Three

Today this beautiful, sweet, joyful little girl turned three years old. Words can not begin to express my feelings for little Afton. She is a light in our home and such a blessing in our lives. I can remember the day she was born so well. We thought we were done having kids, but after a five year wait she finally joined our family. It is the only time I remember crying at the birth of one of our children. I can definitely see the hand of God in how things happened because the timing couldn't have been more perfect and we were so ready for her when she arrived. To say we were happy would be an understatement.
Afton could not wait for her birthday. She has been talking about it for months and planning. It has been very challenging for her to watch so many others celebrate and she kept asking us when it was her birthday. We celebrated last Sunday with all the Higbee's and you've never seen a little girl so thrilled to have people singing 'Happy Birthday' to HER! She celebrated again at preschool yesterday and picked special cupcakes to share with her class. She enjoyed all the phone calls and birthday wishes today as we went about our normal routine. We will round out 'birthday week' with a celebration Sunday evening for my side of the family.
How to describe Afton... she is definitely all girl. She loves to dress up and pretend she's a princess (with Cole or Dad as her prince) and she lives for her ballet class. She loves to play pretend and assigns everyone their roles. She speaks well beyond her years and comes up with the funniest stuff. We are always laughing when she is around. She sings all the time and loves to call us Chris and Katie. She started pre-school this fall and couldn't be happier. We are just sure she is the smartest one in her class. She is still teeny-tiny and only wears a 2t, but eats very well and will eat almost anything. She loves everyone with all of her being and isn't afraid to let it show. She is a total cuddler and very physically affectionate. And, just so you won't think she is absolutely perfect: her new favorite words are 'idiot' and 'stupid' and she has recently started hitting Cole thinking that if she says sorry it makes it all okay.
I can't even describe how much we love this little girl. She is my almost constant companion, my little sidekick. What a sweetheart. 

Happy Birthday, sweet Afton. 

Hope this next year is just as great as the last three.

(photos from our beach vacation last August)

Flashback Friday- Who IS this kid?!?

Back in June I was getting ready for a photo shoot and asked Max to pose quickly so I could test the light. I didn't think much about it until I pulled the pictures up on my computer and was shocked at how old he looks. It's crazy to me how fast he is growing up. He's gotten taller, his interests are changing and he's even taken to proudly showing us his armpit hair (gross... I know, but it's endearing how excited he is). I decided to pull up a pictures from exactly 1 year ago to see how much he's changed.Shocking, isn't it. My baby boy is in Jr. High now, turns 12 next Friday and is turning into a man before my eyes. Some days I love it, other days I want my sweet little baby back. He was such a sweet baby. At church recently a 14 year old young man gave a talk. I sat there listening thinking that he is only 2 years older than Max, but he was tall, had a deep voice and looked more like a man than a kid. Max still looks like a kid, and it hit me how much he is going to change in the next 2 years. I know Max is ready, but I don't know if I am. I guess I better get used to the idea because it's going to happen wether I like it or not. 

Peek-A-Boo

Cole's new favorite thing to do (when he isn't climbing on the piano... and yes, I do mean ON) is definitely peek-a-boo. He'll play it anytime, anywhere with anyone. Next time you see him try it out. It's funny, even though every baby in the history of forever has played this game... it never seems to lose it's novelty or cuteness factor when your baby learns it. We do it over and over and over and we are all laughing along with him. Ah, the simple joys of life with a baby!

Cole's 1st Birthday EXTRAVAGANZA!!

Well... it was actually just a little Sunday evening get together with family for cake and ice cream to wish Cole a happy first birthday... but it was still fun! We started out playing "How well do you know Coleman". It was packed with pretty tricky questions about Cole's life so far and I think people had to pretty much guess on most of them.

Granny was the champion and answered the most questions correctly, 2nd place was a team effort by cousins Cole's cousins Taylor and Ben and 3rd place want to another cousin, Christopher. They all got a bag of my very favorite sugar cookies with cream cheese frosting from Smart Cookie... for being so smart!

