6 months--Tessa

I've taken a while to post this, because I was trying to come up with a spiffy layout or something to display the changes. I finally decided that this would be the best way, for now. The first one is right after she was born.

She is such a bundle of joy and there is lots of her to love! She is so close to crawling and is making me nervous with how much stuff she can already get into. She has taken to eating paper lately, including Kira's homework. We are not really babyproof, yet--better get busy! No teeth yet, but I keep thinking they are coming in any day. She has figured out how to get herself to a sitting position with out any help. But beware, she has a lethal grip and will yank out hair and pinch skin if she gets a chance. But we still love her so much!

School Carnival

I braved the school carnival with the three kids, while Barry was working, a couple of weekends ago. From these pictures you would think they had a fantastic time, and I think they did, until they spent too much time on the large slide where all the big kids were and got beat-up a bit. Bounce houses always end in tears for Kira.
Hugging her teacher, Mrs. Bezold.
Trenton went on this slide non-stop for about a half hour.

The big slide (while it was still fun.)

Shanda's Visit--April 08

Shanda and Talia came for a visit the beginning of April. Preston was coming to town for business, so they got to hitch a ride on the company jet. Tough, huh! No security, no 2 hours early to the airport. She'll never want to fly the normal way again.
These cousins had lots of fun together, and it became painfully obvious that although Talia is already over 1 year old, Tessa has her beat in the weight department by a couple of pounds. So much for Talia "handing down" her clothes to Tessa!
They were pretty taken with eachother, though!
While they were here, Shanda had Karen cut her hair (cute, isn't it?!), we went to the Rainforest cafe, went shopping, worked on her blog, and went to the hotel Preston was staying at in Scottsdale to go swimming and have pizza. Of course that was the one cold day of the season.

This is one of my favorite pictures ever!!! Tessa had to borrow Talia's new swimming suit, because the others were too small. We happened to have some great accessories and managed to capture her lounging poolside like the glamour girl that she is!

I made this layout of Tessa and Talia getting to know eachother better when we were at the hotel.

We even had Mikelle and Jackson with us for a day. Babies everywhere!
Talia liked the splash park and getting to be outdoors so much. Shanda said it was snowing when they got back to Colorado! Thanks for coming guys! I hope Preston has to fly to Arizona again in the company jet, soon!

Messy milestones

We had to start Tessa on solids at 5 mos., because she was always hungry. She is a pretty good eater now, but of course, likes to wear her food as much as she likes to eat it. The last picture I had to post really small, because I don't want my mom to see the piles of clothes waiting to be put away, but that night (at 5 mos. old) Tessa made it from the burp rag in the front of the picture, all the way to the wall. I wouldn't call it crawling...more like burrowing, since she hasn't figured out to lift her head up while she crawls, but she is starting to get around and get into things more. She even ate a hole in Kira's homework last week!

A forgotten Trentonism

I forgot one of my favorite Trentonisms from when we were in Prescott for Easter. We were at the dinner table and Trenton was tapping people with his feet. He had been asked to stop and was continuing to misbehave. His Grandpa finally stopped and looked at him and said, "Trenton, where are your feet?" Trenton thought for a minute and then in all earnestness answered,"in my socks."

He was "spotlighted" in primary last Sunday. This was mainly because everytime someone else has been spotlighted, he has been devastated. He got his orange flashlight and was very happy, until they spotlighed someone else this Sunday. Tears, again! He says it is because he wanted to go again and get a green light for his sister. We are going to have to work on the concept that he is not the center of the universe.

Tessa & Jackson

I wonder why babies are always so intrigued by eachother? Tessa enjoyed getting to know Jackson when we were in Prescott for Easter. I thought they were too cute in their jammies together!

Tessa's hair-raising experiences

Some of these pictures are pretty old, but we've been having fun experimenting with Tessa's hair. Neither of my other two had this much hair at this age.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KIRA!

Kira turns 7 today. I had visions of making a slide show with her baby pictures, showing her evolution to now. And while I think it is a great idea, it's probably not going to happen. I am very behind on posts and am working on her big Nancy Drew party this weekend.

These photos are from the celebration we had earlier this month in honor of Kira's and her Aunt Amber's birthdays. We love them both!

