Our Growing Brood

Our Growing Brood

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Best Friends

 
Adam is in LOVE with "Ashwin." He lights up every time he sees her. He loves to talk to her and always asks to hold her. He always volunteers to entertain her so I can have a few more minutes to wrap up what I'm doing before I pick her up. I love that he always wants to be near her. I have a feeling these two are going to be inseparable.


I love their contrasting features. His brown hair & brown eyes to her fair hair (what little there is) and bright blue eyes reminds me of another pair.
I think they look great together!
 

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Kindred Spirits

Alyssa & Ashlyn
Born almost 18 years apart, only 5 days between their March birthdays.
Oldest & Youngest girl cousins on Trevor's side.
Both from families of 3 boys and 1 girl.
Kindred spirits

Saturday, July 26, 2014

1st Time at Girl's Camp

 
Ashlyn got to attend girl's camp for the first time at 4 1/2 months old. Trevor was invited up by the young women for lunch and a testimony meeting with the bishopric. Ashlyn & I were invited to tag along. The boys were happy to spend the day at their cousin's house. Ashlyn was the BEST traveler, as usual.  She is seriously SO good!
 
 
It was fun to get away together and spent some time up in the slightly (but not by much) cooler mountains. Visiting girl's camp brought back lots of fun memories of the times I spent there as a young woman. It is funny how easily you forget so much about what you have experienced in your life. I think my mind just turned to mush after kids. It gets worse after each one.


If you had told me that one day, my husband would be the bishop and he would voluntarily participate in ward functions, I would've laughed you right out of the building.
This is NOT the man I married! It is a good change though. I have been trying to drag him to ward functions for our entire marriage. Now I don't even have to ask. It's just implied that we will attend. One of the perks of his calling!

He is still so handsome, even covered in whipped cream!
The young women coerced Trevor into playing this whipped cream game where they squirt a pile onto their wrist, then pop it up in the air and for him to catch in his mouth. He was unaware of their secret plan. A number of them had hidden gobs of whipped cream in their hands and on the count of 3, while he was concentrating on catching the one he had planned on, they ambushed him. He was a good sport, even though he complained of smelling whipped cream for the rest of the day and I even found some the next day that had clogged a in the side of his glasses.
I am very grateful that my response was "NO THANK YOU" when I was asked to play.
 I would not have been as good of a sport as Trevor! 
 
After driving home, dropping off a few people, picking up the kids and staying to chat, we didn't get home until about 10:30. I was SO tired! It was a long, but fun day.

Friday, July 18, 2014

Milestones

Ashlyn is getting pretty good about using her hands. I have already had my plate grabbed at a few times during dinner. Sometimes I find her just staring at her hands while she opens & closes them. It is so fun to watch her develop. 

She also learned a new trick last night. She can now grab onto her foot. She only grabs the right foot so far but we are sure the left is soon to follow. 
We love this sweet girl!

Saturday, July 12, 2014

13 Years

13 years ago we took the plunge. We joined hands, walked to the edge of a cliff, counted to 3 and took the scariest, most life-changing plunge we had ever taken in our lives. 
We are happy to report that not only did we survive that plunge, we are happy and still going strong. Whew!!!
We celebrated at Black Angus with Ashlyn, who was not happy to be out past her bedtime (the downside of having a baby on a sleeping schedule). Then we went home and went to bed. Very exciting evening! That's life with a young baby and a hard-working husband who is always tired to the bone by nightfall. 
 
Here are some fun outtakes:










Don't be jealous by how photogenic we are. Hopefully by next year I can appreciate these as I will be 20 lbs lighter. Positive thoughts!













Thursday, July 10, 2014

Meal time

Every day, sometimes more than once a day, I am approached by Adam to eat food with him. We have a bucket with all kinds of play food and I get to sit and pretend to eat it with him. Every day. I am anxiously awaiting the time when Ashlyn will be able to fill in for me and they can pretend to eat play food together to their heart's desire!!
Don't mind the rest of the mess. We are still working on repairing our basement.

Saturday, July 5, 2014

All Boy





Adam fell asleep on the way to the fireworks last night and was tucked into bed afterward in his July 4th shirt. He awoke this morning ready to tackle the day but had to lay quietly in bed with us while his brothers & sister finished slumbering. We passed the time by snapping some pictures. 

When he saw this picture he laughed and said "I tooted my face". Hahaha. He is such a boy. 

Friday, July 4, 2014

4th of July

Ashlyn celebrated her first 4th of July today! 

We celebrated up in the mountains in the cool & rainy weather. It was in the 60's and felt so heavenly! Ashlyn spent most of the day napping & eating. The rest of us enjoyed the outdoors at Camp Gardner. We went out to find some fireworks at night but it turned out we were misinformed about the starting time of the show. We caught the end of the show while in our car, which suited us just fine since Adam & Ashlyn were passed out. We had a wonderful day celebrating the country's birth surrounded by family & awesome weather!