weekly photos

Jonny finds a little lemon that he sucks on and plays with like a ball. He is such a cutie. It is fun to see how much he changes through these weekly photo ops.

Jon Jon

Jonny wanted to have some back to school pictures also, so we took plenty...

He has several (okay lots) of those little cars, they are his favorite. He likes to make the vrrrrr sound while he drives them.

Photogenic Five

Here are my photogenic five on the first day of school.

Tenth Grade

Spencer goes to tenth grade. I can't believe how soon he will be done and graduated! Time, please slooooowwww down!!

Jonny wondered where all the kids went after they had been home playing with him all summer. He likes to take the girls to the bus stop in the morning. He loves seeing the dogs, the birds, the cars, the big yellow school bus, the rocks, wearing shoes, being outside etc.

Ninth Grade- High School

Freshman in high school- how could this day have come?

6th Grade

Megan's first day of 6th Grade. She is so excited to have the same fabulous teacher that Spencer and Jessica had in 6th grade, and especially to have her best friend Reygan in class with her.

4th Grade

Hayley's first day of 4th grade.

Spencer and Ammon

(Me): Boys. BOYS! Quit your fighting! (Them): We're just wrestling mom!

Spencer and Ammon have always been the best of friends since they were neighbors as young boys. Spencer was devastated when Ammon moved out of state; he has been Spencer's surrogate brother and we love Ammon as one of our own. The two were able to get together several times over the summer and have slumber parties (although they usually stayed up ALLLL night and then slept all day) several times since Ammon was staying here for a month to visit with his grandparents.

Megan and Reygan

Another set of die hard best friends- Megan and Reygan. They have been lucky enough to be in the last 3 grades together in the same class. Now, they are signed up for gymnastics together. When they are not together, they are on the phone with each other. Together they befriend others that really could use a friend and help to make a good example at school. So awesome! (I can't believe they will also be in YW together in a matter of months)!

photo op

This day last year

Tamara's brother Stephen Bair took some photos of me and Jonny. He did such an excellent job! I just got the CD so I am putting these up now. It is amazing to see how much Jonny has changed over the last year.

Worth a thousand words...

Here, Jonny demonstrates how he eats: he gets a handful of something and methodically empties the contents of his entire hand into his mouth without losing anything out of the bottom of his hand. It ends up looking like he is trying to shove his whole hand in his mouth, but he adds one finger at a time, leaving each finger in his mouth until his hand is empty so that he can get the little pieces of food from each of the fingers. This is a much practiced technique that he learned the hard way. Before this tried and true technique manifested, he would lose food out of the bottom of his hand. Effective and cute!

I love all of the different expressions he makes.

Wicked Good Time

Darin and Spencer had to leave scout camp a little bit early, and we left the cabin early because we bought tickets a year in advance to take all of the kids to see the musical Wicked. It was so awesome. Our favorites: 'What is this feeling,' 'Popular,' "Defying Gravity,' 'For Good.' It was so amazing. We listen to the soundtrack regularly. It was so fun to do this together.

Cabin with our neighbors

Darin and Mark were going to scout camp, so Cami and I and the girls all went to their cabin for a couple of days. We had fun together. The girls all made fairies (Cami's creativity and brilliance) that turned out so cute. They played with them constantly while we were there. While the girls were making fairies, the little coffee table was covered in fairy paraphernalia and clutter, Jonny comes over to the table and just picks up the three rocks on the corner of the table. I was sure he was going to take his arm and sweep all of the clutter onto the floor just for the fun of it, but he didn't touch any of it, except the three rocks on the corner- such a boy...

Jonny and the hair band

This is a video that Megan made with her camera. I'm glad she captured a precious moment between sisters and baby brother.

I love how in the first video he makes the sign for 'milk' as he has done since about 6 or 7 months old. He knows how to ask for it. I love his sweet smile in the second video even though it is very short.

Pickle Breath

Jonny loves pickles. Is it any wonder- thinking of my siblings and their love of pickles, oh, and my other children...

Car lover

My name is Jonathon. I am cute, and I love cars. That is all.

Bubbles

I was called to be a nursery teacher which works out perfectly for Jonny. Before he turns 18 months old and goes to nursery officially, this is the easiest place to be with him. Almost every week, we blow bubbles while we wait for the parents to come pick up their kids (quite a while in some cases) and Jonny LOVES the bubbles. He tries to catch them, he watches them, he blinks when they break and splash his face, he giggles when he sees them, sooooo cute! Here, Jonny is at home getting into the lid drawer (also a regular thing) and Jessica blows some bubbles for him to pop, watch and enjoy.

