Sam's a 2nd Grader!

It's official - Sam finished his first day as a 2nd grader at a new school and survived!  He is attending Summitview Elementary, and his teacher is Ms. Rowland.  We were able to go yesterday, meet his teacher and check out his classroom.  The kids of course couldn't leave without playing on the playground while we were there.  We stumbled upon the map of the U.S. and I couldn't resist a little photo op!  Each of the kids are sitting in their birth state.

Ms. Rowland seems really great, and had a sweet little bag of goodies for each child to take home with them.  Sam is in class with and rides the bus with several kids from our neighborhood, so he had familiar faces all day today, and that seemed to make the day even better.  

For the first time, Sam is resisting the 1st day of school photo...sad:(  but true.  He's already too cool, but I still made him do it.  As tradition dictates, he picked his favorite lunch - a lunchable, orange, and a surprise treat (s'mores mix); and set off in his new duds. He looks so old now a days in pictures that it makes me a little sad to post them.

After seeing Sam off on the bus, the three amigos and I headed to Max's 9 month check up.  All was well, and after 3 immunizations and an continued streak on the 90th percentile track, Max was good to go.  He weighed 22.5 lbs; 30 inches long; and I didn't get the exact head measurement, but the percentile was of the charts.  Not a huge surprise, seeing he's Jack's clone.  But his head shape is more like an oval that a huge basketball!  We then headed home for the rest of the day.  I treated the little ones to their own lunchables and s'mores mix on the tramp...so I won the gold star from them today.

I also included in this post 2 side notes: 1) We are LOVING having Shawn close enough to share lunch with each day.  It is such a treat to have him for an extra hour.  2) Last Friday the older boys and Shawn slept out in the yard in the tent, as one last hoorah! Lyv and Max wanted to share in the fun in the morning.  What a good dad they have.

Max at 9 Months

Max is finally moving!  You think after 4 kids I would know what to expect with a baby, but each one has a very unique personality.  Max doesn't seem to be as adventurous as the others (sigh of relief) - BUT he also doesn't try to anything for himself either.  If he wants me to hold him, we doesn't crawl to me.  He sits and cries at me until I can't stand it any longer and finally pick him up.  He won't feed himself.... in fact he doesn't put any food in his mouth at all. He'll only eat it if I'm giving to him, preferably on a spoon!  So this has made for a sweet and lovable, but rather high maintenance baby boy.  This scares me a bit.  He might be our baby, so I can only imagine that this personality trait will be enabled by all 5 of us who cater to his every need.

August 15th - he crawled for the first time!!  Yay!  I was starting to get worried, but like I said, he only does it if he wants to.  If I'm around he prefers me to carry him.

He's also started to eat real food.  He completely stopped eating baby food = can't blame him!  He's been loving food, and screams if we don't shovel it in fast enough.

Milestone #3 - He slept through the night for the first time on the 14th.  We had to let him cry it out for a few nights, and Lyv took up a permanent residence on the couch for a week, but he's doing much better, and sleeping mostly through the night.  He's also started to nap more regularly.  This poor guy!  His life has been a roller-coaster of events, time zones and moves... there never was a great time to start initiating a "schedule", but now we have one at least in the works.

He has sixth cute teeth and he continues to be such a good baby.  He is very content, and loves LOVES to give hugs.  My favorite part of the day is getting Max out of bed, because he gives me a full on bear hug each time.  It is precious and I try to revel in each hug.

He's found his way into his new favorite toy - the Domino's!  What mess and he does this about 10 times a day.  Why do I even bother to pick them up?  Well so he can spill them all out again! of course.

The kids nickname for Max is Memo.  Not sure where this came from but at least it's moved up from Pickle and Salsa.  Max loves his bath and loves to kick tidal waves with his fatty thighs.  He literally dives out of my arms into the tub if we head into the bathroom.  He still makes some of the funniest noises and grunts and we love listening to him babble.  My nephew Nathan commented when we were home in Idaho, "Does this baby ever shut up?"  Not very nice, but he wasn't being mean - Max just has a lot to say.  I am in awe at how much I love this stage of life.  I could just eat him up...he is just so much fun.

30 and Fab!

It's official...I'm 30.  Okay I've been 30 for over a week, but I finally posted it.  I was really looking forward to my 30's.  Mostly because I've always been asked if I'm old enough to be married, to have kids, etc.  Hopefully know, I'm appearing to be more "age appropriate" to these roles in life.  I am lucky enough to share my birthday with my sweetie pie little brother (who looks like a wild man in this pic).  The older I get the more I appreciate that my birthday reminds me of him and all the good times we've had.  He is a blessing in my life.  

