Hannah's birthday

Hannah turned 4 a few weeks ago. She seems much more grown up to me lately. She is very proud of the fact that she is 4 and tells most people as she meets them that she is 4 now. She is growing up faster than I would like. There are some stages I wish I could push a hold button on, and this is one of them. She is just precious. She is sweet, kind, and loving. She is sensitive to others around her. (There are exceptions to all of those statements but overall they are all true.) Lately she has had an interest in learning about letters and how to write her name. She spends hours with Sarah, while Sarah is doing schoolwork, Hannah will practice writing letters of the alphabet. Very cute to see them working together in their room. Sarah also plays dolls with Hannah. Hannah loves it and asks her quite often to play dolls with her. Hannah has a new and special doll that she got for her birthday. Her name is Robyn, Robyn goes most places with us. The other day she went on a walk with us and almost did a head dive out of the wagon as Sarah was pulling them. Sarah saved her before any damage was done. Hannah is very affectionate. She gives the best hugs and kisses, often she asks her daddy for a back ride up to bed. Sometimes he gets to give Micah a back ride and carry Hannah in the front. Good thing he is strong and they hold on tightly.

Grandma got to come down and celebrate Hannah's birthday with us. We were all excited about her visit. The kids had no idea she was coming. They were enthralled with the cake decorating when she arrived. It was such a fun surprise for all of them.

For months Hannah has been talking about her cake. She finally decided on a pink cake with a butterfly, strawberry, and elephant on it. Sarah wanted to attempt to make it for her. I was very impressed with how well it turned out. Sarah did a great job, and she had a lot of fun doing it.


A Pink - Strawberry cake
Two of my girls in their matching dresses, the day before Hannah's birthday
I could not decide which one was my favorite, so I posted most of them here.




Sarah working hard at decorating the cake.
Micah wanted to be close to the action. He got to watch from his highchair.
Hannah was so excited to see her cake coming together.
Sarah wanted to do it all by herself with no help.
Here is Hannah's face when we opened the door to see Grandma standing there. She was no sure what to think at first, but then had a huge smile and hug for the weary traveler.
Josiah's excitement to see her.
Caleb
Sarah couldn't hug Grandma fast enough.
The finished product.
Micah didn't even need a warm up period this visit. He knew just who his grandma was and went right to her.
Grandma had some fun triangle shaped gold clip on earring that the boys thought looked good as pirate earrings. Here is Josiah's pirate face.
Caleb's pirate face
The sword fight
The birthday girl - She wore a pretty dress that her sister helped her choose.
Gay (our neighbor) brought over a gift, flowers, and a card for Hannah. Hannah was so happy.
Here are her pretty flowers from Gay. Can you see pink was the theme of the day.
Micah waiting for cake and ice cream.
The boys
Abbey and Sarah
Hannah with her Grandma.
The beautiful cake, and the beautiful birthday girl.


Her new Robyn doll.

All the older kids made homemade cards for Hannah. Here are the ones from Sarah and Caleb.
Abbey likes her new doll too.
Sarah, Hannah, and Grandma



Josiah enjoying cake with his football pads on.

Hannah with her new stuffed dog she named "hearty"
Micah wearing Josiah's helmet.
Hannah in one of her new birthday outfits
Sarah out these beads on Abbey, she's not sure what to do with them.

Sarah's hair cut

I gave Sarah a hair cut over the weekend. It is quite challenging to cut her hair because she has so much of it. After about 2 hours of working with it I think we are both pretty happy with the outcome. I tried to follow some online directions on "how to cut hair." This was definitely a learning experience for me. Sarah not only wanted her hair trimmed she also wanted it layered. I did the trimming and then went to the harder part of layering. I also used my thinning shears and thinned out her hair a lot. I think that is what she is happiest about. We thinned out A LOT of hair. Hand fulls of hair combed out after I thinned it. Sarah had plenty of hair to spare. It is much more manageable for her now.

