Dr. visit

Hope went to her 1 year check up.  She is now 32 inches (99th percentile),and weighs 23.9 pounds (84th percentile).  Her weight has slowed down which is good for me.  The crawling and walking has really helped.  She finally cut her second top tooth.  The other one has been in for months and I was getting a little concerned.  She is advanced in her speech. She is already putting 2 and 3 words together.  Baby's grow to fast, if you ask me.

The nurse gave Hope a succor before they gave her the shots.  Hope only cried for about 10 seconds, noticed that she still had the succor and stopped.  She finished the succor on the ride home and fell asleep.

Getting organized

I got this great idea from a friend.  I no longer hear...."Mom, where's the, or we don't have any..."
It is all right there in front of you in it's own little pocket.

And she's off

Hope has been walking on her own for about the last week.  She stood up next to me one day and just took off.  I knew that she could do it, it was just being brave enough.  She had been walking from one person to another for quite awhile now.  She was up to 14 steps!!!
She still prefers crawling because it is much faster.

Pine wood durby

This is a little late. But this is what happens when you have two cameras and forget to down load pictures from both.

Ethan made a great car this year.  He drew a picture of how he wanted it to look and the helped loren carve it out and sand it down.  They did a fun paint job- now to see if the wheels stay on.
The races are quick now that the track is digital and keeps track of every cars speed.  The boys don't have to race everyone..anymore.  The cars race 3 heats and the computer keeps the best time which is then displayed on a digital board for all to see what place you are in.

No, Ethan didn't win.  He did have a fun time at the race and building his car with his dad. And that is what matters.

Loren checked the speeds of the 1st and last place car.  There was only 1/2 second difference, wow!!!

Fisher price toys

I love Fisher Price toys.  The are sturdy and last a long time. My mother still has a few from when I was a child.

After making it through 5 of my children, friends and a few years of preschool, this one didn't make it through Hope.

She loves to climb.  And this is what happened when she knelt on it trying to get on the top.

I'm going to try glueing it back together.

Hope's 1st Birthday

                                                                  Hope is one today.

The kids sang Happy Birthday to her before they left for school.  She smiled and danced.  She cried when they left for school. She has decided that being home alone with mom isn't as fun as being with her siblings.

We had a family and friends get together to celebrate her big day.

Hope had a blast opening presents.

She loved every gift and had to play with them all  (But the clothes weren't so exciting). Although, I think they are.

She loved the frosting and candy on the cupcake.  She all so enjoyed her ice cream cone.

We had a pinata for the older kids (thanks Spencers) .

The hanger broke after a few hits so Loren got creative.

And then the kids played and the adults talked.  And then darkness set in so everyone headed home.

Thanks for coming, everyone!!!

The kids did go back to school

Yeah, the kids are all back in school. Parker went to his first whole day of school and thought that it was awesome.  Ethan says that he has the greatest teacher in the whole school.  Zach is still getting use to Jr. High and 8 different classes.  Paige has already started to complain about home work which isn't  good sign.  I think that I only heard her complain about it 3 times the whole year, last year.  Braden is enjoys being a Junior but has already change his schedule twice.
I am loving the quieter house and time alone with Hope.  On the other hand, I don't enjoy all of the homework either.  5 kids in school=lots and lots of helping with homework.

Birthday time

Parker turned 7 yesterday. He wanted to have a lego themed party. He also wanted his cake to have fondant icing. He has been watching to much Cake Boss with Paige.  So I actually learned how to make fondant.

The cake din't turn out so great but Parker loved it, since he helped make it.   He wanted it to look like a red lego with the dots green.  I don't own great food coloring, it never turned red.

I made the second cake because I pulled out a confetti cake mix to make cup cakes with and it had fun icing pictures in it.  So I made a small cake and cupcakes.

All of the party games had something to do with Legos.

Knocking down the tower that the other team made with big marbles.

Pin the dot on the lego.

I asked Paige to find a blind fold. She decided a bucket would be fun.

Building lego creations with lego candy.