Happy Birthday, Kate!

Once again it is late at night and I am doing a birthday post. But I know if I don't do it now, it could be tomorrow night before I get it done, and I always want to have my birthday posts up on the day of their actual birthday. So, here is my birthday post for darling Katest!

I still remember vividly the day Kate was born. Janelle had to have an emergency c-section, and at first it looked like everything was okay. Mike called us later that night and told us that she wasn't doing well and they had to take her to the NICU, and asked Jan to come down. Jan was really worried on the way down, and said it could be serious. When we got there, Jan knew the two nurses there, and so we got go into the NICU with little Kate while they tried 8 times to get the IV into her. It was hard to see her get poked, but she was such a little trooper already, and I was so glad to get to be there for her first day of life.


Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera that night, but I brought it the next day, and this is one of the pictures we got, with me holding Kate and with all of us looking at her. She had to stay at the hospital for awhile, but thankfully was fine.

Here she is with cousin Jenny. As she started growing and her hair came in, it started sticking up all over. I called her Q-tip, because her hair stuck straight up. One day Mike and Janelle brought me a little plant into work with q-tips stuck into the soil around the plant to remind me of my little Q-tip!

Here she is, just over a year old, and taking her first steps.

Kate was over the day I bought my first digital camera, so she was the first one I took pictures of with it. Isn't she cute?

I love this picture! This is with her daddy, Mike, and she just looks so darling in it.

This is at a sister-in-law party we had at our house with all of the kids (we didn't have quite as many back then, but they were all tiny, so they were quite a handfull!). The kids loved playing with the lighthouse and temple we had on our end table. I love how Kate is so intent on looking at the temple.

This is from the same day, but I had to put it in because she looks so darling.

Here she is with Aunt Jan. I love her huge blue eyes!

Here she is with her sisters on Thanksgiving 2005, when she was three years old. I love the matching dresses. Janelle is amazing!

Here she is with cousin Jenni and me at the Zoo when she was five years old.

Here she is on her first day of school. I stole this picture from one that Janelle emailed me. I love how intent she is on her work.

Here she is on Christmas Eve, 2007, playing Mary in our nativity pageant. I love how she is looking at the baby Jesus with such a sweet look. She's so precious!

Here she is with Mike again, at her party for her sixth birthday last year. I love her profile in this one.

This is her with her cousins last fall when we got together for family pictures. I love the way she is sitting. She's so cute! (Did I mention that already?)

I found this one the other day when I was doing a Christmas compilation from last year (yeah, I know, I'm six months late. At least I'm getting it done). It thought it was such a beautiful picture of both Kate and her cousin Jenni.

And finally, this picture is from a few weeks ago when we went to the Temple Open House together. She was looking at the fountain with her sisters. I tell Mike and Janelle all the time that they are going to have to watch out with her. She looks so old already, and is so beautiful at seven years old that I'm sure the boys will be after her before she's old enough to date!

I'm so grateful for my little Q-tip who has grown into such a beautiful little girl. I hope you have a great birthday, Kate! I love you!

Quick quote

I was going to put this as a comment on Mom's blog because of something she said yesterday, but then I thought it was so good that I should put it on my blog. So, here is an Elder Holland quote I heard today. (I am working on a mundane project at work, and so am listening to his talks while I work. I love July at the Church Office Building! It is great to have it a little slower). Anyway, here is the quote:

"I bless you that with His unfailing companionship you will find your way through your most difficult days and receive answers to your earnest prayers. I especially bless you if you are troubled about someone else—about your spouse, or your desire for a spouse, or your children, or your parents, or your friends. I bless you to know that God loves and honors the earnest pleadings you make and that He is pleased to rush to your aid, to assist in the problem at hand, and to heal not only your heart but the heart of those about whom you worry and for whom you pray and sometimes weep.

"I bless you to know that there are good days ahead, always, that the darkest clouds always part and the most fearful days always flee before the beneficent face of the Father, the redeeming grace of the Son, and the sweet influence of the Holy Ghost in our lives." (From "What Time is This, BYU Women's Conference, 2007)

Nieces Sleepover!

It's 12:20 on Saturday afternoon, and just over an hour ago we finished a sleepover for seven of our ten nieces (the oldest couldn't come, and the two youngest are just a little too young to sleep over. Hopefully in a few years we can have all of them). I am about to go take a nap (not much sleep last night with seven giggling girls. :) But I've been working on a talk for church tomorrow, and thought I would upload pictures while I worked on my talk. This was such a fun sleepover, and I knew if I didn't do a post about it right away, I probably wouldn't do one. So, here goes (and, as usual, lots of pictures).

