Happy Birthday Faith and Sawyer!!

Yesterday Faith and Sawyer turned 10 and 8. It truly is hard for me to believe that 10 years ago I gave birth to my first baby. We did not find out if Faith was going to be a boy or girl beforehand. I was convinced my whole pregnancy that I was having a boy. I was SO HAPPY when it turned out to be a girl!! Since I didn't have a sister, I really felt I needed a daughter. I knew the moment they said she was a girl that I would have a lunch/shopping partner for life!! Faith is an amazing daughter. She is changing so much. In this last year she has really come out of her shell. Although still reserved, I do see her break out every once in a while-especially in the company of her friends. Sometimes I can't believe what a goofball she can be and what a great sense of humor she actually has-it has been hiding. She is very studious and a total rule follower (I pray she will always be this way). She is an amazing big sister to Beckett-like a 2nd mother and is usually pretty good with Sawyer and Eden (she tends to be pretty bossy to them). She now loves to wear t-shirts that have environmental friendly symbols on them and loves clothing, bags and accessories with the "Peace" sign on them. She is my little tree-hugger. She loves her cell phone and her friends. She got a digital camera for her b-day.

Sawyer is very much a daddy's boy and loves or tries to love everything that Kyle does. This mostly includes video games. I think he will be Kyle's boating/fishing companion this summer. He was an adorable laid back baby. He didn't walk until he was 17 1/2 months old. He was also VERY CHUNKY as a baby. He is definately my most social child (like mom). He will talk to anyone and it is very important to him to have friends (hmm that sounds familiar). He also can't keep a dime in his pocket (that sounds familiar too). He loves kickball and playing the guitar on Rockband. He also loves to sing "Eye of the Tiger" and "Wanted Dead or Alive." He is great at math but is not a fan of writing. He is an amazing big brother to Beckett. He and Eden are either BEST friends or worst enemies and constantly tolerates Faith bossing him around. He is currently in love with a girl named "Molly" in his class at school. He loves to be good when it involves a reward. Now that he is "8" he will be baptized. I will post about that later. He got Lego Indiana Jones for X-box and a big Lego Star Wars set for his b-day.

Here are some photos of the two together when they were little!! I took a photo of the photos which is why the color isn't very good. They are such amazing blessings to our lives.

Birthday Party's

Faith and Sawyer both have birthday's on the 27th so we celebrated by having a joint bowling party. I have been able to talk them both into having their parties together every year but I think this year might be the last. Faith is also having a slumber party on Friday and I am trying to prepare myself mentally and physically for it. There will be 6 girls including Faith. They are all friends from school. This is a first. She has only had one friend at a time ever spend the night. Kyle is working his butt off in the basement this week to get it done in time for the party. We have wood/ceramic tile people coming tomorrow, trim and door people tomorrow and carpet on Friday. Kyle is painting. We won't have the bathroom or kitchenette done yet but all we need are some rooms to put the girls. I will definitely post after the slumber party-if I survive!!

So, the bowling party was crazy but fun. For Sawyer, there were 10 boys including him and I think 11 (maybe 12 girls) including Faith. The kids got some great gifts
and had fun with their friends. The boys were just plain wild and all over the place. The girls were wild too but they stay seated while wild-their mouths just don't stop moving-the boys bodies don't stop moving. It was all over in 2 hours. Whew!! There will be NO group sleepover for the boys for A VERY LONG TIME!!

Here are a few photos of Faith and Sawyer-I'm not comfortable putting photos on of their friends because I don't really know some of the parents very well and don't know how they would feel about it. The picture of Faith in pink is some of her new stuff she got from friends (her friends are already buying her clothes!!) I will post more about them individually later. I love them both so much!! I can't believe they will be 10 and 8. It seems like yesterday they were babies!!

The Day Has Finally Come........

#1 High School Musical 3 is out on DVD!!! Eden has been waiting months for this. As soon as they started advertising the release date she has been harassing me. I couldn't even wait until Easter to give it to her-it was just too important. Who can blame her-right??? She watched it 3 times today.

