A name......

A few of our other girls have middle names that I would classify as  virtues, words that have a meaning or describe a quality. Isabel Joy I liked, and she has grown every day to personify Joy. She is one of the happiest, most loving people I know.  Whitney Hope. I chose her middle name because at 14 weeks we had a problem with the placenta, including a lot of bleeding, and constant fear the rest of the pregnancy that we would lose her. She made it through and so Hope reminds me that even when the odds are against someone, she can still make it through. And how much we hoped and prayed for her to be a part of our family.
When choosing a name while I was pregnant, I was having a very hard time, we had lots of suggestions, ideas, old lists of names from the other girls.  I had liked Lauren for quite a while, but Scott thought of it as a boy's name. I never heard of a boy named Lauren except at college in Idaho. So it was on the veto list with previous children. However, he relented with this pregnancy, giving me pretty much full choice on a name I liked.  Following the trend from the other two girls, I looked at middle names that embraced good qualities. Grace seemd to flow so well with Lauren, and grace has so many good meanings. To me, I envision grace as a Victorian English lady, always polite, kind, proper, walking with an air of confidence and compassion.We always wait to see our babies before we name them, so I kept the name in my mental list and didn't really share it with anyone. We called her "Baby Sister" the whole time in the belly. Today  I looked in the dictionary the definition of grace:

1. elegance and beauty of movement, form, expression, or proportion
2. a pleasing or charming quality
3. goodwill or favour
4. the granting of a favour or the manifestation of goodwill, esp by a superior
5. a sense of propriety and consideration for others
6. (plural) affectation of manner (esp in the phrase airs and graces)
7. in someone's good graces ⇒ regarded favourably and with kindness by someone
8. mercy; clemency
9. the free and unmerited favour of God shown towards man
10. the divine assistance and power given to man in spiritual rebirth and sanctification
11. the condition of being favoured or sanctified by God
12. an unmerited gift, favour, etc, granted by God

When we were given the news that our baby had no heartbeat, and that she would need to be delivered sleeping, Scott and I both went into a kind of shock, but also into a mode where we knew we had to get through this, we had to deliver this baby safely and then get through each step after that. Somehow we were given the strength not to crumble at that moment. When we knew what was ahead, and as we began the induction, I knew that the name I had had in my head and heart for months would be the name. All the things I had worried about, like what the name rhymes with, whether people could spell the name, were not important any more. Her name would just be for us, and unfortunately for her headstone.  I think the name fits her, she is so beautiful, so peaceful, she is elegant, charming, and she will be given back to us someday because of the grace of God. We choose to remember her, to say her name and include her as our daughter and sister because we believe that families are forever, that even though we never got to meet her on earth, we will see her again and she will be ours.  We love you, Lauren Grace.

This is a print out of her headstone, which has not been placed yet. We went immediately after her burial to choose it, since it was our only chance being in Orem. The memorial place was so kind and helpful and I had already decided what I wanted, another gift I was given, to be able to be clear and decisive, because you only get one chance. I think it turned out very well.

Utah's Canyon Country

Here is pretty good video showing where we live! We love visitors, so come check it out!!

Can't wait to see you, and show you around!! There is even more than this within an hour's drive of our home.

Summer Time!

This is our lefty, doing her thing.

Summer is busier than ever. we have:

Abby-baseball, one practice, 2 games aweek, including out of town games. Jazz dance once per week, and first session swimming every day for another week.

Isabel-Baseball, Tumbling class and swimming lessons

Sara-Playground time during baseball, ballet\jazz combo, swimming lessons. Which she ABSOLUTELY loves. I was nervous, you never know with her.

Poor Whitney- has to hang out with mom and run everybody everywhere and doesn't get to do anything fun  :(

Both girls are on teams with boys, which is ok but not ideal.  Abby's team has 15 kids and they can't bat unless they played in the field, so it is a bummer, she doesn't actually play that much. But she enjoys being there, and her cool uniform.
Isabel has only had practices and has her first game this week, it is in Dove Creek CO, 25 miles east, and Abby has a game the same night, in blanding, 25 miles south! so we'll see how we work that one out. 
We are thankful there are even small opportunities for our kids here in this little town. There are a lot of good people who devote their time and I hope as my kids get a little older I can help out and coach some as well.  The dance studio in town just barely opened up after the last teacher quit a few years ago. We are excited to have dance again, plus tumbling. Although it gets crazy, it is worth it to us, not that our kids become superstars in any given field, but that they have fun, learn skills and have good experiences and make memories that will last a lifetime. I loved whatever sports i was able to play growing up, and Scott is very encouraging that they do these activities as well. It will be fun to watch as they grow and get better.

