Blue and Gold Banquet

Trent has been involved in scouts at church since he turned 8.  It has become something we really enjoy.  Each year, they hold a Blue and Gold Banquet to hand out special awards for the year and to display a bit of what the boys did.  This year they showed off their collections that they worked on.  Trent also earned a couple extra special patches for helping in some fundraisers.

 The pack holds a cake decorating contest each year.  It is supposed to be a father/son event (no help from moms) so this year, it was a Trent/Haylee event.  I was unable to help and Dave isn't here to help, so he and Haylee worked together.  It's times like these that the absence of Dave is very real.  They ask for a father to help their boys, but he is in the middle east.  However, we do the best we can so Dave and Trent brainstormed some ideas and came up with a plan of what to do.  Then Trent and Haylee just had to execute the plan.  Anyway, Trent decided on a food pyramid cake!  I loved his creativity and ideas that came together.

He earned the "well balanced" award... HA HA.  I loved it, unfortunately, Logan started crying when he got the piece with the broccoli on it

First Smiles

3 weeks 5 days...

William cracked some of his first smiles. I hate the darkness of these pictures, but he won't do anything fun if the flash comes out.  I was so excited to see him smile!  It feel so rewarding when the newborn starts to smile.  Like you are doing something good for them and they love you in return.  I have enjoyed many hours of smiling since this first day of smiling here.

Cricket Pavilion

In January, Haylee performed at the Cricket Pavilion in Phoenix with her cheer team.  The pictures are always hard to see her because they all look exactly the same when they are up there, but she is on the left, second girl in.

 She is the 2nd girl in the foreground starting on the left.

 The one in the middle

 The one with her hand raised

This cheer season has been such a fun experience.  Each competition, they change things up a little and as the girls have grown better, they have added more difficulty.  It has been really neat to watch as they have all changed and how amazing they have become!

Sisterly Love

You have to love Sisterly Love, even if you hate it.

Chicken Legs

Ok, so all of my children have chicken legs, but I knew I had to capture a picture before his legs potentially grew chunky.  I love the little chicken legs and I think they match him perfectly.  Maybe as a 13 year old boy, he may not love chicken legs, but right now, they are perfect for him.  So fun... and yes to all of you out there, I realize blue means its time to change his diaper.  (Side rant, but when did they start color coding diapers so mothers knew when to change them?  I totally think its a ploy from the diaper companies to make mothers change diapers more often so they can sell more diapers!  However, that is not what this post is about :) 

5 Years Old

Feb 1, 2007 we welcomed these two amazing children to our lives.  Here we are in 2012 and I am yet again blown away by how fast the time has gone.  Seriously, when I look back, I wonder how the time passed so quickly.  It is a bittersweet thing for me to watch them grow older.  I love the freedom that a new year brings and they are able to accomplish much of their daily tasks on their own.  However, I miss enjoying every moment of their day with them.  They have started preschool this school year and next school year brings kindergarten!  It is exciting and sad to see my babies grow up.  Here is Logan contemplating whatever 5 year olds contemplate while waiting on Laycee to finish dance.

 They came home that day to birthday cards and money from GG Bink-Wink

 The next day, they celebrated some birthday fun at Chuck E Cheese.

 It was fun playing with Reagan and Sylas for their special day!

 Their birthday evening, Logan got a transformer on his cake.

 Laycee got yet another puppy on her cake.

 It wouldn't be a twin birthday without a twin picture.

They were happy with the festivities this year.  I decided that I think I am going to change birthday's.  Over the years, I have been trying to both simplify and make holidays more special.  After their birthday this year, I felt like it was time to simplify birthdays.  I am toying with a few ideas, but if you have a suggestion, leave a comment.  I am thinking of maybe doing a special they pick dinner or all day meal planning revolved around the children.  I don't know yet, but I do know that I want to celebrate their birth and not the "stuff" we get to do on birthdays.  Maybe by the time June rolls around, you will all know what I settled on!

Tummy Time

Let's start off by saying, I am not much one for tummy time.  I never have been.  But with William, I have made a small effort to get him on his tummy from time to time so he can work those head muscles.  I know clearing the head from side to side is a really important developmental skill.  So here he is at 3 weeks.

 4 weeks

 And 9 weeks! 

I was shocked the day I put him down and he just lifted his head right up like a champ!  I was really excited about it.  I still don't do much tummy time, but it was really rewarding to see William make progress over time.  I have really enjoyed being a baby mom this time around.  I never liked the newborn stage before, but William makes it all so fun and new.  I can't wait to see what the next few months of milestones hold!

