On the Move

Aubrey has been able to stand for quite a while now. She loves to just stand in the middle of the floor. But when you try to get her to take a step, she just sits down and wants nothing to do with walking. That is until 2 days ago. Wednesday night her dad was trying to get her to walk to him, and she took her first steps on her own. Yesterday when she would walk to me she would get so excited and clap for herself. She is such a cutie. Last night when we were trying to get pictures, she was kind of tired and about done showing off, but we did get a couple. I love it when they are learning to walk and take just a few steps at a time. It seems like it doesn't last very long, pretty soon I'm sure she will be walking all over the place. My baby is growing up too fast.

Derby Time!

 Derek had his first pinewood derby race last night. Many hours went into the making of his car and it paid off. He took first place! His car won every race. He was pretty excited to race it and to win. 

 Here he is with his trophy and winning car.

 And here he is with his chief engineer. Who is the one that spent hours and hours on the derby car. I can't believe how much the derby is for the dads. Sure the boys have the fun racing the cars, but it is the dad's who have all the fun making the car. Derek didn't seem to mind though. He had a great time. 

Derek and Wyatt made a pretty good team. Good job boys!

Happy Halloween!

Carving Pumpkins

Last year we didn't carve pumpkins, so the kids made sure that we did it this year. 

Aubrey thought the insides were pretty fun to play with, and taste.

Brynli & Sadie had help from dad, but Derek & Kamryn did there own.

It was a fun time. We are just glad that we didn't have any accidents involving carving knives (i was a little worried a few times).

Princess Sadie

Sadie went to the fire station last week on a field rip with her preschool. The fireman was telling the kids how they need to exercise & be healthy if they want to be fire fighters when they grow up. Sadie looked at me and said, "I'm not going to be a fireman when I grow up, I'm going to be a princess."

Some of Aubrey's favorite things to do

I think this is Aubrey's all time favorite thing to do. If a bathroom door is left open, and there is toilet paper on the roll, Aubrey will find it, and make sure that all of the toilet paper is torn to shreds.

She also loves emptying my kitchen drawers and cupboards. This drawer with miscellaneous papers is her favorite. She usually doesn't climb in, but I guess she wanted to better reach those hard to get papers.

 And she already likes to text her friends. Her cousin Shalece introduced her to the cell phone, and she thinks it is a great toy. Do you think I ought to get her one of her own?

Derek's Baptism

Because Derek turned 8, he had the opportunity to be baptized last Saturday. I sometimes wonder how much an eight year old understands about the covenants they are making. When Derek was preparing to be baptized and we were talking to him about it, he seemed to know what he was talking about and answered all the questions right. He seems so little, but I guess he is ready to make such an important decision. He has seemed like he has grown up so much in the last couple of months. Derek was so excited to be baptized. He woke up early Saturday morning, came into my room and woke me up and with the biggest grin on his face said "I get baptized today". It was like Christmas morning for him. He was so excited! He had to wait until 6:00 p.m., but he waited so patiently. I think it helped that our friend Abby Harding was baptized earlier in the day. We were able to see her baptized and then enjoy lunch with her and her family. Then we had our family come over for dinner and then it was finally his turn to be baptized. Wyatt baptized Derek. I'm so greatful that he is worthy to do that. We had a wonderful meeting and the spirit was so strong. Then we went to our house with family and friends for dessert. What a wonderful day filled with family, friends, and the spirit. Derek was confirmed a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints and recieved the gift of the Holy Ghost on Sunday morning by his dad in sacrament meeting. We spent the rest of the day as a family. It was great. We gave Derek a set of scriptures and a tote to carry them in as a baptism gift. He was really excited. His scripture case came with a notepad so you can take notes as toy read your scriptures or in your classes at church. Derek was so cute. He was so excited to read his new scriptures. He read a few verses as soon as he had a chance, and then he made notes about what he read and drew pictures about what he read. I am glad he is so excited about being baptized and reading his scriptures. He is a great kid! We had an awesome weekend. I'm so proud of Derek for his decision to be baptized.

It's great to be 8

Derek turned 8 last month. He was really excited to have a birthday and turn 8 years old. He planned a friend birthday party all by himself. At first he wanted to go to the movie theatre, but there wasn't anything worth watching, so we rented Lightning Thief and had his friends at our house. They didn't really watch the movie much, but they sure had a great time playing. Derek also had a family party at grandmas and a cute cake by Melanie. He told her he wanted a movie theatre cake. So she made a cake with a movie theatre and all his friends. So cute. Derek had a great birthday.

Corn on the cob

It's amazing how entertaining an empty cob of corn is to an 8 month old.

Backpacking in the Uinta Mountains

Back in July, Wyatt took Kamryn and Derek, along with Randy and Mike and their boys, hiking in the Uinta Mountains. They backpacked in to a base camp and then hiked around to different lakes to fish. I think they figured that they hiked over 20 miles on the whole trip. I was a little worried about Derek because he was the youngest boy. I didn't know if he would be able to keep up. He did a great job and was quite a trooper. I don't know all the details of their trip, but I know they all had a great time. I think if you ask any of my boys what their favorite part of the summer was, this trip would be their #1. I'm glad they were able to spend some good quality time together.