September 2017

Hannah is loving school. She's made a new friend named Sadie, who is the step-daughter of her kindergarten teacher, Mrs. McCullough. She usually hangs out with Sadie, Roxy, and Jadah-May. She's also loving soccer. Her coaches Beth and Jason are pretty spectacular, and her team, the Orange Dragons, are undefeated! Hannah started going to Activity Days at church, and really loves it. She gets to go every other week and looks forward to it each time. She got to attend her first ever General Women's Conference broadcast. She's really grown up a lot in the past few months! One of her proudest moments of the month was finishing the final book in the Harry Potter series! She was elated and devoted to Harry forever. She got emotional describing her feelings as she read J.K. Rowling's dedication at the beginning of the book.

September, of course, is a month to celebrate our PAIGE! She invited some friends over for a birthday tea party. Everyone was happy to wish our girl a happy birthday, and they brought a lot of fun gifts. On her actual birthday, we traveled to Utah for Isabelle's baby blessing, and she had the best attitude. She was just happy to be able to be going to Utah. While we were there, we discovered she's allergic to cashews, after an unfortunate incident involving a granola bar. So scary. Paige was selected to be Student of the Week this month, and we were so thrilled. She's doing great in first grade, and is really learning and growing with the help of her teacher Mrs. Stegamann. Paige started taking Acro, a gymnastics/dance class. She loves it!

Sam was happy this month because he started PRESCHOOL! He was a little nervous the second week, the first week was at our house, but he's loving going to different friend's houses to play and learn. We have a fantastic group. Every day, I keep hearing what a sweet and obedient boy Sam is. When he's at home, he can be silly and loud, but he is actually a very shy kid. Sam discovered his favorite place to be is Chuck E. Cheese, no surprises there, and begs for it daily. He also loves the Kid's museum, and we try to go a couple times a month. Another fun thing for Sam is I started tutoring a little girl named Ruby, and Sam tags along, so he gets double school each week. He's getting so good at recognizing his letters and numbers! We also have a little friend named Jack who comes over each Friday, and Sam thinks Jack is the BEST COOLEST KID EVER. I'm glad he has so many friends.

Jonathan's vocabulary is exploding, going from almost nothing to several words. He's putting in more of an effort to speak and be understood. He's started attending nursery, a full month early, and loves playing with the kids. He gets lots of compliments on his demeanor and of course his beautiful eyelashes. He's an insane climber, I can't keep him off anything. So far he's learned to climb onto all counters, couches, railings, the fridge, out of his high chair and stroller. The only thing he's yet to conquer is the crib, and I'm happy to wait for that day. Like his brother, he is also a huge fan of Chuck E Cheese. His most favorite thing in the entire world is Batman. Batman all day, every day.

August 2017

The summer was short and sweet since school started two weeks earlier than normal this year, but we packed in everything we could possibly accomplish.

Hannah: The biggest event that occurred in our family this month, and perhaps in the entire year, is Hannah's baptism. It was an absolutely perfect day, I couldn't have asked for a more beautiful, special event. I was so overwhelmed by the support Hannah received. Adam baptized her. Both of her grandfather's stood as witnesses. Matt Gage, her piano teacher, and our dear friend played the piano for her. Bambi Sevy baked some delicious rainbow cupcakes. Her grandmothers gave the opening and closing prayers. Aunt Meggie and Aunt Aubrey gave talks. Many of our dear friends attended the baptism, including the Evarts, Gages, Hastings, Campbells, Perrys, and Evarts. When Adam baptized Hannah he got choked up with emotion. The spirit was so strong there. Sam kept saying "I liked seeing Hannah get baptized!" I know it was because he felt the Holy Ghost.

Of course her baptism wasn't the only exciting event. The first week of August we had visitors from New York, the Maloys! We had so much fun hosting them, and doing some of the fun things we did when they were our neighbors. We went to Fiiz drinks and entered to win a Harry Potter gift set and won! Hannah generously gave Emma the books because she wanted her to be able to read them too.

Hannah started third grade and is in Mrs. Lauers class. She really likes her teacher so far, and she is happy to have so many friends in that class. She's been hanging out a lot with a girl named Sadie. She also started soccer, and really likes her coach, Beth. She's having a lot of fun playing soccer!

Paige: Paige had so much fun with Camille. They didn't remember each other super well, but they were fast friends and enjoyed each other's company. Paige had so much fun with her brothers this month while she was on a break. She really needed that time, and was grateful to be home for a little bit.

