FAMILY MATTERS

For one of our Achievement Day activities, we hiked up to the 'Y' above Provo. Believe me, it is a LOT further and steeper than it looks. :o) Only 6 girls were able to go, but we had a lot of fun--people are already on vacations and involved in so many other summer things already. It was a Daddy/Daughter activity, so we should have included all of the dads in this picture. Jessica Armitage is one of the leaders over the younger girls--I have the older group of girls.
Actually, Pete and Kiera were coming down the mountain as we were going up--they had to be somewhere by 10:00, so they went early and did the hike. I guess we should have all gone at 6:00 in the morning so that we could have gone with them!!
Here is a picture of some of us at the very top of the 'Y'--we got up there by 9:30 or so. The girls had brought their lunch, and even though it was so early in the morning, they still wanted to go ahead and eat up at the top.
This is a picture of Gene and Kailee at the top and overlooking the Utah Valley. You can see Utah Lake in the background above Gene's head. It was a beautiful view from up there. Did you notice Kailee's hat?? That's what she spent her yard sale money on--it has a 'Y' on it. How appropriate. :o)
I can't believe we didn't get a group shot of all the dads with their daughters--we got individual pictures, but that was it. Anyway, the leader on the left brought her little 2 1/2 year old girl and carried her most of the way!! I couldn't believe she made it to the top--I would have pooped out and waited down below somewhere!!!

This picture was taken before their yard sale started--they were just getting everything set up at this point. They made some hacky sacks, bean bags, flour balloons, and then the rest were things that they just wanted to get rid of, like dolls and stuffed animals.
This picture also included their Kool-Aid stand. :o) I had the Kool-Aid in the refrigerator, so there isn't anything on the table yet except the cups. Notice my black door, black shutters, and black light fixture that I painted--I figured I might as well have some cute models in the picture while I was showing off my paint job. haha!
Here is a picture of some of their customers--this was towards the end, so most of the stuff was already gone. They even took flyers around to advertise their 'sale'. :o)
This is a picture of a few more customers enjoying their Kool-Aid. My friend, Wendi, is in the blue shirt to the left. She was nice enough to bring all of her kids over to spend their money. :o) They made $25 altogether--Kailee has already spent hers!!

Other than the gray-haired lady, this is a pretty cute picture of our newest grandson. He was SO sleepy yesterday--he had about a 3-hour nap, woke up and ate, then went right back to sleep. We couldn't wake him up for ANYTHING!!! Believe me, we tried!!!
German LOVES sleeping on his side--notice he is still asleep!!! It's a hard life being a baby.
Yes, he is still asleep. :o) He was 8 pounds 4 ounces when he was born, but he is probably over 10 pounds by now. He actually has some fat on his little arms and legs.

Adelaide loves fairies, so we got her this little coloring book, colored pencils, and stickers with Tinkerbell on them. She was so sweet and shared everything with Joseph.
Here is the Tinkerbell fleece blanket that Kailee made for her--she loved it!! Her other blanket has several holes in it from being washed so much, so she was needing a new one.
Notice that she opened the BIG present first. haha! We asked her which one she wanted to open first, and she pointed to the biggest one. :o)
Joseph found good use for one of the empty bags--that kid will do anything for a laugh. :o)
Kailee made Joseph some bean bags so that he wouldn't feel left out. And he got some Yogo's--his favorite snack at Grandma's house. :o) So he was a happy camper.

Tamra and Jim were nice enough to meet us up on the BYU Campus on Memorial Day to take some pictures of our family. We have had 3 more grandkids since our last family picture was taken, so I figured it was time for a new one.
Gene wanted a picture with just us and the grandkids--there is a lady sitting on a bench right behind us. She wouldn't move for anything. haha!
And there she is!!! :o) Oh well, it is a good picture other than that. haha! We lucked out because the day before these were taken, it poured down rain all day long.

