Counting down the days.....

So we're counting down the days until September 23rd. Not only will it be Parker's Birthday, but it's also the due date for our next little one (to be named later). In an attempt to help the time pass quickly we've been trying to keep as busy as possible. So here are some of the fun things that we've been doing to pass the time!

Zoe's back in school!!! We decided to get out the backdrops and lighting to take some fun back to school pictures for Zoe.




Things were going smoothly until the photo session was crashed by Sam who declared; "Who's the guy with no pants?.......I'm the guy with no pants!!!!!"





Well, and not to be outdone, Molly decided in the middle of eating her dinner that she had to come and roll around for some pictures too!




In addition to all the kids getting their pictures taken we did a Maternity photo shoot. But if you want to see them, you can look at them on facebook :)If you are not our facebook friend yet then friend us. If you don't have a facebook, then leave a comment on this post asking us to post a couple here for you.

Well we've been counting down the days, and counting the contractions along the way. Today we were hoping for a Baby....or at least to get much much closer, so we decided a long day of walking in the hot sun at the Zoo would help to get things going.











So Molly was 100% out of control at the Zoo today, just doing all kinds of crazy stuff. This one we caught on camera though. She was so intently watching the Giraffes that she leaned her chin on the rails.....and one thing led to another, and she was chewing/sucking on the rails. She's so silly!




There are lots of fun pictures to take at the zoo, esp with the dinosaurs that they have there. There is a T-Rex that they allow people to sit on or stand next to and we patiently waited in line for our turn, but decided to not just do the sitting pictures, but a picture of the T-Rex eating Sam, and Zoe :)

Harry Potter Premier

Anthony and I had no intentions of fighting crowds and wasting money on movie tickets in order to see the final Harry Potter movie. However, the Sunday before the movie was released I just happened to read an article in the Standard Examiner offering tickets to 47 winners if they wrote a short essay on why they deserved them. The tickets were for a brand new theater in Farmington and included all the free drinks and popcorn you could eat. I decided that we needed to enter. Anthony sent in his essay using the approach of needing a night out before our sixth child arrived. My approach was a little different, and I won!!!! Everyone has been asking to read my essay so I will just post it here. Enjoy!

Dear Mark,I was not always a big fan of Harry Potter. I prefer
non-fiction over science fiction any day. Then, I married my husband
and everything changed. We had that conversation that all new couples
have about likes and dislikes. When the subject of movies came up, we
were not on the same page at all. I had never seen any of the films
that he had considered to be classics. I had not seen Lord of the
Rings, Star Wars, or Star Trek. I was fairly confident however that I
had seen all of the Harry Potter movies. I was given a full quiz on
each film, I believe that three had been released at that time. He was
saying, "Have you seen the one where......?" He asked about the basic
plot ideas like "the first one where the troll gets in the school?"
and "the one where there is a huge snake in the Chamber of Secrets?" I
smiled confidently and reassured him that I was current on the Potter
craze. Then he asked me, "Have you seen the one where Hermoine can go
back in time with her spinning necklace?" I laughed and said, "Now you
are just making things up to try to catch me in a lie." Unfortunately,
that was not the case. There really is one like that and I had not
seen it. We have spent the last four years of our relationship
catching me up on science fiction and Harry Potter. I have actually
come to the point where I like the movies. We own all of the
previously released blu-rays now. We have been watching them for the
last few days so that we can be current and informed on everything so
that we can be knowledgeable for the newest release. He has been
mentioning ticket sales and things about his friends or family members
that plan to attend the midnight viewing, but I typically ignore any
hints that he may be sending. There is no way that I am going to go
fight a crowd of Harry Potter crazies in order to watch a movie that
is playing while I am supposed to be sleeping anyway. My husband is
just the kind of nerd that would though. So when I read your article
this morning and realized that I may be able to make one of his dreams
come true without a lot of effort, I was more than excited. I am not
going to pretend like I would do anything for him. I honestly feel
that I do more than enough for him in regards to how a wife needs to
treat her husband. I mean, seriously! I watched all of those other
movies for him. I should not have to wait in a line of people all day
long just to allow him the opportunity to watch a movie that will have
shorter lines in a week or two anyway. I will admit at least that I do
enjoy the movies. You would not be wasting a ticket on me. I typically
know the made-up names of Potter things before he can even think of
them. Please help me do one more thing for my nerd of a husband to
make his life more exciting. I will be able to use this against him
for at least six months and get him to do things in return for me. Who
doesn't deserve that kind of leverage on their spouse? Thank you for
considering me and for not requiring me to catch a live turkey from
the air.