Here she is saying, "Are you really going to take my picture, come on Mom." Isn't she beautiful! I love her curls and natural highlights.

Oak Glen - Apple Picking

Last weekend Uncle Steven (my brother) and Aunt Liz came down to visit us. I really enjoyed our time together. One of the fun things we got to do was go apple picking up in Oak Glen. They have never been apple picking with us before. I'm glad it worked out for them to come during apple season. I was concerned because of the recent wildfires that threatened Oak Glen, I was not sure if anything would be open. I was pleasantly surprised to see that all the farms we passed by had been spared from the fire. There were many signs up along our drive thanking the firefighters, it just brought tears to my eyes. I'm so thankful for the men and women who help our communities and our country. Also to their families that have to sacrifice their family time together. What brave, courageous, selfless people. I am very thankful for all of them! Back to apple picking....we had a great time! It was warm and quite a hike up to the orchard that we picked from but I think it was worth the exercise and effort. We picked some red delicious, granny smith, and golden delicious, 2 bags full of apples. We did see some charred hillsides but the landscaping up there is still so gorgeous. I'm so thankful to live so close to such a beautiful place, just a 10 minute drive from our house.

Here they all are getting ready for the hike up the hill.
Hannah had a lot of fun finding just the right apples. Every time she found one she would exclaim, "Mom! I found a perfect one!!!"
The boys were helping each other take the stickers out of their socks.
It's hard to eat an apple sometimes, especially when you don't have all of your front teeth.
Uncle Steven helping Micah pick an apple.
Abbey even got to try an apple. She seemed to like teething on this little golden delicious apple.
Aunt Liz, Uncle Steven, and the kids. We had a beautiful view of the Valley below.
Here I am with my children.
Liz and Steven, they just recently celebrated their 5th wedding anniversary.
After we got home Micah crawled up into his highchair to get ready for dinner. Before I was able to get his dinner onto his tray he was already asleep. He was worn out from all that apple picking.
These are some other fun pictures we took during the visit. Here's Uncle Steven playing puppets with Micah.
Aunt Liz, Abbey and Hannah.
Hannah wearing Aunt Liz's glasses.
Uncle Steven tickling Hannah. The boys love it too when Uncle Steven tickles them.
I am so thankful that Uncle Steven and Aunt Liz came down to visit us. It is so nice to have family that desires to have relationship with each other.

Fires

We had some fires break out near our house over a week ago. It was pretty scary for many people. There were 2 separate fires burning in the same general area. The pictures are from the fire that was burning much closer to our home. I am thankful that we didn't have to think about being evacuated but we know a number of families that did have to leave their homes. I am so impressed with the firefighters, they worked so incredibly hard to spare every one's homes. This picture is from the boy's room window. I was up there working on organizing their closet when we heard massive amounts of helicopters over our house. There were at least 8 or 9 helicopters attacking this blaze. We went outside to see the what was going on. I caught a picture of a helicopter dropping on the flames.
They would fill up just past our house at the regional park, fly over head, and then circle in for their drop.
Here is one of the huge planes that was called in as well. Very exciting for Micah. He loved seeing all this aircraft overhead.
The very next day school was cancelled. I went out that afternoon and saw a beautiful cloud formation with the sun rays shining through. This picture does not do it justice. There were also huge rain drops falling. Definitely a gift from the Lord during the fierce fire battle.
Abbey has been enjoying our keyboard that my parents lent to us. All the kids love to play on it.
There are some fun animal sounds she likes too.
Here the kids are having school at home. Sarah liked having the company during her home school routine. The boys had fun reading, do multiplication, and working on their spelling words. Even Micah and Hannah had fun coloring.
We are so thankful the fires are out and minimal damage was done. It sure is nice to have better air quality too.

