Birthday Boy

Charles was the birthday boy yesterday.  Seven years old!!  I love to see my kids grow and change, I just wish it would slow down a bit.  He had been counting down to his birthday since Christmas.  Charles hasn't always loved birthdays as much as he does now.  On one of his birthdays he cried when we all sang Happy Birthday to him.  He's long outgrown that and loves being the birthday boy.  Friday night we went swimming with my brother Aaron's family and had pizza afterward with them and my mom and dad.  Saturday we had his official birthday party.  He wanted a bowling theme so I obliged and made the cake.  He could hardly wait for people to finish eating their lunch so he could move on to cake and ice cream, then presents and finally a trip to the bowling alley. 

I wish I had taken video footage of his bowling.  He was so cute.  He would run up and roll his ball.  A few times the ball fell out of his hand behind him.  He rolled a strike and was soooo excited I had to take a picture of the scoreboard.  It was a super fun birthday.  I just can't believe that he's seven. 

Congrats Eric

Eric's teacher nominated him for the National Elementary Honor Society and he was accepted.  The school held and induction ceremony for the students and their families.   We were definitely proud parents.  There were just a handful of students from each  of the fourth and fifth grade classes.  It really is an honor to be selected and we are so proud of Eric.  He has always given 100% on his school work.  His school is the first in the district to have a National Elementary Honor Society.  Keep up the good work Eric!

Andrew

This post is mostly for me.  I have been terrible at keeping baby books for my children.  Eric has one that maybe went as far as his first year and Charles and Katie just have baby calendars.  I put the little stickers on when they had a doctors appointment or when a new tooth came in or when they tried a new food and of course when they started sitting, crawling and walking.  Andrew, however, has not been so lucky to even get this.  I write down on the family calendar and blog about his milestones.    I was a month late getting him to his four month well baby visit so these are his five month old stats.  He weighs 16.3 pounds.  He is 25.3 inches long and his head circumference is 16.2 inches.  He eats rice cereal and sweet potatoes.  He does not sleep through the night.  He likes to make spit bubbles and take baths. 

Christmas 2010

Even though we had a horrible lead into Christmas it was very nice.  My parents returned from their mission at the beginning of December and stopped by to see us for a few days.  It was great to see them, especially since  I didn't get to go home for Christmas because of the car.  We were able to spend some time with my brother Aaron and his family the day before Christmas Eve.  They were up in Denver taking their son to a doctor and stopped by to see us.  It was late and the roads were bad so they stayed the night.  My kids were in heaven.  They don't get to see their cousins very often.

We spent Christmas morning at home opening presents, playing and eating monkey toes for breakfast.  Later that morning we went to my mother in law's house for lunch and more presents.  We had a nice day.  Here are a few pictures of Christmas.

T'was Three Days Before Chistmas

I've been behind schedule for about three weeks now.  I can't seem to get ahead on anything.  I put off getting my house cleaned for Christmas and I left some shopping til the last minute.  The icing on the cake came three days before Christmas. 
During the night we had freezing fog, which I had never heard of, until that day.  I was driving to work and there was black ice.  As I was coming around a curve approaching a stop sign my car started sliding.  I  did a 180 and slammed my rear tire into the curb and ended up on the sidewalk.  When I got out of the car I could hear air leaking from the front tire and the back wheel was totally bent.  I was so scared.  I have never been in a wreck before and I had Katie and Andrew.  The baby started crying and Katie was OK until we got out of the car.  She was crying and thought Santa wouldn't come because I wrecked the car. 
I don't know what I was more afraid of, the wreck itself or having to tell Dean.  He had just spent the week before doing some heavy duty work on the car with his brother and now this.  He drove the car home and borrowed some tools from the neighbor.  The damage was pretty bad.  He figured out the parts that needed replaced, I picked them up from the salvage yard and he started fixing.  I couldn't believe that he was able to fix it all by himself just by reading a manual.  Two wheels, two control arms, a spindle, a trail arm, two new struts, two trips to Firestone for alignment and about five days later my car was all fixed.   Thank heaven for husbands.