Tweety

We are really enjoying our pet, especially Mg. Since she is home the most she has had the most time with him...that reminds me...we found out that Tweety is a BOY!!!! Daddy has a little company in the house now!!! Anyways, Mg loves him and always asks me to take her picture (it's the only time she wants me to take her picture!!!). Here is Tweety's new hang out place...
Mg has gotten really good at "petting" Tweety - she rubs her little finger against his cheeks and he just melts and loves it.
Daddy of course still really loves having a bird again and as soon as the kids go to bed he'll get Tweety out and Tweey gets to hang out on Daddy's shoulder the rest of the night...except this time he was interested in A's food :) (can you see him on Daddy's wrist?) A likes him a lot, too but just grabs him so they visit from a distance :)
The poor bird had a little cold the last few days (he's been really sleepy and sneezing) and hasn't come out much at all but he seems to be better today and we're really grateful! I'm sure it doesn't have anything to do with the time he was sitting on E's shoulder and accidently flew into the barbie pool (filled with water) that E was playing with! Never a dull moment!!!

random photos

These are just some random things we've been up to lately, and since this has become my main family journal I figured I'd share them!


We went up to the temple and had a nice time together (the girls loved watching the brides!!!)

One of the free things we got at picnic day was a bag of 300 ladybugs. One night for family home evening we talked about the creation of the earth and taking care of the earth and then let the ladybugs take off - it was lots of fun to watch the girls giggle and watch the ladybugs crawl out and take off! Although eventually it was time to go to bed and we had to debug everyone (and some ladybugs still made it into the house!!!)

We went back to the horse stable and our friend showed us around and we were shocked to find that the baby horses had grown so much!!!! The horse M is petting (the one in the pink shirt with brown pants) is the little one she was petting in the previous picture!! It was lots of fun to see the fuzzy little horses!!!

I was laughing one night when I looked over just before bedtime and saw Daddy plopped on the floor surrounded by lots of girls :) I just thought it was cute! I love my family!!

What a nice simple life we have. I love it! I was at a meeting last Sunday (directing a youth choir) that was honoring the young women in the stake who earned their medallion (similar in many ways to an eagle scout award). AFter hte choir sang there was a video with a segment for each girl with pictures of the girls as babies and growing up. I sat there looking at these beautiful young woman and tried to picture my little girls up there and especially as I enjoyed the pictures of these young woman as little girls I found it amazing that my girls will grow up!!! I was almost in tears thinking about it - it happens so fast!!! How sweet and innocent they are now! I am looking forward to them being older and doing fun things together but I'm grateful for the time I have with them now and want to cherish it as much as possible!!!! (how was that for sentimentality!!!)

Bike riders!

We have been having so much fun now that everyone is on a big bike. Mg can ride all the way to one of the parks close by and loves it. Since her bike is smaller she is slower but it is a huge open space so the bigger girls can take the long route (and I can see them) while she takes the shorter route and everyone is happy. On Saturdays now we put Mg and A in the bike trailer and we're starting to go further and explore more now with the big girls very confident on their big bikes without training wheels. It's going to be a good summer!!!

Cute little A!!

I asked Daddy which one to put up of her and he couldn't decide either so we put them all up!! Isn't she adorable!!! I have more pictures of what the little imp has been up to lately but for now we'll enjoy how sweet and happy she is!! :)

Picnic Day, 2008

Picnic Day is one of our favorite days of the year here in Davis. It is a campus open house for the university and it is a HUGE event with tons of people everywhere. Most of the departments and clubs have booths and displays and activities, there are all sorts of dog competitions and horse shows and parades and band competitions and food and it is lots of fun. We did well this year - we didn't have any nappers and we got there early and stayed much longer than we have before (and it didn't rain) and had a great day. Here are a few highlights...

One of our favorite activities is where they have big tanks with all sorts of ocean critters (star fish, etc) to pick up and touch. We always spend a lot of time in there. We also really enjoy the entomology exhibits where they can hold all sorts of neat bugs and such.

We also rushed over to watch the life flight helicopter land (that was awesome...we were SO close!!!) )we thought about you grandpa!!!) Afterwards the girls got to sit in it. E was REALLY nervous (and didn't do it last year) but decided to be brave and sit in it - and was SO proud of herself afterwards! (We also visited the fire station and police station and got badges and fire hats and popcorn and lots of free stuff!)

