This is awesome

Some friends of ours just found out they are having twins. 

Check out the awesome way they announced it to their friends and family.
Man, I wish I was that creative!

Abby's Last Day of School

The last day of school was bittersweet for Abby. She has been at American Heritage since kindergarten and we have decided to attend the local public school next year so it was her last day at the school as well. We will miss American Heritage and the friends, teachers, administration and spirit that is there. They really have some great programs and are truly a unique school. We have decided to switch for various reasons (we actually moved Max over last April) and, who knows, we may be back in a year or two. We are very excited about next year. Abby is excited to attend school with all of her neighbor friends and even a cousin! She also tested in to the Accelerated Learning Lab and we are looking forward to the challenge that will bring. I am looking forward to an extra 10 hours a week because I will not be commuting to the school... yeah! For now, Abby is looking forward to enjoying a nice long summer.

Working in the garden

We decided to expand our garden this year. 

I'm pretty sure they were supposed to be helping.

Maybe they were lending moral support?

Piano man and his biggest fan

We've Got Teeth!

Finally!! Most babies get their first teeth at 4-7 moths (I looked it up)... Cole finally got teeth at 8 months. So cute!! I love the toothy little grin. I also love that we won't have to deal with drooling and fussiness anymore... at least for a little while.

A close up for you:

Hmmm... maybe we shouldn't let him do this anymore.

Poser

So maybe I've been spending too much time working with my camera. Afton has become quite the poser. While I was playing with exposure one day she gave me these gems... totally unprovoked!

Science Project

Abby was so excited to build this volcano at school in her science class. We made the clay at home and sent it to class with a water bottle. At school all the kids built their volcanos and then they made them erupt. When she got home we did it again as a family. Pretty cool project for a 2nd grader!

National Golden Gloves Boxing Championships

In May Chris had the opportunity to sing the National Anthem for the National Golden Gloves Boxing Tournament. Of course he did awesome and the best part was that we were able to stick around and enjoy the evening... ringside VIP seats too! Let me start by saying that I am definitely NOT a boxing fan. I have never watched it at all (unless you count the 'Rocky' movies) and I've always thought it seemed like a brutal sport. Well, we had a blast. I was so impressed. Just a little background, Golden Gloves has been around since the 1930's and is a program for young men (teens and early 20's) to train. This program is what has created some of the biggest names in boxing... I was surprised how many I recognized. Also, I have NEVER seen such polite young men and great sportsmanship. They were polite to everyone around them, their opponents, the refs, each other. The fans and coaches as well, no arguing with refs or other coaches... It was amazing and actually made me a little emotional. I am so glad there are programs out there where young men can learn a skill and do something they love while learning to be gentlemen as well. I also think these are kids that would probably end up in the wrong crowd if they didn't have something like this. It was an awesome night... very fun and something different.

Green Belt

Abby tested for her green belt in early May. I didn't get any pictures of her actual test (long story), but here is her belt ceremony and then we had her do her form when we got home. She is really doing so well in Taekwondo and I am so glad that she has found something she really loves to do.

Keep up the great work, Abby!

Just Cole

In April I attended a lighting demo with one of my favorite photographers Nicole Hill. I have attended a few of her workshops and have loved every one of them... she is awesome. The next day after church I decided to get out my camera and experiment. Cole just happened to be around and so he got to be my subject. I wasn't really trying to get great shots, I just wanted to play with my camera and see what I got when I tried different things. The plan was to delete them all. However, when I looked through them they so perfectly captured who Cole is right now... at almost 8 months old. So here are some of my favorites... even the fuzzy and dark ones!

Cole is a very fast crawler and uses his skill to get into a lot of mischief!

Look at this face. He makes it all the time and it totally cracks us all up. He breathes really heavy while he's doing it, too, which only adds to the hilarity.

Ugh! This is a little habit I do not love. Cole has a bad habit of eating dog food and playing in the water. One of those bowls is gone now because Cole picked it up and threw it! We now keep the bowls on the counter and only put the food down at meal time and the water down when Cole is asleep, trapped in his high chair or not even home. Poor Roxy.

He is constantly trying to get up the stairs. He learned how to get up pretty quick... he has yet to master going down!

I love those eyes. I also love all the drool... it was because he was teething in a major way that week.

