Anne-Anne is doing great in school and loving it! She has progressed the most in her writing and has gone up in her reading level! She has even made friends with some kids in her class. They come running out of school with her every day and they are angels. Some of their names are Maddie, Michael J (who Anne said one day "I like Michael J, he has cool curly hair, (with a big grin on her face :)", and Ruby. Ruby invited her to her birthday party and Anne went and stayed the whole time and had a blast! Her teachers say she emotionally she is doing great and hardly ever cries. For parent-teacher conferences her teacher asked her some self-evaluation questions and she said that her favorite subjects are Music, PE, Art, Science and Social Studies. She feels like she is good at everything except staying on task. And her favorite thing about school is having friends. Wow. If this is not a 180 from where she was at the beginning of the year, I don't know what is.
Rachel-Rachel's favorite past time is definitely riding her bike, which you will see some videos below. One day she rode her friend's bike without training wheels and asked Zac if he'd take hers off so he did and she just took off. She could spend all day riding up and down the sidewalk and singing. She is also doing great in her studies and is practicing her reading and math so that she can do well on a test that she'll take in June to see if she will go to school early in the fall and do math and eat lunch with the 1st graders before kindergarten. She is starting to be able to do math in her head and reading pretty advanced books like Cat in the Hat, the scriptures, and really anything. She is so excited for the summer so that she can play outside all day.
Sarah-Little Sarah is definitely 3! She is still a sweetheart but we are trying to nip some bad habits like back-talking, being obedient, and eating her food. Yet she is still super snuggly and goofy, and absolutely loves her new little brother. Her absolute favorite thing to do is play games. Her favorites are Super Why, Spot It, Candyland, and Chutes and Ladders. She also loves to play puzzles on the Ipad. She also has started a pre-K workbook and is VERY excited about it. She asks to do it all the time. She can write a couple letters and recognizes all her colors, letters, shapes, and some numbers. She loves playing school and doctor with her sisters.
James- I'm going to post a blog entry just about his birth but some milestones for this cutie are that he rolled over from his tummy to his back at 11 days! At his 2 month checkup he was in the 97% for height, 86% for weight, and 96% for head size. Big boy! His first laugh was at 2.5 months, which was awesome. Another awesome feat is that he slept through the night three days ago from 11pm-7am. We call
him James, JET, little guy, and angel baby. He is huge, a good eater, an
awesome sleeper, and such a happy fun baby. We love having you in our
family James!
Before the baby came...obviously :)
Anne's cute uniform dress and tie that I made her for Christmas out of a size 16 skirt that was in the donated box at her school.
We don't get very good snowman building snow here in Utah. This is as good as it got. But they were happy.
Cute girls headed out to Church all decked out with jewelry from Grandma and Great Grandma.
Dun dunna na! James Edward Thatcher graced our presence on January 11, 2016.
Watching Packers football.
Grandpa baby whisperer. James took a couple of nice naps cuddled up on Grandpa's lap. We were so blessed that Grandma and Grandpa Russell were able to be here and help with the kids and me while James was happening. Thank you!
James' first bath. He loves the water. He never cries when I give him a bath.
Helping Grandma make dinner.
This little guy gets lots of love. There is no animosity at all from his big sisters. They love to hold him, kiss, him, make him smile, and Rachel has even learned how to change his wet diapers. They are such big helpers and little mamas.
This adorable football hat someone gave us got good use. Too bad his pacifiers haven't. He refuses to suck on them anymore. Bummer.
Our van is getting full. We tried this seat arrangement for about a week then decided to put in the other captain seat to spread out a little bit.
Jet's first snow. He wasn't really a fan.
Family night at the rec center track. We had to get out of the house and let the girls get their wiggles out in this cold weather!
Another indoor family night at the Church gym with our bouncy toys to get some wiggles out.
Super Bowl 2016
We went to the book fair at Anne's school. Rachel picked out a Jake and the Neverland Pirates book, Sarah picked out a dinosaur book, and Anne picked out a "pointer" like the one her teacher has so she can play teacher.
