What does life look like when you are the youngest of three children and a baby? For poor Cameron everyday is an adventure and often you end up with some awesome outfits thanks to Julia and Luke. Cameron is always such a good sport about his siblings tricks and such a happy baby! Here are some latest pictures of his latest outfits.

Tomorrow is a big day in our house: May 1st! Julia has been counting down the days to her birthday since the beginning of April and tomorrow marks the monumental start of her "birthday month" as she told me yesterday. I'm a little bit afraid of what a birthday month entails. I'm sure lots of "I go first, since it is my birthday month" or "I should get an extra scoop of ice cream since it is my birthday month". But look at this picture of Julia, how can you just not be excited for her!

I thought I would also show off one of my latest craft creations. I have a million ideas and craft projects started and most of them unfinished but I decided to stick this one out to the end. It only took 3 trips to the fabric store with all 3 kids, a super messy house, an oil change for the car, and I think double the price if I had just bought a wreath. Anyways- here is the final out come of the craft project and the house!

Luke came home from Sunbeams singing this song and we couldn't stop laughing. Don't you love the "I am thankful for fish" lessons!

Better pictures!

So.. if you want to see some more fun pictures of Luke & Julia head over to Hayley's blog at www.thenewlywedpingrees.blogspot.com and click on her March 8th post. Hayley does a much better job of taking pictures at family outings. Me.. not so much. I am always in such a scramble to get all 5 of us out the door that I aways forget my camera.

2012 Update- Julia Kindergarten (5yrs old), Luke preschool (4yrs old), Cameron momschool (5 months old)

Julia's daily routine- wakes up, takes 45 mins to get her clothes on for kindergarten, goes to kindergarten and pails around with her best friend Emma T., comes bursting into the door from school and her backpack explodes in the front room, eats lunch while singing and dancing, reads her take home reading book to Cameron, gets hurts because she is a little bit clumsy while trying to do gymnastic moves, runs outside to ride her scooter and bike, gives her Dad a huge hug when he gets home, tells a million knock knock jokes at dinner, gets ready for bed, trys a million excuses to not go to bed, finally falls alseep. We love her!!!!!!

Luke showing off some awesome preschool crafts from Thanksgiving! Who knew our spirited Luke could be a preschool poster child for perfect behavior. Only if everyday was preschool! Maybe its the hats!

Baby Cameron is a happy 5 month old who loves to blow bubbles, giggle, and try to keep up with Luke & Julia. He also started eating solids and likes anything orange and dislikes anything green!

More pictures!

6th Month Update

As you can tell blogging is not my biggest talent. So here is an update from our family over the last 6th months! Check out the slide show for new pictures. Captions can be seen by rolling your mouse over the picture.

Winter:

- We took the kids skiing 4 times this winter and Julia loved it. Luke- not so much! Julia improved so much that she could even go on the chair lift this winter.

-Mike had to travel to Italy in November for work and I joined him for a week vacation at the end of his work assignment. We celebrated my birthday and an early 10th year wedding anniversary. We had an amazing time and I fell in love with Mike all over again!

-We zoomed over the holidays, spent all of January and February sick (all of us) and were finally healthy to go on a Disney Cruise to the Mexican Riveria with Grammie & Papa and the 2 great grandmas the first week of March.

- Just 6 weeks after the Disney Cruise we took Luke & Julia to Hawaii for a week in April.

Admist all the traveling Luke turn 3 yrs old in January and Julia turned 5yrs old in May. Both of them did gymnastics and Itty-bitty baseball in spring. We signed Julia up for Kindergarten in February and Luke up for his 1st year of preschool and I cried at both events! We also found out some exciting news this spring that I am expecting and the newest member of our family will join us the 1st week in October. We are all excited!

However, with everything going on this past winter and spring we still found time to just enjoy being together as a family. Mike and I are grateful for the opportunity we have to be parents. We feel extremely blessed that we have 2 healthy and active children- did you notice I did not add "normal" in that sentence. We also feel extremely blessed for Mike's talents and job. The greatest compliment I can give Mike is no matter what type of day he has at work he always comes home happy to see me and the kids.

Enjoy your summer!!

Summer & Fall Updates

Here is a quick run down of the past few months:

-Had a great summer attending Hayley's wedding in NY, camping on Martha's Vineyard, and camping up in American Fork Canyon. We can say that we vacationed where President Obama vacations (Martha's Vineyard), but I doubt he visited the luxorious Martha Vineyard Family Campground. The kids loved the camping and Luke would roll over every morning and first things ask Mike, "Dad, when are we going to the beach?".

- Julia participated in a 4 year old soccer league and loved it. We were a little bit surprised on how aggressive she could be. We had to have a few talks about letting other members of her team have a chance in kicking the ball. But it was sure fun to see her race up and down the field every Saturday.

- Luke succeeded at potty training with bribes of new hotwheel cars and tell him that if he wanted to do itty-bitty basketball this winter he had to be 3 yrs old and potty trained! Worked like a charm!

- Julia was a fiftys girl for Halloween and Luke was a cowboy. Julia called her Halloween costume her poodle princess costume, since she had no idea what a fiftys girl was. Mike was a ghost buster and Les was a skeleton.

Here are a few pics:

Kids love slimy fish- not Mom though!

This past week I spent Monday- Friday at a Continuing Education class at BYU to earn some college credit towards my re-certification in school counseling. So....we have no new pictures. Thought you would just like this one from our last camping trip. Mike is one of the best teachers around. He would never admit it, but he super patient when it comes to teaching our children- guess who will be the one to teach our kids how to drive! He is also really good at thinking of new things to teach them. Here is a picture of Mike teaching our kids to fish.

Next week I will post some new pictures of us at Cowabunga Bay water park and our new tile backsplash in out kitchen.