Oak Glen - Raspberry Picking

Mid August My mom and I took the kids raspberry picking. We had a great time. My girls
Josiah
Sarah and Hannah
All the kids had so much fun sliding down these railings.
Grandma and Caleb. Grandma was the champion raspberry picker. Altogether we filled 6 baskets.
Josiah, Caleb and Hannah, if you look closely at the tree you can see their new pet for the afternoon. A frog they named "raspberry."
Josiah, was so proud of his catch. He worked hard trying to get a hold of that fast jumper.
Micah, he stayed under the shade of the stroller with Abbey for most of the afternoon.
What a good big brother.
Sarah helped Hannah pick too.
My beautiful children, they are such a blessing to us!
Abbey
Hannah
Caleb
Abbey, Josiah, and Sarah
Sarah
Micah loved roaming on the farm. Here he is trying to catch the dog that must live up there.

First!!

Well not only was yesterday Sarah's first day of being home schooled. It was also Abbey's first birthday. A lot of things going on yesterday. Sarah started her day getting up before me. To my surprise I came downstairs to see her dressed, hair done, and working on her journal. She had already completed her devotion time. Wow! What a good effort from her. After getting the boys off to school I stopped to get some donuts to help make our first day special. We got our favorite, maple bars. Once we got home it was time for our walk. We have planned on walking with some friends a few times a week. This will not only help cover her P.E. requirement but it will also help get me into better shape. We started last week and even though it is still pretty warm, it has gone well. The first few times we walked a little over a mile. Yesterday we did about 3 miles. Once we were in from our walk we started to get into her books. I think I should have spent a little more prep time last week to be ready for the first day but now that I know a little more I'll try to do that in the future. Over all her first day of schooling went really well.

The birthday girl with Daddy and Hannah. That is a "I just woke up" smile from Hannah.


Sarah starting her day off journaling.
Here we are in front of our neighbor's house about to start our walk.
Hannah overseeing Sarah's school work.
Hannah helping to mix the brownie batter. She was so excited to help.
My three beauties. Sarah helped get Abbey dressed in this pretty white dress.
Dessert
Abbey's cupcake.
We had Bryan's parents over to join in the celebration.
Abbey has started doing this little thing with her mouth where she looks like she could be whistling. Very cute. Instead she makes a little grunting noise.
Happy Birthday Baby!
Caleb adores his little sister. He was reminiscing about her last year. Very cute!
Abbey didn't know what to think about the candle and attention of everyone singing to her.
Abbey got to hold the cupcake. She was not sure about the frosting.
Then she decided to tear into it.
But, that didn't last too long.
Everyone was laughing and being startled she started to cry.
Micah, Sarah, and Hannah .... waiting for dessert.
Abbey got cleaned up and entertained herself in the highchair while we enjoyed the brownies, cupcakes, and ice cream. She's making raspberry sounds and smacking her own belly.
Now that she is 1, do you think I can teach her to read?
She loves to look at books.
Abbey is very interested in the stairs, up until now she would just come to the bottom of them and watch the kids climb but last night she decided that she could climb too.
She got up to the fourth step before I took her down and distracted her with something else.
Here are Micah and Hannah, good buddies, hanging out this morning.

Summer Fun!