#2 Sawyer can finally do "armpit farts". What a proud and exciting day for us all. Yes, he has been trying to master armpit farting since we lived in England and our English friend, Jacob, introduced him to it. I can't even tell you how proud he is of himself. Oh, little boys!! I have to mention that Sawyer is mastering "easy" on guitar for Rockband. I am honestly proud of him for this-he has been working so hard on it. I guess letting him play video games (and also taking piano lessons) has helped him on this one.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I love Valentine's Day! I don't think anyone can deny that the "idea" of Valentine's Day is a good one. My kids were thrilled to hand out and receive Valentine's this year. We missed this 2 years in a row in England although they hand out Christmas cards to their classmates there. Actually, Sawyer and Eden were a bit confused by it at first but had so much fun writing them out and then going through them when they got home from school. I got to go in for Faith and Sawyer's party at school. I provided juice boxes for both class parties. That is the most I can do. At the beginning of the school year when they post the sheet for volunteers for the craft, game, food, drink etc... I will knock people over to bring the juice boxes. It is no secret that I am creatively a bit on the retarded side. I really am okay with it after 35 years of life so now I just contribute where I can. Back to the Valentines. It is like Halloween all over again. It is rarely just the simple little paper Valentine-now there is candy with every Valentine. Faith picked out a generic themed Valentine with Pixie Sticks. She read every box of Valentines very carefully in Target so that she wouldn't give any boy the "wrong idea" with the messages. Eden picked High School Musical with suckers and Sawyer handed out Superhero Valentine's with suckers. Sawyer didn't even care to pick his out-I did it. My parents came over yesterday so that I didn't have to take Eden or Bex to the school. They then stayed so that Kyle and I could go out to eat with just each other. It was very nice. I can't fail to mention the Chili Cook off/Dance at church. Good fun! So, here I sit on Valentine's Day at the computer. Faith is off at a movie with a friend, Bex is playing, Sawyer is playing X-box, Eden is making Valentine's for both her grandmas and Kyle just finished working in the basement. Kyle got me a nice gift card for the Gap, a large box of Fanny May Trinidads (my favorite) and a funny card-he always comes through even though he ran out this morning to get it all. I only got him a card but he doesn't care. It's just about those we love and care about. I have MANY people in my life that I love and care about.

Winter Blaaaaaaaaaaaaah's

So, this has been a VERY cold winter-cold with lots of snow!! I swore I would never complain about the weather here ever again after living in England where the perpetual spring drove me nuts. So, I am NOT complaining. Well, today it is 65 degrees-of course it is very windy but hey, I'm not complaining. Kyle had stuff he needed to get done today so the kids and I headed out for some errands. We went to Sam's Club to get a few things. We decided to eat lunch there. A hot dog and drink is $1.70 and they have those huge icees for $.50. On Saturday they always have a lot of samples and my kids love that-especially Sawyer. I think Sam's is one of Sawyer's favorite places to go-due to the samples. The kids didn't even wear coats. I put Bex in a light weight sweatshirt and it was so nice getting him in and out of his carseat. Eden thinks it is "summer" now but I had to break it to the kids that it is temporary. I am sure there is more snow and a good two months left of cold weather. Beckett is growing out of his clothes so I got him two new pairs of jeans and will be doing the long-sleeved t-shirt under short-sleeved shirts to get by. I took Bex to the Dr. on Monday for his 1 year well visit. He weighs 24 lbs. He is 65th percentile for heighth and weight. He is our thinnest baby-seriously. On Wed. he came down with a fever and nasty runny nose. He is doing better today although he is not 100% yet. He has been VERY whiney and clingy!! We all know how men are when they get sick-if this is any indication of how he will be then I feel VERY sorry for his wife someday. The other three kids are managing to stay healthy and have had a great time playing outside today. I took Bex out and the first thing he headed for was the street and then he fell in a puddle. We came inside after that. My hands will be full this summer but at least it will be a workout, which I need. Kyle is working on the basement right now. He thougt it would be done by the Super Bowl-yeah, that didn't happen so we are shooting for the end of the month-we will see.

Picture of the Day

I know many of you know that our family's new obsession is Rockband so I had to post this picture of Beckett holding the guitar. He loves to dance while the rest of the family plays but eventually likes to start touching all the instruments and pressing buttons he isn't supposed to press.