You may think this picture is cropped pretty weird. I actually did it on purpose. I wanted to remember the rolls in his thighs and around his wrists. There is nothing cuter than a chubby baby!

For about a month Cole played with this cup more than any other toy. It's so funny to see what they get attached to. He would examine every detail of that thing and tried very hard to get the Mickey Mouse sticker off that someone put on back in 1999.

Again with the eyes... they get me every time. I'm pretty sure I'm in trouble with this one. He'll be 16 and batting those eyes at me and I'll cave every time! Maybe it's because none of my other babies really had eyes? (see current photos of each child on the left)

His cute smile.

Another one of his scrunchy face 

(Abby used to make this face, too.)

The end... thanks for humoring me!

Faux Hawk

Remember this post? As most of you know, our sweet little Afton has not been blessed in the hair department. The picture in the aforementioned post was taken when she was 20 months old and I was thrilled to see just a little hair on top of her cute head. Well, since then it has definitely been growing VERY slowly. She has had 2 haircuts (and is due for another one soon) just to even things out and make it look less stragley (is that even a word?). Anyway, while I was taking pictures of my niece my sneaky nephews, Jaremy and Aaron, did Afton's hair.

I was just so excited that it was so high!! There is hope for us!!

"Always leave room in your garden for fairies to dance"

That is a quote that is on a plaque in my mother-in-law's garden... except it says angels instead of fairies. One warm Sunday afternoon, Abby picked these vines off our grapevine and made these adorable wreaths for Afton and her to wear. They pretended they were fairies and danced around the backyard. I couldn't help but think of that quote as I watched them. They were so sweet dancing and giggling together... and they looked so beautiful in their hand-made wreaths... it was one of those moments I was very grateful to be a mother of daughters.

Vegas, Baby!!

We decided to head down to Vegas for a couple of days during Spring Break. We had a blast. We arrived Thursday night just in time to check in to our hotel, grab a bite to eat and go see Afton DelGrosso's show 'LaReve' at the Wynn. (Afton is a former student of ours and is currently engaged to our nephew, Zack. We are so excited for her to join the family. We have always loved her and even named our Afton after her). The show was amazing!! We all loved it and for the next few days our Afton kept saying things like "Did you like my show?" and "Are we going to my show now?" because we kept talking about 'Afton's show'. (Photo to come... I have to get it off Chris' iphone.)

First thing Friday morning we did a little sight seeing. We like to get an early start to try and beat the crowds. We hit all our favorite spots: 

We walked the strip and admired the cool hotels.The Lion's at MGM. 

This was the coolest Lion I've ever seen there... 

it seemed like he was actually posing for us!

m&m world... where we spent $20.00 on 2 pounds of m&m's just so we could get them in odd colors. We also enjoyed the Coke Factory. By then we were dying of heat and the babies needed naps so we went back to our hotel for some time in the pool. That night we had dinner at Benihana's... so good. The kids were exhausted so we went to our room and watched a movie (we hate being out on the strip at night anyway). Saturday we swam until we had to check out (see swim pictures above.... it's a mix of both days) and drove home. It was a great way to get away for a couple days.

Happy Birthday

To my Grandma, my dad, my brother, Joel, 

and nephews, Ben and JJ (not pictured). 

All way back in April, of course!

10, 9, 8, 7...

Remember a long time ago when I told you that my family likes to blow things up? Well, Easter Sunday was no exception. This time the victim was the dragon pinata from JJ's birthday party. We did fill it with confetti to add a little extra "wow".

We're an odd group.

Snake Charmer

Abby is not your typical girl. She loves bugs and snakes and other things most girls tend to shy away from. While at dinner at my parents house one evening she found this snake early in our visit. She did not leave the snake for the entire evening. She had it crawling all over her, made it a little house, and was trying to convince us that we should take it home with us. We didn't. Since then she looks for it whenever we go over to visit. I am so glad that Abby is passionate about the things she loves and that she doesn't follow the crowd. I hope she uses her love of animals in her life to do good things in the world. She'd be a great vet or scientist!

Easter Sunday

Easter morning was a bit of a rush. We have church at 9:00 am and the choir was meeting at 8:15 am to run through the songs for the meeting that morning. I barely got a picture of what the Easter Bunny brought us before we had to rush and get ready to get out the door.