We started last night at 6:00. It was so fun to have our sweet girls over--they range in age from almost 7 to almost 4, and are so darling. We gathered them all around the table and had pizza. Here's a picture of dinner:

After we cleaned up from dinner, I talked to the girls about how special they are, and about how they are all daughters of Heavenly Father, and how because he is a King, they are all daughters of a King. When I asked what that made them, they all yelled out, "Princesses!" So, for our activity, they each got a name card with "daughter of a king" written under their name, and each got to make a crown. Here are some pictures of the crown making:

And here, in order of oldest to youngest, are our seven princesses. Aren't they so beautiful?!

And here are some pictures of our princesses out on our balcony, holding their name cards:

While we cleaned up from making the crowns, our little princesses ran around the living room screaming and doing ring around the rosies. It's a good thing we don't have any downstairs neighbors at the moment!

After the running around, we lined them all up on the counter to make cookies with Janice. They were so cute all there together, and had so much fun.

Finally, we put up three air matresses (and had to move our couch almost into the kitchen to fit them all), and after watching a movie, our princesses fell asleep. Well, technically, it took until about midnight before they all fell to sleep, but Jan stayed out and sang to them and told stories. After helping sing to them, I took my cat into my room and had to close the door so he woudn't go investigate all the little girlies while they slept--so neither Jan and I got much sleep. But it was for a good cause!

And finally, this morning we had waffles, watched the family video that Dave, Dan and Ems made for our 32nd birthday (because it stars our family, and so has most of their daddys in it. They loved it). Then they colored and we watched another video until their parents came.

I'm so grateful for my sweet nieces. They are such a gift to Jan and I, and help fill the void of our own children. What a blessing that they all live so close, and that they all love us so much. We had a great time.

Watch for three birthday posts this month, as well as a post next weekend about our nephew sleepover. It should be fun! Now I'm going to take a nap!

4th of July--a little late

I'm finally getting around to doing my 4th of July post. Actually, my sisters-in-law beat me to it, so a lot of the pictures I have are repeats--and I probably should do what they do, and combine a lot of pictures into one (so that my posts wouldn't take such a long time). But I think I do have some pictures that are different, and besides, this is my blog, so I can repeat other blogs if I want, right? Just so you know, I took about 700 pictures on the 4th of July, so you can't complain too much about all the pictures I have here. At least I didn't put them all on! :)

The day started really early with a visit to the balloon fest. I've wanted to go in year's past, but I could never get myself to get up early enough. It was really early, but so worth it. We met Seth and Karla and Dave and Melissa and the kids there, and I loved watching the balloons get blown up, and be in the midsts of all of them, and then see them all launch into the sky. And I loved getting to watch the kids and how much they loved it. Here are some pictures:

I didn't get much done the rest of the day--trying to recover from getting up so early! But the evening was so fun. I love our tradition of having a barbeque at Mom and Dad's house with water toys. Everyone came this time except Steve and Chelle. Hopefully we can get them there next year! This time, the barbeque started out with a water fight between Grandpa and the kids. It was so fun to watch! Here are some pictures:

This last picture is the victors showing off their water guns. So cute!

After the barbeque, it was time for the 2nd annual "Southern Family Not So Special Olympics." Dan and Ems started this tradition last year, and it was so fun, we decided to do it again. Each family is a team, and the rules are that every family has to involve each member of their family in something, and then Jan and I are alternates to help out. (Hopefully one of these days I'll have my own family to participate...) It was so fun. Here are pictures and descriptions:

It started out with the three legged race. So cute to see everyone tied together!

Then the sack races--we used garbage sacks.

Then the hotly contested wheelbarrow race. We have some competition in our family...

Then the balloon toss.
It ended up between the last four--Dan and Ems, Dave and Mel, Jon and Holly, and Mike and Janelle. It was fun to watch them get farther and farther away. Finally it was Dan and Em and Mike and Janelle, and Dan was tossing his balloon while he waited, and dropped it. Mike and Janelle had to make one final toss, and they made it, so they were the winners!

Then the pie eating contest--each team of two had to eat 1/4 a pie. Everyone was pretty sick afterwards! Jan and Emilee won this one.

And finally, my favorite--the obstacle course. It started out with going under the hoops...

Then up and down the play set....

Then up and down the inflatable slide (love this slide--it's so fun!)

Then bowling--you had to get all the pins down to not get a penalty....

Then around the cones and through the tires (not shown), and then around the swimming pools...

And either over or under the...hmm, what's it called...limbo stick?

Then I didn't get a picture, but after this you had to tag Dad, who was timing it.


And here are the final results. It looks like it was a tie between Mike's family and Emilee's family!

And finally, we had our family fireworks. We've been doing this for years, and I always love it. Dad used to do the lighting, with help from the boys. Now the boys have taken on the responsibility, and do at least three at a time. I'll end this post with these pictures! Happy 4th of July! We had a great day!