Way To Go Donevan!

On the morning of the 4th of July...7am...Donevan ran in his first race. He did so awesome and we are so proud of him.

My brother Gary was in town from Virginia and also ran the race. Gary is a fantastic runner and ran the 5K in a little over 24 mins. He did awesome and to think he was worried about the altitude.

Donevan's goal was to run the race in less than 30min. I was standing at the finish line watching the clock knowing how disappointed he would be if he didn't make it in less than 30min. So when the clock reached 29min, my heart was racing like crazy. Finally in the distance I could see him. The girls were cheering and holding up their signs. I got this awesome picture as he finished with the time in the background. He made his goal!

Proud as can be of their Daddy.

A Summer To Remember (June)

June was a fun and busy month for us. Since I am so behind with my blogging and have so many pictures to share, I thought I would just do a slideshow and share some of our hightlights of the month. We started off the summer with an awesome camping trip with friends(this was actually the end of May). We always have such a fun and relaxing time playing games, sitting around the campfire and watching the kids be kids.

My birthday this year was fabulous as always because my kids and hubby always make it so special. 31 seems to be treating me well.

Donevan took the girls on a couple of hikes. He also talked me into going on one. After seeing 2 snakes, I'm not sure I will be hiking again anytime soon. He's preparing to climb Mt. Borah in Aug. with some friends. It's the highest peak in Idaho.

Doevan and DJ went to their first fathers/sons campout. I'm sure DJ felt pretty special having his Dad all to himself. They had fun bonding!

We ended the month with an awesome Neider family reunion at Downata Hot Spring. We love that place and the cousins had so much fun swimming, playing and laughing together. We spent some great evenings around the campfire. We are so blessed to be apart of an awesome family. A few of the weekends hightlights included:

Hanging around the campfire and watching the smoke follow Jeanine
Boom Chica Boom- Neider sytle
Watching Caitley freak out after seeing her brother split his head open
Watching Donevan glue DJ's head back together
Grandpa Kenny's breakfast
Uncle Shawn's mega water balloon launcher
Grandma Margo's team Neider t-shirts
Steak and Lobster
Watching the kids pack around a stray cat...now a member of the Camille Neider family
Swimming Swimming and more Swimming
Water Slides Water Slides and more Water Slides
and tons more fun!

Well that pretty much does it for the month of June.

Who Could Be Mad At This Face?

YESTERDAY BY DINNER TIME.....DJ HAD???????????

~Turned on the hose outside and flooded a flowerbed

~Stuffed an entire roll of toilet paper in the toilet and clogged it

~Dumped a container of sticky apple juice on the kitchen floor

~Unloaded a dishwasher full of dirty dishes

~Took his diaper off and ran through the culdesac naked

And I'm sure there is so much more I am forgetting..............

But there is one thing for sure, I am in love with this little boy and he is soooo cute!

I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!!!!!

Emma Jennifer Neider

doesn't get enough lovin' on my blog so I'm putting an end to that right now! This is the sweetest little girl that anyone could ever ask for. She is perfect in every way. I thought I would share a little bit about her. When I first got pregnant with her, I was sure she was going to be a boy. It just made sense to me that DJ would have a younger brother. My father in law had told me about a dream he had that was very vivid to him and it was DJ with his little brown eyed sister. I contemplated it for a moment, but thought there was no way it was going to be a girl and if it was a girl she would have blue eyes like her other 3 sisters. Well look what we got! A little brown eyed GIRL. We feel so blessed to have this little brown eyed baby girl in our home.

We named Emma Jennifer after Donevan's little sister Jennifer who died shortly after birth. I often think about what life would be like if Jennifer was here with us today. She would be close to my age and I know we would be best buddies. But now I think of Jennifer as our little angel in heaven taking care of my children before coming to us. Thank you Jennifer for being our guardian angel in so many ways!

Emma was my first baby that didn't have to be in the NICU and I was so excited about that. I got to have her in my room with me and enjoy some quiet moments alone with her. That was really special to me because I've never been able to have an immediate bond with any of my children because right after delivery the other 4 were whisked away to the NICU. So I remember looking into her eyes and feeling so overwhelmed with happiness and joy and thankfulness for this amazing gift from my Heavenly Father.

From the moment that we brought Emma home she was an angel. I woke up in the night with her for less than a week and then she was sleeping though the night. She rarely cries and she just smiles at everyone. When she's tired, we lay her in her bed and she goes right to sleep. After having family here I got a few comments about everyone forgetting she's even here because she's so good. We just love her fun personality. Now she wants to know what's going on in the room when she see's her siblings around. It's really cute to watch her move her head to be able to see what her sister or brother might be doing. Her and DJ already have a special bond. They are buddies. He is really sweet to her. The first few weeks she was home, whenever she would cry he would yell "Binky, Binky" Now when she is fussing, he tries to console her with a toy or blanket. It's pretty cute. He loves her a lot and I can't wait to watch them grow into best friends.

We love our Emmie so much and are happy to have her be our caboose!