my Genius kid

Ok, so probably not really, but it's ok that I think so! Brooklyn has loved puzzles for a long time. She has been doing puzzles for several years. She especially loved the 100 piece ones she got for her 3rd or 4th birthday. I can't remember exactly when she got her first one. I remember her getting it though. She had several 24 piece puzzles and loved them all. Then came the 100 piece. It didn't even faze her. Put them together no problem. Even now, she got a new 100 piece puzzle for her last birthday and she put it right together. Today we had to return a puzzle that she was gifted (we had it already) and found a Tinkerbell 150 piece puzzle. Although it was a challenge, and she had to take a break in the middle (frustrated). She finished it. She did it mostly by herself. I helped a little. But, I still think she's awesome!



It reminds me a little of my mom. She loved puzzles. Rarely a "gift" event went by that someone didn't give my mom a puzzle (partially b/c parents are hard to buy for...what do you buy for those who have everything they want??). Anyway, Jon loves puzzles, too but it still makes me think of my mom :).

Mason is definitely shadowing after my dad, too. He LOVES to get up with the sun, and recently that's been before 6 a.m. He's DEFINITELY not getting that from me. Jon said last weekend, "He's definitely got that farmer in him!". If Mason stays this way, he may have to spend summers in Corinne, just so the rest of us can sleep in once in a while!

Lastly:
Sorry she's crying. It occured to me at the end of the day yesterday that Brooklyn wore this outfit on her first Memorial Day, too. I had to document it. I'll have to scan in the pic of Brooklyn sometime soon so we can compare. Julianne is a lot darker than Brooklyn was (both in skin tone and hair color) and has a TON more hair. Although her features are more like Mason's her tone is darker than his, too. It's so INTERESTING! :)

Fallin in love with Photobucket

I realize many of you already do this and much more with other various programs. I, however, have discovered my abilities with photobucket. It was SO fun playing with fonts and placements and colors.. I made several versions of this "announcement". This is the one Jon and I both liked so this is the winner (sorry to all of you who will get one in the mail....). Also, I don't really have the funds to send this to EVERYBODY we love and wanted to announce our newest little one to. Consequently, this will have to suffice for those of you who read our blog. She is growing ever bigger. Although I haven't weighed her in a week or two, while in Corinne she weighed in at 10 lbs. I think we're about out of newborn diapers... Which is a little bizarre. I think Brooklyn wore them for a little longer than this. Honestly, though. Who knows?? I can't even remember what I did yesterday half the time. So, here's my attempt at Photo shop...Enjoy!

Fabulous at **

Yep, it's that time again, at our house. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JON!! I won't tell you his age, due to a lack of permission to do so. The fact that I feel I need to ask should give you an idea ;). He is the binder of our family. When I've had a day and the kids are crazy-out-of-control, he comes home from a whole day of work and makes us all happy and content. It's amazing.
I hope he has an awesome birthday and though I cannot rival his decorator skills, hopefully I'll be able to make a delectable birthday cake. As soon as he tells me what he wants, anyway. I'm not good at decorating, but I feel I can do okay at tastiness...

Here's to my Hubby who's special day is today and who wishes (I think) it would be ignored. At least to an extent :). If we do anything fun, I'll be sure to blog about it in the near future!

Happy Birthday!

Fabulous at Five

I can't believe she's 5. I know every mother says that, but really. It seems like I just had her... At the same time, life is so different now. She is the apple of our eyes, though. No doubt about that.
Super Dad making another masterpiece. Brooklyn requested a Care Bear cake and she got one!
Funshine Bear as requested...he is amazing!
Presents!! She loves them! We had a good time unwrapping quickly before Daddy had to go to work.

The birthday dinner...Pizza. I swear she picked it. I don't mean to me redundant...
Pleased as punch with the cake and posing of course.
We love birthdays too. Unfortunately, Mason thought it should be HIS birthday too. We struggled with that a little...
When Brooklyn saw her new dress, she had to have Julianne in her "matching" dress.
This is how Julianne spent the bday party. I'm not complaining. Yesterday I couldn't get her to sleep more than 20 minutes.
Finally, we took a family photo when we had Mason at the hospital and I was feeling a little bad we hadn't taken one with Julianne yet. So, we had to rectify that situation. Here we are a Family of 5...with our 5 year old...

