Christmas Letter 2011 page 3

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Dallin's Lightning McQueen birthday

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Dallin was so excited for his birthday. He counts birthdays not by the number of years, but by what his cake was. He's had a tiger birthday, a dump truck birthday, etc. This year was definitely a Lightning McQueen birthday and he loved it. He was so excited about his cake. He helped pick it out from pictures on the internet. He got Lightning McQueen sheets and a soft blanket. He had his friends over for a lunch of Mac and Cheese and Hotdogs. Adam Andreasen came back to eat Lasagna for dinner. I think Dallin had a great fifth birthday.

Don't worry, there's really no blood involved

This may look like Lydia got hit in the mouth and is covered in blood, but it is really just what happens when a baby gets a hold of a red marker and sucks on it. I knew she had the marker, but I didn't realize it didn't have a lid. Luckily, we were able to wash it all off before church the next day. She sure keeps us on our feet.

The difference between boys and girls

Having 6 girls and 4 boys we definitely know that boys and girls don't think alike. They come wired differently. This week we had two firsts at our house that illustrate the differences.

Emma turned eleven in October (I should have done a post on that). One of her gifts was to get her ears pierced. We finally went and got it done for her on Tuesday. She loves it. It was fun to share the experience with her best friend, Emma, who went with us and got hers pierced also. They both look beautiful!!

Matthew is twelve now and just couldn't wait to go deer hunting for the first time this fall. I think he was born knowing about guns and things like that. He loved hunter safety and can tell us all kinds of facts about guns and hunting. He, David and Neil went out on Tuesday, opening day. They only saw one doe and didn't have a chance to get a shot off. Neil and Matthew went out again yesterday and Matthew shot his first deer. He got a good sized buck. Boy was he excited!!! He said he was too excited to shot straight so it took him a few shots. I am grateful to see him succeed at something that meant so much to him. I am also grateful that Neil was willing to take the deer to Roger's Meat Processing instead of cutting it up himself. Thanks, Sweetheart!! Neil knows how I feel about handling raw meat.

Anyway, it was a good week for Matthew and Emma, but as you can see they think entirely differently.

Bethany earned her Young Women Recognition Award

We are so pleased with Bethany and her hard work in Young Women's. She earned her Young Women's Recognition Award in September. She put a lot of work into it and really enjoyed working on the values.

This year for the Young Women in Excellence activity our girls planned a Candyland game called ValueLand. It was lots of fun. Bethany was asked to be Queen Frostine. We had a dress that was in the dressup box that she could wear. It needed a jacket to cover it and make it more modest. We started sewing Monday morning and were able to finish it Wednesday afternoon. Bethany looked beautiul!! I think she enjoyed being Queen of the evening.

Julia displayed her photos from EFY. She used EFY as her Integrity project. She did a good job and enjoyed the evening.

Emma's 11th birthday

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Emma was so excited for her birthday!! She has hit that age of not being sure where she fits. She is still a little girl in some ways and in other ways she wants to be grown up. She still likes Dora the Explorer and wanted a Dora cake. It was easy to do so that made me happy. We gave her the gift of getting her ears pierced. She was screaming with excitement when she opened it. She and her best friend, Emma, went together to get their ears pierced.

I am so grateful that Emma is still content to be a little girl, and yet she is growing up into a beautiful young lady.

7th grade Football 2011

Well Matthew's football season is over. He had a great time!! We loved watching him. Last year I only took four pictures. This year there are a lot of pictures!! Matthew played defensive end. He worked hard. I had no idea how much of a size difference there was in 7th grade boys, some of them were bigger than Neil and a few were smaller than David. Matthew went up a couple of really big kids. The Powell Cubs won all of their home games, but they were winless on the road. What was really cool about football this year is that the entire Deacons Quorum in our ward played on the team together. We enjoyed watching them, they are a great group of boys!!! Hope you enjoy seeing a little of Matthew's season.

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To thine own self be true

Joshua has a new cutest saying. The other day he had some scratches by his nose. Bethany asked him where he got them. He told her they were mosquito bites. She said, "I don't believe that." Joshua answered "I believe mine own self." It was really cute. Yesterday when he climbed up in the tree house he was so proud and kept saying "I did it mine own self." So I guess to thine own self be true. Joshua sure keeps us laughing and smiling. Too cute for his own good sometimes.

Lydia's crawling

The big news at our house is that Lydia is getting around. She is finding more things to put in her mouth. The children love to watch her and encourage her.