Our first Picnic Day picnic!! We used to live so close to campus and usually had to worry about someone's nap time so we always ate lunch at home but this year we packed a picnic and enjoyed the sunshine!
Another place we HAVE to visit is where the small animals are. This was a new one exhibit - it was a baby kitten rescue program where vet students bottle feed abandoned newborn kitties until they can go to a shelter. The kitties were SO tiny - it was adorable!! We also loved getting to pet the larger cats waiting for adoption as well as the snake and lizard rooms.Face painting is always exciting - especially when it involves butterflies and glitter!

Dr. Chicken meet Mr Chicken!!!!

We also like to visit the building with the chickens - you can usually see one cracking out of it's shell or see a freshly laid egg by a hen. This year we got to meet Mr Chicken...this was especially exciting because when Daddy plays computer games his screen name is "Dr. Chicken" (since he works with chicken embryos in his lab) so I made him take a picture (he grabbed the kids to join him!) (notice little A is eating her foot!)

Of course we love the seeing the large animals! There is a petting zoo of farm animals and cows to milk and such. Inside the barn they had lambs and lab rats - the girls had so much fun holding those! The people there were really impressed with how well the girls did with the animals - even Mg knew how to handle them (thanks to having a hamster!)

But by the end it was time to go home! They had walked so much that day and seen so many things (and been up late most of that week due to back to school night, talent shows, etc) and so they crashed on the way home!!! This does NOT look comfortable!!

Well, they didn't ALL fall asleep - this one was quite wound up and reminded us that SHE wasn't tired and told us her favorite things and was as happy as could be! What a great picnic day!!!

The attack of Mg!

Normally it is very difficult to get this little girl to smile for things, but you'll see she is so excited!!! She has been riding a tricycle and this was the first time she got to ride a big girl bike. She did great!!! She had so much fun and was happy to be out with her sisters. She was quite proud of herself for figuring out a U turn :) She also decided it was fun to run mommy over!!! This was her first attempt...and she was all giggles!!

Our Big Bike Week!

So, despite my kids being pretty physical, we've had a block when it comes to riding a bike without training wheels. Despite many attempts it still wasn't happening. Last week we decided it was time to try again and mentioned it to M and she agreed. A few days later we were playing outside after school and I casually mentioned to M that she should go grab the small bike without training wheels and try it. She thought about it for a second and decided to give it a try. I refuse to run around holding onto a bike (and keep track of a crawling infant!) so I help it for her and took a few steps and let her go. After 10 minutes she had riding down! YEA!!! E got on and after a few minutes had it too!!! HOORAY!!! The next day Daddy took the training wheels off of the girls big bikes and put training wheels onto the little bike for Mg. We practiced that a little bit and the next day after dinner we took them to a bike path right behind our house. It is great - it is a nice wide straight paved bike path about 3 blocks long...perfect! I've spent most of the spare time this week on that path with the girls (sweet A just smiles and eats snacks!) . On Saturday Daddy was at an all day conference so I walked A and hte big girls rode their bikes to a park close by and they did great! When Daddy got home he was very impressed with their progress and we he hitched up the bike trailer for A and Mg and we headed out on a big family bike ride to a different park (it was too far for Mg on her small bike)! I'm so proud of all the girls and they're doing so well!

These videos are from that first day on the bike path - the girls are really excited to share them!

E's got it!

So a few minutes after M started riding a bike without training wheels E asked if she could try too. Of course! She hopped on and did fabulous! She had a tougher time getting onto her big bike because it is made of a really heavy metal and was hard to adjust to. Of course it didn't help that she had a bag full of rocks in a bag on the front of her bike that threw her balance off, too!!! I've been really impressed this whole week with how hard E has worked to learn to ride this bike. She never gave up even when she kept falling and she was always asking if we could go riding. She would work hard on different things...first she wanted to work on starting, later she wanted to work on turning and by the end of the week she looked great! Daddy had only seen her early in the week when she was still struggling and was really impressed with how well she's doing now. She worked hard and I'm very proud of my little girl!

Baby sounds

This is A's new sound...it is so sweet! When she's getting attention she'll do it nice and loud and when she's quietly playing with toys you can hear her sweet little sounds...I love this kid!