Hyrum's 8th Birthday

Well, whether we like it our not, Hyrum turned 8 years old.  It is crazy how quickly he has grown up.  He has been so excited to turn 8!  He has been talking nonstop about cub scouts and even wanted a cub scout birthday party.  This kid was made to be a scout!  We bought his uniform and scout book about a month or so ago and I will often find him reading through his book, planning out what things he wants to work on first. He already plans to work on getting his bobcat by his first pack meeting.  It is fun to see him so excited and it melts my heart to see him dressed in his uniform.  Can our little boy really be this grown up!

I'm not a fan of hosting birthday parties; however, I do love the time I get to spend with my kids planning and preparing for the party together.  Hyrum came up with the games/activities and loved working with Dave to build a "hot wheels" derby race track.  The finished product was awesome and the whole party was a hit with all his friends.  Here are some pictures of the celebration.

It has been a true joy to watch Hyrum grow and develop his talents over the past 8 years.  He is a happy, easy going and self-motivated boy who brings a great spirit into our home.  He has a desire to do what is right and is a great example to his younger siblings.  We love him and look forward to his upcoming baptism into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  He has prepared himself for this special day and we are so proud of him. 

Emily's 2 Year Pictures

 Just as cute as ever, even with a missing tooth.  :)

Winter...or Summer?

Only in Albuquerque can you shovel snow off your trampoline one week and jump on it with sprinklers the next.  The kids sure have enjoyed having a trampoline no matter what kind of weather we're experiencing.

Emily's 2nd Birthday

On Friday we celebrated Emily's 2nd birthday.  I can hardly believe that 2 years have gone by since she was born.  At times she still feels like our little baby, yet at other times her developing toddler attitude and behaviors remind us that she is definitely growing up.  She is so fun and playful, capturing our hearts with her giggles and frequent smiles.  I don't think a day goes by when I don't stop and say to myself, "She is so stinking cute!" or "I love this little girl!"  What a delight our little Emily is!

Here are some things about her at this stage of her life:

-  She loves the color pink and points out any pink things she sees.  She also requests daily the only pink cup and spoon we have.

-  She loves her brothers and wants to do just what they are doing.  Racing cars around the house is one of their favorite activities to do together.

-  She enjoys reading books.

-  Each night at bedtime as I sing "I am a child of God," she puts her head on my shoulder and sings along with me.

-  She repeats just about any word she hears.  The boys love to count to 20 with Emily counting right along.

-  She loves to count objects in books by saying, "one, one, one" as she points to each picture.

-  She is learning to talk in sentences now...so fun, I love this stage of development.  Just the other day she said, "Mommy, Will hurt me," her longest sentence yet. 

-  Though still shy and reserved around people she doesn't know, she has taken a real liking to our home teacher, Brother Stolworthy.  He is a kind and loving gentleman, in his 80's.  She loves to shake his hand each time she sees him.  She will go up to him with her hand outstretched and say, "hand."

-  After several months of screaming and two very patient and loving nursery teachers, Emily finally loves going to nursery each Sunday.  

-  She has a little pink teddy bear that has a rattle inside which she absolutely loves.  She insists on sleeping with it every night and wants to take it in the car everywhere we go.  She calls it her, "bear bear."

-  She climbs on everything!  Even though we've told her countless times to sit, not stand, she has fallen off many chairs.

-  Despite her cute and quiet disposition, she can be quite the feisty little fireball at times.

-  She loves to laugh and giggle with her brothers.

-  She has a high-pitched scream which she uses to let others know she's not getting what she wants.

-  She is so loving, giving hugs and kisses whenever someone is hurt or crying.

-  She has quite the sweet tooth and sneaks treats when no one is looking.

Since Emily's birthday was on a Friday the boys were home from school and able to celebrate with her all day long.  We had fun creating an Olaf cake (from the movie "Frozen"), playing "ring around the rosies" over and over again, blowing bubbles, riding bikes, coloring, looking through Emily's baby book, watching her birthday video and of course, eating cake and ice cream.  It was one fun day!  

Here are some pictures of our little birthday girl followed by her 2nd year birthday video:

           

Emily lost her first tooth

A few months ago Emily fell while playing outside and hit her mouth on a flower pot.  I noticed a little chip on her front left tooth, but nothing too serious.  A few weeks later Dave noticed that she had quite a big gap between her two front teeth.  We took a closer look and realized that half of her front right tooth was gone.  We thought for sure that she was going to lose her tooth; however, the pediatric dentist told us that since no roots were exposed and it wasn't bothering her we could just leave it in and keep an eye on it.  I was so relieved that she would be able to keep her tooth.  It was too good to be true though.  While driving back from spending the holidays in Utah we noticed Emily's upper lip beginning to swell.  It wasn't until we got home that we realized her tooth was abscessed.  In a matter of just a few hours the gum above her tooth went from being white and not too swollen to purple and huge.  Luckily while playing with her brothers she got hit in the mouth and the abscess started to bleed and pus.  By the end of the night it had drained and looked so much better, but we knew the tooth would still need to be pulled.  I took Emily to the dentist this morning and comforted her as best as I could as the dentist extracted her tooth.  Our sweet little Emily was such a trooper.  By the time we returned home she was giggling and laughing as if nothing had happened.  Her smile is a little different now, but she is still as cute as ever.

Check out those roots!

A New Christmas Tradition

This year we started a new tradition, inspired by some Albuquerque friends, and let our kids sleep out by the Christmas tree the night before Christmas eve.  They were really excited and had a hard time calming down to fall asleep.  After some time they all drifted off to sweet dream land and I couldn't help but peek at them several times before going to bed myself.  Their faces were so peaceful and innocent, illuminated by the lights.  This is a tradition I look forward to continuing in years to come.