My best bud Carlie and I like to have babies close together :) so here is little Henry (a month and a couple days younger that Jet). I'm sure they will grow up to be buddies just like our other three.
Rachel found some pretty rad icicles around the yard.
About to take a bath with his sister. I just can't get over how cute this boy's chub is. I just love him! He's so squishy!
In February we were blessed to have my awesome buddy Carrie come to visit from Virginia. She spent a week or so with us helping with the kids, going snowboarding, and just hanging out. Even though the end was rough (she ended up breaking her wrist snowboarding on the second to last night she was here, big bummer) the visit was awesome! I'm so glad I have a buddy like you!
Making slime with Carrie.
Anne had a cake decorating contest at her school for Lincoln's birthday. We researched all the state fruits and made a little cake showing them. It was interesting.
Anne's portrait of Lincoln. Very Anne :)
For Sarah's birthday she got to go with Aunt Jennifer to the aquarium a couple days before her birthday. Lucky girl. She talks about it all the time "I go to the haquarium (she adds in extra h's when she talks, so cute) and see the pinguins with Jennifer."
Helping me make her cake.
She requested to go to the Dinosaur Museum for her actual birthday.
Sarah's birthday dinner. She originally wanted dinosaur decorations but they didn't have any at the dollar store and she liked the ocean stuff so it changed. I can't tell you how much we love having Sarah in our family. She makes us smile and laugh, even when she is being naughty. She is just so darn cute. She is also a ham and loves to perform and be goofy. She is also very loving and snuggly and loves her family, especially Daddy. When he comes home she runs to him and hugs his leg and shouts "Daddy Daddy you're home, now you can play with me!" and constantly tell him he is her best friend. Happy 3rd Birthday Sarah smiley!
Another smiley kid.
This boy loves his sisters. The feeling is mutual.
Story time with Aunt Jennifer.
We love celebrating Dr. Seuss's birthday. I loved reading his stories when I was younger and am so excited to see that my kids love his books too. Here's our green eggs and ham breakfast.
We read as many Dr. Seuss books as we could that day.
I love the rural aspect of where we live. One day we heard a weird sound outside and it turns out our neighbor's chicken had escaped and was on our roof. It was pretty hilarious to watch it slide down our drain pipe.
Raking up leaves.
I organized our camping cupboard so we are all ready to go this summer, so excited!
Rachel is such a big helper with James. She is very good at holding him and playing with him.
We took our cubscouts on a hike up a canyon near where we live. So cool to see all the snow and ice at the bottom of the falls.
We got a microscope from Uncle Dylan which we had a blast with. It came with all kind of slides and we made some of our own. I'm so glad the kids like doing science stuff with me!
That same day they went outside right after and found worms and rolly polly bugs.
Sarah doesn't totally understand the concept of "holding" little brother, but she loves to cuddle and sing to him.
Having a picnic.
I tried going for a very short run a couple weeks ago. But it hurt my knee and my tummy too much. So I'm going to work on strengthening my muscles before I do anymore running. Some day though it will be fun to train for something again.
Happy Birthday to Uncle Loren! We are so happy to have Uncle Loren living out here in Utah again. He is such an awesome brother, uncle, and friend. He also instituted family game night so every Sunday evening he, Jennifer, and sometimes Uncle Gordon come over and we eat dinner, play with the kids, then just the adults play games after the kids are in bed. It's pretty awesome.
It's so nice to have my big sis so close to us. She also is such a good sister, aunt, and babysitter, and friend. James is definitely spoiled when family is around :)
I just had to throw this in there. He is usually happy 99% of the time. But he does get mad and usually yells at us instead of crying.
James was so brave at his two month appointment and didn't cry during the exam at all. He cried when he got his shots but stopped as soon as I picked him up. Still, we had some good snuggle time when we got home.
This is by far the girls' favorite hobby right now which we love. They have a nice big stretch of side walk in front of our house and this nice big gravel driveway to zoom around in. Rachel doesn't have training wheels anymore. Yesterday we flipped Anne's back so she is learning. And Sarah finally mastered how to pedal and steer at the same time. That's what they are doing right now as I'm working on this blog :)
Pumping up their tires.