Class Time

So as part of maintaining her license, Missy has to attend a certain number of classes each year. The nice part for her is that she gets to get away for a little while and learn some more about her profession. The not as good news is that that means that Dad gets lots of one on 3 (or 5) time with the kids :)

Given that they get to spend so much time with me while mom is away, staying home and making them clean doesn't seem to keep them as engaged and excite them like I think it should!! LOL. For some of the class nights we've gone and picked out books at the DI, or gone shopping for yummy desserts to make, but on this night we decided that we would go to the park and check out the ducks and take some pictures. Here are some of the results of that night. Enjoy!










Here's another picture of Sam too. We got him a little swim package that has a kick board, goggles, and flippers. He will wear the flippers and goggles constantly all day long. The goggles will fog over and he'll still be going strong regardless. That kid is a trooper when he's into an outfit. I was able to get a picture of him in the flippers, and you'll notice that he took the goggles off for a little bit.......Yep, to accommodate his pirate patch! Man we love that kid!!!

Molly's 1st birthday (and several other things)

I am not the best at staying current on this blog. Sorry! Also, if you do not like pictures you should probably not even bother with this next post. It is just several pictures of our kids. They go in order from newest to oldest. Let's start with a little trip to Utah Lake to throw some rocks.













Every day with Sam is an adventure. He is way into costumes lately. He dresses like Spiderman to go to the store. We really need to start taking more pictures of his many different outfits. Here are some to hold you over until we get more.



These are Zoe's boots. Not sure where the pants ended up.

Yes, he is wearing s carseat mirror along with his summer pajama shorts and Carson's winter pajama shirt. The outfit was not complete without the sword.


Happy birthday Molly Grace!!!!!


Molly's first birthday cupcake. She is so stinkin' cute. She basically just smashed it up and smeared it all over herself.








Dad took the kids to the park one evening and managed to get some super cute pictures of Sam and Zoe even though they were messy from the day. He manages to amaze me every so often.



Cinco De Mayo at Ito and Ita's


We did not select the pinata this year, but we could not have chosen better. It matches Sam perfectly. He has been wearing his old dragon Halloween costume as a jacket lately. This just goes along with our silly little Sam and all of his costumes.




Molly gets so excited when she manages to get into a tote or box or bucket.

Every year for Easter, we go to Anthony's parent's house. The kids colored some eggs.

Molly loves candy!

I have no clue why Sam decided to wear his hat like this for the rest of the day.

Anthony's family does an egg hunt every year that consists of foil wrapped Whopper eggs and gummy worms. I do not always understand their traditions, but they are growing on me more and more each year.







This year we tried a new "tradition" of allowing the kids to plant a little garden.



These are from the Easter egg hunt at our house.





Here are a few pictures from our Spring stuff that Anthony just gave me.



Carson and Parker did not want to wear their new outfits yet, so they just had some pictures taken in the clothes they had on.




Molly's first bubble bath.

Molly found a bag of licorice in my purse and decided to help herself.

Zoe is obsessed with volcanoes. Here she is going through her huge book of volcano photos with her brother and Uncle Peter.

Sam loves to cuddle with Zoe. We went in to move Sam into his own bed and this is what we discovered. If you look closely you can see the big puddle of drool coming from Zoe's mouth.


I finally got sick of diapers and Sam, and decided that he was going to learn to be a big boy. I took away his diapers and put him right into underwear. Three days later, he was potty trained. No joke! As requested, his reward was a chocolate cake with two "magical helper spiders" and FIRE.