9th Anniversary

R and I had our 9th Wedding Anniversary on Saturday. Can you believe it? 9 years! Crazy. We actually celebrated the weekend before by leaving the kids with a sitter and running off with the circus....well, we did go see Cirque du Soleil. It was an amazing show, and I did like the nod to all things French.

I started to think about what we did or where we were for our other anniversaries.
1--I graduated from BYU on the 16th of August
2--Dinner and a movie
3--Had a baby 2 weeks before
4--1st date leaving baby C at home
5--Had another baby 2 weeks before, then signed the papers on our 1st home on our actual anniversary
6--Dinner and a movie
7--Dinner and a movie
8--Had a baby 10 days before
9--Went to Cirque du Soleil

We're already planning on a big trip next year to celebrate 10 years that doesn't involve "dinner and a movie" nor "had a baby 2 weeks before."

Let them eat cake!

....because I am so tired of it. After 3 birthdays and 2 birthday parties in one week, I'm a little over eating cake everyday. I'm also 10 pounds heavier. No wonder the French revolted when Marie Antoinette said that.

Happy Birthday MK!

Today MK turned 1 year-old! I still can't believe it. What happened? Time seems to have flown by. But, it's true--she's now 1 year-old instead of "zero" like the boys have said all year. She was never 6 months-old nor 9 months-old, she was always zero.

We had chocolate cake with pink frosting after dinner tonight. MK was just memorized by the candle on her cake. Here's a before picture:

MK's 1st Birthday

Here is an after picture:

MK's 1st Birthday

We opened presents before the cake...thought it would be easier. She was concentrating pretty hard to get her new doll out of the wrapping paper.

MK's 1st Birthday

And she loved her new doll right away. Here she is giving her doll a kiss.

MK's 1st Birthday

It was a fun evening. She was entertained and entertaining.

We love having MK as part of our family. She's now walking, waving, clapping, giving kisses, and more. She gives great hugs and has such a sweet smile. She can go up and down the stairs all by herself. When she wants to be held, she'll crawl up to you, turn around, back into your legs, then sit at your feet. She loves her brothers and is loved by them. She loves to explore, including the pulling things out of cupboards like towels, pots, Tupperware, cereal, etc.

Happy Birthday to our little girl! We love you!

A Birthday Party for S

Can you believe it? We had another Birthday Party today. Today we had a pool party for S and his friends. If the pictures are looking familiar, it's because we had a familiar party with just different participants and different birthday boy. Today was S' turn in the spot light. It was the first time we did a birthday party for him, and he's been SO excited. He had 5 friends come and play today. They played in the pool, rode scooters and bikes, played with all the toys in the house, and had a great time.

Here are my two birthday boys. They are great friends to each other....most of the time.

Birthday Party

Here are all the lucky party go-ers. Only one wasn't in the picture because he showed up later.

 Birthday Party

We had barbecued hot dogs for lunch then chocolate cupcakes with orange frosting.

S at the birthday party

He LOVED being sung to again. After cupcakes, he opened presents. It was quite funny--just about every one of his friends would tell S what they got him and help him open the present. He didn't mind the help. They all played for a bit more before the moms came to claim their kids. One of presents he received was a Thomas train set. He LOVES playing with trains, and we promptly set it up for him.

S and his train

We had a lot of fun this morning. The boys all got along great, and everyone had fun. About an hour after his friends all left, S came up to me and asked me if he could have a friend come over and play. I told him I was all friended out for the day, but maybe tomorrow.

One more birthday to go.

A little side note--I lathered up the boys with sunscreen SPF 50 this morning. Poor kids have no chance with 2 pasty-white parents. Hence, the swim shirts. Anyways, R noticed this evening that S has a sunburn on his back.....a thin sunburned line along his plumbers crack. Oops. I hadn't put any sunscreen there. And this is after reading my sister's blog about how her 5 year-old got sunburned along his "crack-a-lackage."

Happy Birthday S!

Happy 4th Birthday S!

Today we celebrated S' 4th birthday! Hooray. We had a family dinner with cake and presents today. Tomorrow, will be his birthday party with his little friends. So, more Birthday fun to come. (Well, and more birthday fun to come with MK's birthday on the 5th.)

We went to church in the morning. The primary sang 'Happy Birthday' to both S and C. S was very happy to have been given a sucker. He told me it was chocolate and offered to let me have some so I would know it was chocolate, but I passed. I told him I believed him. S is so easy going that we were able to keep our normal Sunday routine. We came home from church, had lunch, and had some quite time. Love quite time.

My mom came over for dinner and cake. She has some friends from Saudi who were staying with her for the week and came along. They are on their way from Saudi to work at the Embassy in Cuba and were able to stop for a week in Utah with my Mom. It was fun to have them as well as my Mom. We had a yummy dinner and some delicious chocolate cake.

Here is S enjoying the Birthday Song followed by our Danish Birthday Song that is a Haws Family tradition. I love the look of anticipation on his face.

