My sister Amy and her family stopped by our house on their way to and from Lake Powell - Hayden and Ana had a wonderful time dressing up with their cousins - they look like they are about to rob a bank here... you can always tell when there's an older girl around, the boys end up looking like princesses.
It still baffles me when I think about how fast the last 5 years have flown by - and now we have a Kindergartener - unbelievable!! Hayden started Kindergarten last Thursday and is just loving it. His teacher seems like she will be great - very organized! We took a few shots of Hayden in his school uniform before we dropped him off at his first real day of school. I was looking at his new shoes that we just bought him (size 13) and images of the tiny shoes that he wore as a toddler came into my mind - that's when the tears began. We are so proud of the sweet, big kid Hayden has grown up to be.
This year the kids were really interested in the pioneer stories - Hayden is a really sensitive kid and asks a ton of questions when he hears anything sad happening. So I took the opportunity to share some pioneer heritage with them for family home evening and to finish up we made covered wagons for a treat.
Right outside Denver, in the foothills, there is a little place called Tiny Town. It has about a hundred tiny buildings that are just a kid sized. We took the kids there on a rare day in July that was only 75 degrees. The kids had a blast looking in all the windows, each building is furnished just like a real one would be, only pint sized. They also had a train with a kid sized caboose. It was a fun afternoon adventure.
Rob's parents and sister, Maggie, were able to travel out from Utah for Sophie's baby blessing at church. It was a beautiful blessing and a beautiful day...
So alot has happened since I lasted posted on this blog - Easter, Rob's 31st birthday, bed rest from my pregnancy and the kids spending 6 weeks in Minnesota as a result, and finally our sweet baby girl was born. I'm going to try to post some pictures of most of these events but we'll start with Sophie.
Sophia May Clark was born on June 26, 2008, at 1:55 am. She weighed 5 lbs. 15 oz. and was 18 inches long. She has golden blonde hair and is just as adorable as can be. Hayden and Ana love having a little sister and are taking their jobs very seriously - Ana does not pass by without giving her a kiss. And Hayden likes to read her stories while she's sitting in her bouncy chair. She is the perfect addition to our little family and seems content to watch the chaos.
Ana changes her outfit about 3 or 4 times a day, on average. Some of them are pretty conservative (a summer dress for 20 degree weather) and others are, lets just say, a little on the WILD SIDE! Check them out...
On Sunday I was explaining to Hayden about St. Patrick's Day - how everyone wears green and leprechauns visit your house at night and leave treats for good little boys and girls. He was so excited about it, I couldn't let him down - so the little green men visited our house last night and left their mark... green footprints on the sliding glass door and on the countertops, green jelly bean treats for Hayden and Ana, a note from the leprechauns, and they even turned the milk green those little rascals. The kids had such a fun time discovering all of this, what a fun GREEN day! We even had green macaroni and cheese - I couldn't eat it - but the kids ate it right up...
A couple of Saturdays ago we had a 70 degree day (so much for spring now, it snowed again yesterday)!! We took advantage of the beautiful weather by taking the kids to a little pond so they could practice casting their fishing poles. Ana was so excited to use her new Princess pole for the first time and Hayden is becoming quite the little fisherman already - He's been asking us lately to take the practice weight off the end of the line and put a real worm on there. These are just some cute pictures from our first really warm day...
So Ana has been potty trained for awhile now and the other day I walked into the bathroom to find her on the throne reading Rob's Field and Stream magazine. She gave me an exasperated look and told me to go out because she was not done yet. It was hilarious, so I had to take some pictures...
Hayden had been saving a container that he thought would make a good birdfeeder for literally months - so I finally was able to take the time to help him turn it into the birdhouse he had been waiting for. We put it all together and then he decided that we needed to decorate it a little bit. I didn't really want to take the time to paint it or do anything major - so I suggested stickers. Hayden chose these wild alien stickers and when we were finished he was SO proud of it. He ran to show it to Rob, and Rob said "Kari, don't you think those stickers might scare the birds?" The look on Hayden's face was pure devastation - Rob could see it and made a quick recovery. "But maybe... it will be their favorite restaurant with awesome decorations!!" Hayden loved that and he promptly ran outside to hang it in our tree.
So February is our birthday month... with mine on the 1st, Ana's on the 14th and Hayden's on the 22nd. Hayden decided a couple of months ago that he wanted a Shark themed birthday party - so we've been planning and preparing for his first ever birthday party with friends. We had ocean decorations, a shark birthday cake, we had a fishing pond game and a bean bag toss game into a sharks mouth - Hayden absolutely loved it, and the weather was great so we even got to go outside for part of the time. And now I'm kicking myself, because somehow, the pictures from his party got deleted from our camera! AAAhhh! But we do have some of his birthday and the decorations and our family, so I guess all is not lost, and overall I think Hayden had a great birthday!!
Over Presidents Day weekend, the Lammers Girls all convened in Las Vegas for a getaway! It was wonderful - three whole days when no one had to worry about being a Mom, and 70 degree weather - what more could you ask for?
We rented an awesome house, with a pool and a hot tub. We spent most of the weekend just gabbing and relaxing outside. We did make a trip to the Strip and saw some of the sights, we did a little shopping and ate out at places that were fun. Best of all, we just got to be together as sisters, it was such a blast!
