Construction

I have grown to love our little home and its quirks. When our basement first flooded a year ago and damaged the one room downstairs I had a little pitty party with myself for a few days and then "bucked up" and stopped dwelling on it. So when the basement flooded again this year and damaged all of it. I was able put behind me and instead of thinking about the bad I thought of how eventually we will be able to finish the basement for a second time with some new ideas.

The past few weeks Bryan and my Dad have been working on digging a trench around the house to hopefully (fingers crossed) fix the flooding problem in the basement. Hayden has been in heaven with all the tools and machinery that has been around.

The kids enjoyed playing on the big dirt pile. I caught Hannah a few times dancing, playing air guitar, piano, and drums on it.

Six for a Day

In Hannah's class they celebrate the August birthdays in September so that the summer birthdays dont feel left out. This last Tuesday was Hannah's "Birthday" in her class so I made cupcakes and took them to her class. When she got home she told me that she was no longer five but was now six. After arguing with her for a bit I told her that she could be six that day, but the next day she went back to being five. She was ok with that compromise.

Heidi's 1

Heidi's first birthday was pretty low key. We got together as family and celebrated with barbequeing and enjoying cake and ice cream. Heidi was grumpy most of the time. She was working on getting both top teeth, which a few days later they popped through... finally.

Heidi's new walker "Dino"

Her Lion Cake.

I decided to use a new frosting instead of the classic buttercream and was a bit worried. It was very different to work with and it was my first time using it, but I have to say it turned out pretty yummy!

She was a bit unsure of the cake and ice cream sitting on her tray. She kind of just picked at it a bit and then finally tasted it...

and loved it!!!

I am so blessed to have Heidi in our family. I love:

*that in the mornings she always has a smile

*her laugh

*how she will stand in the middle of a room holding onto one of the fringes on her blanket and laugh at how proud she is of herself

*that she picks up toys and puts them back in their places (she kept trying to help put french fries in the to go box yesterday at Las Margaritas)

*that she gets a huge smile on her face and trys to crawl out of my arms when Dad comes home

Kindegarten

Hannahs First Day of Kindegarten was yesterday. She has been very excited for this day for awhile. Im not so sure that she is as excited anymore. Yesterday she went into her classroom and let me leave without breaking down. Today, however, was a bit more of a challenge she stuck close to my side which was to make sure I didnt leave Im sure of. I am very excited for her b/c I know once we get past this first week and she really starts learning that she is going to have a blast.

5 Years Old

Hannah turned 5 on the 18th.

I am so grateful to have her as a daughter. I love:

* her smile

*her imagination

*how caring she is toward her brother and sister

*how she is continually learning

* that she is my girly girl, but also my tom boy

*that she plays with her barbies but also cars, motorcylces, and trains

* her musical ability

*how much of a smarty pants she is.

UTAH

In July Bryan and I got some crazy idea to load the kids up in the van and drive 8-9 hours to Utah. It turned out to be not as bad as it could have been. We made our first stop at Independence Rock.

The tiny figure on top is Bryan.

We ended up staying in Rock Springs and letting the kids play in the pool at the hotel. I think that that was their favorite part of the trip :$ The next day we got up and headed to SLC where we met Shawnee and Grama H and they joined in the fun of taking the kids to a discovery museum.

After the museum we went to Logan where we stayed with Shawnee. We visited the Logan temple while there. I think the kids enjoyed seeing the many temples since the closest one to us is 3 1/2 hours away.

We also took a day and visited the Hogle Zoo. I think the best part was the baby elephant. He/She was quite a character.

We of course had to ride the carousel and of course Hayden had to have a fit when we had to get off. Which resulted me having to carry him off and clocking some kid in the head with my camera.

After the Zoo we got a tour of the Conference Center. We walked through the floor of Presidents. It had head statues of all the Prophets and also pictures of all the apostles that the church has ever had. Then we went to the top and got to look around and even got to see a proposal. After the Conference Center we went over by the Reflection pond and just looked at the temple before leaving. Everyone was tired and hungry so we didnt spend a lot of time on Temple Square.

Heidi did so well riding around in her stroller. I was very impressed.

On our way home we decided to have a different change of scenery and went by Bear Lake. Before we left Papa told Hannah that she had to take her "Birthday Suit" and swim in Bear Lake so that was one of the things she wanted to do.

We did not however let her swim in her "Birthday Suit" but let her put her feet in the lake.

Hannah

Hannah has started piano lessons and has been playing for about a month now. She loves it. She often reminds me that she needs to practice and sits down to do it. I am very amazed at her ability. Her teacher has even commented how well she is doing and that she picks up things better than her 7-8 year old students do. We also found out that she will be attending kindergarten at the school she is supposed to!!!