Life

Drew participated in his first pinewood derby this year. He is not in scouts quite yet, but they allowed him to come and race as long as he did not win. Drew's is the orange car, Jed's is the rig! :)
He absolutely loved it. He was just running back and forth as fast as he could. Everybody better watch out for when he can race! He'll have his tricks mastered by then!

After much wiggling, Drew finally lost his top front tooth!

I tried to capture the most gorgeous winter morning on my camera, definitely didn't do it justice. Everything was pure white, but the sun was out covering everything with a warm glow.


The girls have been overly obsessed with dress-up clothes as of late.


Hannah did not want her picture taken.

I just noticed as I was looking at this published post, something caught my eye that was embarrassing. Yes, that little green and white wad to the side of Hannah is a stinky diaper. Welcome to real life.

Check out the size of those rings. Madelyn even wore her dress up clothes to town complete with peptobismal pink tights, several necklaces, bracelets galore, clip on earrings that went pretty much to her shoulders, these rings the size of ring pops, and lets not forget the dress up heels!! She loved all the compliments she received from all the strangers, just feeding the flame!!

Girls. I'm sure Lily can't wait to get in on the action.

Lily is quite mobile now. She gets pretty much anywhere she wants to. She is just starting to get the hang of full-out crawling, but has the army crawl mastered. I just love to see what catches her fancy.

Drew thoroughly enjoyed making his car. He designed, sanded, and painted it by himself.

I think working with his dad on a manly project was probably the highlight.

This little Lily is just too cute.

When no one was watching, Lily got her hands on a delicious snack.

My exhausted little girl fell asleep sitting up in her bed.

One of Lily's favorite pasttimes is pulling hair. She especially loves Drew's and her Dad's. She gets the most crazy look in her eyes, it is hilarious!! Check it out:

Lily loves to play peek-a-boo in her car seat. It is too cute.

Just a brief little update:

Lily is doing much better eating real food. She is starting to feed herself and loves that. She adores pickles. It is so fun to see her interact more and more with her brother and sisters. Lily is still as good as gold. When she cries, all of the kids run to her aid because it really is such a rare occasion.

Hannah has decided that naps should be a thing of the past, that is always a hard adjustment to make. Not for her, but for me. Hannah is still hilarious as ever. The other night we were eating breakfast for dinner. I made hashbrowns and she asked for some. She noticed there was pepper on the hashbrowns and told me she did not like pepper. I told her it would be too hard to get it off and I said that it would probably be ok. She thought about it then looked me right in the eyes and said,"Mom, I forgive you." Hannah also taught her 1st FHE. It was very cute and taught us how Jesus loves a boy (she was showing us a picture she colored in nursery) and had us sing the ABC song with her too.

Drew and Madelyn went to the dentist for the first time ever. They were scared to death! Then when we were driving home they both were asking how soon we could return. The dentist is now right up there with Disneyland!

Madelyn is reading like crazy. She loves to do math too. I'm getting kind of worried that she will be bored in kindergarten. But I guess we will jump that hurdle when we get there.

The other night I heard a pretty comical exchange from Drew and Madelyn. We had attended one of Jed's Elders Quorum bball games a couple of nights before, and I heard them talking in the kitchen:

Madelyn: Ya know, when we went to dads soccer game?

Drew: You mean football game?

I guess it is apparent we're not too into the sports thing.

Jed just spruced up our bedroom with surround sound and a new tv. It's pretty fun. He is going to be on staff for a Wood Badge training course this fall, so he attended his first training a couple of weeks ago. He gets to work with some great people and he is excited about that. They have also asked him to speak this Sunday for Scout sunday. Even though they snatched Jed up in the Elder's Quorum, he is still the scout committee chairman and he loves having his foot in the door of scouting. He loves scouting and it has rubbed off on me, as well as Drew.

Our stake invited Sister Julie B. Beck-Relief Society general president-to come and speak at the BYU-I center in Rexburg in a couple of weeks. As soon as I found that out I was SOOO excited!! She is just someone I completely admire. Then to top that off I was asked to be in the choir they are organizing for the meeting. I don't consider myself an amazing vocalist or anything, so I'm grateful that they asked! It's been wonderful and inspiring as we've practiced, to join with women and deliver a united message through song.