We had a great summer. I have loved having my kids home from school. The boys went back to school just 4 days ago. Starting this upcoming Monday I will be home schooling Sarah. I am excited about getting caught up on my blog. Sorry it's such a long post but as you can see we had a lot of activities over the last 3 months. All the pictures are in chronological order.
Here is Micah enjoying lunch outside. Hannah helping to empty the pool. In an effort to conserve water, whenever the kids were ready to let the water out of the pool we asked them to water all the dry spots in the grass. They also water my very thirsty hydrangeas.
Josiah and a very docile bumble bee.
Micah my olive lover.
All my kids love black olives and they love to stick them on their fingers too.
Backyard pool fun!
My goodness! How does she know to pose like that?
Sarah turned 12 on June 4th. To celebrate her birthday she had a sleepover with some friends of hers. They started out the afternoon painting their nails.
Hannah joined in all the fun. They girls were all so welcoming of Sarah's little sister. Very sweet girls!
After nail painting they played some 4-square with Josiah and Caleb. Again everyone was happy to have Sarah's younger siblings involved.
Some fun TWISTER action!
Home made pizza for dinner. The girls got to make them them selves. I just laid out the toppings and baked them.
Josiah started chasing the girls around with this cricket he found.
Dress-up, each girl had a title for her outfit.
Our kind neighbor, Gay, came over to have some girl fun. She helped me so much with overseeing the decorating of the colossal cookie.
They were very proud of the finished product. The frosting was really runny but delicious.
Happy Birthday to you.......
Can you tell she was excited about the cash she got? (Thanks Gay)
I think Hannah was happier than Sarah about this one. It had tinker belle on it.
Sarah, Meghan, Megan, McKenna, and Mia
All the party girls, including Hannah.
Josiah was in the spelling bee at school. He did really well.
The day before Sarah's actual birthday she got to go on a date with her Dad. They had a nice time together.
My 6 children. June 4th, 2009
Dancing to music
Yeah for Hannah! She loves to dance around, so much joy in her heart.
Caleb was star of the week. Here he is filling out his poster to share with the class.
Micah's favorite ladybug ball.
Singing Happy Birthday to Sarah. This year she made and frosted her own cake. She did a great job!
The day after her birthday she went on a field trip to Disneyland - California Adventure. Here she is with her good friend Meghan.
Caleb was a little pig in his class performance.
Micah's birthday party at the park. A number of moms got together with their June babies to celebrate. He enjoyed the yummy cupcakes.
Hannah - always up for the park and eating!
Sarah graduated from 6th grade on June 11th. Her Papa drove down and surprised her by being there for the ceremony and refreshments.
2 of my special girls, I'm sure the older one was off running around with friends.
Caleb and Abbey with me.
Can you tell by now that my boys had the camera, they were enjoying taking pictures. Here I am with Josiah and Abbey.
Micah got a balloon that he really enjoyed.
The last day of school. Sarah got a perfect attendance medal. She earned it
The last day of school was also Micah's birthday. He turned 2 this year!
I re lit this candle over and over. He really liked blowing it out.
Hannah loved watching him too.
Look at those lips.
WOW!
Josiah and Sarah enjoying the banana cream pie we made for Micah's birthday.
Hannah liked it too.
Micah. My birthday boy.
What a cool kid - stylin' in his pajamas and purple sunglasses.
Abbey and Micah
Hannah lovin on her sister.
Bryan finishes off our June birthdays, June 29th is his special day. He got to enjoy a round of golf on his birthday. It was quite a sunny day, unfortunatley he forgot the sunscreen.
Caleb and Micah feeding Abbey her bottle.
Here's Micah getting a hair cut. Not even close to being his first hair cut but it was his first time sitting up on the stool. Usually I have him sit in the stroller. He did even better up on the stool.

It was shorter than what I planned but his hair grows so quickly.
He looks so grown up to me. He is now my 2-year-old little boy.
4th of July out in front of our home. We were packing up and getting ready to head to Grandma and Papa's but I had to get a picture of them in their festive clothes. They all helped choose the perfect red, white, and blue outfit.
The morning of Abbey's dedication. My Dad has now dedicated all 6 of my children. What a special thing for all of us. I know it means a lot to me that we can do it that way. Abbey had a beautiful light pink dress to wear.
Uncle Peter and Grandma often play at church together. It still brings tears to my eyes and thankfullness to my heart to see Peter playing the violin after his accident.
Here is Papa introducing our family to the congregation.
Many of them prayed for Micah as we walked through the uncertainty of his pregnacy dealing with the news with his kidney. We continue praise God for his good health.
My Dad took time to talk about Abbey and why we dedicate her. He also spoke about the name we chose for her and what it means.
He tried to hold her, but she still needed time to warm up to that idea.
Here we are praying for her.
I love this picture. I know it's blurry but it touches my heart to see my boys praying for their sister.
We were able to spend over a week with my parents at their home. The kids had so much fun. Hee is Hannah covered in an ice cream cone.
What a handsome boy, Caleb filling up the pool for the babies.
Josiah, trying out his new goggles.
Hannah lounging, she is super safe with that life jacket on and Papa right behind her! She definitley won't "sink" as she likes to tell me.
Caleb in his goggles
Papa made us some great BBQ while we visited.
Sarah even got to help.