Whitney turns Three!

 Whitney is growing up so fast! This year we are not doing friend parties, and I have to say I am thankful. three year old parties are a little crazy! Instead of focussing on all the cleaning and planning and craziness, we just did what is important to a little lady...number one being balloons! I asked Whitney what color she wanted, and she started naming every color, so a dozen rainbow balloons were the highlight of the day! For all the kids!

It has been a crazy and busy few weeks and so this time no fancy cake happened. I got a red velvet (our first one ever) from the grocery store, wrote on it with a little gel icing tube, and added princess sugar decorations that didn't match at all! But you know what, it's ok! She loved it, the cake was actually really good, especially for store-bought. There is a little bit of mommy guilt for not doing something fabulous like all my talented friends out there, but it's not hard to let go of all that when I see how happy she is and how unstressed I am.  Next year perhaps I will go all out. But enough about me.

Whitney got a few presents, mostly clothes, but also a puzzle, princess dolls and a little wooden bed for baby dolls.  She was happy with that, and enjoyed the day.

Whitney continues to grow and change all the time, but still remains sweet and cuddly. She is getting some attitude lately, but it is actually kindof funny to watch. My favorite are the freak outs that come from playing with her sisters. You would think she broke an arm, and when she finally comes to me and I ask what's wrong, it is something like "Sara won't let me be Rapunzel!" or "Isabel turned me into a frog!"  so she is entertaining. She also makes stuff up and that is funny as well. Amazing how young they learn to just flat out lie.  She is into Dora and butterflies and Tangled. She loves her sisters, and right now Isabel is her declared favorite. They are cute together. This summer has been such a trial for her little self, while her sisters get dropped off for swimming lessons and dance, she is ot able to do those yet, and it breaks her heart! I feel so bad, life just isn't fair!She loves her Dad and misses him a lot when he is gone. She is starting to love talking on the phone and thinks every time I am on it, it has to be a Grandma on the other end.  She has an amazing little spirit and goes along with what the rest of us are doing, especially copying her sisters, but also grabbing a book and climbing in to bed with me to read, or helping me cook.  We love Whitney so much and can't wait to see what she does over the next year!

Memorial Day

 There is a place on the forest by Moab that has dinosaur footprints. Scott wanted to take us there, so we went on the way back from Grand Junction.

This is one picture of the view, I was so bummed, my battery died right after this was taken. It was quite a big cliff, and gorgeous.

A few weeks ago, some kids came selling raffle tickets to support a local robotics club. The days when I had to sell magazines and oranges door to door in our small town are still fresh in my mind, so I try to support any kids who come by.  This time we lucked out! We won a pretty decent Cabela's gift card! This is a large outdoor equipmet store. It was one of our favorite places to visit, because it is so fun and huge and they have animals and fish and everything. (live fish, stuffed dead animals)  Anywho, there is also a smaller version in Grand Junction,CO. so we headed over there to get some camping gear, and some fishing poles for the girls.  We had lunch at Olive Garden (thanks Jeremy and Crystal for the Christmas gift card) and then went and spent our winnings. Unfortunately, it isn't the cheapest place, and so we didn't make out as well as I had hoped. 4 crazy kids didn't help with organized shopping, but oh well. We managed to get fishing poles that light up when you spin the reel, a nice potty bucket for camping with 4 little girls, some reusable water bottles, and some PowerBait that is fresher than 15 yrs old (Scott says "it's still fine!")  If only the visions of fishing with the children were like the storybooks.  Last time we tried it was a little chaotic. Trying to keep 4 little people quiet and sitting still and not throwing rocks in the water, and not falling into the water is a challenge. So I am thinking we will do Daddy\Daughter fishing dates one or two at a time. We are plannning a camping trip in a few weeks, and I am sure we will try them out then.  Scott says we might be able to rent a boat where we are going, that would be fun.  I am also not sure if they quite understand the reality of whacking a slimy fish on the head and gutting it, but they are actually ok with a lot of that, and they know where meat comes from and they want to eat their fish, so we will see. 
Anyways, after Cabela's I hit a few other stores in the mall, getting some pretty smelling soaps at Bath and Body Works, and then some clothes on sale at Children's Place for Whitney's birthday, and some for Abby, who  is growing out of everything and needed summer clothes. Oh, we also had to get her shoes at Payless, since she also needed those. darn kids just keep growing. Luckily Abby does pretty well at keeping things good to pass down to her sisters. 
After our shopping and playing in the little kids' playground at the mall, we headed back towards Moab, turning off to see the dinosaur tracks. It was a very long day, and we were ready to be out of the car, but we aren't over that way very much so we went. The girls had fun looking for tracks and the air was nice and fresh up there.  The road back went along the Colorado river and it was beautiful to see the red rock and the river, and a few rafters. We stopped in Moab on the way back fo some dinner and got home. GJ is about 2.5 hours away and it was a lot of driving, including our detour, but it was a good day and we are glad we had Scott around for a minute to hang out with us. He has been very busy, but it is good.

