Around Our House

This girl! Here are a couple quotes from her lately. "Am I 16 yet? Ughh! But I want to drive!!" "Mom, can you drop me off at the pizza store?" I am so intrigued and scared to see what she's like as a teenager. 

We went to the Provo City Center Temple open house last week. It is absolutely beautiful! I loved taking the kids. They were excited to be able to go inside and see all the rooms. While we were watching the video at the beginning of the tour Rockwell leaned over and whispered, "When I watch temple movies, I think about marrying Eden." Funny kid.

We have gotten so much snow this winter. The kids love to play in it.

 My Uncle Ron was in town for my Great-Aunt Karen's funeral. He joined us for my mom's birthday dinner at Sweet Tomatoes. It was a fun night out with my family.

 Al invited Tessa over to play while I got everything ready for Rockwell's birthday party on Friday. (Yes, the one that didn't happen. Darn it!) Tessa had so much fun and I'm pretty sure she could have stayed all day if I had let her. It was a huge help to be able to get the party all set up without any interruptions that morning. Thanks Al!

Al and her family dropped some treats off for the kids on Saturday. Jonah thought it was fun to leave them on the porch and run. The next time the doorbell rang that day Rockwell went running down the hall saying, "I hope it's more candy!" It was a fun surprise that cheered Rockwell up after having to cancel his party.

Damon loves to smoosh our faces if we're laying on the floor.

We enjoyed watching the Super Bowl and having a yummy dinner.

Tessa had some fun faces for us in the car. She cracks me up.

Damon likes to be right in the action of what the rest of us are doing. He always climbs up to see what's going on.

And he's still just the cutest little thing!

Tessa told me I had to come find Daddy because he was hiding. I wonder where Tessa hid him! :)

Then she told him to "explode". 

Damon is in need of another haircut, but I think it's going to be a lot more challenging with how squirmy he's gotten.

Paul and the kids had a lot of fun with target practice. It was nice to have Paul home for a long weekend with President's Day.

New Pictures For The Mantle

I got the itch to take new pictures of the kids. I love the way they turned out!

I love these ones too.

 I promise I love Rockwell just as much as I love Tessa and Damon, his photo shoot just wasn't nearly as lucrative. :)

Rockwell Turns 6!!

Happy birthday to my favorite 6 year old!! 

Rockwell has been so excited for his birthday for so long. The poor kid had his birthday party with his friends all set for Friday at 3:00, and on Friday at 2:30 he was diagnosed with RSV. I thought I was running him into the doctor real quick just to get a refill for his inhaler since he had been coughing and wheezing since Thursday. I was floored to find out he had a fever and the wheezing was from an infection, not just running around in the gross inversion last week. Needless to say, we postponed the party, along with missing out on his family party at Grandma and Grandpa Ham's on Sunday.  He stayed home from school today and enjoyed playing lots of games, having popcorn (his favorite treat) for a snack in the middle of the day, and painting magnets with Tessa.

 Paul came home during our dance party. :)

And then Rockwell got to open his presents.

He was excited for his robot claw and all his pirate gear. We put it all to use and had a quick treasure hunt before cake and ice cream.

 He chose to play his new Mickey game with Paul for his activity. It was a fun evening celebrating this awesome boy!

Rockwell is such a cool kid. He's very responsible and aware of what needs to be done without being told. I remember a few months ago my mom and sisters were over for lunch. When we started preparing the food, Rockwell noticed we wouldn't have enough chairs for everyone so he went into the laundry room and brought out our extra chairs. Seriously, what 5 year old does that? Last Sunday Paul had a bloody nose and had put some tissues in his nose to keep it from bleeding. About 10 minutes after it had stopped, Rockwell brought him the box of tissues from the bathroom. He said, "Dad, I noticed you were using a tissue, so I brought you these in case you need more." He's very thoughtful and aware of others.

Aunt Mel gave Rockwell a Mickey Mouse game for the Wii for his birthday. It's tough for him because you have to use the remote and the nunchuck at the same time and he hasn't done that before. After playing it for a while yesterday he was still having a pretty hard time with it. Paul and I overheard him saying things like, "Barths always do it!" "I need to keep trying, like the little engine." and "Barths never give up. Never!" He was giving himself little pep talks and it sure made us smile.

 He loves the light sabers Wyatt gave him for his birthday. He added the light saber he already had to it and made an ultra light saber. :)

 He's an amazing brother. Tessa and Damon both adore him and think he's the coolest. I'm happy they have such a great example to look up to. We love love love you Rockwell!