Happy Birthday to Karla and Mike!

I don't usually do birthday posts for grown-ups, but I thought it might be good to do a quick post to say Happy Birthday to Karla, my sister-in-law, and Mike, my brother. Karla's birthday is tomorrow, the 29th, and Mike's birthday is Thursday the 30th. Here are pictures (you know I can't ever do a post without pictures!)

Here is Karla at April Conference, with Ethan and Seth

Here is Mike with Janelle and the girls at the Oquirrh Mtn. Temple Open House.

I'm grateful for Karla and Mike, and for all they have done for me. I have the best family in the world! Happy Birthday to both of you!

Some cute pictures from last night

I just had to do a quick post of some pictures that we took last night. We had FHE with Dan and Ems and Dave and Melissa. Afterward we were talking, and Jan was playing in the kitchen with the kids. She put all four of them in a little tower thing the kids can stand in next to the counter, and then took my camera, and got the cutest picture. I can't believe they are all smiling! Here it is:

Then a few minutes later Jan said, "Quick. I need your camera again!" She looked over, and Mieka was "riding" Matthew like a horse. They are so cute!

As I said, just a quick post. I'll post again soon!

Happy Birthday, Truboy!

Once again, it's late at night, and I am doing a birthday post. I don't know why it takes me so long to do these. I even had most of the pictures of Truman picked out the other day. But I always just want to find the right combination of pictures, and so end up searching and searching until I find ones I like. I want these birthday posts to be something the kids can look back on. So, it is worth all the time it takes. I just love my little kiddies, and I'm so glad I have so many of them. Here is my birthday post dedicated to Truman, who turns five years old tomorrow!

Truby has always been such a cute little guy, and I just feel so grateful that we still have him with us. When he was only 9 weeks old, he almost died. Karla had laid him down for a nap, and then had a feeling to go check on him. They found that he wasn't breathing, and couldn't call 911 because their phone was disconnected, so they ran outside and pounded on Adam and Stacey's door (who, thank goodness, lived right across the street). By the time the ambulance came, he had started breathing again, and thankfully was okay once they got him to the hospital. I'll never forget going to the hospital to see him that night, and just feeling so grateful that he was okay. He had a blessing that night telling him that he would live a long life and would be a great teacher. I remember the next day at work I was near tears all day, just feeling so grateful that he had been spared. We've had many miracles like that in our family, and I'm so grateful that one of them was for darling Truman! So, here is my picture tribute to Truman:

I don't have pictures of the day he was born (because I somehow left my camera home that day), but here is Truman about a week after he was born. I teased Karla after I took this picture that he looked like a little Truman burrito.

Here he is, almost a month old, with Karla.

And here he is on his blessing day with Aunt Jan. He was already starting to get a little bit chubby.

Here he is on Halloween. This was a month after he almost died. If you look closely, you can see wires hanging down by his legs. He had to stay on a monitor for awhile afterward to make sure he was okay.

Here he is on Christmas, 2004 with two of the three other babies we had in 2004--Lizzie and Briana.

This is early 2005, with Uncle Dave.

I love this one of him. This was on the 4th of July in 2005, when he was almost one year old. We had laid a bunch of the kids down together to get a picture. He is in the top middle, and his eyes look so blue!

Here he is with cousin Briana, dressed up as a pirate for Halloween. We used to have trick-or-treat every year when I worked at BYU, and I loved having the kids come to visit me at work.

This is one of my favorite pictures of him. This is in December of 2005, one night when we watched him and his brothers at our house. I love his red cheeks and blue eyes. So cute!

Here he is on the 4th of July 2006 with brother Logan and cousin Kate. (I seem to have a Halloween and 4th of July theme in this post--but that's where I found the cute pictures!)

I had to put this one in--this was Thanksgiving, 2005. I was taking a picture of a bunch of the kids, and this was Truman saying, "cheese!" I think it is so cute.

Here he is on Daddy's lap, with his brothers. I love that they are all laughing. They were watching the video that our family made for Jan and I on our 32nd birthday. As I said in my nephew's post, they love the part where their daddy is pretending to be a burgler in our house.

This is late 2007, standing on our balcony holding a kite he made. We have a tradition that when they come to visit, I print out a kite with whatever picture they want, and they color it, we put string on it, and then they "fly" it off our balcony. We have so much fun doing it.

This is actually our 24th of July celebration last year (so, not quite 4th of July, but close), with his brothers and cousin Joshy.

I love the way the light is shining on him in this picture. This was January of this year, when Karla and the kids came to visit me at work. We were up looking at the Christus statue, and I snapped this picture of him. What a sweet boy! I sure love him!

And finally, here he is last week with cousin Emma before her party started. I love his big smile!

I'm so grateful for my little Truman. He has such a sweet personality, and I love hearing him speak in his high voice. I'm so excited that he will be going to kindergarten this year. Happy Birthday, Truman! I love you!

Nephew's sleepover--finally!

It's 7:20 and I am on the bus. I've tried doing this post three times in the last few days, and Blogger keeps timing out when I try to download pictures. Each time I've only had limited time to work on it, so haven't had time to finish it. Finally this morning I just kept loading pictures while I got ready. I found that the only way to get it to work was to load the pictures four at a time, so I barely got it all done before I had to run out the door (and I'm sure Jan heard me running around at the last minute). I also forgot my gym clothes for Zumba, so will have to run home before I go to Mom and Dad's house. But, at least this post is getting done!!! So, here is, finally, my post about our nephews sleepover last week.

