Happy 5th Birthday, Lydia!

This picture pretty much sums it all.  Look at those happy, grateful eyes!  Everybody needs a Lydia.

Lydia is such a joyful kid!  She loves princesses (Frozen's Queen Elsa, in particular), being read to, dancing, singing, playing in the backyard with her brother and her backyard neighbors, Austin and Benson.  She loves her baby sister, snuggling and watching videos with her parents, coloring, ballet, her grandparents, her cat, her primary class at church, and every single teacher or leader she has every had.

She is our sunshine!

This year we had planned on a friend's birthday party, but due to unemployment, we had to scale back.  Lydia was very understanding and happy to have a princess (and prince Dada) party at her Grandma's house.  

Well, it just so happened that I know Queen Elsa and was able to trade some photography skills for a visit to a special little girl's birthday for some one on one time.  Boy was she surprised!

 After lunch and a story, Lydia took Queen Elsa for a walk and a chat.

And to the park to fly a kite.

 With some help from Dada.

 We're so grateful that Elsa could come to Lydia's birthday party.  It made her day one she will never forget!

That evening, we continued the festivities at our home.

 Pretty princess sister, solemnly observing.

 Cap off the day with Lydia's first bike - a princess bike, of course.  She got the hang of it pretty fast!

 She even decorated her own cake.

Happy Birthday, sweet Lydia.  We love you!

Tyler's Baptism Annoucement Photos

With Tyler's baptism coming up, we went as a family to take some pictures at Temple Square for our Special Sunday FHE this evening.  

Look at my handsome boy!

 He loves his CTR (Choose The Right) ring.  

Thanks Primary teachers!

 "I want a suit like my Dada."

 You got it buddy.

 Meanwhile, Lydia was having her own fun.

 Look!  Kate and I were there too. :-)

Kate's Cake Smash

Why, oh why didn't I do this with my other kids?  It was awesome!  Oh, yeah, it's because I didn't know about this idea.  If I could go back in time I would get newborn photos taken with all my babies and then cake smash photos at age 1.  
The goodness that is cake is very new to Kate.  I thought she'd love it!  Well, she loved the balloons, but she wasn't too interested in the cake.  We had to put rice crispies on the frosting to get her interested.

Finally at the very end she started realizing what a good situation she was in!

Kathryn's 1 Year Old Pictures

Every year I take the kids to someone else to get their photos taken. They tend to smile more that way. :-) Here are Kate's. Happy Birthday, Sweetie!  Best difficult decision we ever made - the baby, not the photoshoot!  She makes our family so happy.

Butterfly Release

It has become tradition for the kids and Opa to raise caterpillars (with me praying like crazy that they survive), watch them spin cocoons, then release the butterflies.  Then we guess where they are headed as they fly away (South Dakota, BYU, California, Arizona are the most popular guesses).

Look closely, you can see one of the butterflies by Lydia's hair.

Happy 1st Birthday, Kathryn!

She's 1 year old!  How did that happen so fast?

  She uses her first baby sign language to ask for "more". 

I'm pretty sure she thinks my name is "Nigh-night". 

She is so big! And is constantly on the move. She is now so wiggly in church, I get her to be still by standing her up so she grips onto the back of the bench. Then she can look over and people watch. 

Our family favorite is when Kathryn laughs so hard she sounds like a squeaky toy. 

And she crawls! No longer content to let big brother and sister fetch everything for her, she is on the move and quite determined. 

She loves books - can't get enough. 

Her favorite place to be is up in our arms as she directs us where to go with her little pointer finger.  

If given loaded and given to her right side up, she can correctly navigate a fork. 

She taught the cat that a little tail pulling doesn't really hurt. 

She can make her whole family act silly and feel insanely happy just by smiling at us. 

She enjoys rocking all by herself in her little rocking chair. 

Her favorite foods are: water, real peas (forget the baby food kind), cut up blueberries, and bread which she tears up all by herself into bite sized pieces. Kathryn is a genius! 

Trying new foods at her party.

 Our little baby blue eyes.

 She caught on to the present thing really fast.

 I told you she loves books.

 And her siblings love her!

 Trying cake and ice cream for her first time.

 She was only mildly impressed.

Happy Birthday, Kathryn!  There is so much more ahead of you in life and we are so lucky, so blessed that you are part of our family!