Sydney's 1st Birthday

Our little sweetpea, Sydney turned 1 this past weekend.  

She loves animals and looking at books, so here she is looking at one of her animal picture books that she got.  She points at the pictures and laughs and says, "oooohhhh"

Sydney's first taste of chocolate.

The beautiful cupcakes that Aunt Julianne made.  Oh, she makes the best sweets!

A little apprehensive about all these people watching her . . .

She took her first bite.  And . . . pretty much no reaction.

And that's basically how it went bite after bite after bite.

  

Then we let her try one of Aunt Jewel's delicious cupcakes. 

 She slowly ate her cupcake and became less and less enthusiastic about her birthday celebration.

Is this the onset of a sugar coma?

When she got tired of looking at that plate, she found a new place for it to go.

And it stayed there for a good five minutes.

Our sweet little birthday girl was pretty much done with her birthday festivities.  

So I washed her up and put her in bed, which she seemed pretty happy about.

Maybe she's not a cake person.

Okay, now, time for a walk down memory lane.

Here are some snippets from Sydney's First Year in our world.

Me and Hayden with our "Cindy" bellies just a week or two before Sydney was born.  

  

June 25, 2010

1st 4th of July

1st visit to Lake Tahoe

With her daddy in her blessing dress.

1st camping trip

One of her 1st smiles

1st BYU game

1st Balloon Fiesta.

 1st photo shoot with Erin.

1st Halloween--she was Hammy the pig from Toy Story.

1st Christmas

One day she was playing with this apple, and we took about a million pictures of her because we thought she looked like a little baby Snow White with her fair skin and dark hair.

Just hangin' out in the pack.

White Sands--she liked it for the first couple of minutes and then she was mad the rest of the time.

 

1st Easter.

Chillin' with her brothers.

1st steps.  She started walking when she was about 11 months.

just a cute picture Daphne took.

Sydney likes to say "oooooohhhh!"

oh my goodness, we just love this girl to pieces.

Happy Birthday, Sweet Pea.

Heron Lake

June 16-18, 2011

Heron Lake Camping Trip

Arthur was asked to be the Astronomy Merit Badge Counselor for Scout Camp.  He told them that that weekend was one of two we'd blocked out to take our family camping.  So they said, "Well, bring the family along!"  And we did.  And had a pretty good time.  I'd never been to Heron Lake, so I really enjoyed camping at a new place.  The kids loved walking out to the lake from our campsite and playing in the mud or trying to skip rocks.  And I am proud to say that for the first time in my life, I skipped rocks.  I've never been able to do it, but Arthur gave me some pointers and I got pretty good.  My top "score" was six skips!  I skipped so many rocks that my arm was sore for two days after we got home.  Hayden was out there trying to skip rocks too, and after one of his best "skips" said, "Whoa! Mom!  That was like 2 dozen thousand points!"   

Anyway, here are the pictures of our Heron Lake Camping Trip:

Not long after we got there, Sydney looked like this.
And that's just what happens when you go camping with a 1 year old.

The streak continues--Arthur has never caught a fish in New Mexico.

 

S'mores

Our view from our campsite--(sigh)

Hike to the river

On the suspension bridge--Hayden was a little wary of it.

Rio Chama

 

There's always plenty of fun to be had when mud is involved.

Brazos Cliffs

    Borrowing the Scouts' rowboat

skipping rocks . . .

. . . and more rocks . . .

 . . . and even more rocks.  Arthur was amazing--
he could get his rocks to skip more than 10 times!

Hayden's shoe got so stuck in the mud that his
foot popped out of his shoe when we tried to get him out.

Just hangin' out at camp

waiting for breakfast

Sunset on Heron Lake--taken by Daphne

Random Act of Kindness

I just had to share this experience we had on the way home from our California trip.  We drove to Kingman, AZ on Thursday, and stayed at the Springfield Inn & Suites.  The next morning, we went downstairs for the complimentary breakfast.  Since we'd slept in a bit (all the way to 7!) the breakfast area was pretty full.  So we started navigating our crew around the tables until we found one.   So as we made our way to the table, I noticed there were two older couples sitting near-by and I was just hoping the kids wouldn't be too loud or obnoxious.  With older couples you usually get one of two reactions;  either they are crusty and annoyed, or they think the kids are the most adorable things they've seen since their own grandkids.

