Blessing Day

Our little princesa was blessed earlier this month. She was so busy being loved by everyone that came to see her that we didn't get many pictures of her by herself... so we finally put her dress back on a week or so later and snapped a few. The blanket behind her was made by her great-grandma Jan.

She was lucky to be blessed by her daddy-O.

Since we had lots of family we celebrated Miss Liv's birthday too! (This time, I used regular frosting instead of the marshmallow disaster!)

We were very happy that Terri made the long trip out to visit and be here for the special day! She helped me so much in the morning getting ready for everyone to come over--she even braved the kitchen counter (it's still mostly clean!).

Three generations... me, Sophia Madelynn, and my mom, Madeline.

Grandma and Grandpa Cole with Sophia (Sophia Mason Crook comes through Grandma Cole's line).

Grandma Jan and Grandpa Denver Harper with Sophia

Cute Aunt Kristen and Sophia

The Jelte clan (plus a few extras!)

Eliza and Stephanie with Sophia

The Dave Wilbur clan

We were so glad the Barlows could come! Tyler did NOT want to be in the photo :).

Grandma Dorothy had a dream about Sophia a few weeks before she was born--she knew that she would be healthy. You can see from this picture she has a healthy set of lungs--she was tired from all the fuss and attention (and the big poofy dress I'm sure didn't help anything).

And she was DONE. (Sorry you had to have the screaming picture, Erin, love you!)

We're so grateful for those who came and all the help bringing yummy food... it was a wonderful day!

Birthday Girl

Dear Olivia,

Earlier this month you turned nine! It is so hard for me to believe how grown up you are. I feel so blessed to be your mom and I'm so proud of the wonderful girl you are. You are kind and thoughtful and generous. You go out of your way to help others and make other people feel included. You have a strong testimony of the gospel and a deep desire to do what is right. You are a great older sister to Coleman and Sophia, and they both love you so much and look up to you. When dad blessed you as a baby, he blessed you to have patience with your parents, and boy, have you needed it! We are learning about parenting and we make mistakes, but you are forgiving and loving. I am especially grateful that you are patient with me.

It seemed so grown up to me that for your birthday this year you wanted a watch and clothes--I'm glad you threw a pogo stick on your list so you got at least one toy! You are always so gracious when other people give you things and you love to write notes to say "thanks" which I think is great.

For your cake you really wanted the same cake we got last year for your baptism that had a big mum made of marshmallow cream frosting, but we couldn't find any bakery that could make it for you, so I found a recipe and did a little experimenting... it didn't turn out so well, but you were very gracious about it anyway! They did taste pretty good, but they sure didn't hold their shape and by the end of the night most of the frosting had drooped off. Oh well!

We celebrated your special day with a few close friends at a "late night" and you all laughed and laughed as you made pizzas, painted pillowcases, and watched a movie together. We tried out "Heavy, Heavy Hangover" as you opened your gifts which got pretty silly! I love that you are a good friend to so many people.

I hope you know how much I love you and respect you. Happy birthday, sweet Liv!

Love,
Mom

Dance Festival 2010

At the end of every school year the kids perform in a Dance Festival. I have a love-hate relationship with this event. It seems that their costume requirements are rarely things we have just laying around the house, nor are they things that we will have much use for later.

Third grade performed to "Hoe Down Throw Down" by Hannah Montana... luckily we had a bandana and she wore Ryan's Chilean cowboy hat.



The kindergartners did a dance to a Humpty Dumpty song and we had to buy some suspenders and knee-hi socks, which are surprisingly hard to find for 6 year old boys!

I love this mischievous look on Coleman's face.

Despite my issues with the costumes, Olivia and Coleman both did a great job in their dances and we survived another year of Dance Festival!

Spring 2010 Piano Recital

Olivia had a piano recital on May 22nd and she did a great job performing two songs that she worked so hard on and memorized.


My mom came down and played the violin with her on one of the songs.
Ryan's grandma and grandpa were there too... they are long-time supporters of Olivia's piano progress.
We were so glad to see Olivia's hard work pay off!

She played "Quasi Adagio" with my mom on the violin:



She also memorized "Spinning Song" which was a tricky piece to play and memorize. Ryan's grandma told me that it has been played in our family for generations... her father played it, she played it, Ryan's mom, and Ryan played it too... so that's at least five generations of playing this song:



Way to go Liv, we are proud of you!

Good things to come

To all the dads out there who don't give up and trust in good things to come. We love and appreciate you!

Citizenship

Today in Activity Days we reviewed the 12th Article of Faith: "We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law." The girls talked about ways we can be good citizens of our community, country, and world. We came up with a few ideas of things we can do to be good citizens:

1. Respect others.
2. Obey the laws.
3. VOTE: Know the candidates and issues. (Primary election is next week, June 22nd, for all those in Utah.)
4. Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. (Thanks Jack Johnson!)

**Thoughts?

Someone's got a lisp...

After weeks of dangling in a way that made me want to rip it out myself, Coleman's tooth finally came out (with a little help from Daddy and some dental floss).

Losing those top teeth takes away their little kid look... a rite of passage they all must go through, but bittersweet for the mamas as all stages are.

Coleman swore he would "never, ever" get another tooth pulled out again... we'll see about that!