Happy Birthday Kirk!

You know you are over 40 when you don't make a big deal about it. A few more years and he will be looking like Santa Claus.  We were getting in as much time together before it was time for him to leave for 3 weeks. I could have never imagined what our little family was to look like when we met. He was drinking an orange soda, which is Victoria's favorite soda when I actually let her have it. I can't imagine life without this crazy insane bunch of people. Kaleb is constantly reminding me the very traits that I fell in love with his dad. His wierd, crazy dad who acts goofy the more he would get tired. Just like Kaleb. It is fun to watch each of their personalities unfold. Even Kirk's. I can see that God is constantly molding us. I guess it would be better to be constantly growing and changing rather than be stuck in our ways.

Happy 17th!

This fun loving, robust little baby is now 17!

Funny,

He still gets energetic at 10 pm, making him a night owl,

those were the very red socks that tainted an entire load of white clothes.

 

I can still count on him helping and being responsible,

though he doesn't carry around a sippy cup full of milk 

and wear only a diaper and a tank top.

We always knew that he would need a trip to the emergency room before his third birthday....and then once again before his fourth. We waited 5 hours for the plastic surgeon to stitch 13 stitches into his upper lip. And then another 7 in his chin.

He still enjoys a good hike.

He loves to hike out front. I think it is more that he doesn't have any

patience to hike behind the rest of us.

I love my boy.

I never knew what it would be like to be looking up to my little boy.

 This is living proof that Jared really was once shorter than Daphne.

A handsome guy with a huge smile.

Happy Birthday Jared!

Our friends the Summits put together a fantastic surprise party for Jared.
The teens from Star Academy (our homeschool co-op) had a great time. 
The kids really enjoy being together.
Even Victoria got a chance to hang out with her friends that night.



16????

 Happy Birthday Jared!

I love this picture of my boys.

This reflects who they were and pretty much

who they still are.

You can see it in this picture of how much Kaleb looks up to his big brother.

I remember that it was really windy at the beach that day and a little chilly.
I can almost hear the waves crashing and smell the air.

I think Kaleb was holding onto Jared to keep from blowing away.
His pillar of strength. His hero.

My boys have a bond that comes naturally.
Jared has had many lessons in living up to that big brother role that
Kaleb has put him in.  He had no choice but has received the privelage gracefully.
Well, sometimes.

Our handsome Jared is 16, taller than both his parents
(which says a lot for both Kirk and I being 6 foot)
and ready to drive.

He already knows how to drive us all crazy, especially his littlest sister.

So I guess he could try his hand at driving a vehicle.

After much debate, Jared chose cheesecake for his cake of choice.

If you know Jared then you know how painful it is to make a decision.

Once we got the "cheesecake" part down, he had to decide

which kind.

That was painful too.  For me.......that is.

He finally decided on Turtle Cheesecake.

Then Victoria became very worried. 

She became concerned that turtles would be harmed in the process.

I assure you that no turtles were harmed,

just pecans, caramel, chocolate and lots of cream cheese.

Happy Birthday Kaleb!

The Apple Boy is 12!

Usually Kaleb will choose an apple over cake, ice cream, cookies.....

you name it.

But today is special.

Kaleb chose a lemonade cake from

here for his birthday cake this year.

It was a monster of a cake with twelve flaming curly cue candles.

The cream cheese frosting toned down the zip of the lemons just right.

We never do school on Birthdays.  Just one of the many perks to Homeschooling.

We went ice skating with our new Homeschool group.

We actually know people now and are making friends pretty quick.

We watched a movie watched it rain AND snow.

I love the weather here.

 This kid has some long legs and a skinny waist. 

He does own one pair of pants that are a 32 inch length.

I always ask him if his ankles are cold and he says "no".

Atleast we know that his pants won't always look like this.  It drives me crazy though.

I make him change if we are to be seen in public.

It doesn't seem to bother him.

You should see his PJ's.

Girl's Birthday

Just 4 days after we moved to Logan, we celebrated Victoria's 7th birthday

and just 5 days after that we celebrated Daphne's 19th birthday.

Between unpacking and trying desperately to find some sort of normalcy, whatever that is, we drove into Logan Canyon to catch a final glimpse of the Fall colors.

It felt like being in Wonderland.

It was beautiful. 

That night we had heard that there was a Pumpkin Walk just East of where we are living and it started that night.  AND.....it's free.

Yeah, what the heck, lets go.  It's free.  Probably cute for the kids.  The little one.  Yeah, we can do that.

We had heard that there was a place to park and that they shuttle you up in buses. 

Okay.  We all pile into the van in the dark.  Victoria is preparing for a drive so she grabs her brand new pillow pet!

