St. Patrick's Day Flop

This year Saint Patrick's Day fell on a Saturday. We wanted to do something fun to celebrate. Des Moines has a parade each year for St. Patrick's Day so we thought we would give it a try. I guess we didn't get downtown early enough because by the time we got there is was totally crowded. We didn't really know how crowded it would be, but we quickly realized we weren't in Bettendorf anymore. We walked several blocks looking for a place to plant all 7 of us. We found a spot just big enough but it wasn't in the front of the crowd. We were behind 2 rows of people. The kids were not happy. You don't get any stuff when you aren't in the front. We saw some people in the skywalks so the kids decided they would rather do that. We actually ended up in a window of a building. It wasn't nearly as crowded and we could see quite well. It was quieter. The problem was the parade was pretty boring. No floats, no balloons, it was people walking down the street or driving down the street. I would expect that in our little town of Waukee (in fact it is sort of endearing and you are sure to know several of the paraders), but Des Moines is the largest city in Iowa, and I guess we were all expecting a little bit more. We stayed for a little while, but then the kids wanted to go and we were fine with that.

The most amazing thing about that whole experience was walking back to the car. It was so quick and easy because Des Moines has this amazing skywalk system. You don't have to go down to street level to get where you need to go; the buildings are all connected by skywalks. The area it covers is quite large. It's really impressive and ingenious (unless you want to have balloons in your parade;)). We went home and ate some pizza and then enjoyed attending Adam's last basketball game of the season ( a real nail-biter). The parade was a flop and I don't think we will be going back, but the rest of the day we enjoyed being together as a family.

Quite the crowd at the parade. My favorite shirt I saw said, "Kiss me, I'm Iowish."

Watching the parade from the window.

Greg walked over to the skywalk and took this picture of us in the window.

The view of the crowds and the parade from the skywalk.

Adam at his basketball game:

A trip down Lizzy Lane

It has been fun for me to look back at the kids pictures from the past as they have had a birthday. Here are some of Lizzy through the years.

Lizzy on her blessing day in a beautiful dress made by my Aunty Ann. Lizzy is almost 2 months old.

Here she is at 21 months.

Is this a two year old picture or what?

The other side of a two year old.

The cutest 3 year old ever.

4 years old.

5 years old.

Six years old.

Seven years old.

8 years old

What a beauty! We love you Lizzy Lou!

Lizzy's birthday!

Oh what a joy this post will be! Our Lizzy turned 9! Perhaps the past year has been the very hardest of her life. It was wonderful to see her silly, spontaneous, spunky self surface as we celebrated.

Lizzy is sweet and very sensitive. She can be a very private person, but yet she enjoys the spotlight very much. She still is strong and athletic and it has been difficult to tame her this past year and keep her feet on the ground while her body continues to heal from her surgery. She is fiercely loyal and has a strong sense of justice. She has my wacky gene and enjoys it very much (it can be more annoying as adult than it was to me as a kid:)). She loves to read and continues to excel at it. She is blossoming as a pianist and her teacher tells me she will be the next Adam. As Anna grows she has stepped more into a leadership role of the younger three. She showed incredible bravery as she faced her surgery this past year and continues to have to think about it everyday when she puts her brace on. She is sick of being told what she can't do and is ready to jump back in and do anything she wants. She is developing into a strong and steady young woman. We are so grateful for the role she plays in our family.

Lizzy abhors all of the things she still is not supposed to participate in. We have loosened up a bit and she is doing more and more. She is looking for things to fill the void. We allowed her to go roller skating for a friends birthday with the stipulation that she had to hang onto the wall the whole time (so she wouldn't fall and bump her head). She has wanted to go again ever since then. This year was not a party year so that is what she chose to do with our family. Greg and I were not too excited about it. I have had 2 knee surgeries and I was picturing a third in my future. It turned out to be a lot more fun than everyone thought. I only fell once. Greg didn't fall at all. Ben received the most falls award, but stuck with it. Lizzy was pleased as punch. She has even been checking out the price of skates on Amazon. Jake did amazing and I think he only fell twice. It took us 45 minutes or an hour, but then it was great fun!

Here are some pictures from the fun.

Lizzy likes being the center of attention and being served so her birthday is a great day for her. You can see from the pictures below that she thoroughly enjoyed herself. Her birthday was actually on a Sunday so she was pretty much in charge for two days.