Time for cake! Cole was fascinated by the flame and kept trying to grab it.

He was a little tentative at first but once he got going there was no stopping him!

Once he was bored with the cake he had fun playing peek-a-boo with the balloons.

After a quick bath in the sink it was time to open presents.

We are so grateful to all our family who came to celebrate Cole's first birthday with us. It means the world to us to have you all in our lives and we appreciated the effort you all made to come.

4 generations: Cole, me, my dad and step-mom, and my grandparent's (my dad's mom and dad) and 3 generations: Cole, his dad, and his grandparents.

With his Uncle Luke, Uncle Peter, Aunt Aubrey, Granny and Grandpa RJ

With Great Grandpa and Grandma Farnsworth

With Grandma and Grandpa Higbee

With his Great Uncle Joel and cousins Dallas and Katlin

Uncle Marvin

Kisses from cousin Alyssa and Aunt Jolie

Cousin Matthew, Aunt Leisa and Cousin Chris

Uncle Sam and Aunt Saundra and cousins Lizzie, Taylor, Ben and Sarah

Aunt Karen and Cousin Alec

Us! Max, Chris, Cole, Afton, me, Abby, Cassidy and Roxy.

Coleman sure does have a lot of people who love him.

What a lucky little boy!

Flashback Friday- Water Fun

Abby got out of school a week before all the neighbor kids and was so excited when they were finally done too. The very first Monday she and her friend, Bridgette, spent the entire day together going back and forth between houses and playing all sorts of fun stuff together. During one stop out our house they pulled out the water toys and got busy. It was so fun to watch them and such a beautiful afternoon so I got my camera out to play with the settings. They obliged me by posing, doing cartwheels, handstands, leaps and just being generally silly. They kept saying "take a picture of this" over and over! It reminded me of the carefree days of summer when I was a kid and things were less structured than they are today... when you just roamed and did whatever you felt like whenever you felt like it. Looks like it is going to be  a great summer!Oh, and guess who is NOT afraid of water? Cole crawled right into the middle of the action. He was fascinated by the squirty things and didn't even flinch when they squirted him in the face. He sat and explored and watched them and laughed until he was literally soaking wet and shivering! 

One.

I just finished tucking Cole into bed. Last year at this time I was sitting in a hospital bed in American Fork wondering at the beauty of this sweet little boy straight from God. It was joyful. I felt just as much joy tonight as I sat nursing him and rocking him and thinking about the last year with him in my life. I know it's what every mother says, but I seriously can not believe a whole year has passed since that night. On one hand it seems like it was just yesterday and on the other hand I can barely remember my life before he was in it. I guess the lesson here is to really live each minute of life because it goes fast!So, in honor of Cole's special day I am going to tell you a little bit about Cole right now. I usually try to do one for each year of life, but that won't really work for this one so I am going to do 1 for each month instead.

*Cole is my most consistent baby. He has always napped and gone to bed at pretty much the same time every day and with the same routine. 

*Words he says: mama, dada, Afton, Roxy, thank you, hi, bye bye... i think that's it. words he signs: milk, more, eat, and all done.

*Cole is a climber. He literally attempts to climb the walls! He also likes to climb on boxes, toys, tables, you name it... he tries to get on top of it. Instead of playing nicely with toys, he prefers to dump everything out and play in or on the basket the toys were in. This also applies to laundry baskets, kitchen drawers, etc., He does everything BIG and LOUD!

*Cole is a great eater! Always has been. His favorite foods are watermelon, corn, veggie bites, and whatever ever you are eating.

*He is a great mimicker and can usually be found following one of his older siblings around trying to copy whatever they are doing. He really loves them all so much!

*Coleman loves everyone. He truly lights up when he recognizes people... which makes everyone very happy to see him.

*Favorite nicknames include Colie, Cole-man, and monkey.