Brooklyn is so grown up. She is ecstatic to go to school. Every time we drive by she says, "Look mom! There's my school with the blue roof!" She is awesome at helping me with her brother and sister. She's mastering the cleaning up. She even makes the room like Jon cleaned it which is really awesome! He's much better at cleaning than me... She is just awesome and we are so blessed to have her in our family. Happy Birthday to Brooklyn and Best of luck with your year!



ps...see Utah post below :)

Utah Run

Backwards, as usual...and I really wanted to save this first one for last...Oh well.. too lazy to reload the pics.
I love that Jon has beautician sisters. Not only do they cut us a break (someday I'm going to be able to pay them what they're worth, rather than the pittance that we do now...) but they are totally awesome at it! I went with my hair down to the middle of my back....
5 or 6 inches later we have this:
I loooooove it! It is not in Julianne's face anymore, I don't have to move it to look down at her and when I pull it up it is actually off my neck. Thanks Jennie! You're the best!

Next up, Brooklyn had some birthday celebrations. She's a poser-head. It's not often we get a photo of her without some sort of pose.... This is at the present festiva at the Hibshman's:

And here we are at my Dad's. Since we don't really have enough acquaintances down here, yet we had a birthday party with her cousins. She assumed this position as soon as I brought out the candles, stayed this way until we were done singing and leaned over to blow out the candles. Crazy kid.
Other Utah fun. We basically went to be with my dad (due to the death of my Aunt) so we just did a lot of hanging out. My dad is a sucker for the kids. All Mason has to do it turn his blue eyes on Grandpa Ken and say, "Gwampa Ken, will you push me on the wing?" and Grandpa Ken follows him out the door. :). I love it! Oddly enough, Mason only wanted to ride the Tractor once. For as much as he talks about it at home I was expecting him to be on the tractor 24/7 (especially since it's spring and FINALLY dry enough they can work the ground).
We also got to visit our dear friends the Christiansens. It was SOOOOOOOO awesome! We miss miss miss living so close to our friends. Brooklyn and Gage were holding hands within the first 10 minutes of being in Lehi.
This is Julianne and Avery. They don't know it yet but they are TOTALLY best buddies. Mason and Noah didn't really care. Mason was more interested in following Gage and Brooklyn around. Oh well.. they were a little small when we all moved away.
Finally.....Ahhh...Grass. Mason was sitting all alone pulling out grass. I gotta admit. I'm with him. I miss it.
Then, we headed up to Logan. This is Julianne's cousin Jeffrey. He's one week younger than her...if you couldn't tell.

It was fun (all except for the reason for the trip, and even that wasn't too bad. She's better now, we're sure of it). And, Jon was such a sweetie to drive us up and back. I have no desire to drive 16 hours each weekend. PLUS...he blogged for me! What else can I ask for?? What a GEM!

safe and sound

Yeah, I have the best hubby ever. I didn't even realize he'd blogged (although I should've). I was reading blogs but not commenting. Sorry, all. Our trip went really well. Not the best reason to visit but an excellent visit just the same. We hung out in Corinne for the most part, with a couple runs to Logan (Next time we'll spend real time in Logan, I promise). Mason and Brooklyn rode the tractor, swung, played with the plethora of toys available, got crazy with cousins, and all sorts of other fun things. I have some pics to post (not yet uploaded), I'll get on that once I get us settled. AS of right now, it's after 1 and I have yet to really do anything productive.... Also, tomorrow -- somehow-- my baby is turning 5. She is SOOOOOOOOOO excited. Tonight will consist of preparing a cake (since Jon is the master of decoration), wrapping and acquiring gifts and shopping for dinner (pizza as requested). I'll be sure to take LOTS of pictures and hopefully get those up too. So, I guess I just blogged to say....Stay tuned. We're home safe and sound and there's a lot more to come!

"Utah, we love thee . . ."

So, as you can see, Anne-Marie hasn't been blogging lately. That's because she's in


(And I'm not a bit jealous.)

Last Friday, we drove up to Corinne (we got there at 2 a.m., thanks to me having to work all day). I stayed until Sunday and then I left Anne-Marie and the kids there to come back down to Vegas for work.
Yeah, that's me dealing with a bout of heat stroke. The temperature got up to 96 today, and it's going to be 100 on Saturday. Yippee. And they tell me it only gets hotter!! I'm way excited. At least there's NO humidity here.

Tomorrow I drive back up to Utah to pick up Anne-Marie and the kids, and we'll be home again by Sunday night. Whirlwind trips. You gotta love 'em. (At least there will be a round of golf involved Saturday morning.) I'm sure Anne-Marie will fill you all in on the details of the trip. Suffice it to say, it will be good to be all together again.

And for those of you wanting to see what Julianne looks like these days, here she is:


Later.