S blowing out the candles

S blowing out the candles

He blew out 3 of the 4 right away, but had a hard time getting that 4th one out. Mom joked that he was still 3. Once he blew out that 4th one she said, "Now he's 4!"
He opened presents before dinner.

Birthday Boy

S loves puzzles and got 2 new ones from Auntie J and Uncle Neal. He was most excited about this "cool Hot Wheels one."

Birthday Boy

We got him a new scooter for his birthday. He left his last scooter behind my van. Can you guess what happened to it? Yup. I didn't see it and ran over it. It mangled up the rear wheel axle and couldn't be fixed. He's been without a scooter for a good part of the summer. But, he'd always start or end his lament about his old scooter by saying that he left it behind my car and didn't put it away. We're hoping that means he learned his lesson. His last scooter was a 3-wheeled scooter. We got him a 2-wheeled scooter. Here is S trying it out.

Birthday Boy

We are so happy to have S as part of our family. He is such a character! He keeps us laughing with all his crazy antics and goofiness. He's easy-going. He's a gadget guy (our little engineer.) He gives great hugs and kisses. He's fearless. And he's loving. What would we do without you, S?

Happy Birthday C!

Happy 6th Birthday C!

Today C celebrated (Again. But for reals this time) his 6th birthday. Like I mentioned before, I had to work today so C, S, and MK went to the sitters this morning and C had to wait all the way until dinner before we let him open his presents from the family. This is a picture that C took during the day.

C's Birthday

Can you tell what was on his mind? He got a new backpack and workbook from mom and dad, a new 'cars' shirt from S & MK, paint and paper and LEGOS from Auntie J and Uncle Neal, and some cash from Grandma and Boppi. He's been asking for Legos forever!

C's Birthday

R sat down with him and watched C put together his LEGO car. C did it all by himself and was having a blast doing it. We took the kids out to the church parking so they could ride their bikes. It was a great day.

We love having C as part of our family. He is always eager to help. He is a great example to his younger brother and sister. He is creative. I love his stories--especially in the morning when he tells me about his dreams. We love you C!

C's Birthday Party

Birthday Week has officially begun!

Yes, tomorrow is C's birthday, but I have to work tomorrow so we started celebrations today. C has been telling me for weeks now that he wanted to have pancakes with a candle on it for his birthday breakfast (and he uses hand gestures to make sure I understand that it's on top of the pancake.) So, this morning he started of his 2-day birthday celebration with a pancake breakfast.

C's Birthday

Then, we had friends over for a birthday party. We pulled out our pool and had a water party. We have gotten so much mileage out of that little pool. Thanks Mimi! Here's S helping as I'm filling it up.

Birthday Party

They played in our little pool and popped balloons. Their favorite thing to do today was to pop balloons on the grass. Go figure. Here are all the boys.

Birthday Party

Grandma came by for a little bit to wish C a happy birthday and check out all the commotion.

C and Grandma

It was a FUN party--but man was I exhausted when it was all said and done. I pushed myself to clean it all up, telling myself that I could sit down for a little bit when it was all cleaned up. (There was water, cupcakes, balloon corpses everywhere!) The boys and I (well, me really) finally got it all cleaned up, and I grabbed a lemonade and sat down to rest. I started hearing MK in the kitchen and sent C to check it out. This is what we found.

MK playing in the Cheerios

Yup--she was hungry and wanted some cheerios. Do you think she got enough? She was quite pleased with herself.

MK playing in the Cheerios

She was kicking her legs around to move the cheerios around and giggling. She made little "cheerio angels" with her legs. And you can see the necklace she put on herself, too. She'll find the boys old glow stick necklace or necklaces I have in my bed side drawer and put them on. She gets mad when we take them off her.

MK's Big Week

MK has had a very big week.

1. She's finally gotten teeth. Okay, this one has been a couple weeks in the making, but still needed to be noted.

2. She's finally in a crib. Can you believe she's spent almost an entire year sleeping in her pack-n-play? Or her swing? We finally moved the boys out of her room and into their own room on real beds even. So, we could put up her crib. She has done great with the transition to her crib and sleeps better than before. Love it!

3. She's learned to go down the stairs. Nice. With the boys moving downstairs we couldn't keep the gate up all the time. I worked with MK a few times on the stairs showing her how to go down...which basically was me pulling her legs out from under her to put on the stair below her and making sure she was on her belly. But it worked! Now, she crawls over to the stairs (which still makes me nervous) and turned so her feet were first and down she goes. It sure is a cute little shimmy-shimmy she does.

4. She's watched her first fireworks show and LOVED it. She slept through the 4th of July fireworks. Last night was the 24th of July, which is HUGE here in Utah. A neighbor has a block party every year that is Bring-Your-Own-Fireworks. MK loved all the fireworks and kept clapping after each one.

5. She's taken her first steps! Wahoo! She's been standing for a while and just recently started to do the "furniture walk." Then out of the blue a couple days ago, she started walking. She's now up to about 5 steps before she goes down and just crawls the rest of the way. I finally washed our push-walking toy for her today. She now cruises around the house, giggling the entire time.