Before I forget...

I always seem to forget to write these things down so I figure I better before I forget completely.

Grady said what I'm calling his first official word this weekend.  He said "Gi-Gi" which means gi-gi which is what we call his binki/pacifier/soother  (so many ways to say it).  We call it a gi-gi because my twin nieces Annie and Meg called them gi-gi's when they were little…and the family tradition was passed on.

Grady will now reach for his gi-gi while saying it loud and clear.  He loves that thing or things.  We have about eight that get passed around.

My other kids' first words if I am remembering correctly.

Andrew:  No!
Carter:  Cookie
Colby:  Hi there!
Saylor:  Momma

Colby turned the big big eight!

My Colby turned the ripe old age of eight on the 25th!

We started the celebration early by having his friend party on Thursday evening.  This was his first friend party ever so we tried to make it fun.

Steve started out by bringing home a HUGE bunch of balloons just for Colby.

Eight is great my friend!

Colby chose 6 friends to accompany him to JumpTime a local indoor trampoline jumping arena.

(No pics from there…Steve took all the kids so I'm totally understanding the no picture thing.  That is just craziness!)

The kids then came to our house for pizza and cake.

See the large child third from the left?  That is Jeff Bulkley, Colby's best friend.  Jeff has 5 daughters and Colby has made himself Jeff's honorary son.  Jeff even got a little kid invitation to the party, came to JumpTime and then our house.  He is a trooper…as is his wife for letting him come!

Happiness is a party with chocolate cupcakes!

…the candles were trick ones ordered by the birthday boy.

Charlie, Trevor, Casey, Colby, Aj, Mason and Jeff in the back.

A little opening presents game.

Dang trick candles!  Ok…they are just really fun.

On Friday I took (pretty simple) treats into Colby's class.

He loves Mrs. Snow!

His present showed up just in time and arrived on my doorstep hours before he got home from school.

This kid loves his man cave beanbag.

For the final hurrah, we went to DQ for dinner.

(Of course the Bulkleys were invited as was Andrew's friend Barrett.)

The day ended with a Dilly Bar and a hot tub party at the Bulkelys.

Happy Birthday Colby!  We love you so much it hurts!

Really Fast Catch Up

Things to write about in the next few days when I finally stop messing around and get something done:

Carter's arrow of light award
Colby's 8th birthday
How buying flowers makes me happy
Diabetes…I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy let alone a great friend
My sister is AMAZING…no really she is

Grandma Walker's Easter Egg Hunt

My mom is amazing.  (nothing new here)

Every Easter she puts on a giant egg hunt for the grandkids…and it NEVER gets old.

Each grandchild has 24 eggs, loving labeled with their name, full of treats and cold hard cash.

(I wish I was little still.  I want candy and money!)

We so appreciate her and my dad for entertaining and loving our children!  

My kids are spoiled.  Oh. So. Spoiled.

The 13 kids who live in Idaho.

We missed you Dean, Dawson, Bentley, Sadie, Leah and Grant!

The excitement is killing them…along with having to take pictures.  Oh the HUMANITY!

Even Grady had his own eggs to hunt for with Dad.

The teenagers. 

They tried so hard to act cool and collected, as if they could care less about an Easter egg hunt.  But we adults knew better…those kids LOVE it!!

The "bunny" took it easy on Saylor and hid the majority of her eggs in one small area.

Really Mom…do I have to smile for this?  I have candy to find!

Success!

I love when they act like they actually love eachother…for about 5 seconds.

What is this in my egg?

5 BUCKS??

The bunny was generous. 

Told you he loves this candy hunt.

What?  Is that a small smile creeping across his face?

Or, is it the chocolate talking.  The world may never know.

Yeah…I found all my eggs.

And I did it all the while looking this good.

(Carter my love, I understand you want to grow up and be older like Andrew so bad!  But just for me…would you stay 10 a little longer?  Please?)

Checking out the loot.

Thank you Mom and Dad for a wonderful afternoon.

We love you!

Easter Morning Pictures

8 am church doesn't leave much time for dilly-dally if you want everyone ready for Easter morning pictures before church.

(And waiting until after church is not an option.  Saylor had nap hair 15 minutes into church from trying to lay on top of me.)

It was a miracle that we made it with 2 minutes to spare to bring out the camera.

The kids, as always, were forced to pose and felt they were tortured.  Maybe they were coming down off the candy high from the night before, maybe none of them had enough sleep, maybe it was realizing that just because its a holiday doesn't mean we "get" to go home after sacrament meeting.   Whatever induced the crustiness…I'm pleased it didn't last.  

Church was great and our family had a relatively peaceful afternoon full of good food and naps.  

Love these five people more than I could ever imagine. 

(Don't be fooled by the angelic smiles…they fought on the way to church.  But I love 'em anyway.)

we grow 'em tiny

Grady had his 1 year check up yesterday.  I knew he wasn't large, but didn't think much about it.  I guess I was wrong to live in my ignorance.   Grady has dropped percentages on his height chart and even though he is proportional for his weight, his doctor is worried.  He is also anemic.   Today I am having some serious stress over this because I'm worried I will have another Colby on my hands.  Colby wouldn't eat, was anemic, underweight and labeled failure to thrive.  Drs' say a baby won't starve himself.  I'm here to say I have lived through that massive lie.