4 yr olds & Friends

It seemed like the day Julia turned 4 yrs old all she wanted to do was play with friends. I swear even on her birthday she woke up asking if she could have a friend come over. When we went camping in May she scouted out this little girl who looked about her same age, went straight up to her, asked the little girl to play, and they were instant friends for the rest of the weekend. She is social, sweet, good at sharing, creative, and full of energy- who wouldn't want to be her friend. But, she is my daughter- so I always think she is amazing. Anyways here is a picture of Julia and our neighbor friend Taylen. Taylen has a little sister who was born the day before Luke and they are crazy together. When you ask Julia who her best friend it is always different, but I think if she really understood what a best friend is she would say her brother. Julia and Luke are usually inseparable. They wake up asking for one another, Luke always does what Julia does, and Julia is usually the only one who can understand and make Luke happy. They run around all day being mischievous together. I hope their relationship always stays this way for them, but for right now I feel so blessed to see their little relationship blossom!

A break from posting

It has been a while since I have last posted anything on our blog. I would like to say it is because we were traveling around the world, or remodeling our house, or having more babies, or being super-mom- but in all honesty it was a chosen break. Yes- I was busy being a Mom to 2 toddlers, being a wife to a husband who works long hours and gets to travel around the world for work, and fulfilling my church calling. However, in no way was I busier than most of you. It was a chosen break for my own personal sanity. Have you ever noticed that no one posts on their blogs all the awful things their kids do, all of their horrible pictures, how much weight they have gained over the past few months versus how much they have lost, what their house looks like on a daily basis, or the mistakes they make on a daily basis. Back in the fall I would spend a hour or so a day looking at blogs everyday and what I noticed is that after I was done seeing all the amazing things people were doing, I felt horrible about my life. I was crabbier with my kids, frustrated that we weren't taking amazing vacations like all of my other friends, frustrated that I hadn't lost all of my baby weight with Luke, or had any big announcments. A good friend of mine from NY wrote this on her blog "Sometimes it seems hard to know who we are to the world, who we are to others, what whey see when they look at us, and what they think when they think about us. And so we use the people in our lives as mirrow for ourselves." (Thanks Tracy- you are always inspiring!) This is what I realized- I was using other people's blogs as a mirror and standard for my own life.

I do have an amazing life, husband, and kids- please don't think I take these things for granted but maybe you would have to live in Utah to understand how I am feeling. Utah has a culture of always being better than your neighbor-looks, possession, you name it. Since I didn't grow up in Utah this lifestyle of overstating all your accomplishments is sometimes a bit to take. So.... I decided that I would try blogging again- thanks to much nudging by the Grandmas. But I have limits- twice a week for 20 minutes (and this includes facebook!). My children need a happy Mom who is not does not spend her life sitting in front of a computer or constantly hooked up to the internet.

So....Here are some current pictures of the kids and a list of what has been going on:

- Luke turned 2 at the end of January

-Julia turn 4 in May

-Julia finished her first year of preschool
-Julia had her gymnastics graduation

- Mike had his birthday in May too!

- Julia had no cavities at the dentist

-We went camping at Palisades State park and had lots of fun hiking, fishing, swimming, canoeing, riding bikes

-Took a family vacation with an old mission companion of Mike's and his family to Lav Vegas in April

- Mike visited Singapore at the end of January and brought back lots of fun stuff for the kids.

-Helped my sister Hayley moved out of the BYU dorms and are excited to travel back to NY this summer for her wedding!!

Picky Palate

Check out this cool giveaway: http://picky-palate.com/2009/11/26/magical-santa-letters-giveaway/. Wouldn't Julia and Luke love this!!

September

At the end of September we headed to Hilton Head South Carolina with Grammy and Papa. We spent a week swimming in the ocean, riding bikes, playing tennis, and even some outlet mall shopping. Luke and Julia were addicts of the beach!

Sometimes it is so fun to get together with friends you met years and years ago. It is fun to see how their family has grown and yours too at the same time. At the beginning of Sept. we had the opportunity to head up to a ranch in Wyoming with our now Idaho Potato Farmer friends. We had a great time 4-wheeler, fishing, playing in the mud, and building campfires. We wore the kids out so much that for the 1st time they slept in the car on our way home.

Where did we go?

It seems lately that I haven't made my blog or really anything on the computer my priority. This is probably evident since my last entry was June 30th and it is currently Oct. 20th. So for the next few days check out some pictures from the last few months:

July:

Mike and I took a extended weekend trip up to Park City without the kids. Went hiking, golfing, and even hit the outlet malls. It was great to get some us time and some good amount of sleep. Especially since I came home and got bronchiotis the following week.

August:
-Flew back to NY with the kids to spend 2 weeks with my family.

-Luke started the Little Gym during Julia's preschool class one day a week. Luke loves the little gym and it is fun for me and him to have some one-on-one time together. Luke has a great time, running around, kicking balls, playing on the mats, and jumping off everything high thing possible. The comment I heard the most on his first day was, "Wow, your little boy has an amazing ability to kick a ball". My only reply, "Yep! Such a blessing when he decides to practice his kicking and throwing of balls in our house"

-Julia started preschool- We considered preschool a success, especially since when I picked Julia up from preschool on the first day, I asked her how it was and she shouted at the top of her lungs "Mom, we got to use glue!". My reaction- preschool is worth every piece of money, because glue, my house, and a patient mother don't mix well at my house.

"I don't want to go home!"

Julia wanted me to post some pictures of her in her new gymnastics class. She takes the 3 yr old gymnastics class at our local community center and loves it. At the end of her first gymnastics class she started to cry and I thought, "Oh no, she hated it". But no, no, no- she was crying because she didn't want to go home.