Memorial Day and Bithdays

We went to "The Playground of Dreams" on Memorial Day to enjoy some family time. There are a couple of fun parks like this in the Tri-Cities that the community actually built themselves. The materials were purchased by the city and people showed up with their tools ready to work. It changes the way you view the park, and the community.

Noah is all over the place these days. I can already tell, he's going to keep me on my toes!

Hailey and Noah love to be together! Hailey is just crazy about Noah, so naturally, he loves her back.

This jumpy bridge was quite a bit of fun . . .

(Hailey and Tanner laugh hysterically looking at that sequence of pictures of him jumping!)

Noah laughs hysterically when I pull him forward in a swing and the let go!

We went to Utah for my brother Dan's wedding in May. The kids have been so excited about their new Aunt Jessi and the huge bonus of three new cousins! We also got to see our Texan cousins that we haven't seen for a year and a half. Tanner, Jeremiah, Hailey and Eliza all "slept" in the same room. I think the first night they giggled until about 11:00.

Tanner's birthday was the day before the wedding so we celebrated his birthday there.

Tanner requested a spaceship birthday cake this year. After looking at a lot of pictures, he narrowed it down to an x-wing cake. I've discovered a new love of creating cakes, so I was up for the challenge! It ended up a little bit chartoony, but that's part of what makes it fun.

R2D2 was my favorite little detail.

Uncle Jeff offered to give all the cousins (the big-kid cousins) rides on his motorcycle for Tanner's b-day. Tanner loves motorcycles and we thought he would go crazy for a ride, but he acted like he didn't even care -- he didn't even want a ride. Oh well, the rest of us had fun!

We also made a trip to the Children's Museum in SLC.

Magnet creation and a helicopter were only two of the favorite activities there.

May went by in a hurry and what follows May? Why Hailey's birthday, of course! She requested a Hawaiian birthday this year. She even drew a picture of what she wanted her cake to look like:

I think I got pretty close . . .

Hailey really wanted a hula girl with brown skin and black hair, but I talked her into using a little doll that we already had that would look like her on the cake. She seemed to like that idea. Hence, the red-headed hula girl. I added the little grass skirt, the lei, and a flower in her hair to complete the look. So, I didn't make the doll, but I made everything else. I had a lot of fun creating this cake it; I think it's my best one yet!

We had a fun little island party: we made leis, we limboed, and went island hopping, we had our cake and ate it too!

Our little island girl seemed pretty happy with the party, and that for me, was pretty satisfying.

A little bit of everything . . .

This was the picture I took just before dropping the camera on Hailey's knee which messed up the ability for the lens to retract and ultimately took our camera out of commission for a little over a month. Luckily it's a Canon and they fixed it for free, we just had to pay to ship it to them and they sent it back on their buck. What a relief. The camera is only as old as Noah.






Hailey loves learning to read and write! We can see how empowered she feels being able to communicate through writing; she's always writing on any scrap of paper she can get her hands on. On this particular day, the paper was part of her dress-up:

"Girl Power!"

(Hopefully she bcomes a better speller than her parents. I'm afraid we haven't done her any favors in that deeparrtmint.)

Back in January, loose tooth number five was about ready to come out and Brandon talked Hailey into helping it along . . .

She started to chicken out after everything was tied on, so Brandon, while offering words of comfort, slammed the door unexpectedly. It worked!


Noah, what can I say. He's a big baby. And we love him!






Last year I read on my cousins blog about how some leprechauns came to their house the night before St. Patrick's Day and played little green tricks on them. And wouldn't you know it, this year they came to our house! They got out all our green toys, dyed our vanilla yogurt green, our milk green, and even our toilet water green! This is what the kids discovered walking into the playroom in the morning:




Over spring break we went down to Utah to visit family. We had so much fun playing with our Hendershot cousins again!

You might notice a little bruise on Mitchel's forehead. Yeah, Tanner (do to some encouragement from the girls) took a bat to Mitch's face. Good thing it was plastic. (Sorry Mitch!)

While in Utah, we also had lots of fun with Grandma Marti, Grandpa Dennis, aunts and uncles! On this day we revisited the dinosaur museum.

One of my favorite family pictures!

Hailey kept asking when we were going to get to her favorite, woolly mammoths.

Grandma is a very patient lego spaceship creator.

And what do these two have in common?

Noah seemed to enjoy getting to know his extended family. Over all, he was a pretty good traveler. Here, he is getting to know his Great-Aunt Darla.

And to top it all off, we had doughnut night while we were there! My mom knows how to make one mean doughnut. Mmm, mm!

Brita, Dan, and Mom . . . I love 'em!

Easter egg dying! I love a holiday tradition that can be considered and art project!

This is about as close to the action that Noah got . . . maybe you can turn you hands blue next year buddy!

Clearly, a good time was had by all!

Our silly kids

We were trying to head out the door one day and after putting Noah in his car seat I went into the other room to grab something. I came back to find this:

"Look Mom," the kids said, "it's King Noah!"

Speaking of royalty, we have a lot of "bossy-bosses" in our house. Brandon has trained Hailey and Tanner not to get up until 7:00 a.m.; they will, however get up to check the kitchen clock to see how early/late it is. Hailey informed us the other day that she always sends Tanner out to check the clock "because," she says with a smile, "he is my servant."

I'm drinking soy milk these days to help with Noah's reflux. Hailey and Tanner love the stuff and want some every time they see me drinking it (we tell them that it's just for Mommy). Well, Tanner saw me putting it on my cereal and in his cutest two-year-old voice says, "Mom, here's my big deal, you (and points) share some of your soy milk wif me (points to self)! That's my big deal. Okay?" I caved pretty quickly with that request.

My favorite word that Tanner says, "icker-ish" (licorice).

My favorite thing that Hailey says, "Yes, Mama." Music to my ears.

Hailey lost her two front teeth within two days of each other. I have to admit I was a little disappointed that it happened the week after Christmas and not the week before. Brandon thought I was crazy, but come on, it is a once in a lifetime opportunity to sing, "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth," and actually mean it! Oh well, the Tooth Fairy came regardless. (But after finding two quarters under her pillow again Hailey complained, "Two quarters? Why does the Tooth Fariy always only bring quarters?" Maybe next time the Tooth Fairy will bring two pennies instead.)

We went bowling the day after Christmas. It's fun going bowling with the kids because we have the excuse to use bumpers! (It turns out that bowling on the Wii doesn't really translate to real world.)

Noah is almost six months old and continues to make us smile! It's hard to not smile at this chunky baby!

Sledding

On New Year's Day we took the kids out for their first sledding experience and we had a blast! Noah slept through pretty much the whole thing, but Hailey and Tanner really got into it. Tanner started out scared but it didn't take long for him to start having fun. Hailey, on the other hand, started out fearless but realized after her first run that it was a little scary, but still mostly fun!

This is the sledding hill behind a high school. The best (and pretty much the only) sledding hill around.

We'll be back for more . . . as soon as there is enough snow again.

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