Paige started first grade and is in Mrs. Stegaman's class. The first few days were really rough because Mrs. Stegaman is a lot different from Mrs. Evarts. Paige was struggling to learn the rules and feel comfortable, but it didn't take long for her to absolutely blossom. I'll admit, when school started I was surprised to discover that Paige is an extremely competent reader! She'd definitely been hiding that talent from me. She's also fantastic at math! I think Mrs. Stegaman really likes her, and she's in a class with lots of her same friends as well, which makes it extra nice for her.

Sam: It was wonderful for Sam to have his sisters and Dad home for a short summer break. He gets really bored at home sometimes, although he's looking forward to preschool starting!

Jonathan: Jono also loved having his daddy and sisters home for the summer. He continues to develop an adorable personality. He's eating like a full grown man half the time, and he's at a stage where he's super aggressive. He loves to hit and wrestle and attack, but not in a mean way. He just has a lot of energy he's trying to get out.

July 2017

July was such a fun month, and we had so much going on I think I might have to take a nap halfway through this post in order to write about it all.

The Fourth of July is always one of our favorite holidays. We went to Wet n Wild, had a cook out at the Campbell's, and celebrated with dessert and fireworks at the Perry's. A few days later the Elms moved into town. It will be great having cousins so close by! Summer break was awesome with a trip to Utah/Idaho and we closed it out with the Maloy family coming to our house to visit after they moved to New York two years ago. What a great month!

Hannah finished second grade! She loved Mrs. Kramar so much, and we were grateful for her as a teacher. Hannah finished with all As and Bs and with very kind words from Mrs. Kramar. Hannah also had nearly three times the accelerated reader points as most of her class for the year, and twice as much as the second place kids. She is quite the reader! She read Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix this month. Hannah turned eight while we were in Utah. For her birthday we went to Fat Cats in Ogden and went bowling, played laser tag, and rode bumper cars. She had a tea party for her birthday and had a great turn out with so many of her friends. She was interviewed and prepared by Bishop Young to be baptized, and she's anxiously awaiting that day in August.

Paige finished kindergarten and was happy to slip into summer mode. Paige is currently into gymnastics and we're constantly either a) hearing her body thud against the ground upstairs as she practices flips, cartwheels, and handstands, or b) watching her body flail about, head over heels. She is actually pretty good at tumbling, even though she's never had a class, and Adam and I just signed her up for tumbling at the dance studio down the street. She can't wait.

Sam is a professional at the potty now. I can trust him not to have an accident. I always find that potty training leads to a boost in vocabulary and I've noticed it with Sam too. He's extremely curious and vocal about everything. He's going through a big "why?" phase right now. Sam is enjoying his time with his sisters, and I'm glad they are home too. Sam has been getting hooked on playing the iPad, but after a month with his sisters at home, and traveling a bunch he has no patience for it, which I am grateful for. Sam loves playing with his Imaginext toys and legos. He begs me to play with him every day, and I try to do it.

Jonathan is changing every day. Most of it is for the better, but right now, he's going through a big hitting phase, which is just not my favorite because he hits HARD. While we were in Utah he was constantly asking to nurse, which was kind of funny. I don't know when/how I'll stop because he loves his mommy's milk! Jonathan had so much fun on vacation being around his favorites: grandpa and dogs. He's currently loving: Bananas, animals, Mommy, Daddy, Hannah, Batman, fruit snacks. His current dislikes: changing diapers, changing clothes, going to bed, driving in the car for too long.

Our trip:

Our trip was such a delight. It was practically nonstop fun. I loved sharing a Utah summer with each of my kids. We visited a lot of family and friends, including aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, great-grandparents, great aunts and uncles, second cousins the Packards, and children of high school friends. We spent a lot of time on the road from Vegas to Utah, up the mountains to Snowbird, over to Island Park, and back again. The kids loved Snowbird, especially fort building. They swam everyday, played Bingo, rode the tram (which they were all nervous about), and went on several hikes. They also loved the cabin where we hiked some more, took many walks down to the river and back, watched movies, kayaked, and explored in the woods. Their favorite part was probaby picking wild huckleberries along the Coffee Pot trail.

Of course, Grandma and Grandpa's house didn't disappoint either. We went to This is the Place Heritage Park, Fat Cats, parks, ate a ton of ice cream and pizza, had movie parties, played with Grandpa's Hot Wheels, and just enjoyed the beautiful weather. As soon as we got back home Sam said, I miss Grandma and Grandpa's house.