School's out for the Summer!

 Isabel and Mr McDaniel. We attended the little awards assembly for kindergarten and first grade and Isabel got one for getting 2nd place in the obstacle course on field day.
Here is what Isabel has to say about 1st grade:   I liked math tests.and I like Mr. McDaniel. We went to the Indian Museum and we got to look for stuff and we went on a hike, and saw a Tipi and went in it! I had tons of friends and they are fun to play with.

Abby got an award for her Language Arts testing. she is a big reader but they do a program where you get points for books you read and take test on and it looks like next year we will have to try harder to get more points! She needed 100 pts to go on a special field ttrip, and she had that by January and ended the year with over 200 points, but that wasn't enough to win it.  She is into real chapter books and I am struggling to find good books she is interested in. So much 'tween stuff is all girl drama, or scary stuff. So I have gotten her a few of the classics, and we will keep working on it. Abby had a good year in school, and continues to do well. We are so proud of our girls and all that they are doing and learning. I am thankful to be in a place with good people who are dedicated to the kids, even if it is small.  Sara finished preschool with a party and she is looking forward to kindergarten. Our special teacher who taught Isabel has finally gotten pregnant after years of trying and we are so excited for her. But this means she ended up having to take a year off, so we don't know who Sara's teacher will be. I am sure he or she will be great, but we will miss Mrs. Garchar!

The luckiest girl in the world

Grandpa Kim

Isabel and Mom

A few weeks ago, Scott's parents were down visiting us. We wanted to show them some property our church owns and uses for campouts and gatherings. It is a unique and beautiful place. As we were driving down main street, we passed a little yard sale, and a little red 4 wheeler.  Of course we had to pull over and check it out. It was a Honda 90, and we brought over Abby to see if it fit. Of course, it was perfect. Scott has been looking at online classifieds for months, wanting to get the girls motorcycles like he had growing up. Motorcycles scared me, but 4 wheelers were out of our price range. The wheeler ended up belonging to friends of ours who we go to church with, and it was a great deal and after talking to them on the phone, we took the plunge. It was a very quick decision, but we know a little Honda like that will go forever. The people we bought it from are great and take care of all their things. Their kids have been riding it since they were little, and now have outgrown it, their teenage daughter was sad to see it go! It actually fits an adult but works for the kids as well. The great feature I like, is that it is a pull-start, so no kids can start it on their own. it is also a foot shifter, and so far Abby cannot move it on her own, so it stays in 1st gear and with constatnt supervision, she has a hayday riding it around in the field next to our house. Getting the 4 wheeler meant a lot to Scott, I know he loves anything motorized and is happy to be able to give that love to his kids.  I am happy it seems safe and it is a fun little toy for the whole family. As the other girls get older, they will get their turns. I am happy that so far only Abby really wants to ride alone, I always thought if we got something like this we would need four just to stop the battling, but it is good. and I can comfortably give them rides.  We are planning a camping trip soon, and hope to be able to bring it then, and many trips to come.  This year we are taking a break from birthday parties and focussing on the family and maybe a little bigger gift, instead of spending the money on plates and games for a bunch of other kids. I guess we are going to have a hard time topping this present!

That weekend we spent  bunch of time in the yard, getting the back sprinklers working so we can seed for grass, and water our fruit trees. if you look in the pictures, there are 7 twigs by the fence, someday those will be making us some yummy fruit salad, we hope! It is so much work dealing with the weeds, rocks, clay and everything else, but it is fun as well and we are happy we have so much room for us, the kiddos, and of course, Daisy.