The terrible two's have begun....

Ryan turned 2 today and it felt like the terrible two's hit all at once. I think it was because he didn't get enough sleep last night, but he was fussy/clingy and the day was pretty rough. He got a lump on the side of his head when he walked into the side of the kitchen island. He got a small goose egg on the back of his head when he fell backwards onto the wood floor in the entry, and he face planted on the front lawn when he was chasing a ball. He LOVED his present, however....a little basketball hoop, and he had a great time blowing out the candle on his cake.

He is our youngest talker and he is very cuddly. He absolutely adores Aaron and cries whenever he leaves the room. He loves to do whatever Jordan and Maya are doing, and they're pretty patient with allowing him to play with them.

He is a sweet little boy who I couldn't love any more than I do. I just hope today was the only "terrible two's" day we'll experience with him......yeah, right! :)

Evening Bike Ride

Aaron took Jordan, Maya, and the Mason kids for a bike ride around our neighborhood. The kids LOVE to ride their bikes!

After-church photos

Sometimes we call Jordan "Air Jordan" -- short for Aaron Jordan. If he had his usual tongue-sticking-out look, this photo would really do justice to his nickname:

Our "only princess"

At our first ultrasound with this baby the doctor was quite certain it was a girl. Looking back,we should've waited to tell the kids, but we didn't. Maya was SOOO excited she would be having a little sister. Anyway, at the second ultrasound we learned the baby was actually a boy. Maya cried when we told her, but she's turned her attitude around and is excited to have the baby that "Heavenly Father wants us to have". We keep reminding her that she's our "only princess", but the kids are sure that "when" we have another one it'll be a girl. Only time will tell...

End-of-Year School Events

Maya recently graduated from preschool. She is VERY excited to start kindergarten next fall!





We also went to Jordan's 1st grade music concert. It's amazing they can keep so many kids under control for so long...it was easier for the teachers than for those of us with small children in the audience. :)

"Does anyone in your family have a big head?"

That is the question we were asked during the ultrasound at my last OBGYN appointment. If I remember correctly, the doctor said the baby was measuring at 35 weeks for his head, 36 weeks for his abdomen, and 37 weeks for his femur (leg bone). He had me do the blood glucose test AGAIN, but it still came out normal. I'm supposed to eliminate carbs and sugar as much as possible or I could deliver a 10 1/2 - 11 pound baby (no wonder the stretch marks just keep getting higher on my belly). None of my maternity clothes fit very well anymore, but I'm too cheap to buy more at this point (I'm almost 33 weeks). It's also very difficult for me to make these dietary changes because 1) I'm a very long-time addict of sugar, and 2) it's just not fair that I have to be so miserable already PLUS not be able to satisfy my late-pregnancy cravings! :) I do have to say, however, that I'm very grateful that the baby appears to be healthy. That's my venting session for now! :)

10 years, baby!

I'm late with this post, but I want Aaron to know I'm so grateful he's been officially mine for 10 years!!!

My man is 1 year older....

Aaron's birthday was on Friday, but I still want to add some of my favorite photos of him:










Happy Birthday, hon!

Lisa finally made a decision...

My baby sister (12 years younger than I am) has decided to go to the University of Washington for grad school. She'll be moving out here at the end of the summer. Her major is opera so I hope to score some free tickets and hope to get some of my friends to go with me to future performances. She probably won't be in an opera during her first year, but maybe that will change once she starts the program. If she would've gone to BYU she would've had a major scholarship, been a T.A. with her own studio, and would've been the lead in the opera next year. (No, I'm not bitter than she didn't choose my alma mater.) I guess her time at the U tainted her views of the Y. Aaron and I will be working on correcting her misguided views once she moves up here. :)

Editor's note

Kerry will not be happy with me :).

She has been wanting to change the blog background because she didn't know how - she pointed out how the collings blog looked so cool. So - I saw the template link on their site and of course ended up DELETING all of Kerry's links in the upgrade process.

So...I tried to recreate as many links as possible - but may have missed a few. If you are out there - and aren't linked - could you leave a comment so we can get you back on?

thanks! (currently sleeping on the couch, Aaron)

Jordan's Sick Note

Jordan came down with a bad cold/cough/sore throat last Sunday. This is one of the notes he wrote to enlist our help (since it hurt for him to talk):

Happy Birthday, Katie!!!

Today is Aaron's sister's birthday. She and I became fast friends when we met before Aaron's mission (she was 14 and I was 23). Our birthdays are exactly a week apart, and we had our last babies about a month and a half apart from each other. We seem to have more and more in common as the years go by. Below are a few photos of her at different stages of life:









We hope you have a wonderful birthday, Katie! Know that we love you!!!

My shiny new camera

Hello - Aaron again.
I got a great early B-day/Anniverary present from Kerry - a new DSLR camera.
I love it! - it takes spectacular photos (its defintely not the guy shooting the pictures).

Anyway - now that I am part of the DSLR club (joining the Dillon's and Kidd's and Collings) - I'd love any constructive criticism on the pictures.

Also note - we have linked an online photo album (upper right nav) where we will upload many of our pictures.

It is amazing the quality of photo a good camera can make...I can't believe we waited this long. Enjoy the new pics! (the soccer slide show below was done on the new camera).

BTW - its an Olympus Evolt 510. (sorry all you cannon and nikon lovers :)).

SOCCER!!!

Here are a few shots of the kids at their soccer games on a Saturday that was actually SUNNY:

Felíz cumpleaños, Papá! You're freaking 70 years old!!!

Such a cute little boy!



Such a cute older boy!



Most people have known you as this stern guy who was always wearing a suit.....



....but I know how funny you really are AND that you're the only person I know who wore pantyhose on your head when you went to bed at night in order to keep your hair flat the next day. By the way, thanks for killing that mouse (you're holding in the picture) that scared the freak out of me at the cabin that one time. :)



I'm so grateful for the appreciation you've given me of the mountains, as well as the joy I feel when I spot a deer or elk.



You've always been so supportive of me, and I can't remember one time you were critical of me.





I'm glad you're always willing to share your love for me and that you remind me that I'm you're "treasure".



TE QUIERO!!!

The pencil doesn't lie.....

At a girls' night out a while ago a few of us used the pencil method http://home.earthlink.net/~sproutanderson/id6.html to see how many children we would have (or have had) and the gender of each. It was just for fun....don't worry, we didn't start playing "light as a feather" or anything like that. Anyway, my little "test" went in this order: boy, girl, boy, boy....then maybe another girl. The first three were correct because that's what I have so far (boy, girl, boy), but I wasn't even pregnant yet with the fourth one. Anyway, during the 12th week of pregnancy with this fourth child the ultrasound guy told us he was really confident we would be having a girl, which reminded me of the pencil predictor thing and just made me laugh (I was supposed to have another boy). Then at the 20-week ultrasound, the same doctor informed us that the baby had "grown a p----", and he snapped the picture below capturing the "proof". Anyway, I have no idea if this gender predictor method has any validity, but in my case the pencil didn't lie. :)



The picture below is of the baby's face. It was our first 3-D ultrasound. The little guy wouldn't hold still so the picture is a little freaky: