4 Years Old!!

Remi's 4th Birthday!



Remi's 3rd Birthday!

Fall 2007. 2 and a half.

Remi, 2nd Birthday!

Almost 2!

Driving across the country! 15 months.

1st Birthday!

9 Months

8 Months

3 months

2 months

One day

I can't believe Remi is 4. That is crazy. She is getting so grown up. She loves to help with Alissa, changing diapers, getting her dressed, buckling her in her rocking seat to watch movies with her and Broden and other "mommy" things. Remi also loves to take care of Broden, telling him everything to do or not to do.
A couple weeks ago someone came in Young Women's and was giving a lesson on Women and moms. She told about how when her boys were young they would get a rope and tie up anything and everything they could in knots. Then her little girl would take the same rope and drape it across herself like a boa. Remi is definately not a girly girl. She ties everything in knots and loves to wrestle and hike and do anything dad does. She wouldn't even watch any of the princess movies until last week when we all sat down and watched beauty and the beast. Now she will watch that and the little mermaid, but that is it.
She is getting so independent. This morning she woke up at 7:45 and came in to get me up. I asked her if she could go watch a movie for a little while. So she came down and watched a movie. When I came down half and hour later with Broden and Alissa she had on her movie and she had also poured herself a bowl of cereal with milk and eaten all of it. She was so excited that she didn't even spill.
One of the funny stories I remember about her was right after Broden was born she loved to run around without any clothes on. One day I was sitting on the couch feeding Broden and she escaped out the front door without any clothes. By the time I could put Broden down and get covered up she was half way to the library. That was a normal occurance after she learned how to open the door. So we installed the hotel locks with chains at the top of our doors. She has only escaped 2 other times since then. Once she put her bike next to the gate and climbed over it and the other time she opened our living room window and screen and climbed right out onto our front porch. She is good at getting what she wants:)
Her favorite toys right now are her animals. She plays with them all the time. Whether its the horses, elephants, giraffes, lions, tigers, polar bears or dolphins and whales she is constantly playing with them. She'll put them on the bookshelp, entertainment center, the speakers, the front entry floor(which is the water she says) and anywhere else she can think of. Her and Broden have so much fun with them.
I love having Remi as our oldest. She is so willing to help and is happy so much of the time and she has FINALLY within the last 3 months started sleeping through the night consistently. It is wonderful. I'm so excited to continue watching her learn and grow. Right now she is learning her alphabet and also how to identify birds. She can right her name and most of the other letters. She loves to do school and learn about her letters.
We love you Remi and are so lucky to be your Mom and Dad. Happy 4th Birthday.

Easter

We had fun decorating Easter Eggs Friday, then doing egg hunts all day Saturday. Remi and Broden loved hiding the eggs for other people to find, then having us hide them for them to find.

Alissa getting ready to decorate pictures.

Decorating eggs

Remi looking at her gifts from the Easter Bunny!

Sunday Morning before church

General Conference

I loved conference weekend! We started out by dinner with some other dental students at their house. There were 9 adults and 11 kids. The kids had a blast together and it was fun to be with the adults while the kids played. I think it was the first time we left somewhere when we were ready to leave instead of the kids being "ready" to leave. Usually we rush out of someone's house when our kids are way beyond tired and impossible to control. They did great on Friday. Thanks Lauren and Andy for the invite!

Saturday we slept in until 9 then Blake had some work he needed to do at the school, but we only have one computer to watch conference on, so we packed up all the kids and drove down to the school. The kids and I watched Blake do lab work for a while then walked around. When it was time for conference we went to a little classroom and hooked the computer up to a projector to watch conference. It was awesome. We ate lunch while we watched, then the kids played with their animals and wrote on the chalk board. They were so good, so we got to listen in peace, for the most part!

After the first session, Blake finished up his lab work and we drove home. We showered and got ready while listening to the second session, then took the kids to a babysitter while we went to a wedding reception. Blake went to the priesthood session and I went with my friend PJ shopping for bathroom decor then to get the kids from the babysitters. We then went back to Mario and PJ's so the boys could watch basketball. The kids just played while PJ and I talked. Then at midnight the kids finally fell asleep and we left at 12:30. Sunday we enjoyed the first session of conference then went for a hike at one of the Metroparks by our house. We saw lots of fun animals. Deer, Yellow finches, wood ducks, cardinals, a muscrat, robins, lot of other birds, a tree a beaver was cutting down and a huge fish jumping out of the water. We all had a blast and wore out all the kids, who slept while we watched the final session of conference.

I love watching conference and feeling the peace that comes with it. I love how much the speakers talked about Christ. One thing that hit me that I hadn't thought about before was when Jesus was on the cross and said why has thou forsaken me our Father in Heaven withdrew his spirit so that Christ could know perfectly everything we as humans go through. He was perfect so he never felt spiritual death until that point. It made the atonement complete. He knew absolutely anything eny of us would ever feel, even spiritual death. I hadn't ever thought about that before. It helps my understand the atonement just a little more. I still have so much to learn though. I am so grateful for the knowledge I have and look forward to learning all I can in this life and adding to it in the next.

After conference we gave the kids a bath, watched, "Beauty and the Beast" and went to bed. We had such a fun weekend as a family and I am excited to get the May Ensign and read the talks to refresh my memory. I'm so glad they print them, because my memory is too short to remember everything I need to.