Our baskets full of yummy treats.

Lots of outside toys to keep us busy and out of the house this summer. Bubbles, play-doh, squirt guns, sidewalk chalk, and a sprinkler toy... looks like we are going to have a blast!!

After church we took pictures of all the kids in their Easter clothes:

What a good lookin' group. We decided not to do the 'matchy-matchy' clothes this year and we just used things we already had... Quite frankly, I just didn't feel like shopping this year!

Max, 11 1/2 years old
Abigail, 7 3/4 years old
Afton Grace, 2 1/2 years old
Love that face!
Cole, 7 months old. 

This was the best picture we could get of him... 

he kept crawling to eat the dirt!!
We finally had Chris hold him up so he couldn't get away. 
I love that precious smile.
Roxy was NOT loving the bunny ears.

You can re-visit my actual Easter Sunday post here

It's a beautiful message and is meaningful any time of year.

Happy Birthday, JJ

In April we celebrated my sweet nephew, JJ's, 5th birthday. I can hardly believe he is already 5 and will be going to kindergarten in the fall. He is such an awesome nephew and I feel blessed to be his aunt.

We hope you had a great Birthday. JJ. 

Thanks for including us in on the fun!!

Easter Fun

The day before Easter Grandma Higbee came over to our house to make sugar cookies and color eggs with some of the grandkids. She loves this kind of thing and the kids love doing it with her. It was fun to spend time together and we all agreed that we should make this an annual event.

Neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt

The kids had a blast at the egg hunt this year. It was freezing cold... again... so we pretty much went, did our thing, and then got home as fast as we could. Fun to spend the morning with out neighbors and friends, though. Maybe next year it will be a little warmer.

Pucker Up

Afton has figured out where I keep my favorite lipstick... 

the little stinker!

Indian Day

Abby's class was studying the American Indians and each child was assigned a specific tribe to research, write a paper, make a poster and present an oral presentation on. Abby was assigned the Cherokee Indian Tribe, which was great because she has ancestry from that tribe. It actually turned out to be a very fun project to work on together and we learned a lot. During the process we made sure to look into our family history as well to personalize it as much as possible. On the day of the presentations the children were able to dress up of they wanted to. Abby did a great job on her first big project and I was really proud of her desire to really learn the material and present it so well.

Busy Boy

These pictures were all taken when Cole was almost 7 months. He was in this stage where he was suddenly learning and discovering new things every day. I loved watching him and was in awe at how quickly he was learning and changing. In this first picture he had just discovered his shadow. It was a magical moment and I was lucky to have my camera in my hand right then. Chris and I looked down and noticed that he was "playing" with his shadow. Awesome.The downside of this stage is that we are constantly on our toes. He started attempting stairs much sooner than I would have liked. The first time I saw him try to climb them I literally said "Oh, No!" This is the first time he started trying them... we were surprised that he even attempted it and that he actually did it pretty flawlessly.
When I think of Coleman I think of all the prepositions I learned back in 7th grade... on, over, under, around, in, through... he is all over the place. He doesn't play with the toys, he dumps them out and climbs in the basket, he is on top of everything, he usually doesn't go around things, but tries to go over... or even under. One I was making my bed and walked around to the other side, leaving him on the floor on the original side. I was shocked to see him come put from under the bed to find me.
I wish I had more pictures if these things because they are such a huge part of who he is, but I'm usually running to grab him before he gets hurt so there isn't time to get the camera and take a picture... you understand, right?

Front and Center

Afton's cute little face was front and center on SigningTime.com for a couple months again. I didn't even know it until I went to purchase a gift for someone and recognized her adorable face. It's gone now, but she is still featured on BabySigningTime.com.

Babies have binkies...

... BIG girls have ear rings! At least that's what we told Afton to finally get rid of the binky. I have never had a child this attached. Even though she was all for it and excited to get her ears pierced, she cried like she was loosing a good friend when we had her throw them all in the trash. It really was the saddest/sweetest thing. We headed to the mall to do the deed and talked it up the whole way. My sister and step-mom even met us there to lend moral support. Max and Abby kept telling her how proud of her they were and tried to keep her happy about her decision. It was quite an experience...

