I love this stage Thomas is at right now. He LOVES to learn, especially about science related things. Cooking,  making fireworks, and a motor being a few of them. :)

He has made about four different "fireworks" and this one was his second one but first one we actually lit off. He was SO proud.

 He loves the "If you give a mouse a cookie" book. We have the book that has the mouse, moose, and pig stories and there are recipes through the book. He has LOVED making the goodies.

These were peanut butter cookies he made that were very yum.

Luckily Grandma and Grandpa Phair were having dinner with us so they could try out his cookies. 

They were delicious.

 The next day he wanted to make the oatmeal raisin cookie recipe and pretty much wouldn't leave the kitchen until we made them. :) 

 Our family theme for the school year is "If the Savior Stood beside me" and we talked a lot about doing things as if the Savior was standing with us all the time. 

Anyway, Thomas said "We should take these cookies to some people." I told him that was a great idea and then I heard him start singing,"If the Savior Stood beside me." 

Maybe he is listening and taking in our lessons. :) Sweet boy. 

He took some cookies to our neighbors Larry and Sheila, then to Sister Scott across the street and the Scheubers next door. All in his pajamas, sharing his yummy goodies.

 Then the baking started turning into his own concoctions in a bowl and well...we didn't end up baking this one because I just don't think it would have baked very well.

 Thomas will often tell me of things he heard about with how things work and things he learns from this book called, "The way things work" :) (fancy that) and he LOVES it. It was one of Derek's favorite books growing up. He is SO his father's son. I love it. 

He is "inventing" this motor that he read about from his book.

 Keep the excitement of learning my little buddy.

Emma girl had her very first piano recital last night. She started piano lessons at the beginning of last school year and the past few months have been pretty hard for her. She's had a hard time feeling motivated in correcting her mistakes in the practices at home. There were lots of moments of optimism but also some moments of lots of whining but SHE DID IT! She pulled through and worked her tail off toward the end and she did a great job. We are so proud of her. She played "Haunted Mouse" and part of "Two Minuets" by Bach. She also gave a great introduction just before she played.

I hope this is a lesson learned for her and all our children that things in life may not come easy but with hard work and dedication, we can DO HARD THINGS. She did it, and we are so proud of her.

 Her piano teacher Jennifer Anderson has been so wonderful. She is so patient and loving with Emma and Emma loves her. We are very pleased at how she teaches these children.

 Emma has had help from Grandma Phair and Oma on her pieces. She has especially spent much time with Oma the last couple weeks working on the piano pieces. Oma has a great way of teaching Emma. Emma listens to her. :) Thank you, Oma and Grandma.

We blinked and then she turned 6 months old! 

We love our little Amelia so very much. 

I love when I pick her up from her crib after sleeping and she buries her little face into my neck and squeezes me tight.

I love that she kicks, kicks, kicks her little feet when she is so excited to see Mom, Dad or siblings walk into a room.

I love the sweet smell of her breath.

I love her big bright eyes that light up any room.

I love her squeals and laughs.....I could listen to it all day, every day.

I feel so much love for this sweet doll of ours. 

She loves her baby biscuits, her chewy giraffe toy, pink blanky and likes going for car drives but just hates her car seat. :)

We love you Amelia girl. Thank you for lighting up our lives.
Now if we could just work on getting back on a better sleeping schedule at night, that would be fabulous.

 She wouldn't let go of that cucumber to save her life.

Today Emma finally learned to tie a shoe lace. She was in Sacrament meeting at church and wanted to learn on Dad's shoe. Derek is always so good at explaining things so good to the kids on a lot of things. And Voila!! She got it.

I told her at the beginning of this summer that when she learns to tie shoe lace, she will get a reward. She gets to choose between a sleepover with cousin Lucy or choosing her own new pair of tennis shoes for school. We're proud of the little lady.

She's also gotten much better at bike riding. We live up in the hills and so we don't get out as much to ride bikes because with the hill it gets tricky. She is getting much better now.