Well, we lucked out and these people ended up being extremely friendly!  A family of our size is used to getting all kinds of looks and comments.  Among the most typical are "Boy you have your hands full"  or "Wow, you guys are busy!" But this gentleman & his wife kept commenting on what a beautiful family we were and how you don't see people having large families anymore.  (I was pretty happy that the kids were all smiling and behaving well . . .) He told us that his company makes commercial baking pans and gave us $20 to treat the kids to McDonald's on the way home because his company makes the pans they bake their buns on.  

He and his wife were very taken with Sydney so I might have her to thank this next part. He then told me that his company just started making bakeware for home use and their line is being carried at Bed Bath & Beyond, and Williams and Sonoma.  If I'd give him my name and address, his wife would send me some of their pans for free, and if I liked them I could tell my friends about them.  I gave them my name and address, not actually expecting pans to come, but just thinking that it was a very kind gesture, regardless.

When they were finished with their breakfast they said good-bye to all the kids and told us if we were ever in Ohio to come visit their baking museum.  I just came away from that breakfast on cloud nine--feeling so good about the human race, and that there are still good, genuine, kind people, and people who believe in families--even large ones.  I also felt pretty proud of my beautiful, well-behaved children, whose worst offense that morning was blurting out how old I was.  :)  (It could have been much, much, worse, believe me.)

So of course we finished our drive home and got back into our summer routines (if you can call them routines . . .)  And then last week, I received a heavy box with these inside them:

2 jelly roll pans, 2 bread pans, a muffin tin, a 9x13 pan, and an 8x8 pan

Oh my goodness--I am still overwhelmed at the generosity of these people whose path we crossed on our way home.  I didn't even know their names until I read the card they sent in the package.   I haven't used these yet, but I will recommend them to anybody just because the owner has a heart of gold.  The brand is USA-Pan, made by the Bundy Family Baking Company and you can find them at Bed, Bath and Beyond, or Williams and Sonoma.  Three cheers for Russ & Liz Bundy, who we met at our complimentary breakfast at the Springfield Inn & Suites in Kingman, AZ.  I will remember them fondly, every time I bake something for my family.

Cookbook for Kids

At the last school bookfair, I bought this book entitled "Cookbook for Kids" thinking we could use it during the summer.

When we got back from California, I told Dallin and Daphne that each week they could choose a recipe and I would help them make it.  The results so far have been GREAT!  They are both really excited about trying out new recipes and are getting pretty independent at it.  Here are some of their creations:

Chocolate-Dipped Strawberries-beautiful and delicious! 

It took great restraint to save them for dessert that night.

Crusty Macaroni and Cheese--so nice we made it twice!  

Daphne giving us a little entertainment during baking time.

Chocolate Swirl Cake (with fudge frosting that was TO DIE FOR!)

In addition to these tasty treats, Daphne made banana bread that was so delicious it was eaten before we could get a picture of it.  And Dallin made us french toast for breakfast one morning completely by himself.  

This cooking skill is coming in very handy.  :)

Happy Father's Day!

I was looking for a picture of my Dad to post for Father's Day, and I found this picture of my two favorite Dads of all time:

My Dad with my youngest brother, Nathan, and Arthur with our oldest son, Dallin. 

I am so grateful for Arthur, the father of my children, and my own father.  They are both great examples of men who honor their priesthood and who tirelessly serve their family.  Both of them are heroes in my book!  Happy Father's Day!

Daphne made this crown for Arthur to wear during his amazing Father's Day breakfast of homemade waffles, berries and cream.  I told him he should wear it to church.  

I think it would really compliment his tie:

I thought these ties were the cutest idea.  Our primary got these old white ties from the temple.  The primary children each helped decorate one for their dad.  For families with kids in both Jr. and Sr. primary, the Junior kids worked on it in their sharing time, and then it was saved for the older kids to finish up, so each child (except Sydney, of course)  helped to decorate that tie for Arthur.  When Arthur opened his tie, Sean was pretty disappointed that unbeknownst to him, Dallin and Daphne had added feathers. He didn't want any feathers on that tie.  (Evidently, he and Hayden had a circle theme going on with lots of shiny circles and pom-poms and googley eyes.)  

It was so fun to see all the Dads in church with their special father's day ties.