Here I am giving her the pre-pierce pep talk.

Ready for ear number one... trying to hold her as still as possible.

Done! Look at the face. She was NOT happy. She wouldn't even look in the mirror at it.

I think the anticipation of ear number 2 was harder on me than it was on her. She was screaming. By this time we had a little audience gathered around and I was seriously questioning my decision... what kind of mean mother am I?!?

Yeah!! We're done. She is still screaming, of course, but it is over.

How sweet is that face?

It took is a while to calm her down, but then we got some dinner and she forgot all about it. She kept talking about her big girl ear rings and was so excited. She couldn't wait to show her dad. These were taken when we got home. First she showed me one ...... then the other...
... then both.
By now she was so proud and excited!
For the next couple of months she loved to tell people that "Big girls have ear rings, not binkies" and would tell them about how she went to the "doctor" and cried and cried but now she looks "booful... like a princess"

Beauty

While we were hanging out at the geography bee waiting for the results of the preliminary round there was this big window so I thought I would play with my camera. I wanted Abby to be my model and thought she would jump at the chance. She was not thrilled, but I did get this great shot. I can't believe how grown-up she is and how beautiful my little baby has become.

That was it, though... one shot and she was done. 

After that I got:

The pouty lip (Cassidy does this in almost every picture, in fact, most people that age do. Cassidy tells us this is to eliminate the double chin. I think I'd rather have a double chin than look like that in every picture!)

She also practiced her future facebook profile picture pose.

And here we have the: "Seriously, Mom. Don't take another picture!"

Oh well, at least I got the one.

State Geography Bee

You may remember a while back when Max won the school geography bee. Well, he studied hard and we all went to support him at the State Geography Bee. He did great. There were 100 scholars from all over the state, who were then divided into groups of 20 where they would each answer 10 questions. The top 10 scores overall would proceed to the final round. Max did not make t to the finals, but he did great. These questions were really hard and I'd be sure he wouldn't know it and then he did!! The kids there were amazing. In Max's room there was a boy who won state 2 years ago and went to Nationals and the little brother of the boy who won state last year. Some of these kids/families are really into this stuff. We were really proud of Max and he represented his school very well. He is already looking forward to do it again next year.

The pre-bee orientation and pep talk. 

A LOT of people... a little overwhelming.

Getting ready to begin in his room.

Quick pic during a break. We weren't allowed to take pictures while they were actually doing the bee. They are also very strict about any extra noise, eye contact, etc.

A big hug from his little sister... she was so proud of him!

Afterwards we went and enjoyed a celebratory lunch at the Deli (our fave) with some good friends who also had a son competing. It was a really good day.

The Littlest Ballerina

In February I jumped on Afton's sudden interest in dance and signed her up for a class at a local studio. She did great! From the very first day she has loved it and has done very well. Her teeny tiny size (and lack of hair) is misleading and the first day her teacher came and told me how impressed she was with her verbal skills and ability to follow directions and stay with the class. She is actually the same age as most of them... she just looks so much younger. In late March the teacher, Miss Anne (who Afton adores) let us all sit in one day so we could take pictures. I took so many it was hard to narrow it down, but here are a few that stood out to me.

They start class with warming up. She has these activities memorized and will often play "dance class" with me at home... following the exact outline of her classes and using the same phrases her teacher does.

Then they move to the ballet barre, which Afton obvioulsy loves. She pays a lot of attention to detail and is very careful about making sure her feet are in just the right position. I love watching her find first position!

Next, they do across the floor exercises: ballet walks, battement (kicks), chasse, galloping, etc.

The next part is probably Afton's favorite. They play "freeze dance"... this is where the teacher turns on some music and will let them free dance and when the music turns off they all freeze. Afton strikes this pose every time she freezes... eyes to the side, hands up, so cute!

During the game they each get a chance to dance with the princess wand. She loves this and is especially creative when she gets to be the princess.

Then they work on a little routine. During February and March they learned a dance to the song "Baby Face" (video at the end of this post). She LOVED this!! She would sing it at home and dance her little heart out. Even after they moved on to another routine she would ask to do this one... she even refused to do the other one for a couple weeks (much to my frustration!)