We need to take the bikes out more on the trail and get her steady. It's so good to see when your children come out of their comfort zone and work hard at something and accomplish it. :)  

Every year we try and participate in the Children's Parade for Strawberry Days week. This year, oooh my goodness it was HOT! Thomas got grumpy pretty quick on his bike and kept tilting over and falling off. Luckily I had Derek there to help.

The heat didn't stop these two! Joseph loved pedaling right along.

WE MADE IT! Now, waiting for the otter pops and then everyone was happy again.

Good lesson that we CAN DO HARD THINGS!

And this little lady is my little squishy that I adore so much. She was an incredible good sport.

We did the Strawberry Days parade and we were SUCCESSFUL! 

Some ward friends and us decided to lay out blankets the day before parade at the tail end of parade and we loved it. I think we may have started a new tradition. We have such great friends!

Amelia's gettin' suga from Annie Clayson. :)

And she's out!

Thomas and his little friend, Seth Holmes. Look how sweet Seth was for putting his right hand over his heart and Thomas doing who knows what.

There he goes, he got the hang of it.

Joseph observing all the kids running for candy while he stood watching with Amelia's hat on his head with out knowing it. :)

We went to the Strawberry Days Carnival with Aunt Pam and Lucy. 

Thomas loved going down the big slide.

Joseph riding on the Choo Choo Train.

HAPPY STRAWBERRY DAYS AND AWESOME MEMORIES!!

This little man. We love him so much. He is the sweetest little guy and has grown SO much the last few months. Since our little Amelia came into our family, Joseph has been so patient with all of us. Emma and Thomas are great to him, but he is left out at times during their play. It doesn't really bother him. I do remind Emma and Thomas to make sure and include him, but sometimes they get so involved in playing and chatting with each other, Joseph kind of gets looked over.  He's learned to entertain himself and it does make me sad. I feel bad that I can't always be there to play with him. I need to be better at putting some time away for him. Whenever we do, he is in heaven. Just like any of our children are, when we have one on one. 

Emma's been sweet to him since he moved into their bedroom. All three of them share a room. If he has a hard time going to sleep, she'll sit with him and read to him. It warms my heart. She's going to be a great mother some day.

We are all still adjusting to a family of six and it's been quite the change.

We all love this little man and he brings SO much sunshine into our family.

Here are some of his cute moments of things he LOVES.

 He is so picky with sweets. (I KNOW!) But he does like his nutella spread on toast.

 Joseph loves, loves, loves, and doesn't stop talking about diggers. ALL THE TIME! 

His vocabulary has really come a long way the last couple months. But before that, he could tell you all about "Honk" and lift his hand in a claw grip to show you what he saw when one of Daddy's cars from the lot was crushed at the junk yard. He didn't stop talking about for months. 

Every morning when Derek walks Emma to bus stop, Joseph begs to go. When he does get to go, they always stop and look at the diggers up the road from us where there has been construction for months and months. 

A couple weeks before Amelia came and Thomas was at school, I took Joseph to see the diggers. Unfortunately the machines were turned off and no action was going on. But he was in heaven when he got to sit on the digger.

He has now expanded his vocabulary to "Ma-huh f....("truck" with an "F" :) for garbage trucks and fire trucks. "Look, F....!"....everyday, all day. :)

 "LOOK!!  DIG!!"

 Always needs his diggers with him. He loves playing with them.

This is his face while concentrating on the construction action going on outside. 

  He has also been a good little helper with cleaning out the chicken coop.

 Normally he hates having his clothes off for too long but not this time. Having his rain boots on is all he needed to feel secure. :) Here he is helping Daddy with the play house walls.

 A month ago, I got a new stepping stool for our kitchen. He has LOVED it! He picks it up and moves it to wherever he needs in the kitchen. His favorite spot is the kitchen sink. He'll stand there forever, just running the water and washing any dishes that are in the sink.

 When Amelia first came, Thomas and Joseph were staying at Oma's a lot during the day. One of the times, Joseph, Thomas, and Dylan played basketball. He never stopped talking about it. Every time we asked if he wants to go to Oma's, he'd reply "Oma, hoop" and do the shooting basketball hand expression. hehehehe.