*Another favorite nickname is Houdini because the kid can get out of anything. And I do mean anything: stroller (either one), grocery cart, car seat (yeah, that's fun). The only thing that can still hold him is the high chair... and I'm not sure how long that wil last.

*Cole started rolling, crawling, and walking early but he has gotten his teeth late (he still only has 2).

*It is very hard to change his diaper, get him dressed or put him in the stroller, high chair or car seat when he doesn't want to be put in them. He has perfected the art of flailing, arching his back and twisting faster and better than any baby I have EVER seen.

*Cole never stops moving (unless he is asleep). He is constantly on the go, even while trying to nurse. It is very exhausting.

*Coleman has the cutest giggle you have ever heard. It comes quickly and is truly contagious.

Happy Birthday!! We love you so much!

Our Labor Day Weekend "Stay"-cation

I hope you all enjoyed a break from your labors this holiday weekend. I know we did. We  had plans to leave town but we decided to cancel it last minute. We still didn't feel quite recovered from our vacation in August and the start of school, Chris actually had some work to do in preparation for a business trip and we thought we'd rather use the money on something else. So, we decided on a "stay"-cation and tried to do something fun everyday. I took very few pictures so here is the run-down:

Friday night we went to dinner at one of our favorites, "Rubio's" and then, after a stop at the video game store, went home and played on the wii for the rest of the night. Saturday morning was a day of work and we got a lot done. We thoroughly enjoyed the BYU game that evening!! Sunday morning we went to church and enjoyed a Sunday evening drive and walk through the river bottoms. It was such a beautiful evening. On Monday we went up to Park City to do a little shopping at the outlet mall and then enjoy the resort. We topped the day off with caramel apples at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and the only pictures I took of our Labor Day adventures!

Happy Labor Day!

Locks of Love

It was all Abby's idea. At the beginning of summer she decided she wanted to cut her hair really short. I told her she had to at least wait until after we did her baptism portraits in June. She agreed, and then we sort of forgot about it in the busy-ness of summer. After watching the movie 'The Ultimate Gift' while on vacation in August, she remembered that she wanted to cut it and decided she wanted to donate her hair to the organization Locks of Love, which takes hair and makes wigs for children who have lost their hair for medical reasons (cancer, burns, etc). I was so proud of her decision and the appointment was made.

Look at that gorgeous hair! 

Someone is going to be very lucky!

We divided her hair into pig tails and carefully measured it to exactly 10 inches... 

we didn't have much to spare.

Pig Tail #1... she was a little nervous now and looked a bit shocked when she realized how much was really gone. Too late now!

Pig Tail #2... gone!

Ta Da!!

I think she looks absolutely adorable and get tears in my eyes when I think about her generosity and willingness to sacrifice for someone else. She has gotten a lot of compliments and loves to tell people why she did it. What an example to us all. She is already looking forward to growing it back out and donating again in a couple years. 

Flashback Friday- The best reward ever!

Back in May, Afton became obsessed with the idea of getting a slide. I decided to take advantage of this obsession by promising her that if she learned how to go potty in the toilet and wear big girl panties we would get her a slide... one of those little plastic ones you can put anywhere. It worked like a charm. We had a chart and she got a sticker every time she went potty and when it was full we went to Toys R Us to pick out a slide. While there I noticed that for just a few more dollars we could get one with a playhouse type thing attached to the slide. Way more fun, but I know Chris doesn't like them and it would take a lot more space than just a little slide so I figured I'd call him and get his opinion. He shocked me my saying "Why don't we just get a swing set?" Um. Okay. So he got on the computer and I was in the store and he looked at other stores as well as what I could see in front of me and we settled on one from Toys R Us and went for it. The boxes were too big to fit in my car with all the kids so we decided I would go back the next day with all the seats down and pick it up and then we would build it Saturday evening and then BBQ while the kids played on their new treasure. 

We were obviously very naive. 

So, the plan is to build at 5:00 and then do dinner and play, right? Wrong. So very wrong. 