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Slideshow of pictures of Lydia

I was just having fun figuring out how to use Smilebox so I made this slide show of Lydia. She sure is a pretty baby!! She is a very good baby. She is getting better about sleeping lately. She is learning to crawl and she just got her first tooth. She is the youngest of our children to crawl or get a tooth at not quite nine months. Hope you enjoy the slideshow as much as I enjoyed making it.

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Too fair

Joshua has such an adorable new saying. When he doesn't like something or doesn't think it is fair he says "That's too fair." At least it sounds like I'm doing something fair.

What Dallin wants to be when he grows up...

Can you tell from his attire what Dallin wants to be when he grows up? I think he has been influenced by his biggest sister because he thinks pirates and this new pirate shirt are really cool. Isn't he an adorable pirate? I guess even pirates get worn out some days and just have to have a nap. I was grateful that he took this nap (they are hard to come by for Dallin) and that he didn't fall over board while sailing the high seas in his dreams.

Jennie hair just like Rebecca's

A couple of weeks ago MaryAnne wanted her hair done just like Rebecca's for Down in the Valley. She looked so cute. She kept asking me all day if her still looked pretty or if it was messed up. She loved looking like Rebecca.

Look who can ride a bike...

MaryAnne has been wanting us to teach her how to ride a bike ever since school got out. For one reason or another it just hadn't happened. Finally she got her wish and Neil took her to an empty parking lot at the college to let her try. She was a natural and just took off. He didn't have to hold on and run with her for more than a minute. This video was taken on her first day of riding. She was even going off a small jump on the first day. She loves to ride her bike and wants to do it all the time. She must come by her ability from someone besides me. I didn't even learn to ride a bike until I was about eight. I am sure my parents still remember my bad bike crash. Neil had two bikes when we got married after I rode one he only had one. I have learned to ride and enjoy it since I married a bike rider. By the way, Neil is trying to ride 1,000 miles this month and get 8,000 miles for the year. He must like his bike as much as MaryAnne likes hers. Personally, i think those seats are too uncomfortable for that many miles.

The Definition of a puddle

The definition of a puddle is a small body of water that attracts other small bodies.

We have had lots of rain this month so we have had a few puddles around. Dallin and Joshua sure know the definition of puddles. I let them play the other night and now every time Joshua goes outside he thinks he should jump in a puddle. It's kind of funny.

Bethany's 16

Bethany had a birthday and I can't believe she is now 16. We didn't do a lot to celebrate, but it was a fun day. She doesn't like to make a big deal about things, but she did have fun decorating her cake. She put a 16 made out of M&M's on her cake.

Look who is four months old

Lydia is four months old. My how time flies when your having fun!! She is such a sweet and good baby. We are all enjoying her so much!! She is getting really close to rolling over. Unfortunately she usually wants to practice in the bathtub or when she is on the bed. We have to convince her to practice while she is on the floor. She is getting really good at smiling. It is fun to watch her grow and develop. She is starting to grab toys and hold on to things. It seems like she always has Julia's hair in her mouth even though Julia tells her it isn't in her recommended diet. We are grateful to have this sweet girl in our family.

Happy Anniversary

Neil and I celebrated twenty years of marriage on April 26th. It was a snowy day here in Powell. It was a lot like the day we got married. I think it must snow on April 26th quite often. We enjoyed the day and look forward to forever together. Neil came up with a fun way to celebrate. He left twenty flowers through the month. Each flower had a note to remember something that happened in the year. It was fun to find the flowers and notes. Neil, I love you!!

It must finally be spring

Well I hope that spring has finally come to Northern Wyoming. At least I hope it has come and will stay. The girls said it must be spring because I actually wore short sleeves today. They hadn't seen my elbows since October.

Joshua loves to be outside. He doesn't get to be out there as often as he would like to because I worry about him getting too cold. It was nice enough today that he went out and jumped on the trampoline. He loves that.

Fun memories from my childhood

Last night our activity for Family Home Evening brought back memories of rough housing on the floor with my dad. We used to see if dad could catch and hold all five of us. It was always lots of fun and I'm sure it was noisy. Great memories!! I am not sure that the children ever managed to stay uncaught for very long, I think some of us actually wanted to be caught and tickled by dad. Any way, as I watched Neil and the children play it brought back fond memories. I wasn't exactly sure what to title this post. I considered calling it "And I wonder why our couches are worn out". You'll understand after you watch. I do have a rule about couches only being for sitting on, but apparently that doesn't count while playing with dad.

