher this week.  Gage has doubled the words per minute he can read this year!  What a great job!

Noah:  This week he has post kindergarten testing.  He will do just fine. School doesn't stress him out.  His teacher has told them the class will get to practice eating in the lunch room later this month. He is so excited and asks me every single day if it is lunch room day yet.

Avery:  Avery has finished our preschool co-op and now misses seeing her friends.  She has a picture of one little boy from her class on the fridge.  When we leave the house she takes the picture with us.  Then she returns his picture to the fridge when we get home.

Eli is almost 3!   He has learned how to ride the big boy bike (not his trike). He is pretty excited about this and wants to ride it all.the.time.  He can sing you almost the entire One Direction song, You Don't Know Your Beautiful.

Lucy Lu is 7 months old!  I need to take a monthly picture of her.  Her bruises are all gone, but she won't let me out of her site.  We go to the cardiologist at the end of the month to see how her heart is doing.

Life is good.  

Life is busy.  

It sure never slows down.

Sunday Photo: 21

I grabbed the boys out of bed and had them run over to the park tonight for a practice silhouette sunset shot.  Not to bad for our first try.  I miss the beach.  I miss getting a shot like this in Washington.  

I would like to try another night with all the kids.  Perhaps a night Avery is in a better mood.  Tonight she was mad at me because I told her to stop hitting Noah.  So she broke her tooth brush.  Snapped it right in two.  Then she told Wade that I made her do it and cried and got hugs.

And then I still made her brush her teeth holding the tiny handle.  I am so mean.

Girls are so much different than boys.

I do love our curly girl, Avery Ann.

But if it had been Gage, Noah would have hit him back and it would have been the end of the story.

So maybe next weekend we'll try another sunset shot.  After we buy Avery a new tooth brush, that is.

Happy Sunday.