Photo projects

My father-in-law is turning 60 this summer. His nephew got married this weekend in Idaho, and his sisters wanted to take that opportunity to roast him a little and honor his upcoming birthday. They asked me to put together a slide show for the occasion. It has been fascinating to look at all of the old pictures. It was quite the project, as I edited pictures to correct fading and scratches, etc., cropped, created scrapbook-like layouts as the title page for each section, and put it all together with music. I won't even tell the whole story of how I missed handing it off to my in-laws, by less than 3 minutes. Thanks to modern technology, it was in Idaho for the celebration and was well-recieved, by all accounts. Maybe when it is closer to his birthday, I will share more of the layouts/photos. This one was my favorite. I used scans from his actual graduaton program and a note he wrote in 4th grade. For those who know the Haltermans, he looks a bit like Jared, doesn't he?
Well all of this digging, unearthed some pictures of a young Barry (I had never seen very many). And I was struck by how much he looked like Kira when he was around her age. I have been debating with some who think she favors the Halterman side, that she looks more like me with totally different coloring, but these pictures, kind of suggest that I am wrong. Of course, she is a much prettier, more girly version of Barry. :-) And I may be OK to admit that now, that I have a child that actually looks like me! (I was chubby, too!)
What about Trenton? I think he is in the middle (not just age wise) between his two sisters. What do you think?
One more split screen. Tessa's Grandpa has taken to calling her the Gerber baby. I think it fits.

Historic General Conference

Tessa is sick, so I am home from church today. I have a lot of pictures and things to report on like Shanda's visit, but I thought since it is Sunday, it would be appropriate to try and remember and record some of highlights from Conference last week that were especially meaningful to me.

First of all, I LOVE this picture Kira drew of Pres. Monson as she listened. It just looks like him to me. The conference packets I recieved by email worked great for Kira! She wanted to keep watching and working on her packets. Trenton, on the other hand, may never like the idea of sitting still for that long.

My Favorite Conference Moments:

* I got chills when in the very first opening prayer, the mothers of the church were prayed for very specifically.
*The Solemn Assembly--I didn't really remember this from before. It was a powerful experience.
* I LOVED Elder Ballard's talk about Mothers! It was so validating and encouraging! There were so many talks about families this time.
*I also really appreciated Elder Holland's talk addressing some of the points of doctrine of our church that are often debated by those of other faiths. He made it so plain and easy to understand!
*Elder Oaks also addressed misconceptions and called on us to take the opportunities dispell those misconceptions. I think I have often avoided this, because of the chance that it could lead to contention. "When we encounter such misrepresentations, we have a duty to speak out to clarify our doctrine and what we believe. We should be the ones to state our beliefs rather than allowing others the final word in misrepresenting them."
*I have long maintained that (whether by assignment or choice) Elder Scott handles the most difficult and/or controversial topics (Elder Oaks, sometimes, too.). This talk about abuse was probably the best example of this. But he handles tough topics with so much love and gentleness while allowing the strength of the message to shine through.
*I really enjoyed seeing President Monson's sense of humor! Even with all of the jokes, he did seem a little different than before as the mantle of prophet has come upon him.

I'm sure there were several others, but with the kids, I didn't take many notes. How blessed we are to be able to hear the words of the prophets in our own homes, together with our families!

Easter Slide Show

I wasn't going to do any more slide shows since blurb won't slurp them into my blog books, but I just take too many pictures! And excluding many becomes difficult. We had a great time in Prescott!

TRENTONISMS--Easter Edition
T: "Mom, Easter is coming and we get to hunt....the Easter Bunny! And we get to shoot him with Grandpa's Silver Shooter BB gun!"

Me: No, we hunt for Easter eggs.

T: Yeah. And we shoot them with a gun! (makes shooting sounds with mouth).

Me: Easter is a peaceful holiday.

T: But it is a battling holiday, too.

He did get to do battle with Kira for Easter. And he wasn't anxious to get too friendly with the Easter Bunny. When I asked him what he thought about the Easter Bunny after seeing him at the square. He said he was BIG and that he worn tennis shoes. He is pretty observant!