Ian is 8!

We could not ask for a better son.  These past 8 years have gone so quickly, but with so much happiness.  Ian had a birthday party with two of his best buddies where we took them to Reno for bowling and pizza.  (unfortunately, the other 3 Smith kids up-chucked in our brand new suburban on the way there!  Kevin handled the bday party while I brought the other kiddos home early.)

His bday presents were all about Scouts.  The shirt, the hat, the book, the belt, etc.  

No, he's not 11, but I didn't think of the obvious thing of writing "8" and instead thought he'd like the number 11.  Not one of my brightest moments.

He is being baptized with his cousins in Utah next month.  He already is developing a testimony and is so excited to be a missionary.  Ian loves ANY sport.  Any. Sport.  Golf, football, basketball, soccer, baseball, swimming, mountain biking.  He is kind and passionate about all he does.  We love you, buster!

Happy Easter!

The Ratchfords

Our best Tahoe friends just up and left us.  I've been crying for days.  How could they do this to us?  On to greener "Vail" pastures.  They think they're so cool.  We'll never forgive them unless they agree to come on a cruise with us this Fall.  Never. Ever.

 Leah and Claire with Hailey Bug.

Ronan and Meg.  Ronan once swore to "protect Megan with his fists!"  Such an Irishman.

Ian and Eva.

Really, we miss them all so much!  

Hailey Bug's birthday

Our baby is one!  We just cannot believe that anyone could ever find more glorious adorability wrapped up in one little package (I'm sure there are millions of other parents who would disagree, but they're wrong.  haha.)  She's the only kiddo who got her daddy's blue eyes.  She also inherited her mother's large gap in between her front teeth, which will require braces as a teenager.  But her mother finds that it gives her character.

For her birthday she got lots of books and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle phone (because it was in the bargain section at Target).

 She had lots of help opening her gifts.

Grandpa Dave and Grandma Carol brought a very exciting Minnie Mouse choo-choo train and the most darling little dress (below).

Daddy is her favorite.  By. Far. No Question.

Perfection.  All wrapped up in one blue-eyed, gapped-tooth darling.

Hunter Boy

 Just a few more little tidbits about our Hunter Boy. (things I just don't want to forget).  He has a cheesy grin he likes to show us.  It has always been a little "cock-eyed" but I thought it was just him being silly.  We went to the dentist last week and found out he actually has a cross-bite.  He has to go to the orthodontist to get a little device to fix it.  Interestingly, if we waited until he was older, they would actually have to break his jaw to fix it, ouch!

 He LOVES to help his daddy with any project.  Here they are putting on a new front deck.

I caught him hitting Ian the other day and when I reprimanded him, he said "I wasn't hitting him, I was giving him a high five!!"

Noise

The house is so loud these days.  Ian's playing piano, Kevin is watching Fox News, Megan is doing math homework and asking me for help every 2 minutes.  Hailey is pushing a little walking toy around that clanks as it rotates, and Hunter is repeatedly letting me know that "the cookies are done and the timer is beeping!"  Whew!

Hunter is 3!

Hunter is three!  I have to admit, this was a sad birthday for me.  I feel like he stepped over the infant/toddler threshold and is not a little boy.  (boo-hoo I say!)  He was so excited to graduate from plastic golf clubs to real golf clubs.  I took him out to lunch at his restaurant of choice: McDonalds, of course.

Some great things about our little guy:

He got some new "basketball shorts" two weeks ago and has worn them night and day (sans a couple of tearful washings).

He acts out everything his older brother and sister do.  He is almost as good of a pretender as Megan, which means he's pretty good.

He is loud.  Really, really loud.  You can hear him all over the grocery store.  

He loves to talk.  Just like his dad.

He eats nonstop all morning, and then hardly anything after lunch.  All I do every morning is fix him sandwiches, get him crackers, cut him apples, etc.

He wants to play sports so badly that he can hardly stand it.  He asks me multiple times daily, "When am I going to play basketball?"  "What number am I going to be in baseball?"  "How old am I when I play football?"  Again, again, again, over and over.

I signed him up for swim lessons, being that was the one and only sport I could find that 3 year olds could be involved in.  His first lesson, he cried and screamed the entire time.  Sobbed, just sobbed.  Would not get in the water.  When he realized the lesson was over, he turned to me, wiped away his tears, and exclaimed "That was great, Mom!  I did so awesome!  That was sooo much fun!"

We love you Hunter!!!

Skiing

We have 17 different ski resorts where we live.  (Yes, you should come visit!)  I put the kids in lessons and Ian (after one lesson) was already telling everyone the "sweet jumps" he went off of (on the bunny hill, mind you.)

Girls' weekend in Scottsdale

Jean, Wendy and I went on our annual girls' trip to Scottsdale, AZ this year.  We had so much fun!  We stayed at Wendy's parents second home which is absolutely fabulous.  We shopped, ate, talked, watched movies, shopped and talked some more.  Not one diaper was changed the entire weekend!  Not one child cried the entire weekend!  We didn't clean up any child made messes the entire weekend!  We were not woken up early the entire weekend!  We did not have to shlep any children around the entire weekend!  It was fantastic the entire weekend!

(Special thanks to the men folk who did all the diapers, loving, cleaning, and shlepping for the entire weekend.)

Cheerleading

Megan is like all about cheerleading and I am like so totally not about cheerleading, but whatever.  So we totally went to the BYU basketball game and she was like so happy when she got her picture with the BYU cheerleaders.  When the game finally started she said "This is so boring!"  Silly girl.

Hunter's bday

Our little guy is three!  He is . . . well . . . precocious (as my mom likes to call it.)  We adore every little inch of his cute little crazy self.  We went to McDonald's for his bday lunch.  He talks about basketball, spiderman, and lightning McQueen all of the time.  He got big boy golf clubs for his birthday (no more of those little plastic ones, he's all grown up now.)

My sorry attempt at a spiderman cake.  At least it didn't fall over like other cakes I've made!

  I have searched up and down our little community to find any sport for him to be in, but there is nothing for a 3 year old except swim lessons.  He had his first lesson this week.  He cried the ENTIRE lesson, would hardly get in the water, and screamed when the instructor put out her hands to try and get him to go with her in the pool.  When the lesson was over and I was getting him dressed, he exclaimed "That was AWESOME!  I did so good, mom!"  He went on to tell his siblings, his dad and I repeatedly how much fun his lesson was and how good he did.  Crazy kid.

Update on Hailey Bug

Our little heart patient is doing great!  We were just at the cardiologist and everything is shaping up nicely.  She is on two medications three times a day, hopefully by her next appointment she will be able to get off her high blood pressure med.  Her favorite things to do are: (in order of frequency)

1) Scrunch up her nose (no less than 100 times/day)

2) Play Peek-a-Boo

3)  Say "Uh-ohhh!"

Here is Jenn Lang-Ree, the Nurse Practitioner that found Hailey's heart problem.  

Forever, forever grateful for this women!