Mesa Temple

I had the opportunity to go with the YW to do baptisms at the temple. It was wonderful to be in the peaceful refuge of the temple, but it was very emotional because I knew it was my last activity with the girls because I already knew I would be released so I cried the whole time. But it was wonderful to be there. If I had to choose my last activity, that would be it. It was also nice that Jessica was able to be there also. Since she turned 14, she has gone to her age appropriate activities while I have stayed with the 12-13 year olds and she took the joy with her. So, being with Jessica was another reason it was a nice last activity. I grabbed a few shots after we were done (of course).

Happy Birthday Darin

For Darin's birthday, he got a GPS, but we gave it to him early so we could use it on our trip. We all arrived home from our trip last night so Darin wouldn't have to be home alone on his birthday. Jonny was so excited to be home, he wandered around playing with his cars. His favorite one is the purple barbie car that Megan and Hayley got for Christmas. He was also thrilled to get back into his own bed. Allof us were thrilled to be in our own beds again, but only Jonny actually giggled. Darin's birthday was the same as any Sunday- lots of meetings- I think his favorite thing was the nap he got, but we also had a nice dinner for him.

One more year until 40...

Love ya babe- happy birthday!

Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House

Brothers fourteen years in the making.

I thought this second one was fun. Even though Jonny is crying, he still looks so cute. And Spencer is back there laughing. Sometimes Spencer is harder to photograph than Jon is- he just won't pay attention to the camera.

Here is a little information about this and other temples.

Top Five

Big Mouth

The kids thought it was hilarious to draw faces on their chins and take pictures and videos of it. They had so much fun, it kept them occupied for hours. They did this with Tamara's kids at her house and a few days later with their cousins at Steve and Whitney's house. Too funny...

Friends!

Megan and Hayley were ecstatic that we were able to meet up with Kaitlyn and Aubrey, (sisters, the same age as Meg and Hayley that used to be neighbors here, but moved away a couple years ago). We met up for lunch and it was fun to catch up. Spencer and Jessica also enjoyed revisiting with their 14 year old brother (oops, I just forgot his name) and I enjoyed getting reacquainted with my friend Jenny (their mother). Good times...

Sing it with me now... "And a friend's a friend forever..."

Randomness

On the left and below, Spencer has Jonny on his shoulders and he goes up and down suddenly like a Jonny sized 'Tower of Terror' ride. Jon, the future roller coaster enthusiast giggles with each sudden up and down movement. On the right, he is just too cute to leave cute pictures off.

Here, Jessica tries to prove that she can be photographed without smiling (after I told her she couldn't). She tried her best, and my quick snapping action caught the first one, but she couldn't hold it for more than a couple of seconds and then she laughed uncontrollably.

I don't know why this video is sideways, I guess because I used my point and shoot camera and it must have been sideways. I just love to hear Jonny's happy little giggle/squeal when Spencer goes down.

Dinner and Dishes

Don't you just want to kiss those cute little pursed lips? His lips always seem to be like a little heart that makes you want to smile and kiss him all at the same time.









After Jonny finished eating, he wanted to help with the dishes- see how helpful he is?

Four Wheeling

So fun!

Happy Birthday Jessica

Jessica is 14 today. I can't believe it. Now she has moved on to Mia Maids, she has started going to the youth dances, she will be in 9th grade... how does this happen so quickly?

She got some piano books for her birthday and she has been filling the house with beautiful music using them since.

Wyoming Visit

For Jessica's birthday we were in Wyoming. Darin's parents took us up to the mountains for a picnic and riding their four wheelers. Four wheeling is really fun, but the mosquitos were so thick as to really drive us indoors eventually. We did a birthday cake for Jessica and sang happy birthday to her in the mountains. Jonny had so much fun throwing rocks in the river, you can see how excited he is in a couple of the pictures. We also found a tractor that the kids climbed on for a picture.

Drive By Shooting

Okay, Okay, don't panic with the title. It is so titled because this is exactly what I did. We were on our way from Idaho to Wyoming and we passed a beautiful reservoir. We didn't want to stop so I just stuck the point and shoot camera out the window and snapped a few shots without stopping.