Here is the before shot:

And this is what it looked like after we unpacked the boxes. 

That's right... tons of wood and more screws than I've ever seen or care to see. 

Chris was ready to dive right in, but being slightly OCD and noticing how similar all the pieces were, I insisted that we go through and find and label everything BEFORE we started. That turned out to be a great plan in the long run, but it took as over an hour just to sort it!

We were finally ready to start.

Open the directions. 

It says: "10-12 hours assembly"

Hmm... maybe they should put that on the outside of the box.

So much for dinner and playing. We threw together a super fast easy dinner and decided to start building and go until it got too dark to work.

Abby liked that this was an 'A'

Chris trying to sort through the hardware. 

Seriously... SO frustrating.

They weren't divided or organized in any way.

Blurry photo courtesy of Abby... 

and, no this wasn't staged.

And also, no, I am not pregnant!

At the end of the night this was all we had accomplished. 

We definitely had our work cut out for us.

Sunday after church we changed our clothes and had lunch as fast as we could.

We don't usually do this kind of thing on Sunday, but we were all out there together and it was actually a lot of fun to build and be together enjoying the cool, early summer afternoon.

A few hours into our work we noticed the dark clouds gathering and knew a Utah summer storm was rolling in fast. We started working as fast as we could to get as much done as we could before it hit. We did get rained on, but it only got bad enough to make us stop a little bit.

Starting to take shape. 

Afton was so patient. 

She just kept saying that she wanted to slide.

Getting there.

Almost done. 

We worked for a full 7 hours on Sunday and still weren't finished. 

On Monday when Chris was finished with work we put on the finishing touches (about 3 more hours of work) and finally, around 9:00, we were done. The kids went down the slide and played on the swings for a few minutes and then we ran and got dinner to celebrate.

The finished product!!

A swingset where there was no swingset before.

It was totally worth it!

We actually had a lot of fun building it as a family.

They haves spent HOURS out there this summer. 

It's been a castle, a water park, a cafe, a school, a broadway stage and even a Cirque de Solel show with synchronized acrobatics (we have very creative children).

Definitely quite a reward for learning to go potty in the toilet. 

We were joking that we'll never be able to offer Afton a reward again!  

Pig-Tails

That's right... PIG TAILS! 

At almost 3 years old I was finally able to style her hair-

other than little clips and headbands.

How precious is that? 

I could not get over how cute she looked!

Side view.

She loved showing off her pig tails to everyone all day 

and she LOVED the attention she got!

And would you look at those eyes!?!

Seriously.... some major cuteness going on here!

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Ahhh... the first day of school. I LOVE the first day of school. I love the new school supplies, clothes and shoes, haircuts, the excitement in the air and all the promise and opportunity that the new year holds in store. This year is especially exciting for everyone in our family. Max started Junior High, Abby is at the local school for the first time, Afton started pre-school, and Cassidy has a new dedication to getting a college education! Lots of fun and excitement for all! We'll start with Max:

Monday morning, August 24th at 7:15 am he ventured out to catch the bus. I offered to give him a ride since it was the first day, but he insisted that he ride the bus. So much for taking pictures and stuff... but he is growing up and did NOT want to be the kid whose mom drove him to his first day of Jr. High *tear*.

Look at this kid! I can't believe he is officially in Jr. High... it's killing me. Can we please stop time? He is so excited and is still loving it after 2 weeks. He is in the gifted program and loves the challenge. Just yesterday he said to me that he hadn't been feeling well but went to school anyway because Jr. High is actually fun. *fingers crossed that this lasts!*

Max is playing the cello in the orchestra and has to lug it back and forth. I think it's so funny to watch and always ask him if he's sure he wouldn't rather play the violin.