The kids have really enjoyed buying inexpensive gifts for each other this past year. Lizzy is cheesing it up with Ben's gift of Pringles.

Lizzy and Jake

Lizzy wanted a giant pillow just like Anna's. Lizzy got a green one. She has many different faces, that girl.

Liz got this cupcake jewelry box with the below note in it.

She was overjoyed as she has been talking about getting her ears pierced for some time. Anna hasn't gotten hers pierced yet so it was fun for Lizzy to be the "first" at something. Here is the new "holier" Lizzy. Can I just say I love her blue eyes and freckles.

I guess most of the kids don't like cake as much as cookie cake, so a giant cookie cake is what I make for them. Happy Birthday Liz!

Adam's Birthday

At the end of February we celebrated Adam's birthday. Adam is such an amazing boy. He is fun loving. He loves fun and adventure. The bigger the better.

He is so smart. He remembers things so easily. He figures things out so quickly. He can argue a point and makes it very difficult to argue with his logic (even if I still think he's wrong!).

He loves sports. He knows so much about college sports it's scary. Who knows (and who cares) who the mascot of Northern Texas is? Adam! He could definitely be a great sports journalist (if only they didn't work Sundays). BYU still rules all college sports in his book, and we are quite happy with that. He plays basketball. Sometimes I think he would make a better coach than a player. He remembers plays and is able to figure out what each players strengths and weaknesses are very quickly. I think sometimes it's hard on him that his team mates don't always play the plays (or even remember them). He is a great strategist.

He is talented at music as well. I love listening to him practice the piano each day. We have not loved his piano teacher this year so Adam took it upon himself to learn a piece by himself that he really wanted to learn. It is Mozart's "Turkish March". Now he can practically play it in his sleep. My fingers have never moved that fast. He has also really started to enjoy singing (much to my delight). The great thing is, he is good at it and isn't afraid to perform. Show choir, Church choir, Waukee Idol, and now "Oklahoma" the muscial have all been a part of his year.

He is also very social. He goes to the "Y" with his friends as often as he can. I think he participates in a lot of things because it means more time with friends. He has been home less this year than any other previous year.

Adam is also a good kid. He tries to do the things that are right. I know I have made him sound practically perfect. He's not. He is pretty awesome though! We are so happy to have him as our son. Happy 13th birthday Adam! You are our first teenager so you can expect us to make a lot of mistakes. You will teach us as much as we teach you.

Greg was out of town on Adam's birthday, but he still wanted to do presents. Yeah, Adam knows how to Jimmer.

Adam wanted some nice basketball shoes for the season. He lucked out when these Kobe's were on sale.

Cream soda is his favorite. It is hard to find without caffeine, but I found this at the store the other day. He enjoyed every drop, making it last nearly a week.

When Greg came home from his trip we finished up the celebration with Mexican Chocolate cake, ice cream and pizza. He didn't want a party because he didn't think he could get the head count down to 8 like I wanted without leaving someone out, so instead we told him this summer he could take one friend to Adventureland (the local amusement park) with him. Now he is considering SkyZone instead.

What would a birthday post be without embarassing pictures?

Here is Adam as a baby.

This is Adam at 21 months enjoying his dinner very much.

Adam is on the right. This is just after we brought Lizzy home from the hospital, so Adam has just turned 4.

Adam on Christmas 2004, 5 years old.

Adam, 7 years old. Summer of 2006.

At the end of 1st grade, 2006, when Adam was 7, he got glasses. Now he wears contacts so we hardly ever see him with glasses anymore.

This is Adam right at the beginning of second grade. He is 7 and finally lost his first tooth.

Here is Adam with his dad on a very important day, his baptism day. He is 8 years old.

Adam the pumpkin ninja. 8 years old.

Adam posing before the Jr. Bix road race summer of 2008. 9 years old.

This was also a special experience in Adam's young life. He is wearing his shepherd's costume for our ward's production of "Savior of the World". He is 9 years old.

As he has gotten older it is harder to find pictures of just Adam. He generally avoids them. This is Adam at 11 years old.

I love this picture because you can really see Adam's hazel eyes. All the rest of the kids have blue eyes. This was just last summer. 12 years old.

Just for fun.

This is from our Thanksgiving adventure to Texas.

Last, a good one from Christmas time. He really is handsome, too.