Here is a spliced video of Baby Face. It takes her a minute to get with the program. My favorite things about this movie: her giggle when they are skipping around the room, her finding first position after the boogie, and the look of joy on her face at the end of the dance. Just try not to smile!

Spring has Sprung?

This photo was taken March 26, 2009.

Afton played forever in the snow and loved every minute of it. 

She danced and ran and ate it and threw it.

I'm glad someone enjoyed it.

Others of us weren't as happy about the lingering winter. 

Some of us were ready for some sunshine.

More fun with Nana

While my mom was still in town we went over to the Thanksgiving Point Farm with my brothers kids to visit the animals and see if there were any spring newborns. The kids had a lot of fun running around and feeding the animals, playing in the houses, and spending time with cousins and Nana. Here are some highlights:

My mom with 6 out of 10 grandchildren.

(L to R: Ana, Abby, JJ, Max, Afton and Cole)

Max posing in the window of one of the little houses.

Of course Abby has to as well...

And whatever Abby does, Afton does!

Then we rode the ponies. Abby loves all animals 

and is a regular little horsewoman...

Afton, clearly, was not as excited to ride the ponies. This was back on March 21st and I still haven't been able to get her on a pony!

She felt much better after her sweet big brother took her to feed the little newborn goats.

Just look at that smile.

Ana LOVED the pony ride. She was giggling out loud and even rode it twice.

Ditto for JJ. 

(Max was too cool to ride this time around).

Afton was not afraid to pet a big gross cow.

And they all loved feeding the animals and being tickled by their big fat tongues.

How sweet are these 2? Cousins are the best!

Happy Birthday, Mom!!

My mom's visit just happened to coincide with her birthday, which was awesome because we don't usually get to spend it with her. I called all the local relatives and we planned a big, fancy dinner at The Harvest Restaurant at Thanksgiving Point. Seriously one of the best nights ever. We had a blast. The food and service were great and we laughed and laughed. It was exhausting. Reminded me why I love my family so much!! Everyone brought lovely gifts for my mom, we sang to her, she got to blow out a candle and we even went around the table and told our favorite things about her. It was so fun to honor someone who does so much for all of us and spoil her for the night. I think she enjoyed it too!

Later in the evening we got a little silly with the camera. 

This is my Uncle Joel... he used to be a mime so he can make his face do the craziest things:

Self Portrait:

Cassidy, my brother Joel and I practicing our best facebook/myspace profile poses:

My very attractive husband:

Okay, funny story: While getting ready for the evening, Cassidy came into my room to ask if her outfit looked okay and we were wearing the exact same thing... literally! So, I changed. When we arrived at the restaurant my cute cousin, Katlin, and I were wearing the same thing! Of course, she looked much trendier than I did!

The whole group outside after dinner (minus Eric, who had to hurry back to work). 

What a great family!!

PS. If any of you want any of these pictures just right click on it and you can save it to your computer.

Night at the Museum

In late March my mom came to visit and so we decided to head over to the dinosaur museum and enjoy the after noon.

Abby took detailed notes of all the exhibits

and wrote it all down in her journal, 

as any good future scientist would do.

My mom did an excellent job listening to my kids go on and on about different things.

It was nice to hear "Nana! Nana!" instead of "Mom! Mom!" all afternoon.

She also did a great job following Afton wherever she lead her. 

And I enjoyed the break from that job.

Traditional picture in front of the dinosaur leg... this time with Nana.

Afton loved all the interactive/hands on exhibits and would have played for hours if we would have let her.

Total concentration on her little project in the sand.

Cute Abby had this group of boys working with her and doing whatever she told them too.

When we first got to the museum Afton was a little afraid of all the bigger exhibits, but about half way through our visit she started acting like a dinosaur and roaring... totally unprovoked!

Another picture tradition... we take one of these everytime we are there.

Eventually Afton started trying to crawl in to all the exhibits. She may have even been successful a couple times and I may have had to jump in and grab her. Shhh... don't tell anyone.

Abby really does love all things science and she takes her digging for bones very seriously.

Afton, on the other hand, played in the sand as though she were relaxing on the beach!!

Night Sledding

Some of our friends invited us to their cabin up at Sundance to enjoy some night sledding and a really delicious dinner. We had a lot of fun visiting, the kids had a blast and the food was to die for... seriously.

