Family Pictures 2009

We finally took new family pics! Yeah!!! We went up Oak City Canyon and used the beautiful colored leaves as our backdrop. For the full family pics, we used my tripod and the timer on the camera. It worked out pretty good, but it was hard to get the kids to look at the camera at the same time at just the right moment. We had fun and I am so glad to finally have so new family pics! Enjoy!

Garrisen's 6th Birthday

Garrisen is growing up to be quite the handsome young man. He turned 6 on October 16th. That ends our October Birthday bash-crash for this year (whew!). Garrisen has a great sense of humor and loves stories. He is a very loving and fun big brother. He loves being with his dad and his Papa. He is growing up on me!

Hannah's 9th Birthday

My Hannah-Banana turned 9 October 5th. I can't believe I have a 9-year old! She has grown into quite the young lady. Hannah is my right arm. I love her loving spirit and her mature nature. She is a wonderful big sister and a great friend to everyone she meets.
We had her party at Leo's in Delta. She had a good time and got a lot of good stuff.

Twins 3rd Birthday

I've got some catching up to do thanks to the twins running off with my camera's USB cord! They are so naughty...good thing they are so dang cute! lol

Speaking of the naughty girls, they turned 3 on October 1st. I can't believe they are 3! How fast the time does go. We did a little family party at the Pizza House for them and they had tons of fun. I took them out to our neighbors house to do some pics before the party. It was really fun to take their pictures.

I love the firsts!

Yeah!!! Danika cut her first tooth yesterday! This has been a long awaited milestone since she is almost 13 months now, lol. Hopefully this means she will have healthy teeth!

The twins are daytime potty-trained now! Another big 'Yeah'!!! Still having an accident now and then, but they are doing really well. Potty-training two is very interesting, to say the least, lol. They wanted to go to dance with Daicee really bad, so I told them they had to be potty trained. That was a really good motivator for them! They aren't quite three, yet, so I think they are doing really well! I have found the tool that works best for my kids is finding what motivates them to do it. With Garrisen it was a remote-controlled McQueen car and Daicee wanted a singing barbie. I put them high on a bookshelf so they could see it and once they decided they wanted it bad enough and they weren't going to get it by crying or whining (that took about a week, maybe two), they were each done in a day! Paige and Saige weren't really interested in anything, so I'm glad the dance opportunity came along at the right time. Now we just have night-time to do, but I'm not stressing over that right now. I don't want them getting up at night, yet. Danika is finally sleeping through the night consistently again, so I am taking advantage of sleep!

Cove Fort

Danika had her one year old well-child check-up today with her Pediatrician in Beaver. She is now 18lbs 14oz! Compared to my Linebacker 7 month-24lbs nephew, though, she is tiny! lol

Anyway, on our way home we decided to stop at Cove Fort and take the kids on a tour. I'm so glad we did! We all had so much fun and the kids learned a lot. Our missionary guide was Sister Hill and she was so awesome. She really geared the tour toward the kids and was very patient with them. It was fun to hear the stories she told. Gar and I learned a few things, too! The building and running of the Fort is nothing short of a miracle and it really builds on your testimony. If you haven't been there for a while, I encourage you to go. It's free and you won't regret it!

Danika's 1st Birthday!

My baby is one today! (tear) I can't believe how fast they grow. We had a little party up Oak City Canyon with my dad and my Aunt Yvonne and Uncle Brent.
I made a carrot cake and we BBQ'd burgers and hot dogs. It was perfect weather and we all had an enjoyable time relaxing and visiting.
As you can tell by the pics, Danika LOVED the cake! lol She had so much fun eating it all by herself. She has brought so much sunshine and life into our family it is hard to imagine what we did without her! She is such a smiley baby that I find myself smiling and laughing most of the day.
I have had a hard time accepting that she has to grow up. I'm not ready, yet. :(
I relish every moment because it goes by TOO FAST!!!

Back to School!