The youngest dance class just wore whatever they had for the dance recital--they didn't buy matching dance costumes. Anyway, Adelaide had this purple tutu, but she wanted to wear some wings but didn't have any purple ones. Luckily, Kailee dressed up like a fairy for Halloween one year and had some purple wings that matched her tutu just perfect. So she was really excited about that.
She also had a matching purple bow in her hair, but unfortunately it kept falling out during her dance. This picture was taken right in the middle of her dance, and she had to actually stop dancing to fix her bow--about 3 different times. It was so funny because she had to have it just right. They usually have their dance recital up on a stage, but it was being renovated, so they just had it in a big ballroom.
As you can tell, the girls kind of do their own thing during the dance. haha! This was Adelaide's floor dance. :o)
Now, she is up and running...or maybe she is flying since she has her wings on. :o)
This is how we kept Joseph entertained during the recital--a clothes hanger and a tape measure. haha! The tape measure had a little ring on the end, and he liked putting it on the hanger for some reason. Whatever works!!! :o)

The Hershey's Track Meet was held on May 12, 2009, at the Spanish Fork High School football field. This is a picture of Kailee throwing the softball, which was actually on the football practice field. It was a perfect day weather-wise for a track meet. Notice the mountains in the background still have snow on them, and it was the middle of May when this picture was taken!!
This is a picture of Kailee running in the 100-meter race--she is the one in the red shirt and white shorts. She came in second place in this race. The stands were so full of people that I decided to go down on the track to take a few pictures--this is about the only picture that turned out good for some reason. The sun was so bright that I couldn't even tell if Kailee was actually in the picture. haha!

I would like to introduce you to German Thomas Howland--he is only 1 day old here. German was Melanie's great grandfather's name and also her father's middle name, so that's where the name came from. He was 8 pounds and 4 ounces, so he was a nice-sized baby. For some reason, Jenalee got to hold him first. :o)
I got to take pictures while everybody ELSE got to hold the baby. :o) He has a hat on here, so you can't really tell, but he has quite a bit of dark hair--the other two were pretty blonde.
Even Adelaide got to hold him before I did, but that's okay since she is his big sister. :o) She is going to make quite the little momma!!
I hope that German still has eyes by the time Joseph is through poking at him. :o) He also likes to plug his nose, so German is going to have to be a pretty tough little guy to survive. :o) He and Adelaide were both pretty excited about their little brother though.

Yesterday we had our "Super Saturday" activity at the church--we made lots of crafts and had a really nice brunch and also a luncheon. I have never seen so much food!!! I made this little frame while I was there--you probably can't see it, but it has a piece of acrylic to hold the picture in place. I have been looking for a frame to put this picture of Mother in, so now I finally have one. The frame is a lot cuter in person--you will have to take my word for it I guess. :o) Mother was only 3 years old at the time, and I always thought it was such a cute picture of her.
These are just silk gerber daisies, and we cut the stems off and glued a clip onto the back of them, and Kailee can wear them in her hair. We also added some bling to them--notice the little crystal in the middle of the flower. You can't have enough bling, right? :o) I made one for Adelaide and Laura also, but they are way too big. I told them that I wanted SMALL pink flowers, but as you can see, they are pretty large. So I will have to find some smaller flowers and make some more of them sometime.

We took a few pictures of Kailee and her friend, Kiera, before the dance recital on April 25, 2009. The stage was decorated so cute with flowers, butterflies, and little caterpillars--it LOOKED like spring inside, but there was a storm going on outside!!! Their first dance that they did was to the song "Now or Never" from High School Musical, so they were supposed to wear any kind of sports outfit.
Another pose from the dancing queens. :o) They had their dance recital one month earlier than usual, and Kailee is already missing dance. It will be nice to have a little break though.

Laura is searching for eggs--she found one behind that rock. It looks like Jared is trying to find someone to throw the ball to or at!! :o)
Kailee was excited because she got a new Pet Shop for Easter--a cute little zebra. Gene just got back from South Africa and had bought her a zebra charm for her bracelet, so I think she has enough zebra stuff for now!!
Joseph was so proud of himself--he found one last egg up on top of the gas meter. :o) And, he found it all by himself. Kailee helped me to set up the badminton net too--good thing she was around to help me because that silly thing about ate my sack lunch!!
Gene was THE CHEF, and his mom was his assistant. We had hamburgers and hot dogs, and it was nice to be able to grill outside again--we miss that during the winter months.

