School's out!

Since there is no way I'm going to be able to fill in everything that's happened since the last post, I'll just write some highlights. Since January, Gwen turned six, lost two teeth, got another award at school, and finished kindergarten! Today was her graduation. I know, kindergarten graduation is kind of silly, but it was fun to see her so excited. She got the principal's award for all A's. But what I was most impressed with was the Tom Flores Award. I her school district they give out character trait awards for trust, family,caring, respect,and responsibility. The Tom Flores award is given to those who demonstrate all these characteristics. I am sorry if it sounds like I'm bragging, but I noticed something interesting about ALL the students who received this award. They were all involved in some type of church community. Just goes to show you not everything can be taught in the schools.


Here is her first day of kindergarten.



And this is the last day of Kindergarten. I was happy she let me comb her hair!



Getting her award. She does not like all the attention.


This is after she lost her second tooth.



Now for Ethan. He has become a great older brother and makes us laugh all the time. I have a feeling he will be the class clown and take great pride in that roll. He just finished his first year of preschool and will have to endure Mom teaching him a lot more next year. A friend and I are going to be doing a small preschool out of our home next year. Hopefully Ethan will benefit from it. Right now I'd be happy if he would just sit still and listen. Like I said, he is a great brother and a wonderful help to me. He's always throwing away dirty diapers for me, getting Jaspers bottle ready, finding the binki, and countless other things to make Jasper happy.

He love to give hugs and kisses (or has he calls them "buggles") to everyone


Even when Jasper is just laying on the floor Ethan makes sure is doesn't get lonely.


Yes, I know Ethan has no pants. I'm just happy the potty training battle is over. I need a rest before I can take on the staying dressed battle.
These two love playing cars together.


And finally Jasper. He is growing up too fast, like all babies do. I'm glad he's still so little for his age. I'll get to have a "baby" for even longer! He loves his brother and sister and smiles every time he sees them. Gwen can get him laughing so hard! I love baby laughs! He keeps everyone well entertained at church. And I don't just mean our family. He's about ready to crawl and our poor dog can sense it. There will be no more moving out of baby's reach for poor Scratch.

Notice how he can roll his tong!


First trip to the zoo.


He got all tuckered out.



I love this picture! We have a picture of my dad has a baby with this hair style, little overalls and a huge smile. I reminded me of that.

Happy Holidays!

Since it's been so long since I did an update, we will include Halloween into the "Happy Holidays." A lot has happened in these last few months of the decade. Gwen played soccer (the girl running in the picture) and had a good time doing so, she's doing great in school and got an award for math, and she mastered writing her last name in one day. That may not seem like much to get excited about, but just remember it's a very long name!

Ethan is now a Sunbeam!(name of class in church) He is sticking to his guns on the potty training issue. One of these days I'll appreciate his strong will and stubbornness. We have no idea were that came from. One of my friends is teaching a small group of kids a preschool class and he seams to like it. It helps out that this friend has a little girl he really likes. They are cute together.

Jasper is growing fast and is actually laughing now. We do have to put a little mask on him to give asthma medication, but we haven't had to do that for about a week now. He was having a reoccurring cough and the chest x-ray showed what could be problems related to asthma. It seems to have cleared up though so hopefully it was just a bad cough. We go back to the doctor in a few weeks, so we'll know more then. He gets plenty of hugs and kisses from his sister and brother. I love watching them together.

Has you can see from these pictures Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas went well for us and I hope they were great for you too.

More pictures of Jasper

Here are the pictures we had done in the hospital the day we brought Jasper home. He is doing all the things a newborn does (eat, sleep, eat some more...) and growing fast. We had a doctors appointment today and he is already up to 6 pounds and measuring 18 inches! Since he was 4 lbs 9 oz and about 17 inches at birth, I'd say he is growing fast.

Jasper is home!!

The day after I got home we were back at the hospital to get our little boy! It's great to have him home. Ken's parents and my dad were here to welcome him and help us out. Jasper has already filled our home with love and laughter. Gwen won't leave him alone and Ethan grabs him like he's a Christmas present that needs to be unwrapped. We are trying to teach him what "gently" means.

Gwen and Ethan are growing up

Gwen started kindergarten and Ethan turned three this last month! It was a busy one and we loved every minute of it!

Welcome Jasper

Jasper Alan was born August 29! He was early and very small, 4 lbs 9 oz and 16 inch. Hopefully he will be home soon. It wasn't fun leaving him there in the hospital, but he is in good hands and we can go visit him any time. Here are some pictures. We will keep you updated and let you know when he is home with us!

Family Reunion

Every other year my family gets together for a reunion. This year we went to Bear Lake Utah. It was wonderful! Even though it rained a lot, we still had a good time. My sister-in-law planed out this great birthday party for all the kids. Since they all live so far apart, they don't get to celebrate birthdays with cousins, so we had one big party and exchanged gifts. She did an amazing job planning it all out.



















After leaving Bear Lake, we got to go to Logan where two of my nieces were baptized. It was great to see all my family and we even got to spend time with Ken's family too since they live in Utah.
















We even got to go to the open house of the Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temple the day before coming home on Monday. It is beautiful!! The Angle Moroni on top of the temple was struck by lightning Sunday night, so we got some very unusual pictures while we were there.







Ethan was still in his cast but that didn't stop him from joining in on the fun. He got it off the day after we got back. Just in time for us to go to the NASCAR race. He was walking and running all over the same day, making Mom very nervous. I keep hearing these stories of kids re-breaking their bones days after the cast comes off. If it does happen, at least he got one good bath in!

Gwen is loving the freedom of summer and has turned into a very social butterfly. For those of you who knew her even just a year ago, you know how amazing that is. Her life is all about friends now. It was very hard for her to leave her cousins, but she has good friends here too.