April 2013 Update

THOMAS

Once nice thing about having Thomas on a monitor at night is that he can sleep with his stuffed animals.  Here he is with his Mr. Moo that he got in the hospital.  He loves to cuddle and lick stuffed animals.  Actually he loves anything with a fuzzy texture.  He gets excited to feel Jared's face when he hasn't shaved and laughs and laughs about it.

He still sleeps a lot, but is starting to get a little more energy.  He is a very happy bundle of sweetness.  We started taking him to church this month.  Everyone thinks he is super cute, but the funniest is to see the reaction of all the kids at church.  They all stare and ask, "What's the thing up his nose?"  The funniest was a little boy at church who caught sight of Thomas during sacrament meeting.  He exclaimed very loudly, "Mom, that baby has a funny mustache!"

NATHAN

Nathan really loves his little brother.  Here they are taking a nap together.

Nathan was excited when we took at field trip to the fire station for his preschool class.  He dressed in his fireman clothes and had fun sitting in the truck.

He has had a lot of fun with his preschool friends this year.  We are excited that he will be doing a preschool co-op again with them next year.

MADELINE

Maddy was really excited when I registered her for Kindergarten. Here she is practicing writing her ABCs.  She wants to make sure that she is ready.

Maddy dressed up in a Cinderella dress to match her doll.  Maddy loves dressing up and being "fancy."  She especially loves sparkly, colorful, high heeled shoes.  When I took her shoe shopping she wasn't too excited about the neutral colored, high quality, versatile shoes I was shopping for.  She wanted to try on all the colorful, fancy shoes.

In addition to dressing up, Maddy absolutely loves crafts of any kind.  Here she is with a parrot she made out of a paper cup.  The other day she brought me a toilet paper roll and asked me what craft she could make with it.  I felt like laughing when I went to Maddy's Kindergarten parent orientation meeting because they talked about how they will teach the children to color, cut, and glue things.  Maddy colors everything within the lines, cuts out her coloring pages carefully, and knows how to glue like no one else.     

ABBY

Maddy and Nathan look to Abby to teach them the ropes on everything.  Here is Abby playing school with them.  Of course she is the teacher.  She also likes her new responsibility of taking her little brother and sister to their primary classes.

When we went to the fire station all the preschoolers were nervous about sitting in the firetruck, but when Abby climbed right up and posed for her picture, they all decided it must be okay.  

When I took the picture of Maddy in her Cinderella dress Abby was not about to let Maddy take the limelight.  She quickly got dressed up as well to pose for a picture. Here she is dressing up as Rapunzel.

MARY

Here I am celebrating my 34th birthday.  It was a perfectly beautiful day so we had a nice backyard picnic.  The kids got me the movie The Kid for my birthday, and Jared got me a nice backyard umbrella so I can lay in the hammock without getting sun burned.  

JARED

Jared has been busy this month planting our garden and doing wood working projects.  Right now he is building a table for one of his co-workers.

Abigail's 7th Birthday

Abby couldn't wait to open her presents the morning of her birthday.

She loved her new books and clothes from Grandma D and her American Girl Caroline doll and book set from Mom & Dad.

For her birthday party this year she decided to have a Dolly and Me party.  Her friends brought their favorite doll or stuffed animal.  Here they are at the doll table.

Abby with her doll Megan.

The girls and their dolls. They had fun playing hide and seek and other party games with their dolls.

Opening presents.

Abby with her cake.

Making a wish as she blows out her candle.

Eating angel food cake with friends.  It was a real hit and almost everyone asked for seconds.

Grandma Collett sewed this beautiful wedding dress for Abby's doll Megan.  Abby was super excited about it!

Here is Abby smiling after losing 2 teeth in one day.  She was excited about the extra Tooth Fairy money.

ABBY'S FAVORITE THINGS

Reading!  We have a hard time keeping her nose out of a book.  She really enjoys the American Girl and Magic Tree House books.  She also enjoyed reading Matilda and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  At night she loves listening to Jared read The Chronicles of Narnia.  She just started reading the Book of Mormon and has a goal to finish reading it before she gets baptized next year.

Learning: She loves learning history and about the world around her.   Her favorite class at Homelink is American Girl.  She enjoys playing the piano and even practices more than we ask her too.  She is currently learning "Part of Your World" from The Little Mermaid, which she loves to play all the time.  

Playing: She enjoys swinging, riding her bike, going to the park, and swimming.  Abby likes playing with her My Little Ponies and dolls, and pretending to be kitty cats with Maddy.  She loves to draw pictures, listen to Classical music, look at the stars, and chase the quail in the backyard.

Food: Abby's favorite food is still strawberries and whipped cream on German oven pancakes.  Abby hates to eat meat.

  

OUR ABBY

When I asked Abby what she would like to do when she grows up she told me, "I'd like to jump up really high in the sky.  Yes, I'd like to fly.  That would be great."   So I guess our little girl who asked for a real magic wand and a real flying unicorn for Christmas hasn't grown up so much that she has stopped believing in magic, and I'm just fine with that.  In other ways Abby has grown up a lot this past year.  She was especially helpful after Thomas was born.  She started getting breakfast in the morning for Maddy and Nathan, turning off Thomas' feeding pump when it is done, getting diapers and wipes, bringing me the phone, etc.  She also has been more responsible about cleaning up, taking over her dishes, and practicing the piano on her own.   Tonight she even asked if she could help me do the dishes. She still is Miss Enthusiasm and she still gets super excited about every holiday.  We love her and feel very blessed to have her as part of our family.