AJ turns 1!

Oops, I just realized I haven't uploaded the birthday pictures yet. We celebrated a few days after AJ's actual birthday, but I took this picture on April 22, AJ's birth-day. I can't believe my baby is 1. He is growing up so fast. He cruises everywhere and even lets go sometimes, but he has yet to take a step on his own. He is a happy baby and loves to clap and sway to any music! He has started emptying cupboards and his older siblings are constantly tattling on him for making messes, and they look so dumbfounded when I tell them it's okay and not to worry about it:) We love having this little guy in our family.

AJ is special for so many reasons, but one special thing about AJ is that he was born on Grandma Tuckett's birthday. Grandma Tuckett had a twin brother who passed away just a few weeks before AJ was born. We gave AJ the middle name Douglas so we could always remember my mom's twin brother and the great man he was. We miss you Uncle Doug!!!

10.5 years later!

So I have had this goal of getting back down to my pre-baby weight and fitting it to my wedding dress once more and I wanted to do it by the time my baby turned 1. I still have 5 pounds to go to get to the weight I was when I was married, but I am the same size, so I thought, "What the heck, I might as well try it on, just to see if I can get it zipped up" Well, it was a tight fit, but I did it! I worked my butt off, literally, getting up almost every morning by 5:00 am to exercise, and trying to eat healthy! It feels so good to finally reach one of my goals. Now on to the others:) At least I can say I can fit in my wedding dress again! Check that off the list!!!
Andrew took these pictures and I could tell he wasn't getting my head in them.


Yep, it really is me!

Spring Break at the zoo

We went up to Park City the last night of Spring Break and stayed in a hotel with Jon and Jeanna and family. We swam in the pool and went out for Pizza, but I was too busy coralling kids to take any pictures:(
Friday morning after the yummy buffet breakfast at the hotel we went to the Hogle Zoo. My kids LOVE the zoo! Andrew especially asked many times to return to the zoo after our last zoo trip. Even though it was FREEZING we all had a great time! Nobody complained about the temperature, nobody cried or whined at all. We saw all the animals, rode the carousel, and the train and were done by 12:30. We ended our little trip at Carls Jr. What could be better? (Maybe sunny California, but who's asking anyway!)

Easter Egg Hunt

Easter Sunday I did a treasure hunt for the kids to find their baskets, but I forgot to take pictures:( That evening we had the Hult Family dinner at our house, but everyone was out of town except us and the Sintays. We had a small egg hunt in the house with the cousins since it was cold outside.
Andrew reaching for one more egg!

Emma was already in jammies because she had an accident.

Julia and Megan comparing candy.

This look on Andrew's face says it all!

It's always so exciting to see what's inside!

Coloring Eggs

The kids had a great time coloring Easter Eggs. This is not a tradition we are consistent with, but I always enjoyed coloring eggs as a child and we had a left-over kit from last year so I thought it might be fun. It's not very much fun for an adult to supervise egg coloring with small children. We only have one large purple stain on our rug from this event, so I guess it could have been worse. I'm not sure this will be a tradition we continue, but maybe I'll forget about the chaos and the stain by next Easter:)

AJ's first words and sign

I've been teaching AJ a few signs and he finally copied me with sound. His "all done" sounds more like "ah duh", but it's a pretty big deal when they actually mimic you that closely for the first time!!!


AJ is "all done!"

April Fools

How about strawberry pie for dinner and hamburgers for dessert or should I say SHAM-burgers!
Meat loaf topped with mashed potatoes colored pink. I thought it was yummy, but only Julia agreed. The younger ones were expecting something sweet because of the color:) Emma didn't finish hers and therefore could not have dessert, but I don't think she cared much since she's not a fan of hamburgers, especially for dessert!



Julia loved hers! Who would pass up a york peppermint patty sandwiched between two cookies and frosting! I scraped off the coconut, but enjoyed the rest! YUM!!!

Andrew enjoying his April Fools Day cuisine. He must has shoved his dinner down so he could enjoy dessert! He knew what the shamburgers were made of since he helped make them.

Emma's Birthday Part II

We celebrated the Sunday after Emma's birthday with the Tuckett Family. Emma LOVED her princess cake! She had been asking for a princess cake since last birthday:) She already knows what cake she wants for next year! This is a girl who knows what she wants!

Showing us that she is now 6!


Again she is mesmerized, not just by the candles, but by the singing. Happy birthday to Emma, Happy birthday to you!!!

Blowing or spitting on the candles? Probably a little of both!!

We love our Angel Emma and are very happy she is a part of our family!

Emma turns 6!

Emma turned 6 on March 25. I can't believe how fast the years pass by. Although Emma has not grown much in stature this year, she has progressed in leaps and bounds with many things. She is in a transitional kindergarten class which she just loves!! She is learning her letters and numbers, slowly but surely. She learns things pretty quickly, but she doesn't want to let anyone know what she knows until she decides the time is right! Emma is her own person and does things on her own time and we just celebrate whenever we can with her! Emma opened her new birthday outfit before school.

She is our birthday princess. Emma loves princesses and sparkly things, that's why I knew she would love this shirt.

I took mini cupcakes to Emma's class on her birthday. Emma was so excited to be the star bee student of the week in her class. She had been asking me all year if she could take pictures of baby Emma to school to show her class. Emma loved listening to her classmates sing happy birthday to her. I wish I would have taken my video camera, she was enthralled! Don't you love the look Emma gives me over the rim of her glasses, she is thoroughly enjoying her cupcake. A month later and she still talks about how I took teeny tiny cupcakes to her class!

On Emma's birthday we had G&G Hult over to open gifts. She was most excited about the princess movies from Grandma and Grandpa! We got her a bike, but it's too big for her to ride right now. She was excited about the princess sticker I put on it.

We put candles on the extra cupcakes from Emma's class and sang happy birthday again!


I'm not sure if this look is saying, I'm really tired or I've had too many sweets today! Maybe a little of both:)

After cupcakes we went down to get frozen yogurt because Emma's favorite treat in all the world is icecream!
What a great day we had celebrating the birth of our sweet Emma Raine!