3 weeks

Well, the good thing with being behind on blog posts is you get to see William grow within days of one another!  Here he is at 3 weeks.  He was really starting to become alert and aware of his surroundings.

He is ready for bed.  He is such a good baby.  He is not overly demanding and not a real crier.  He is just a pure joy to have in our family.  I love him so much and am thankful to have him here at this time in our lives.

Disney On Ice

Disney On Ice came through town in January and I was all about getting the little kids out of the house for a bit.  Thankfully the light rail is free if you attend an event at USAirways Arena so I didn't have to drive all the way to Phoenix.  Laycee loves the light rail too!

 Logan isn't as in love with it.  He thinks the trip is too long and there are too many people, but I did get a smiling picture here!

Logan, Laycee, and my nephew Sylas after watching Cars 2 on ice.  They LOVED it!  It was such a fun event and it kept their attention the whole time.  They do really neat special effects so it doesn't get so boring and William was amazing!  Day date with the little kids... pictures of how I made it up to Haylee and Trent to come.

2 weeks and goodbyes

Well Dave's vacation here was amazing, but as always, all good things come to an end.  This time as he was preparing to leave, I decided that I didn't want any sad goodbye pictures.  Those do document the memories of our lives, but I really wanted the children to end on a happy note.  So for his goodbye pictures this time, I took some of him and William.  And let the children just remember in their minds the happy time they spent with him instead of the tears at the airport.  So here are Dave and William.  William is 2 weeks old here and this is the night before Dave was headed out again.

 I love this one because I feel like they were communicating.

 What a sweet full eyed picture. 

 Haylee is such a little mother.

As Dave was leaving, I was really worried how I would manage a newborn and the daunting task of caring for the children.  I have been so blessed.  So many people around me brought in meals and really helped me get through the beginning.  The children have been understanding of the adjustments and shifts that have had to change in order to accomodate a new baby.  William does not sleep well at night, but thankfully, I have had the energy to make it through the day.  I have been ever amazed as this has been the easiest recovery from birth I have ever had.  I don't know what was different this time, but it was definately easier.  There have been adjustments, but overall, we have loved having William bring joy to our home.  We miss Dave dearly and really cannot wait to be with him again and at the same time, we are thankful for this wonderful little boy who brings something new to our lives.



1 week

So what do you do when your week old baby is crying?  Well park the car, feed the baby, and then take pictures to document his first week of course all while daddy is running into the store.  So, you guessed it, thats what we did.  Here is William at 1 week old!

 And what do the other kids do while dad is in the store?  Insist on getting a picture too!  And so we did.

Yup, this is the life of motherhood... multitasking!

Happy Birthday

It's official... I am getting old.  I figure this year is my last year in my 20s.  I have felt more than 30 for many years now, but my age still held me back.  I have one more year to enjoy it. I don't know why, but for some reason, I always felt like 30 was when you grow up.  Time to no longer feel like a child or relate to your teenage years.  Now you have had a decade (your 20s) behind you of experience to make more grown up decisions.  Weird how we have the notions of time and age.  Anyway, here are 4 of the happy faces with whom I celebrated my 29th birthday.  I am so blessed to have 5 children and a loving husband.  When I was 12, I would have sworn I would have had 7 children by this time, but I think 5 is a pretty close.  So happy birthday to me, hope my dreams come true in my last year of "childhood".

Special Day

January 7, 2012 was a very special day.  We blessed William David Higbee at just 4 days old, although, when Dave is only home such a short time and when my dad is on alternate leave schedules, we are limited on when we could do these important things. 

On that same day, Trent had scheduled his baptism into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

This was such a special day to have the two boys share and ordinance together.  I was thankful that Dave was able to perform both of these.  It has been so neat to watch as Haylee has learned to recognize the Holy Ghost and I have been anxious to watch the process with Trent as well.  He turned 8 last July, so he had to wait a while and while he waited, he learned and prepared for his baptism.  I am thankful both my oldest children have made this choice.  This will definately be a day I will remember forever.

Carousel

I know yet another month has passed, but I am really trying to catch up.  Life has been super busy with the 5 kids.  I have a few more posts from Dave's visit and then you will be so tired of seeing pictures of our sweet William because I have plenty!  While Dave was home, we headed to the mall in search of something and to appease Laycee and Logan, we also stopped by the carousel.  I loved seeing their happy faces as they twirled around and around.  Such a fun thing to do with dad!