Today Gracie Jo is SEVEN!

I can't believe she's so old! It honestly seems like it was not that long ago that we were living in Logan and walking across the street from our little apartment to the hospital for a scheduled c-secion. Gracie was the ideal first child. She was always such a good baby and continues to be a good girl to this day. She is such a sweet, loving, caring person. One of her very favorite things to do is spend time with her entire family. She loves to play with all her cousins and her sisters are her very best friends. She has her moments when she isn't entirely pleasant but most of the time when you see her there's a twinkle in her big brown eyes and huge smile on her face. We have been so blessed to have Gracie in our family and watch her grow into the wonderful young girl that she is . She is such a good example to her younger sisters and is such a big help to her parents. We love you Gracie!!!!!

Today is also another important birthday! Gracie Jo was born on her Grandpa Joe's birthday. Which is why her middle name is Jo. He says he's turning all of the birthdays over to Gracie but we wanted to give him a shout out anyway. Happy birthday Duffer! This is him and Gracie on the day she was blessed.

Happy Birthday Greg!

Well today is Greg's birthday but It's pretty much going to be just another Tuesday. He is so busy these days that I'm not sure if we are even going to see him much today. He got to kiss the girls goodnight last night but that's about all that they got to see of him yesterday. I'm glad we had the chance for a little St. George mini-vacation last weekend. It was hard for him to get away and he was on the phone a lot but we had a good time hanging out in the warm sunshine. I'm not sure how much he really enjoys spending so much time watching baseball but he does it anyway because it's what my family likes to do and he humors us. We are so lucky to have him in our lives. He works soooo hard so he can provide for us and especially so that I have the opportunity to stay home with our girls. He is the best husband and father that anyone could ask for. I get mad at him a lot because he's gone so much with work, town council and the farm, but I know he does it for us and if he could he would spend more time at home with all his girls. So happy birthday sweetie!

When will I learn?

Well they say that silence is golden but not when you have a toddler running around. Then it usually means trouble. You would think by the third child I would have learned that. The other day the big girls were both at school and Chandler was running around and playing which is awesome because she hasn't always been that way. She use to be attached to me most of the time but she is getting better and better at entertaining herself. So to get to the point, I was in one room, she was in another and then it was quiet. I walked into see her squirting "woshie" all over the place. It's a good thing I stocked up on baby magic when I found out they weren't going to make it anymore because there was at least half a bottle down the drain. I'm still finding greasy little hand prints on stuff. It was too hard to stifle my laughing to scold her so I just got my camera instead. She sure smelled good though.

A break in the boredom

Since my last boring post a few fun things have gone on. My nephew Jordan got his mission call to Boston! He's the one who plays football for BYU. He could not have hand picked a better fitting call for himself. He is a huge Red Socks fan and has always wanted to go to Boston. He also wants to name a son Boston and was worried someone would beat him to it. We weren't able to be there when he opened up the call but we heard it was quite a party. There were tons of friends and family there to support him and everyone was so excited when he announced the Massachusetts, Boston mission. We were on speaker-phone but there was so much noise we only stayed on long enough to hear the big announcement so they sent us some pictures. He has a late birthday and most of his friends have already left for their missions so he is excited to get gone. Here's a cute picture of him and his youngest sister Ally who apparently cried most of that night because she thought he was leaving that night. She loves her big brother! I think he will make a great missionary.

On Thursday we went to a party for Greg's dad Eric who is retiring from the Summit County building department after 23 years. It was a really nice lunch get together with lots of people coming to wish him and Dixie well. He was the head of his department with the county and now will still do inspections for Francis and pretty much be a full time farmer. Something I think he's waited a long time to do.

Then on Saturday we had a surprise party for my mom who is also just retired from BYU after 20 years. She has gone back and forth about retiring for a while now and since my dad retired about 2 years ago I just don't think she could stand it anymore. It was too hard for her knowing she had to get up and go to work knowing he was at home without her everyday. The party turned out really nice and she was totally surprised. We almost thought she knew at first because it took her a minute to react. She thought she was going to dinner with my aunt and dropping off a flower delivery for a surprise bridal shower on the way. I hope she wasn't too disappointed she didn't get to go to Red Lobster. It's her favorite place to eat and she had starved herself all day because she was so excited to be going there. She seemed to have a good time though. Now she has plans to learn to golf, learn to scrapbook, and volunteer at the elementary school where my sisters kids go. We'll see. So far she's taken a lot of naps. (hee hee love ya mom). So there it is. We go from boredom to busy back to boredom. Still watching the snow except it is slowly melting. It's not fast enough for me or my kids. It snowed all morning here on Saturday and an hour away in Salem my dad was mowing his lawn. Crazy Utah weather! The kids had so much fun playing outside on the grass down there we couldn't get them to come inside. We all definitely have cabin fever and are soooooo looking forward to our trip to St. George next weekend . The weather better be dang nice!

How boring!

I hate posts without pictures but when you don't do anything fun or exciting you don't take pictures . We are so boring these days. Not a whole lot going on around here but we did have a great trip to St. George last weekend. Greg had to go to a Rural Water conference for the town and luckily spouses get to go. So while he was in meetings for 3 days I got to just chill out. Billie Jo and I shopped and scrapbooked and then in the evenings we had dinners with the hubby's. The weather was awesome! It got up to 70 and we even laid in the sun by the pool (Sorry. No photos). Poor Greg wasn't feeling the greatest and bounced back and forth from the classes he had and the motel but I think he still had a good time. He needed a break from work although it's really not a break when his phone never stops ringing. We spent the last night in Mesquite where the temperature was 80 when we got there! I definitely did not want to return to the 3 plus feet of snow still in our yard after seeing all the spring flowers popping up down south. On Saturday we headed back to Salem to get the kids at my parents and I sat in the back seat and did some more scrapbooking the whole way home. It was a good little break. Now we get to go back in a couple weeks to see my nephew Cooper play baseball then in another month or so we're headed to the happiest place on earth. Let me just say It will be interesting to see how the car ride to California goes with 3 kids.

Other than that we're just plain boring. The kids are awesome. Hayden had a weird stiff neck the past couple days but seems much better. The doctor said it was Torticollis. I have never really heard of this except in infants but Gracie had it about a year ago and now Hayden got it. It's just a strange name for a really painful stiff neck and I have no idea what caused it. Although if you've seen the scratches on Haydens face you might think her baby sister could have something to do with it. That Chandler can be a little meanie! Then a minute later she's kissing you or giving you a big squeeze. She is talking up a storm all of a sudden. You can't understand most of it but she knows what she's saying and usually never shuts up. She loves to talk on the phone. Gracie is doing great. She loves to read thank goodness. She has to read 20 minutes a day and never fights us when we tell her its time to read. She is so proud of herself when she finishes a book and loves to tell us what it was about. She is swimming once a week for PE in school and really enjoys that too. So that's it . Boring.