Catching up

I am terribly behind in so many things. Keeping this blog just hasn't made the priority list around here lately. We have been doing fun things, I just haven't written about them.

Julia turned 14 on February 12. She is a sweet girl. She went to her first stake dance not too long after her birthday. She had fun. She doesn't like to have all the attention on her, but I had to include a few pictures of her birthday.






One Friday in March the Young Women in our ward had an all day P party to work on Personal Progress. There was a prize promised to whoever wore the most things that started with "P". Bethany and Julia decided they were going to win and they sure had fun thinking of "P" things. They had pirate hats, purple vests, pink and purple polka dotted fingernails, purple pumps, petite pumps, packs for their back, pink and purple plaid pajama pants, poodle purses, and pins. They had more, but that is all I can remember. Bethany won the prize, a pig pez candy dispenser. It was a fun day.

Deaver Reservoir for Spring Break Anyone?

We decided to take the children out to Deaver Reservoir. Neil and Matthew were camping there in January (that's another story, camping in January doesn't sound fun to me). They thought it was really cool to walk on the ice. We thought everyone might enjoy an outing so off we went. Dallin was so excited to fly a kite, and a frozen lake seemed like a great place to do it. (No trees or other obstacles to get in your way). Matthew and Neil had already learned that there is plenty of wind at Deaver. (Oh that is part of the other story, coming home at 4:00 am when the wind destroys your tents). It was too bad that Dallin slept through most of our winter picnic. He did wake up and get to fly the kite a little. Lydia slept until right before we were ready to leave. I was glad of that because it was too cold and smokey to have a little baby out there. We had a good time together. It is cool to look down through the holes in the ice and see the bottom of the lake. Matthew really wanted to ice fish, but had to settle for roasting hotdogs and marshmallows over the fire.

You've been Jimmered music video

This is for Grandpa. We thought you would enjoy this song. I don't know if I can think of LaVell Edwards the same after seeing him sing this Bon Jovi song. GO Cougars!!

Lydia's blessing day

We blessed Lydia on Sunday, January 30th. We have Stake Conference on February 6th so we had fast Sunday a week early. It was the first time we have taken Lydia to church. It was a cold day to venture out, but it was a beautiful blessing. We thought of each of you that couldn't be here. We missed you, but understood that we live far away from you and travel in the winter in Wyoming isn't recommended. Hope you enjoy this slideshow of pictures from the day. The last slide tells some of the blessing. You might want to pause on it so you have more time to read it.

Lydia Rose Waite

Our little Lydia was born on January 5, 2011. She was a week overdue so we decided to have her induced. We really wanted to have her born while Rebecca was still home for Christmas break. We went in at 7:00 in the morning. Dr. Spomer broke my water about 8:00. I really thought that would start contractions but it didn't happen that way. We spent the morning walking and waiting, but not having any contractions. Finally, at about 2:30 in the afternoon Dr. Spomer decided to start labor with pitocin. That did the trick and little Lydia was born at 4:09. She is weighed 6 lbs 14 oz and was 18 1/2 inches long. She is a beautiful little girl. She is so quiet. I think she is the quietest baby we have ever had. She has a sweet disposition. I joked that we could name her Patience because she is so patient at waiting for what she needs. Patience Waite doesn't really seem to work together so Lydia it is. We are feeling very blessed!! Hope you enjoy the movie of our little Lydia.

Joshua's Second birthday

Our little Joshua turned two yesterday. He started the day our bright and early by getting up at 4:40. As soon as Neil picked him up and said Happy birthday to him Joshua started acting like he was blowing out candles. It was really cute, even that early in the morning. Joshua has loved watching all the other children blow out their candles and he knew exactly what to do. He just didn't seem to be able to get those two candles out. He loves balls so we decided to makes cupcakes and decorate them as different sports balls. He loved it!! I was excited about how easy it was and how cute they turned out.

We didn't buy any presents for Joshua (except a new toothbrush). We all just choose things for him we already had and wrapped them up. He just liked opening the presents he didn't care if it was something new. He did like the tent and tunnel that Grandpa and Grandma Sharp gave him. I will put a video on, but it might be too dark to see well, but you can hear him laughing at the end of the tunnel.

We are grateful to have this sweet little boy in our family. He truly is adored. He is our little sweetheart!!