Erik's 6th Birthday

I wanted to share pictures of Erik celebrating his 6th Birthday!!! I know I'm a procrastinator, but even though it was February 27th I thought some of you might still like to see the pictures.

He LOVED getting mail! Whether it was money or presents he said, "That was just what I wanted!" He loved it all.

Cameron enjoyed that big brother was getting mail too.

Erik had hoped for a friend's birthday party. Unfortunately, Erik was sick that week and so we just had a family only dinner. So to make it a little more fun we wore the Spiderman masks. Erik was very surprised when he came to the table to find Mom & Dad in Spiderman masks. After dinner Erik showed us how to swing through the air like Spiderman.

Then he blew out his candles.

The next week at school they celebrated Erik's birthday & he came home with another "Kindergarten hat". So much fun!


Mom, this is for you specifically. This is Erik opening his Birthday package from you that arrived in January.

Here is Erik's first time out on the snowshoes. He went around the house to the backyard to find a tree to hang his pinecone birdfeeder (it's in the little white sack).

Thank you to everyone. Erik had a wonderful 6th Birthday!

February

Well I took a long time off from blogging. I've thought of a lot of things to blog about, but I know this is about the pictures. So here are the updates:

Cameron is pleased that he can crawl all over and can stand up to & walk along things now. However, Mommy has a lot of breathing problems when Cameron takes a spill and gets a new bruise on the head. Oh this is such a fun time and not so fun time of babies growing up. But he will make it through & so will Mommy.

Cameron's favorite bath-time activity: sucking water out of the washcloth.

Enthusiastically, looking forward to being like Dad.

100's day at school.

So can you guess which President Erik liked studying about at school?

Erik is learning to read. So he gets to read to everyone, including Cameron.
I LOVE THIS!

Dreaming of having his own car; and being a race car driver. This worries Dad that Erik wants to drive like his Mom. I guess I better slow it down! :)

KINDERGARTEN: THE GREAT AMERICAN ROAD TRIP
Unfortunately Erik missed a lot of school during February, due to a cold that just wouldn't go away. One of the days he missed was a very special school day. The kindergarteners made their own box cars for a "road trip." All 4 classes came in the morning and did a parade through the school for parents & students. Then they "visited" Mount Rushmore, the Lincoln Memorial, the White House & the Statue of Liberty. They had been learning about the United States, U.S. Presidents and historical monuments. Since Erik couldn't go I printed pictures of the monuments and posted activities in envelopes at each of the sites. Then he had to "follow" a U.S. road map to the correct state to find the monument. He was very happy that then all he missed out on was seeing the actor Abraham Lincoln.

Celery anyone?

Lots of Christmas & New Year Photos

We had a great Christmas! Thank you to everyone for the very nice gifts. We spent the day relaxing at home, eating & playing with our new things.

Erik's dance to one of the sounds the Catapillar makes. Erik loves Football. He can't stop talking about it or trying to figure out how to come up with a team and equipment. Here is one of his homemade football helmets and outfits.

Cameron loves to eat! He loves food and he loves his sippy cup!

Cameron's new skills include clapping, making all sorts of "boy" noises (which includes growling, brooooooommmm noises and a gasping sound that makes me think he can't breathe but it's just play to him), waving & playing peek-a-boo. He even likes to sit in the car shopping cart at the grocery store and pretend that he is driving. That had Erik & I both laughing & many grandparents stopping to say hi.

Erik and Daddy built a sledding run-way. This is the starting ramp.

Cameron is sitting up now and. . .

has learned the finer points of "falling" over.

The only thing that makes Cameron more happy than sitting up is standing. (Well other than being packed around.)

Our little Indian brave. He likes to target practice in the garage.

Erik's homemade merit badges. Major icicles are the neat thing this winter. We have plenty of icicles but this is a large portion of a broken one that Dad & Erik played with. It was INCHES thick.

Jeff & Sloane, Spencer's sister, had taken their family to the Festival of Lights and Sloane highly recommended it. We went! Loved it Sloane. Thank you! Erik still mentions it and wishes it would come again soon. We so enjoyed it. Here's just 2 of the many pictures we took.

Daddy wanted to make Eclairs & so he did; even though he was giving Mommy a break from Cameron! Cameron was very happy about this decision, especially since Daddy didn't notice Cameron was getting his first bites of homemade chocolate pudding and LOVING IT!!!!!!!! The picture doesn't even show all the chocolate he had on his hands, face & the snuggly.

Erik likes to put hats (among other things like blankets, sun glasses etc.) on Cameron.

The one and only time Cameron might be caught asleep.

We have had a wonderful holiday season! We feel so blessed to be living where we live and enjoying the experiences that we are having. We wish you all the best the new year has to offer! We love you all & think of you way more than we let you know. May God's blessings be abundant in your life and you feel & recognize his presence.

Part II -- It Ain't a Joke, but it's funny

Erik was playing Backyardigan Super Secret Super Spy yesterday. He hasn't said a word about his bow tie, but I noticed that he made his own.

That got me to thinking that I should take him and get a new bow tie, if he wanted one. I figured that since this is a 5-day weekend for him that on Friday (tomorrow) I would make a trip to Provo/Orem and one of the errands could be to get a bow tie.

So guess what happened this morning!? He pulls out his Thomas the Train sets and starts playing trains. All of a sudden he gasps & says "MOM! Look it's my bow tie!"

Sure enough. He's pulling his red bow tie out of the trains and holding it up in the air. "I found it! It didn't go down the toilet!" I had to laugh, but then asked so Erik why did you think it did go down the toilet. "Well when I couldn't find it anywhere I just guessed that it fell off & I didn't see it in the toilet."

I still don't know how this boy thinks. :) !?