Like Grandfather -Like Father -Like Son

Here he is... our cute mini airman!

Steve's Dad was an Air Force pilot when he was born, so baby Steve was proudly given his own little matching flight suit. It was lovingly preserved all these years to be passed down to his son. We are truly grateful for our own time in the Air Force, and, thanks to a masterful Grandma Packard repair, hopefully this precious uniform will last another generation or so :).
Steve sure loves and admires his Dad and enjoys following in his footsteps. Skylar, you have tremendous examples before you on both sides of your family. There's no limit, little buddy, to the great things you can do too :).

Where on earth did October go?

Another month seems yanked out from under me.

Steve made two different trips (Boston and San Fransisco) to present two seperate research projects -one taking him away for his b-day, so we celebrated early with dinner at Texas Roadhouse Grill.

For Micaela's birthday we made a quick jaunt to Steve's parents and enjoyed celebrating with the family there. The card says that Caela, Lexi and Mom get a girls night out to dinner and to see Disney's Princesses on Ice show. Can't wait!
-Enjoying the cake I prefer not to reveal to the world, but sure tasted good :).
It was chocolate and yellow cake swirled with whipped cream, strawberries (right from Grandma and Grandpa's garden) and a chocolate frosting.
~ Stylin' with her new goods :)~
As you can see she's been having a blast in preschool.

Here's what Sky's been up to this month...

...and he thinks it's hilarious!

AND he now navigates up the stairs with ease. Luckily he hasn't tried to turn around on them yet. (uh, can we say "shirt stretched out")

His 7 month pics...

-Handsome bug!-

~And then it was hurry and get costumes done time. The girls once while playing dress up put their tutus on their heads and it gave me an idea. They looked like flowers and our "garden family" concept was born :)...

Lexi -a rose; Caela -a daisy and Sky -the little bumble bee :). Steve and I are the not so obvious gardeners, but we were a hit :). ~Here we are at the school Fall Festival~

-Lexi busting a move on the cake walk-

She kept lucking out in the drawing.

Okay, I don't know what made Sky pull this face, but I LOVE it! Right on cue with his halloween face :0!

Oh, and his pumkin sports the three teeth he's sprouted (one on top and two on the bottom).

~And then suddenly it was the last day of the month -Halloween! We got together with med-school friends for dinner then hurried home to don our costumes once more.

Caela kept making up a funny song about trick-or-treating.

And little Sky zonked. True, buddy, all that excitement can tucker one out.

Entering Warp Speed!

I am oficially becoming the proverbial "taxi cab" or "soccer mom". We've just been going going going since school strarted along with everything else (hence my lack of blogging). And it's only going to get busier from here on out! It's amazing in retrospect how much can happen in a month -especially when you've got THREE to keep up with...

Who remembers sponge curlers?!!! I picked these up at "Sally's" and put them to good use the night before Lexi started 1st grade and FULL school days -sigh!

The "doo" turned out darling with the touch up help of a curling iron :).

Caela's first day of dance. She was so cute and excited!

This not so little anymore sweetie also started preschool this year 3 times a week. I realized belatedly that because she's an Oct. baby she'll get two years of preschool. Oh well, she's ready and loving it.

Guess who lost her first tooth and a second one since. I asked her how much she thought the tooth fairy would give her, and she said $6 because she was six years old. Sheeze! The tooth fairy is going to be broke by the time our kids loose all their teeth!

This precious little tyke had the audacity to turn six months old on me.

He is such a happy bug, and we all just love him to pieces. I'm not anxious for his babyhood to be over and it is passing far too quickly.

He now is quite the crawling pro, can pull himself up to things and stand, loves baby food, paper and bouncing, is cutting his first tooth (bottom right), laughs heartily (my favorite thing), entertains himself well but loves for Mama to hold him, has a bit of a shy streak, AND... (pause for effect) is sleeping through the night!!! His sisters took much longer (at least over a year) so this is such a welcome blessing. He'll seriously sleep from 9:30pm til I have to wake him to take Lexi to school in the morning! This is a beautiful thing!

We attended our ward camp out last weekend. I didn't intend to stay the night with Skylar, but then decided I would so we wouldn't have to drive two cars -BIG mistake! It was a freezing cold night and Sky and I kept eachother awake ALL NIGHT! I won't ever be doing that again, but we did enjoy a great breakfast followed by fun relay races.

~The three-legged race~

~The wheel barrel race~


I keep trying to savor this fastly flying phase of our lives -keep wishing I could freeze moments here and there. I guess that's what a camera and a blog are for -eh? :)

This Little Guy is Quick!

I can't remember when the girls crawled, but I'm sure Sky's got 'em beat hands down. Yep, he's CRAWLING -has been for weeks now (starting around 4 1/2 months)! I was hoping this one would take his time in all such advancements that led to my inevitably chasing after him, but apparently I'm not that lucky. He sure is cute though! Sometimes it's a normal crawl and sometimes it's like a little frog hop where he gets his hands forward and then hikes his knees forward together. He simply decided he wanted to be able to get to the things he wants. He will then sit up -yes -SIT UP all by himself and play with them!

Oh, little man, the places you'll go :)!

Happy Birthday Lexi!

It's hard to believe my first baby just turned SIX!

We threw her first real birthday party with friends and an "island girl" theme. I made cute flip-flop invitations, spent way too many hours making a pineapple pinata, got a "Splash Factory" slip-n-slide, cut out a gazillion flowers from coffee filters with a scrapbook punch (okay-Mom did at least half) to make leis, made island flower hair clips, deprived Mom of water as she weeded, mowed and trimmed both the front and back yards, cut out two left feet for the flip-flop cake (smack to the head), created a palm tree limbo game, decorated with balloons, a flamingo garland and japanese lanterns, ran out of time to do it all during the party in typical Angela fashion, and generally enjoyed making this a memorable birthday for our beautiful budding daughter :).

However, it will probably be another 6+ years before her next party!

Mom, painstakingly helping the girls make their leis...

-Breaking in the slip-n-slide-

~How low can you go?~

-Lexi's first up to bat.

Her second time around she was the one to bust it open :)!

Steve helping Caela get in her slugs.

The candy mad dash!

"Look what I got!"

That evening Mark and Natalie and boys joined us as we continued the theme with island burgers, etc...

Here Lexi is treasuring Grandma's music box gift "to make the separation easier" (-Anastasia).

Thanks Mom at least as many times as flowers you punched out and weeds you pulled!!!

You are simply the best!

Happy Independence Day!

We celebrated our freedom in southern Utah as part of Steve's family reunion. New Harmony has a traditional pancake breakfast followed by a parade, fun festivities, games and more food :).

~Our super cute patriotic trio~

...waiting for the parade...

-the parade participants throw candy -that keeps the kidos' attention :)-

After the parade, a cousin with horses offered to give the girls their very own trot around the block -okay, down a couple streets and back. They were in heaven!

Lexi found several animals to love -here's just one...

They both thoroughly loved this kitty which I allowed for awhile then hurried them to wash their hands before I started having an allergic reaction.

Lexi with cousins Katie and Natalyn and their prize fans :).

Tuckered out at the fireworks in St. George. He's a sweet little reminder of why our liberty is so precious to us!

God bless the USA!