This year, I have 3 in school! Crazy! Time just keeps on whizzing by.
Hannah is in 3rd grade this year. She has Mrs. Mary Singleton and is really liking school, so far.
Garrisen is going to full-day Kindergarten. His teacher is Mrs. Diane George. He is enjoying school and loves books. After a full day of school, though, he is wiped out! He can barely drag himself home from the bus stop. lol
Daicee is in her 2nd year of PreK and loving it. She is especially excited about riding the bus to and from school. She was a little nervous about it at first but has gotten over that quickly. :) Her teacher is Mrs. Bonnie Nielson. Mrs. Nielson taught Garrisen in PreK last year and she was awesome! We are very excited to spend another year with her...hopefully she doesn't mind. :)
Paige and Saige are wishing they were big enough for school. However, I'm not sure that school is ready for them! lol We will give them another year to prepare for these little monkeys!
Danika, thankfully, has a few years to go until she starts school. Mom isn't ready for her to grow up, yet.
Garrett is in the middle of his gunsmith school and will hopefully be done soon. He is loving it and feels like he has found his calling. Big surprise there! :)
As for me, I have started my CNA course and will finish up in January. I am really excited about getting my RN and working in the health care field.

Blogging-take 3...and action...

Okay, it has been half a year since I blogged last, so I realize my average is not so good. lol :) In my defense, my computer crashed and I had to wait for our new one to be built. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!
If I try to go back and catch up, I will never get anywhere, so I'm just going to start with August. Then, if I get time (haha), I will go back and fill in the rest of the year. Don't hold your breath, though. :)

Daicee's B-day Party

Daicee's B-day Haul

Blowing out the candles

We celebrated Daicee's 4th Birthday Saturday so Gar could be there before he went to work. She wanted a purple cake, so that was easy. We played Disney DVD Pictionary and had Pizza. She had fun is glad to FINALLY be 4! She told me today "Mom, I'm not so little anymore!". What a kid. She keeps us in laughs!

Chunkers

Mommy and and Danika

Cute Girl!

Danika playing in her Bumbo Chair

Danika is getting so chunky...and of course-cute! She is starting to giggle and is such a ray of sunshine in our lives! I can't believe she is almost 5 months old already! It makes me sad! She has definitely learned to command everyone's attention and makes her wants/needs known. lol She even stomps her foot when laying on the floor if something doesn't meet her expectations...especially if the kids leave the room to go play somewhere else. She loves watching them play and adores attention from them. She is quite the character!

Vernal Dinosaur Museum

Since the kids had the week after Christmas off from school, we went to Vernal to visit Garrett for 5 days. Gar had Saturday off, so we took the kids to the Dinosaur museum (for the 3rd time in a year-lol). They had a lot of fun looking for dinosaur bones, learning about dinosaurs, and exploring the many exhibits. It is a pretty neat museum and the kids insist we go there everytime we are in Vernal.

Christmas 2008

I think Santa's sleigh tipped over at our house! Everyone made a haul. We opened presents Christmas morning and then went to my mom's in Parowan where we opened more presents...and more presents! We almost needed a u-haul trailer to get it all home. lol We had a really good Christmas spending time with family and relaxing.

Christmas Eve 2008

Papa holding his lit'l buddy and Paula holding Danika Danika's 1st Christmas Jammies

All the kiddos in their new jammies and slippers

Christmas Eve we had my dad and his girlfriend over for prime rib dinner. After we stuffed ourselves, everyone sang Christmas songs while I played my flute. We also did a nativity scene story. The kids had fun putting the nativity pieces in place. The twins wanted more animals to put in the stable and they were screaming and crying through the end of the story. lol It was really fun. After all the festivities, the kids opened their Eve presents. What a surprise-jammies and slippers!

5 generations

Great Grandma GG and her newest addition

The 5 Generations with all 6 of the great great grandkids (missing my mom, though!)

I am fortunate to still have a great grandma alive and well. That makes her my kids' great great grandma and creates the rare 5 generations. So far, I have the only great greats (that is until my sis has her baby boy-any day now). My great grams Effie Gundersen looks great and she doesn't color her hair. I think I'm getting more gray than she is! Guess I didn't get that gene! The only one missing from this pic is my mom-the 3rd generation. It is really fun to have this opportunity for my kids to know so many generations of grandmas.

I'm really going to do it this time...

Okay, so it has been over a year since I first started this blog, so I guess it is time to actually blog on it. lol Well, here goes...