We got to have a play day with the Evans for St. Patrick's day. So here they are decorating shamrock sugar cookies.
James and Henry
This was so fun. Anne's class was doing a unit on rocks so I asked her teacher if I could come in a show their class a bunch of samples and fossils, and do some experiments and demos. It ended up being the entire first grade and it was awesome. Anne was my scientist helper and passed out all the samples to her classmates.
Sarah got me new sunglasses for Christmas :)
Races with Dad.
This is when I discovered Sarah was probably ready to start doing schoolwork.
You never know :) Football in the fall, lacrosse in the spring. That could work :)
An awesome visit with Great Grandma Hebbert. We got to introduce her to her newest great grandson. She just loved him and kept touching his cheeks and talking to him.
Never again. But I decided to make the girls Easter dresses the week of Easter. So that meant staying up to 12:30, 12:30, and 3:30 the nights leading up to it. Maybe I'll start a little earlier next year....or find some on sale. But they did turn out pretty cute and I learned a lot about sewing. Most importantly the girls loved them.
Easter egg hunt in the orchard.
Jet's outfit was a little easier, I just made him a bowtie. But how cute!
Easter dinner with the family.
Then game night.
Ouch. Zac accidently left a plastic dust pan on the fireplace stove and tried to scrape it off. In the process some of the melted plastic dripped on his thumb. I haven't seen him run so fast up the stairs in a long time. Even with running it under cold water, sitting it in cold water for hours, burn ointment and bandages it still hurt for days.
Zac's camera.
The day James was born! Right before I changed into my hospital gown. I thought the shirt was appropriate for little man.
First pic of James. He came out weighing 8 pounds 1 ounce just like his biggest sis. Except he was born at 39 weeks instead of 40.
First time I got to hold my son.
Jen was there for the whole process, except the end. Unfortunately James just didn't want to come out the normal way. His head wouldn't fit so I had to get a c-section and only Zac was allowed in the operating room.
Grandma and Grandpa Russell were watching the girls while we all were in the hospital. I am so grateful for their willingness to help and play with the kids while we were gone and once we came home. I am very blessed to have these two as parents :)
The girls were so excited to meet their little brother. They each wanted a turn holding him. Anne was very curious about all the tubes and monitors around me and wanted to make sure I was ok.
His cute going home outfit that Zac picked out. Though because it was newborn size Jet was only able to wear it a couple times.
Our cool lego advent calendar from Uncle Loren. A new fun tradition.
Another football-watching buddy.
Winter Wonderland
One of Rachel's favorite hobbies during the winter.
James rolled over from his tummy to his back when he was only 11 days old! Strong dude. Almost every time we put him on his tummy he rolled over. He has slowed down with that recently but is now (at 3 months) trying to squirm everywhere.
Rachel got him to sleep once by singing to him and gently bouncing him. She was so proud, so was I.
Fun in our backyard.
Superbowl
Provo City Center temple open house
Sarah loves Moroni. Every time we pass the Timpanogos temple she says "Hi Moroni!"
"Hmmm, I have a question."
Before a well-needed trim. Anne loves her long hair, she says she wants hair like Tangled.
Anne was invited to a girl in her class, Ruby's birthday party. This was a big deal because this was the first birthday party that Anne stayed the whole time without me being there. Not only that, she had a blast! When we arrived the girls in her class were so excited that she was there, they hurried her upstairs where they had a face painter. So grateful for the kind children in her class.
Easter morning.
From Jennifer's camera.
During labor.
My Uncle Todd with James.
We call this the Gerber baby photo shoot. We've got pictures like this of each of the kids when they were about two months old. It's fun to see the differences between them all.
James' blessing day. What a blessing it was to have my Dad and my brother there in the circle with Zac. Also grateful to have a worthy husband that holds the Priesthood that was able to give our son a blessing from our Heavenly Father.
Our family of 6. Wow, that's a lot of people :)
Oh! He looks so tiny back then!
Sarah's 3 year old photo shoot. Such a ham. Jennifer and I were taking pictures at the same time, these are the ones she took. Sarah did all the poses herself, we just sat there and took pictures.
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