Dr. Andrea

My Dad took a big spill in his race on Saturday and is scraped up pretty bad from his knees to his toes. When I told the girls that Grandpa crashed on his bike and got hurt Andrea was very insistent that she needed to go to Grandpa's house. She keeps telling me she needs to go to Grandpa's to take care of him and be his doctor. Plus, then she says Grandpa can make her pancakes every morning! My kids LOVE Grandpa Fred's pancakes...they really are the best.
Grandpa better get ready because Dr Andrea is coming to take care of him!!!

Our Trip to Utah

We just returned from a week long adventure in Utah! We LOVE to go to Utah and HATE coming back to Vegas after our trips. It makes us all really homesick when we leave Utah...one day we won't have to leave (hopefully)!! My sisters and I have been planning this trip for a couple months so it was lots of fun to finally be together. The kids all had so much fun with each other. We had the occasional fights but they played really good together. We had a really busy week but it was lots of fun. Here are a couple highlights from our trip:

Thursday we went to the local children's museum. It was CRAZY!! It was really crowded and Sammy and Andrea were a little cranky. They really liked doing the different things at the museum but it was really stressful for me because they kept crying!!

This is the life-size horse they had at the museum. I think this is the only kind of horse my kids will ever get on!!

All the kids loved the blocks!!

Andrea, Sammy, and Isaac playing a big xylophone.

The highlight of the week happened on Monday when my mom took all eight grandkids to Build-a-Bear. They LOVED it!! It was so much fun to watch them all pick out animals and clothes. Sammy and McKinley picked a pink unicorn (Michelle and I tried to talk them out of it but they both really loved the unicorn), Andrea got a spotted leopard (she thinks it is a cat), Josh got a monkey, Isaac got a panda, Joey got a dog, and Denali and Anna got lambs. The kids have all played with their animals all week so it was good for them to have similar toys they could play with together! I had my camera with me the whole time but totally spaced getting any pictures until we left!!

Outside Build-a-Bear with the animals!

Here is a picture of all eight grandkids. In the last year we have gone from 5 to 8!! It is fun to have kids all the same ages. They love to play together. We really wished that we lived closer so we could play more. Andrea loved being with Grandpa this trip! She is excited to go back in July and stay at his house so we can actually see him this time. We stayed at my sister Heather's house and the girls loved being with Isaac and Joey. It was fun to spend a little more time with Heather and her kids this time.

I was a little worried during this trip about my weight loss. I didn't exercise the whole week we were gone because I had a hard time getting all three kids to bed every night and was exhausted the whole time. I weighed myself when we got home and it looks like I stayed about the same. I think this is amazing considering I ate a pound of licorice on the way home to try to stay awake!! I am really looking forward to a good night's rest in my own bed tonight!

I must say that I have a love-hate relationship with Utah. I love going and hate leaving! I love being able to spend time with my sisters and parents and I love trying to catch up with my friends up there. I never feel like I have enough time. I miss my parents so much that I want to spend all my time with them. I really hope and pray that we can figure things out and are able to move to Utah in the next year or two. I love my friends here but I am ready to move back home to Utah.

Happy Birthday Andrea!

Andrea is officially 3 today!! She is still my little girl even though she has grown so much in the last year. She will even tell you now that she is getting big. Andrea has always been small. She started that way (18 in and 7 lb) and has been slow in her growth. We were really excited when she got on the charts to track her percentiles in growth!! I love Andrea and love her calm, quiet personality.

Andrea at age 3!
Andrea at her 2nd Birthday Party.

Andrea when she turned 1.

Andrea at 1 on her favorite present...the Dora couch!

Our little Andrea almost 3 weeks old.

Andrea had to have the lights on her when she was born because of jaundice. This is how she sat for a week or so while we worked it all out of her system! It was not fun to have a baby plugged into the wall all the time with that thing wrapped around her middle.

WE LOVE YOU ANDREA!!

Lady Bug

I made a lady bug bow tonight. It turned out okay for my first try! I have enough red ribbon left to make four more so I think I will get some practice in! It is so much fun to make clippies and my girls love them. Samantha is the best and always tells me what a great mom I am for making them for her!! It is lots of fun! Sorry the picture isn't the greatest.

Andrea's Party Pictures

As promised in a previous post, here are some pictures of Andrea's party.

This was actually taken today with her cake (sorry she is not wearing clothes but she ate watermelon earlier and we didn't want it all over her dress!).
Josh was just as happy as can be at the party...lots of excitement and balloons!! He loves to play with mylar balloons.

Andrea pinning the tail on the pony. Jeff printed off a big pony at work and we colored it so she could play a pony game. She also wanted to play red light, green light at her party but none of her friends knew how to play. Sammy and Lynne played it with her!!

Aaron saw me taking pictures of the pony game so he sat down and started smiling at me so I would take his picture. He is the cutest little boy!!

Andrea getting ready to blow out the candles.

Andrea with her pony from Sammy.

Andrea opening Abigail's present. She opened it and held it to her cheek and said "it's what I always dreamed" (or something like that...she obviously has listened to her sister a little too much)!!! It was very cute!

Andrea opening her fairy costume from Belle. She loved it but doesn't want to wear the wings for some reason!!

This is Andrea's purple pony cake.

Preschool Graduation

Samantha just finished the most amazing year of preschool. She LOVED going to school and LOVED Mrs. Aubrey!! Aubrey was the perfect teacher for Sammy because she challenged her! Sammy was able to read 60 books on her own while in preschool and she can count past 100! Jeff and I were extremely pleased with her progress this year...I just hope kindergarten goes this well!!!

Sammy at her preschool program.
Sammy with all of her classmates and the morning class.

Sammy and Mrs. Aubrey

Joshua's 6-Month Stats

Josh went in for his 6 month appointment this week. He has slowed a little as his weight has dropped 10% on the charts!

Weight: 20 lb 3.5 oz (80%)

Height: 27 in (55%)

He is a very happy baby and we all love him to pieces!!