We had so much fun--five cute boys from ages 8-5. We had pizza when we first got there, and then I told the boys about the Army of Helaman and Captain Moroni, and talked to them about how they were living in a wicked world, and needed to be righteous warriors in standing up for truth. I made each of them name tags with pictures of the Army of Helaman and Captain Moroni. Here is Logan holding his (since his picture was the one where you can see the nametag best). Then we had each of them show how strong they were. I got a picture of it, but couldn't get it to load on time--but it was really cute!

Then we did a fun craft--we talked about how hot it has been, and so got them sun visors that they got to decorate. They loved it so much that they each had to decorate both sides. Thank goodness we had tons of stickers! Here are our five boys from oldest to youngest, wearing their sun visors:

Ethan, 8

Joshy, 7

Brendan, 7

Logan, 6

Truman, 5

Bummer! I somehow just deleted the picture of all the boys together on the porch wearing their visors. I tried to undo it, but I can't get it back. That's the problem with doing a post on the bus. Well, at least I'm getting this post done.

After the visors, we blew up the air mattresses and got the beds all ready. I never got a picture of all of them sleeping, but here is a picture of their sleeping bags/blankets.

Then the boys made cookies with Janice. Brendan isn't in this picture because he was using Logan's stick as a crutch, walking all around the living room pretending like he coudln't walk...

Then each of them got to add whatever goodies to their cookies that they wanted--although it looks like Logan was eating the goodies before he put them on. :)

After the cookies, we watched Tron then put the kids to bed. Jan and I told them stories and sang them songs, and they all fell asleep. Both times our boys have been so much easier to get to sleep than our girls! I don't know what it is--probably that there is so much less giggling and talking.

The next morning we made waffles for the boys, and then they watched the video that their daddy's made for our 32nd birthday. They love the part where Jon is chasing Seth. They kept chasing each other around the room--thank goodness we still don't have any downstairs neighbors. We may have had problems with the noise ordinance! Here is a picture of them all running around.

We had so much fun at our boys sleepover! I'm so grateful for my cute nephews!

Just a few more pictures to add to this post. On Saturday after the sleepover, we took Truman over to Emma's house, and the other cousins her age came and we had a birthday party. Dan just got a really cool blow up toy for his rental center--a blow up water slide with a pool. It was so fun to ride on--for both adults and kids. We all had so much fun. Ems, in her usual form, stayed up late to make an amazing cake--one that looked like the slide. So the last three pictures are from that party.

I'm so grateful that I am able to live so close to my family and that we do so much together. They really do bring so much joy into my life!

Happy Birthday Emma Lynn!

It's almost 11:00, so technically it will be another hour before July 20th, which is Emma's 4th birthday. But I thought I would get this posted now so that it would be up for her birthday. So here is my birthday post for sweet Emma Lynn!

Dan and Emilee lived with Jan and I for the first six months of Emma's life. It was so fun to have her there and get to hold a baby whenever I wanted to. Dan teased us that we weren't allowed to sue for custody when they moved out--but we were sorely tempted! Then we moved into condos next door to each other until she was two, so we've been able to be close to her for most of her life. She has always been such a sweet little thing, and I'm so grateful for the influence she has had on my life.

Here is a picture of her on the day she was born, in the nursery. I love how Dan has his finger on her face. She was so tiny and delicate.

Here she is a few months later in her car seat (she actually slept in her car seat in the Master Bedroom closet for the first six months of her life). I love her little smile in this one!

This is her three month picture with Emilee. I love that she is smiling at her mommy.

And here she is sitting at the computer with her daddy. What a cutie (Emma, not her daddy. :)

This is Emma with cousins Kate and Jenni at Jenni's 2nd birthday party. What pretty princesses!

Now she's getting a little older and starting to take her first steps (with cousin Jenni helping)

I love this picture of her reading the scriputres when she was 15 months old. She has always been so close to the spirit and loves spiritual things. It looks like it started really early with her!

Here's another favorite picture. This was Christmas 2006 when she got her Elmo chair. She loved it! You can't tell in the picture, but she kept bouncing up and down on it. So cute!

And here is January 2007, walking in the snow with Aunt Janice.

I love this picture of her sitting under Jan's bed with Fluffy. She LOVES Fluffy, and always has to come see him whenever she comes to our house.

This is May 2007, when she is almost two. She is sitting with me and eating a cupcake--obviously getting it all over her face. I don't know why she's scowling in this picture. Maybe I pulled the cupcake away so we could get a picture...

And here she is in June 2007 at the Orem Summerfest with Emilee.

Okay, I know I have lots of pictures of her at this age, but I had to put this one in. Everytime she came to visit us, she had to walk down the stairs by herself. She loved the stairs, and was so independent that we weren't allowed to help her.

And here she is on Christmas Eve, 2007, dressed up for the Christmas pageant.

This is January of last year, the first time she held her baby brother Matthew.

And here she is at the Summerfest last year with cousins Jenni and Annika. They have so much fun together!

This is at her birthday party last year, again with cousin Jenni. They had a tea party and dressed up as princesses. They are so darling!

I stole this picture from Emilee, since I was at work when she took it. This was in February of this year, with her brother Matthew--eating smoothies for breakfast. I love how they both have such big brown eyes!

And finally, here she is yesterday at her 4th birthday party with her favorite aunt, Aunt Jan.


I'm so grateful for sweet Emma! I love telling her scripture stories, and singing songs with her, and hearing her laugh. I'm so grateful for the blessing she has been in my life! I love you, Emma!

I still need to do a post about the nephews sleepover (don't worry, it's coming), and watch for another birthday post on Saturday. We have lots of birthdays in July! But now it's way too late, so I'm going to bed!