The kids are growing

Over the last few weeks I have noticed that are kids are really growing up.  Several of the pictures can attest to that, as can the fact that we almost need to make two batches of waffles.

So, here are a few pictures and videos showing off all their great personalities.

Anna’s face is starting to look like a little girl instead of a big baby.

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Since I last posted, Sam has learned to sit up, and to do an awesome army crawl.

 

And he is looking more and more like his old man everyday

Mariah recently had a birthday.  She turned 3.  Here is an awesome video that shows all the great personalities in our family.

Anna is just the best, isn’t she?

Here are a few more pictures, just for fun:

One more picture

There is one more summer picture that I wanted to post.  Since I had a lot of time off, I went biking with the girls a bunch.  I guess Mariah enjoys biking differently than me.

The end of the Summer

Around July 4th it was finally warm enough to turn the heater off.  Now it is cold enough to heat again, so the summer must be over.  We’ve had quite the summer, so, now I can share it with you.

Samuel is now 5 1/2 months old.  He is growing very fast.  He is bigger than Anna or Mariah were at the same age, so he is going to be a big boy when he gets older.  The most noticeable thing about Samuel is that he likes to put everything in his mouth.  Paper is his favorite thing, but hair is a close second

The upside to him liking everything in his mouth is he is willing to eat, even if all he can eat is Single Grain Rice Cereal.

 

One of the big things we did this year was to go on a “real” vacation to Utah.  As part of our real vacation we took the girls to Lagoon.  Well, I took them along with Jakob, Saralynn, Tiffany and Mike.  Sarah hung out with Samuel.  Next year he will be over one year old, so hopefully we can just leave him with one of his loving grandparents and Sarah can join us.

Anna loved running through the fountain

Because it is so much warmer in Utah, and my dad has a swing set, the girls spend a lot more time outside.

And of course, what is a trip to Utah without seeing people. 

Anna is with Aunt Tiffany and her cousin Emily

Here is the whole gang with Grandma Sherri

And the whole gang with Grandpa Alan

And Anna’s new friend Cocoa

This isn’t everything we did this summer.  But it was a fun part of it.  The other big thing that happened this summer was my work was changed a bit.  Last December I was moved to a new team.  Well, the new team was dissolved in June, so I was put on a different team.  I still work on phones though, so life is good.  As soon as the team was dissolved, I decided to take the paternity leave that I hadn’t taken since Samuel was born.  So I took 5 weeks off.  Part of that was spent in Utah, while the rest was spent trying to dig a big tree stump out of the front yard.  It was quite the project, but I did eventually (last Saturday) finish digging it out.

Here are a few more pictures

To the Zoo

We’ve had a pretty good last few weeks.  My birthday came and went.  In looking at the weather outside, summer may have come and gone.  Samuel’s first two months of life have almost come to an end.  Life is great.

On my birthday I took the day off from work so that I could spend it with the family.  And what better way is there to spend time with the family than to go to the zoo?  We really like the zoo up here because the animals actually seem to have a lot of area to be.

We see all sorts of stuff at the zoo:

Flamingoes

Some kind of monkey?

And sticks.  They are probably in the shape of a letter, or something smart like that.

I do have to say, that one of the best things Sarah and I ever bought was that wagon Anna and Mariah are sitting in.  It has made so many things more fun to do, especially now that we have 3 kids which means we can’t really carry everyone at once.

Samuel has done a lot of growing in the last month.  He is enjoying spending time with his sisters, who love him very much.  Mariah loves him so much that about half the time she wants us to call her Samuel and carry her around since she can’t walk because she is just a tiny baby.  Mariah actually really does love Samuel.  She is always so helpful in telling us what Samuel is doing, whether or not we are cheering him up, whether or not he likes a particular toy and such.

   

Since it is getting warmer, and Anna seems to have gone as far as she could with her little tricycle, we got her a new bike.

Here are a few more pictures, just for fun.

Samuel Likes to Sleep