Millie turns 9!

 How in the world?? Wasn’t she just a cute little toddler? (Also had to double check that was not a picture of Hazel below! Beside the hair color they look a lot a like to me!)

But no, Millie is 9 years old. Love this beautiful girl.

Her birthday was not the most exciting day - we were still quarantining after our brush with COVID and it was a school day. But luckily she is easy to please and we can have more birthday fun another day.

I was all ready to run out for some donuts for breakfast but she asked for cinnamon rolls instead. Why are canned cinnamon rolls the best?? It is one of our family’s favorite treats.

Millie asked if this year she could shop for her own birthday gift with us, and she got to go out with Tyler and pick out a fun LEGO bracelet kit. Pretty much Millie in a box! But that meant she didn’t even have anything to open (at least from us) that day. Thankfully she had visits from both sets of grandparents and some cousins too and was showered with love. She wanted McDonald’s for lunch and her favorite meal for dinner - fiesta ranch chicken and rice. It rained in the afternoon which she was super excited about and we topped it off with a movie night!

Some things about Millie at 9 years old:

- She is a total bookworm. She earned her own Kindle by reading 50 chapter books this summer, and then read 50 more to earn a LEGO set. I’m very thankful she has her own Kindle so we can keep up with her reading easier! She loves The Babysitters Club right now.

- Millie also loves LEGOs, as evidenced above. She builds a set and then takes it apart and builds it again, her own way.

- She enjoyed taking tennis lessons this fall and is rocking swim team still! She works so hard at swimming and is getting really good. 

- Millie also loves running and comes home from school with reports of who beat her and who she beat that day. 

- Her favorite subjects in school are science and reading/writing. She is good at math but doesn’t like it very much.

- Millie loves music and is constantly asking to listen to something. She loves that I have to buy music for High Fitness so now we have a library of songs she loves that we can access anytime. I love to hear her sing!

We just love Millie Mae and are so grateful she is ours!

False start

 We’re having an interesting start to the new year. I wasn’t feeling well for a couple of days and it turns out that I have COVID! So instead of joining the fun with my family leading up to Sarah’s wedding, we are at home. Thankfully it has been mild.

I asked the kids if they wanted to come up with some goals for the new year, and Millie took the liberty of setting a goal she thought would be good for each of us! I really like mine.

Yesterday was my birthday. As an adult, the most exciting part of a birthday is the food. Unfortunately, I have the telltale COVID symptom - loss of taste and smell! So I am excited to have a redo whenever that comes back. Our families each stopped by with some gifts and now I am all set in the workout clothing department. It was so sweet. Cheers to 32!

Harvey turns 4!

 Our Harvey boy is 4 years old!! He has been waiting to be 4 and was so excited when it was finally his birthday. Tyler was out of town the weekend of his birthday so we did a little celebrating beforehand and more once he got home. 

Harvey wanted me to use the red food coloring when making his frosting. I warned him that it would make the frosting pink but he was adamant, so pink cake it was.

He got some awesome gifts - some golf clubs and balls from Monka and Umpa, and a new bike from Gigi and Poppy!

We had a little birthday play date at the park with some friends and some cupcakes. Sharon brought him this fun puzzle and we’ve had fun putting it together lots of times. Also pictured are the shock absorbers we got him for his tennis racket. 

Some things about Harvey at 4 years old:

- Harvey is such a fun, excitable guy. He calls any meal that he likes his favorite.

- He is super silly and funny. He cracks us up multiple times a day!

- Harvey still loves playing with cars, but he normally just goes along with what other people want to do. He goes with the flow when he’s playing with friends or cousins.

- We’ve discovered his memorizing abilities this year learning songs. I love hearing him sing too! He has such a sweet voice!

Happy birthday Harvey boy!

Hazel’s 1st birthday

 Hazel turned 1 on May 14th. How is that even possible? She was supposed to stay my baby forever!! We got to celebrate her more than once - first was at Gigi and Poppy’s house. She felt more comfortable eating her cupcake when it was broken up for her.

Birthday balloons!

Hazel is not much of a snuggler, so her falling asleep on my shoulder was a real gift for me!

1 year vs. 1 week. It’s hard to believe that is even the same baby!

One year well check. Didn’t happen on her actual birthday, but it’s related so it’s going here too.

After shots - poor thing! She always screams and then once she is in my arms again she calms down.

Hazel’s first bubble bath. She didn’t really know what to think of it haha.

Some things about Hazel at one year old:

- Girlfriend LOVES food. She will eat just about anything! 

- Hazel is a great climber. We have resorted to moving our kitchen chairs to my and Tyler’s bedroom to keep Hazel off of the table. It’s just easier than having to stand by her all the time.

- She loves her siblings and has such a cute relationship with each of them. Max especially loves to make her laugh, Millie takes great care of her, and Harvey talks to her in a really cute high pitched voice.

- I referenced her love of food already, but I want to remember specifically that she loves to eat whatever Tyler or I am eating. She could have the same thing on her own plate, but for some reason it tastes better coming from someone else’s!

- Hazel is tough. She falls down a lot and gets bonked a lot, but she doesn’t cry a lot about it. 