We are missing one.
Here they all are. It is very difficult to get them all smiling and looking in the same direction.
Hannah
Josiah, Caleb, and Sarah heading up to the lake for a fishing trip. It was our first time out on Papa's boat. We had such a great time. The younger 3 got to stay home with Peter, Katie, and Grandma.
Josiah driving the boat! WHOAAAA!
Papa and the boys.
Sarah liked putting her feet in on the side. The water felt great.
Caleb
Caleb driving the boat. All 3 of the kids got a chance to drive it a few times. They thought that was great!
Papa put out some trolling lines and we caught one fish. Josiah was very interested in how everything works. Here he is studying Papa taking the hook out.
A nice looking rainbow trout.
Caleb got to hold it too. Sarah just touched it and that was enough for her.
After the exciting catch we stopped in a cove and we all went swimming.
The kids even did a little exploring on the shore. All they found were some thorns and stickers.
Sarah didn't even need her life jacket.
Some relaxing fishing. Unfortunatley we didn't catch anything.

Caleb
Josiah
We got to visit the Samuelson family later in the week. Almost all of them were home. I value the time we get to spend with this family. They are such an encouragement to me. My Uncle Bill and Aunt Karen have done an excellent job raising their 11 children. Here are the Samuelson girls and my girls.
Here are most of their boys, my boys, and my Mom.
Hannah and Micah enjoyed jumping on the tramoline.
I liked this picture of Hannah.
Josiah, doing one of his favorite things, playing video games. We do not own any type of video games so anytime we go somewhere that has them he loves to play.
Cousin Evan was so kind to wipe the cobwebs off of the slide so that Hannah could play on the playset.
Aunt Karen and Papa watching the kids swim.
Sarah, Claire, and Zena swimming together.
Abbey and her Papa
Sarah, Uncle Bill, and Josiah
Camille
Natalie and Hannah
Micah and Evan
I was able to take the kids swimming at Peter's girlfriend's house. Katie's family has a beautiful pool. I had such a great time swimming with my older 4 kids. Very relaxing not having to worry about the babies. They were back with Grandma napping. Josiah was so nervous about jumping in. He finally did it though.
Here he is jumping in! Both of the boys were able to work on their swimming skills. They both were able to swim across the pool. Very exciting, they are getting much better and a little more confident in the water.
Hannah stayed close to the steps.

Abbey really loved splashing in the little pool at Grandma and Papa's house.
Hannah with her Grandma and the tent in the background. Papa took the older 4 kids out for a campout in the backyard 2 different nights. They had so much fun.
Papa and Peter put up the pool just in time for the kids to enjoy it. The had blast in it. I think they swam everyday.
Here's Hannah back at our home playing with Abbey.
Micah watching them
I tried to get them all in the picture, not easy.
Sarah loves to pick out outfits and dress Abbey. This was one outfit she chose recentley, it is actually one that Sarah wore when she was close to Abbey's age. Very cute. I love seeing Abbey wear things that Sarah and Hannah have worn too.

Hannah
Micah lovin on Abbey. He gives her many hugs and kisses through out the day. He also freely tells his family "I love you."
The boys started back to school this last Monday. I forgot to take 1st day of school pictures. So these are 2nd day of school pictures.
The sun was bright for Josiah's eyes.
Abbey
Hannah
Micah
My pretty girls, Sarah and Hannah
Abbey and her thumb