Who can resist this? I just love Afton's pink snow suit with the white snow. She pretty much just wanted to eat the snow... we had to watch her close because most of it wasn't very clean.

Max found this little hill and taught her how to slide down it on her bottom. She loved it and did it over and over and over.

I love this picture... I think the little ball on Abby's scarf sticking out  below her coat is so funny... I kept calling her cotton tail all night.

On one of her earlier runs of the night she had a little accident. She was riding with one of the other kids and they wiped out at the bottom and the other kids landed on top of Abby's head, and she landed face down in the very icey snow. Like any dutiful scrapbooker, I took pictures instead of running to her aid.

This is where she got mad that I was taking pictures instead of helping her.

This is where she got sad and felt truly abandoned in her pain... also where I started feeling like a bad mom.

After we got her all patched up and feeling better, we bundled her back up and got her back out there. I was really proud of her because if that had happened to me when I was a little girl I would have gone sledding again... and not just that night... EVER! But, she wouldn't get back on the sled. Instead she adopted Afton's method of sledding down on her butt. It worked well and was the perfect speed for her.

Max had the most fun of all (except for the 20 minutes he had to sit out as punishment for pushing Abby's sled down the hill and causing the aforementioned accident).

He was really flying down those hills and seriously making me nervous.

It got so I couldn't watch him after a little while.

It was a great night and fun to be with each other and friends. We look forward to hanging out again next winter (hint hint).

Draper Temple Open House

Last January we went with my side of the family to visit the Draper Temple Open House. It was fun to be together and to share something so sacred with all of our children. My kids had been to the Newport Beach Open House but they were only 4 and 7 so I don't think they remember much. It is a beautiful temple and one of the most amazing Celestial Rooms I have ever seen. This is also the first temple that Max has been able to attend the dedication for. I took him while Chris stayed home with the younger kids. It was great to experience it with my oldest child. Just last week we had the opportunity to attend the Open House for the newest Temple in Utah, the Oquirrh Mountain Temple (no pictures). It was mostly the same crown and another special experience. I love the exterior of this Temple... so beautiful. The inside was very simple and elegant. I am excited that Abby will have the opportunity to attend the dedication this time. Afterwards we all went to Red Robin together and had a blast. I am grateful to live in a time when we are blessed to have Temples all over and to live in a place where I have such easy access. I hope I can take advantage of this blessing and take every opportunity I can to attend the temple. 

Draper Temple

Oquirrh Mountain Temple

Note to all of my non-LDS (Mormon) friends: If you live in an area where they are building a temple, be sure to visit the open house. It can last anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, it's free, and it's a great opportunity to learn more about the church. A lot of people think our temples are mysterious or secret... really they are just sacred to us. That is why you can only enter if you have a temple recommend issued by your church leader. Anyway, it's a chance to learn more about our temples and our beliefs... and I promise they will not baptize you on your way out (unless you would like them too ;D )

Evan and Sarah get Hitched!

Back in March my cute nephew, Evan, married his sweetheart, Sarah. I remember when Chris and I were first dating we took Evan and his brother, Joseph, to the Lehi Roundup Rodeo. That was the first time I met him. Evan and Joe were both decked out in their rodeo clothes and so cute. Now Evan is all grown up and quite a young man. I am so proud to be his aunt and thrilled for him and Sarah! And the wedding was a blast. I was not the official photographer, but I was asked to take candid shots all day. Needless to say, I took a ton of pictures. So, for the purposes of this blog, I am going to try to limit it. (For the members if the Higbee family: I will post a lot more over on that blog... someday... maybe...).

This is one of my favorites from the ceremony. 

They were so sweet and the location was beautiful.

Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Evan Fitzgerald!!!

The bouquet toss... Abby was so excited 

(she's wearing the choral dress in the left of the photo).

Abby after she didn't catch the bouquet...

she was mad for about an hour!!

Until she talked one of the bridesmaids in to 

giving her a flower out of her bouquet.

How cute are they?!?

Max danced with both of his little sisters...

as every good older brother should.

They were both thrilled!

Chris and I at the very end of the night... 

it was a very long, fun, exhausting day.

(I'm thinking I should replace our picture to the left with this one... naah!)

Thanks for including us!! It was great to be a part of your day.

We wish you nothing but the best as you start your lives together!