Mr. Cool (aka Chad) and Miss Cheesy (aka Jenalee) are playing some catch with the football, although I'm not sure where the football is. I think Jared has it. I can't believe how green the grass is already--it snowed ALL last week!! That's the grass that I mowed this week to make my back ache so bad. :o)
Joseph and Laura are busy hunting for eggs while Shiloh looks on. Laura found a BUNCH of eggs--she was pretty good at finding those eggs. Do you see the croquet mallets behind Joseph? Well, they really aren't croquet mallets, they are weapons to those kids. haha! I THOUGHT it was a good idea to set the game up, but mostly everyone just tripped over the metal things in the ground. :o)
From left to right: Shiloh, Jared, Gene, Adelaide, and Kailee. I was mad at myself because I didn't get any pictures of Christiaan--he must have been running too fast for me to take his picture. :o) But Adelaide saw an egg and took off running to get it before someone else did!
Joseph and Adelaide are asking Melanie if they can have some of the candy that they found in their eggs. Joseph was MUCH more interested in opening and eating the candy than in finding more eggs. :o) Poor Melanie is getting miserable--she is due in just a week or two. She is due the SAME weekend that Chad graduates from BYU. Could be interesting!!

We had the opportunity to go to the Draper Temple Open House on Monday, February 16, 2009. Our whole family was able to go, so it was a very special experience. We had to meet at one of the nearby churches and ride a city bus up to the temple--they had buses running constantly the whole time we were there. I believe they said that there have already been one million people go through the temple Open House--it is only open to the public from January through March. This picture was taken as we were leaving the temple, and as you can see, it was snowing!! It wasn't snowing when we got there, but by the time we left, a storm moved in.
We asked a lady to take a picture of us at the end of the tour, so we gathered everyone together real quick and got it done!! Christiaan is peeking out from behind Shiloh--he wasn't that excited about having his picture taken. :o)
We actually couldn't take any pictures inside the temple--after the tour was over, we had to walk through this really LONG tunnel that led to another nearby church where they had refreshments for everyone. Notice the cookies in Adelaide and Joseph's hands. :o) Also, notice his little vest and tie--he looked so cute.
This is a picture of Laura and Christiaan--Christiaan is enjoying his bottled water that they gave to him. That's a LOT of bottled water if a million people have gone through there!!

The boxes in the background are the ones that Kailee and I made for Christiaan, Laura, Adelaide, and Joseph. We had a pattern that we used to make the box, and then we decorated them with stickers and Valentine decorations. In the foreground are the candy bar wrappers that I made for the ladies that I visit teach. You can't really see the oval tags on the 2 outer ones, but I used Kailee's Cricut machine to cut out the letters--I even did it without Kailee's help this time. :o) I wonder who gets the big candy bar in the middle? :o)

Gene and I bought Laura a talking doll for her birthday, so she had to go sit down on her little couch so that Kailee could show her how to operate the thing. :o) You use the doll's hand to point to its eyes, nose, mouth, feet, etc., and it says all of those words as you touch the doll's parts. Plus, it says little phrases like "This little piggy", "Patty Cake", and the "ABC" song. I think Kailee was more impressed with it than Laura was. haha!
We didn't want Christiaan to feel left out on Laura's birthday, so we bought him a little squishy green frog--I think he liked it from the look on his face. :o) We also got Laura a squishy pink frog--she didn't like hers as much as Christiaan liked his though.
Kailee bought Laura a BAG full of bracelets--about 10 of them in lots of different colors. Anyway, Laura loved those more than anything, and she had to wear ALL of them at the same time. Notice her pink tutu--she loves to wear it even in the winter. She just wears pants underneath it to stay warm. :o) She was a ballerina for Halloween, but she is still wearing her costume!
This was Laura 'running' over to see her new doll--that's why the picture is a little fuzzy.
We took some chocolate-covered strawberries over to Jared/Shiloh's house to share with them, and Laura LOVES strawberries as you can tell from this picture. These were a little sour for her, but she still managed to eat one of mine. :o)