Steve is telling me not to worry.

I'm having a slight heart attack.

Really…one more food issue in our house?  Because gluten free and diabetes isn't enough??

Tomorrow I will pick up iron drops at the pharmacy and try and choke the nasty things down Grady's throat.  I might also go and buy a shake and share it with my darling caloric deprived baby boy.  

(Can I just say how much I stress over feeding my kids!)

I mean really, couldn't life be easy and all of us be able to eat these kind of things?

While I was in Utah I bought a few loaves of cinnamon bread from Kneaders.  And with advice from a friend, I made french toast for my gluten eating family for Sunday dinner.  Steve, Carter and Andrew were dying with happiness.  Saylor, Grady and Colby wanted nothing to do with this beautiful french toast masterpiece.

I would kill to eat this stuff and not end up sick.

(Other than it being about 55 carbs per slice with syrup…this is a good thing.)

Other good things???

Convincing my daughter that if she sang the mopping song from Cinderella…cleaning the floor on  your hands and knees is actually fun!

Weekend

I spent a little over 24 hours in Heber Utah with friends this weekend at at girl's retreat.

While I was gone, my parents so graciously agreed to watch my five children so Steve could work both Friday and Saturday.

I was grateful to hear that my kids behaved themselves and had a wonderful weekend spending time alone with their Grandma and Grandpa Walker.

Grady was even near perfect and took two fantastic naps without fussing.  He's an angel baby I tell you.

There were many fun stories and pictures sent to me by text as I was relaxing away in the beauty of Heber Idaho.

This was one.

Carter (who I don't know how he kept the seat down and hence the motor running) learned to drive Grandpa's lawn mower.  He was ridiculously happy about it.  He pulled his siblings around all the while sporting a face-splitting grin.  I'm surprised he didn't have sore cheeks today leftover from the perma-grin.  

He even took Grandma around for a spin.

He did make one slight mistake…asking Grandpa if the mower would still go with Grandma in the trailer.  I'm still laughing about this one.

Grady had his first swing experience and as you can tell by the open mouth smile was pretty happy…until Carter pushed him too high.  Then the fun was over.

Other fun first for my kids…Saylor and Colby rode a horse for the first time compliments of my dad's gracious neighbor.  Saylor was fitting to ride with her flowered skirt and pink cowgirl boots.  My dad didn't have his phone with him so there aren't pictures, but he related the extreme cuteness of the whole thing.

The time my kids spend with their grandparents is invaluable to me.  I think its the time spent with them when I'm not there is the most precious for them.  I'm ridiculously lucky to live two miles from my parents.

My weekend was not so adventurous but equally wonderful.

I spent my time eating, shopping, laughing, walking and eating.  Did I mention eating?

Included in the price of the girl's retreat was all you could eat meals.  I did no prep and no clean up.  It was a dream weekend and the food was fantastic.  

View from a short hike above Midway Utah.

View of my dream kitchen found in a model home in Heber.

I think I could go for a white kitchen.

View of our Official Mountain Dew taste off.

Results?  Mountain Dew Code Red was everyone else favorite.

I preferred plain Diet Mountain Dew.

I love these girls and I'm grateful for their friendship.  They make my life really fun!

Other pictures from this week...

Saylor's concerned expression taken during the scary part of Frozen.

I adore how her emotion comes through her face.

She is crack up.  For instance, a friend of mine kissed her on the cheek at church today and told her she was delicious.  She replied, "Well…I did eat a donut for breakfast!"

This boy loves his animal crackers.

My car must be the devil.

Grady Love

Can I just say how much our family enjoys this little boy.

The older kids fight over who gets to hold him or pull him out of bed.  

He has us all wrapped around his little chubby finger.

Those blue eyes get us everytime.

We love you Grady Paul and are so happy you are part of our family!

Conference Weekend

 I love conference weekend and wish it came along more than twice a year.

We stayed in stretchy pants all day and we didn't have to iron.  

It's the best weekend of the entire year. 

We tried our best to listen to all four sessions.  Sunday we did really well and the kids sat in our front room and colored while they listened.

Yes…I said colored, and that includes my four oldest.

Kids can do a lot of amazing coloring in four hours.

I don't think any of them (including my 13 year old) will let me take these off the fridge for a while.

Other things from conference weekend:

My oldest three went to my dads house and worked cleaning up pine needles and branches and loading them up in Grandpa's trailer for future dumping.

Steve started cleaning out the garage. (halle-freak show-lujah)  

Steve helped with the first annual priesthood session wings and pizza night with our ward.  Andrew was in wing and pizza heaven.

The kids, as always, listened for specific words in the conference talks in order to earn candy.  Each time they hear "the word" they earn a jelly bean.  I mistakenly chose the word love for President Monson's talk.  47 jelly beans later…they were all sick. 

Lastly, Carter wore this mustache for about four hours Saturday morning.  He said and I quote, "Mustaches are hard to eat with!"

Other funny things my kids come up with???

Saylor went around singing this morning to a made up tune, 

"I am the smartest and greatest girl in the world!

Because I don't make loud noises!

All I do is watch the I-pad all day long.

And I ask my mom if I can stay in my pj's all day!"

I was cracking up before 8 am this morning.

(she was allowed to stay in her pj's until 10:00 am)