Okay... so I may have gone a little paparazzi on him, but he's always wanted to ride the bus and this is the first opportunity he's had! And I've always wanted those cute "getting on the bus" first day of school pics and never had the opportunity. Well, I certainly couldn't follow my almost 12 year old 7th grader to the bus stop to take pictures so I *might* have put on my telephoto lens and stood in the street snapping away. That is until some kid asked who was taking pictures and Max had to admit it was his mom. When he waved at me I made sure to do the biggest nerdy mom wave back that I could. What's the fun of having a Jr. High student if you can't embarrass them a little?

So, the bus actually loaded up the street where I couldn't get a shot... bummer. But here is the bus as it drives away, carrying my baby boy off to the scary world that is Junior High! *sigh*

Once I gained control of my emotions I ran inside to help Abby finish getting ready. She was probably the most excited of all. She picked her own outfit and hair-do, got herself up and ready and even made her own lunch! She is thrilled to be attending school with her neighbor friends but over the last couple weeks has mentioned that she misses her old school and friends a lot... I do to... but we are both really happy with how things are going so far. She rides her bike to and from school each day and is also participating in the gifted program, which she is really loving. Abby DID let me give her a ride the first day and even let me walk her to the door and give her a big hug and kiss!

What a beauty... 

I can not believe how old she looks in this picture.

Homework over the summer! Thats right. She had to come the first day with a poster all about her. She did an excellent job and put a lot of thought and effort into it. I think it turned out great. You can click on the picture to enlarge it and see the detail if you want.

Her awesome teacher, Ms. Earl. I can not tell you how much I like this teacher already. Abby loves her and I think they are going to have a great year together. She already comes home each day excited to share what they did and do her homework. I love it!

All lined up and ready to go make some new friends. *another sigh*

Chris and I enjoyed a few quiet days at home with Afton and Cole and then decided that Afton really needed something. She was begging to go to school each morning and even packed lunches for herself with all the kids. I called a pre-school right down the street and they just happened to have 1 spot left in the MWF 3 year old class. I went down right then and signed her up. So, on Wednesday (a week and half late) she had her first day of pre-school. This time the tears were flowing (mine, not hers... although she did cry when I came to pick her up)!! She is just so sweet and tiny and was SOOO excited and suddenly seemed so grown up. 

All ready to go... each morning she asks me about 10 times if it is time to go to school yet!

With her teacher "Mister" Jensen. (Her way of combining "Sister" and "Mrs."- I think it's so cute)

Lined up with her class... look how little she is compared to the rest. Also notice that there are 3 girls and 9 BOYS! Should be very interesting.

Showing off her work. I was shocked that she came home the first day already writing the letter P and saying p-p-p! She was also *sort of* writing her name and singing (to the tune of "are you sleeping") "r-e-d red, r-e-d red. I can spell red. I can spell red. Fire trucks are red... " you get the point. I think this is going to be a great year for her!

No pics of Cass... but she is back at UVU and so excited about her classes. We have high hopes for her and think she's going to be awesome!

Lest you think I am bored and lonely at home... please remember that I still have this adorable and BUSY little boy around to keep me very occupied!

Here's to an awesome school year for everyone!

We now return to our regularly scheduled programming.

I give up. I am officially raising the white flag and accepting the fact that I am NEVER going to "catch up" on the blog. I mean, let's face it, I am still back in May in blog world and it's already September 2nd here in the real world. Part of the reason I keep getting more and more behind is that I really have no desire to blog the things I did back in June... I want to blog what happened this week. Besides, you probably don't care what happened way back then anyway! However, the OCD side of me is literally sick to my stomach about not going in chronological order and skipping certain events. Because we all know that if it isn't on the blog it didn't really happen, right. So, I have come up with a compromise... an new "feature"... you may say. I am going to just start posting in the here and now so I can stop being behind and post what I am most excited about, BUT each Friday I will have "Flashback Friday" where I will do a few posts of what we did over the summer... because we did some great stuff and took some great pictures that I'm sure you don't want to miss! Sound good? Good. I thought it seemed like the perfect compromise. So... look forward to regular posting again. I know your life just wasn't the same without it =)