We barely drive around the corner from our house and we see people parking in the school parking lot and a bus with people lined up to get in.

Okay, so we laugh at that one that the whole even takes place just walking distance from our house.

So we take the van back to the house and walk to the corner and board a bus.

Daphne thought it was fun to ride on a public bus and wanted our friend Suzan to know that we did it.  She's from Jersey.  (I think that is supposed to explain it all).

We get there and there is this huge line with tons of families standing in the cold waiting to see this

Pumpkin Walk.

We are still not quite sure what it is all about, but we are at the park, people watching.....

We couldn't believe our eyes.

These aren't just pumpkins.

The theme was My Favorite Things, and the artists who were just families, schools, individuals, amateurs and professionals created these scenes using pumpkins of all shapes and sizes. 

They were so unbelieveably realistic. 

We had a blast and enjoyed every minute of it.

I think Calvin and Hobbes was our favorite. 

Especially the snowman scene.

 The back drops were really well painted.

It was so nice to see quality work. 

Yeah, you could make the statement that these people have way too much time on their hands.  But, I think it is more that these people who participated are very creative and talented people who had an idea and went with it.

Hmmm.  Sounds like my family.

 There was this one scene of Gilligans Island.

The faces were amazing.

Here's the Skipper.

 I love this last picture.

It is really a blackmail picture for Jared.

I talked him into it.  He didn't want to.  I had to wait for him to FINALLY put his head up to the HOLE!

He wasn't cooperating.

I love it still.  I think it fits their personalities very well.



Happy birthday Jared!

Jared is 15!!!

I love this picture of him.

It is hard sometimes to catch him

genuinely smiling.

I love it!

He is a really great kid. He is growing into a really nice young man. I can't wait to see who he becomes. When he was little his favorite thing to say was

"God don't make junk".

His favorite song that he would sing over and over again was... "stand on the rock, for the word of God" and he would stomp his foot down on the ground like he was stomping a rock.

He would laugh hysterically over a

"blue footed booby".

It just struck him funny and would end up making all of us laugh with him.

When he was a toddler in the church nursery he would step on the crawling babies backs and push them to the ground like little bugs to watch them get back up on all fours to crawl again. ( I didn't know about that one for quite a while. ) He pretty much made us unwelcome in a Mommy's group because he loved to make dirt clouds by scuffing his feet. I guess the other Mothers didn't like that their children getting dirty. I couldn't make him stop. He was deeply facinated by the rising dust in the air. I learned to tolerate dirt. Now he is a clean, responsible, dependable guy who people enjoy being around. He doesn't have a dust cloud hanging around him anymore but if something is going to fall off the counter or break I can guarantee you that he is pretty close by with that look of "how the heck did that happen...I wasn't even near it!"

Happy Birthday Kaleb!

Kaleb is 11 in the year 2011! How cool is that?! I remember being pregnant with him and people attempting to freak me out with the Y2K scare saying that I could be giving birth in the dark with no electricity. Obviously that didn't happen and we had a beautiful little boy. Well, he put in his order for a dragon cake that he saw on the Family Fun website. I had to work the day before so his big sister baked the cake for me to shape and frost. It turned out to be a really cute cake for a very special boy.

This could very well be THE only picture with Kaleb with his eyes open! Anytime anyone has tried to take his picture they always try to get him to smile with his eyes open. We never tried because from the time he was a tiny baby, his eyes squinted into cresent moons when he smiled or laughed.

This is the big sister tormenting her little brother. Those two are like oil and water in public. I know different. Behind the curtain of life they love eachother and are very much alike. They can't fool their Mama. Happy Birthday my smiley boy. Kaleb is as sweet as they get.

Birthday Girls

6+18= many white hairs!Kirk's white hairs that is...

Kirk's beard is showing much wear and tear from these girls. I could count the ways but it is their birthday after all. We celebrate them together being that their birthdays are five days apart...Oct 20th for Victoria and Oct. 25th for Daphne. We tried celebrating their birthdays separate and decided that it was just too much cake. So we made a special tiered cake this year that the girls decorated themselves. I think it was more special that way then me coming up with a fancy cake. They enjoy baking together.I turned around in time to see Sammy eyeballing the pretzel sticks. He was really trying hard to see if his tongue could reach one. When it didn't he decided to lick the counter in case there was some tiny crumb lying beside it. Then Henry comes up and it looked like Sammy was watching to see if Henry could reach one. HA...can't! Better luck next time buddy! I know just how long those tongues can reach. I have learned my lesson with an entire plate of banana bread. All food products need to be a tongues distance away.

What is a birthday without the cat licking the cake or the dogs trying to reach a treat.