I partied the entire weekend, having an awesome dinner with my parents and siblings - a rare occurrence!  Then Shawn sent me a surprise in the mail....new camera lenses for my camera!!  I loved it because it is exactly what I wanted and I didn't even have to tell him....it's taken 11 years for us to develop telepathy:)  Shawn wined and dined me for 2 days straight completing it was a date to an awesome restaurant and a strawberry cheesecake with the kids.  30 years of life has brought many experiences, thousands of miles traveled, several places we've called home, and many lessons learned.  I feel extremely blessed for the life that I've been given, for family I proudly call my own, and for my wonderful friends who constantly remind me of their goodness.  Here's to 30 and many, many more!

Saying Goodbye to Jake

Saying goodbye isn't anyone favorite thing, but we are so extremely proud of Jake, and we know that he will be a wonderful missionary that we can't help but be excited for him!  He has been an awesome brother and an even greater uncle....the kids will all miss Jake the snake!  Before he takes of to Sydney, we took some family pics with my AMAZING new lenses I got for my b-day.  I know not everyone thinks so, but my in-laws are pretty much the most amazing in-laws ever.  What an amazing family!!

Good Luck Jake - we're so happy for you and can't wait to hear about all the wonderful experience that you're going to have!

Cousin Camp - Idaho

We made our trek down to Idaho for the MOST important of holidays:  Christmas no - Thanksgiving - guess again.....Pioneer Day of course!!  We had a great time attending the parade despite the rain, and enjoying a lot of laughs with our family!  We love being closer!!!  The next day we attended Jake's farewell - he leaves on a mission to Sydney Australia in 1 week!!!  Then Shawn flew back to Yakima, while the kids and I stayed and continued to go Cousin Crazy!!  

Gangsta Thugs

We hit up Rexburg Rapids - and had our fair share of snocones!! YUM!

Played at the Robinson and Ashton casa's, where Lyv and Max were pampered with love by their dotting cousins. Sam had his first Lava Hot Springs experience which he loved!

We attended Cousin Camp with the Hill cousins which included a 4 wheeler ride to the Sand Dunes (where Nate dug a 4 foot hole for the kids to jump in). I shocked the socks off my kids by driving a 4 wheeler - slowly but surely - showing them the mad driving skills of my youth! I came home with an awesome dirt covered -raccoon eyed face from all the dirt and sand!)

We swam at the Sand Bar - Sam floated the Del Rio, and we hiked Mesa Falls.  Lyv walked the entire way!  What trooper!

And the favorite....the Red-neck water slide at the Kurb's.  It was so much fun! Grandma Julianne even got in on the action. It was such a fun week, and we miss our family already.

Lyvie with her name sake - Great-Grandma Jeanne

Sam's Baptism

There are culminating moments in life that remind me how wonderful this mortal experience is.  Since Shawn chose his profession, we always marked the end of that journey with Sam turning eight and being baptized; and that seemed so far away.  Saturday, August 3, Sam was baptized and confirmed a member of the church.  He was surrounded by family that have supported and loved him since birth, and sent congratulations and love from dear friends that we've made throughout the years.  

Sam is such a wonderful young man, and has always been determined and hard working.  He continues to be such a joy in our family.  He loves the scriptures, and his favorite scripture is 1 Nephi 3:7, which he memorized.  His favorite scripture hero is Nephi because he always had the courage to choose the right.  His favorite church song is the Baptism song - "I like to look for rainbows" as Sam calls it.  He is extremely excited for cub scouts, and is trying to persuade us to get him a much needed swiss army knife.  

Before we left New York I took pictures of Sam for a baptism book and I was amazed at how "mature" he looked in his suit and tie.  Here are his favorites!

  

Shawn baptized and confirmed Sam, and gave a wonderful blessing that focused a lot on Sam understanding and using the atonement and developing a relationship with Jesus Christ.  Grandpa Hill and Grandpa Summers were the witnesses of the baptism; and Uncle Cade, Chad, Joel, Dan, Jake and Grandpas stood in the circle.  

Afterwards we had a luncheon at Grandma Julianne's and feasted on Cafe Rio Pork and Walking Tacos.  The best part of the feast was the dessert table - at Sam's request: chocolate cupcakes, fudge, and brownies!) Thank you to our families for supporting us on this great day!