Emmie

Emmie turned SIX in August!!!

This sweet girl is such a blessing in our family. She is, for the most part, so easy going and easy to please. She is so much like how I was growing up - a true middle child- somewhat off in her own world and super independent. With an older brother who over the years has demanded a lot of attention, and then a baby sis that came when she was three, Emmie has been such a content little girl who can entertain herself for hours. I regret that sometimes it's easy to not give her the attention she deserves because of this and with other siblings who require more time than she does.

 Here are a few of the many things I love about Emmie: 

She loves to laugh. She has such a bright, beautiful smile and her dimples melt my heart. She has such a kind heart and is sensitive to the feelings of others. She is a peacemaker (a role she has grown into) and wants to be a friend to everyone. Her independence makes it easy for her to adapt to new situations. She didn't bat an eyelash this year as she began a Kindergarten class in which she knew none of the kids. She has grown to love her classmates and teacher and loves going to school. She wants to be a teacher herself when she grows up. She spends hours playing school with Lexi as her student. I used to do this same thing but with my cat. :)

Emmie loves gymnastics, her dance class, playing with friends, and riding her new hot pink bike she got for her birthday. She learned to ride minus the training wheels this year and even though her first casualty came soon after imprinting a scar on her chin, she remains fearless to ride as fast as her skinny little legs will take her. She is for sure our dreamer girl and listening is not her forte. We have found that she looooves to visit La La Land. ;)  She loves art and is so thoughtful - always making cards for people. She is doing a great job with reading and sounds things out on her own and will write her own sentences without even asking how to spell things. I've noticed lately that she has great memorization skills. She loves to sing and has been begging to play the violin. This scares me since I don't play and I don't know how I would help her practice, but to give her a little test try she got a little toy violin for Christmas. Maybe she'll start classes this next year! She's also interested in playing the piano... we just have to purchase one first!

She loves to plan and put on little shows with her sister for which she always does the choreography. She has a peculiar love for BYU (ha - peculiar because I just don't share the enthusiasm for the team) that makes me laugh because she gets waaaay more excited about going to a BYU football game or tailgate than her brother does. Emmie also likes to swim, loooooves Cowabunga Bay, she prides herself in loving meat (something her brother turns his nose up at), loves to play outside and has such a fun, carefree attitude about her. She really looked forward to the arrival of her new baby brother Ty and has been such a great help and big sister to him!

We love this cute girl so much and are so grateful she's ours!!!

Summer Sunday Fun Day

 Love a summer Sunday & love this little fam of mine!!!

This girl is such a character! Lots of personality for such a tiny one! Love her and the pizzazz she brings to our little fam!!!

Parker's Baptism

This cute boy was baptized on August 1st, 2014!

That morning he opened a new set of scriptures and a soccer case to carry them in. He loves to take them to church on Sunday and always makes sure he has them!

Chris & Parker... 

{Chris was on a kick of not cutting his (usually buzzed) hair!}

Special day for a special kid!!! 

The Grandparents!!! 

Plus Parker's next door neighbor buddies, Cole and Connor

The baptism was bright and early at 9 a.m. Grandpa Hansen did a great job speaking on the Holy Ghost. 

 Our fam of 5 1/2....
I look sick... and exhausted... & I was! 

The whole crew! So grateful for all these people who love our Parker!! 

Afterwards, we went back to our house for breakfast pastries and one of Parker's favorites... smoothies!

Parker

Well, I am obviously super duper behind so I am just going to try and post some of the most important happenings since July. And there have been A LOT of big, important events, like this little man turning 8! 

EIGHT!

These last eight years have been the craziest, yet most fulfilling and meaningful years of my life. We just adore this blonde haired, blue eyed boy so much! 

"Parker", "Parks", "Parker P", "Parky", "Parky Pants"....he is such an awesome kid! Here's a few things that stand out about him: (& I'm not going to hold back my bragging rights - esp since I think that the 2 people who actually read this will be forgiving!;) It's for my own record..)

* Parker has been blessed with a quick and sharp mind. He sure keeps us on our toes because of his ever churning little brain and constant need to seek out new data. He is always spouting off some new found fact that he has read or heard somewhere. For example, this morning he informed me that if you were to cut a ball of hail (from the sky) in half, that it would look like an onion inside. Not something that I personally ever wondered about, but a fact that his little mind needed to know. :) I know that every parent thinks their child, especially probably first born, is brilliant... but spend a little time with him and you come to realize that he's the real deal. I'm not just an over-proud mama. He really is so sharp  and I swear he retains every piece of information that comes his way. From sun up to sun down he is relaying some sort of tid-bit about earth science and all sorts of forces of the universe. I'm not going to lie, much of it is over my head & facts that I don't attempt to comprehend. Such a lucky boy to be able to comprehend so much at such a young age! Needless to say, he LOVES school and thankfully completing his homework is done with ease and not the battles that I hear about from other parents. This kid just loves to learn & I hope that he continues to always thirst for knowledge. I may not be able to keep up at his pace, but I think he's awesome for it. ;)

* Parker LOVES his friends!! He is always asking to have a new one come over and the best thing about where we live is that our street is FULL of little boys all within 3 years of each other and they all just go outside and play for hours.  I would have to say that candy and friends are two of the most important things to Parker! (I'm sure those are tops for most kids, right?)

* Parker is (for the most part) reliable. I can tell him to be back at a certain time, and he will be back. I can tell him not to go somewhere, and he listens. I'm so glad that he tries to be obedient, and that I can trust him. 

*Out of all my kids, Parker probably requires the most attention. Not gonna say it's a bad or good thing, but it's just part of his personality. He WILL act out if he doesn't get enough. Quality time with Chris is especially important to him. 

* Reading. This last spring, Parker really developed a love for reading. At 7 years old, he read the first three Harry Potter books (by himself) within just a couple of weeks, and has read a LOT of chapter books since then, including the first three "Series of Unfortunate Events" books, a bunch of the Roald Dahl books, Diary of a Whimpy Kid series, the newest Brandon Mull series, all the Shel Silverstein books... just to name a few. He reads just about anything he can get his hands on. We can't always keep up in supplying books at his demand! We recently ran a little dry and so Chris started him on those huge Calvin and Hobbes books and he's almost read three of them cover to cover. We let him read in bed at night until 8:15 on school nights so that is when he gets most of his reading time in. 

*Parker loves soccer, Disneyland, Star Wars, riding his bike, four square at recess, swimming (can't quite swim by himself yet though), loves to play games, has a current obsession with Pokemon, loooooves tacos (chicken or ground turkey) but otherwise has to be coerced to eat meat (except for bacon), fruits and veggies are his favorite foods (weird I know), his favorite color recently turned from red to blue, he is a caring big brother but like all brothers teases his sisters at times, adores his new brother Ty, he sings at the top of his lungs during his nightly shower, is the slowest eater on planet earth, loves his 2nd grade teacher, & is enjoying cub scouts which he started earlier this year. Parker is a sensitive kid. Words of affirmation are one of his love languages, so unkind words (from his peers) cuts him deeper than I think it would other kids. This makes me worry about his confidence a little at times because there are always bullies out there, and I just hope we can give him the tools to be confident and kind no matter what, and let things roll off his back rather than internalize and be weighed down by careless kids. (Look at me analyze him!) 

We are truly blessed to have this little guy in our family and I'm excited to continue to watch him grow and excel. He has so much potential for good and I'm excited to watch what he does with it!