- She is an early riser and not great at naps - apparently life is just too fun and she doesn’t want to miss any of it!

- We love Hazel’s smile and belly laugh. She is such a happy girl and we love her so!

Happy first birthday baby girl!

Tyler turns 33

 

Tyler had a birthday! We sometimes go out on a date on our birthdays, and this year we wanted to do it a little differently. Gigi was so nice to watch the kids while we went on a long bike ride. Despite working up in mileage with the kids, it’s just faster and easier to go without them! So we had a great time, biking around our area and exploring together. 

We finally crossed the big bridge in Bridgeland and explored the trail on the other side - a new favorite! It was a great day. Happy birthday to my favorite!

Max turns 6!

How is this cute boy 6 years old already?? Max was so excited for his birthday. He had been looking forward to having a birthday party with friends since he didn’t have one last year, but that obviously couldn’t happen with everything being shut down and social distancing. But we made the best of it and are looking forward to some fun things after this is all over. He got some fun golf stuff for his birthday!

Had some fun FaceTime chats with various family members. Also a super cute video with happy birthday messages from his Primary class and teachers!

McDonald’s for lunch, of course. Anyone know when kids grow out of loving McDonald’s?? I’m waiting.

Monka, Umpa, and Sarah stopped by with some birthday goodies.

Had to include this one because the half photobomb from Harvey cracks me up.

Tyler took the kids over to Gigi and Poppy’s for a birthday celebration that evening. Hazel and I did not go - I had a stomach bug the day before and still wasn’t feeling 100%, also didn’t want to pass it around. So they went on without me and had a fun time. Max loves to hit in the backyard.

Topped the day off with gooey cake AND s’mores! Luckiest 6-year old boy ever.

Some things about Max at 6 years old:

- Very into golf and chess lately. Any game, for that matter. He loves to learn a new game and then play it over and over until he is awesome at it.

- Max loves Pokémon! He plays Pokémon battles with the cards, loves the shows/movies, and reads the books too.  He has tons of cards and knows so much about all of them.

- He does NOT like chocolate. Or changing plans/routines.

- Max is still our best eater (though Hazel may give him a run for his money). He eats dinner every night but still likes to end most days with a banana before bed.

- Sometimes we refer to Max as a puppy. He loves so fiercely and is so loyal, and gets his feelings hurt when his siblings want to do something else. He just loves to play with people!

- Max has done well at school and had several fun friends in his class. Hopefully he can be in the same class as some of them next year.

We love our Max!!

Millie is 8!

It’s great to be 8! I can’t believe it was 8 years ago that our Millie was born. Her birthday fell on the first day back at school after Christmas break, so we celebrated beforehand too. Gigi and Poppy took the kids to Bounce Bounce and they had so much fun! I took zero pictures of them actually bouncing, but they sure loved it. Slurpees at the end cooled them off nicely.

We went to Willie’s for lunch and came back to Gigi and Poppy’s for cupcakes and playing. It was a beautiful day.

And then Monday was the actual day! She had been grumbling a little bit in the days beforehand about having to go to school on her birthday, but when it came down to it she was excited. It was a foggy morning and one of my gifts to her was not forcing a hairdo on her! Love this birthday girl. Gigi dropped off donuts for breakfast too, which was so sweet!

The little kids and I took lunch to Millie. She invited her friend Rachel to join us and it was fun to hear them talk. Sweet friends.

Millie wore her “Eight is great” shirt (which she has worn so much over the last year that it is now missing the E so it says “ight is great”) and Hazel loved the sparkles.

Millie was thrilled with her cake, which was so sweet. Making it was a little like the good fairies making Aurora’s cake on Sleeping Beauty. 

Monka and Umpa came over for dinner and cake, and Millie opened presents. 

The most exciting part of turning 8 is that Millie is now able to be baptized! That will happen at the end of the month. We are all very much looking forward to it. Gigi and Poppy gave her a beautiful book to record her baptism memories and Monka and Umpa gave her a dress for the big day. A few days later we went over to the temple and took some pictures of her in her dress. She looks so grown up and beautiful! I’ll break these up with some facts about Millie at 8 years old.

- Millie is such a helpful big sister, especially with Hazel lately. She has helped change diapers and outfits a couple of times and loves to hold her and carry her around. Since Hazel sleeps in a pack ‘n’ play Millie can even get her out of bed! 

- Millie has gotten very into cheerleading lately. She has some friends who do it on teams and they all cheer together at recess, and Millie has come home with some fun little cheers.

- She often lives life at a frantic pace. She runs so fast everywhere she goes, reads quickly, eats quickly, etc. 

(Plus a little behind-the-scenes of taking pictures with the other kids in tow. They were all really SO good, but occasionally we had a hard time keeping Harvey out of the shot haha)

- Millie loves to read and write and create, but has decided recently that her favorite subject in school is science. 

- She has a very unique sense of style. I try to pretty much keep my mouth shut and let her wear what she wants, and I love seeing what she comes up with!

- She wants so much to be good and do what is right. She loves reading scriptures with her dad at night and is developing her own testimony.

We love Millie Mae! Happy 8th birthday!