First of many...

tooth fairy visits to our house. Last month Parker lost his first tooth! I'm still not sure how I have a kid old enough to lose teeth, but it happened. Parker was really excited to loose it but not ok with Andrew or I pulling it out. Anytime we even looked at him from across the room he would put his hand over his mouth and run away. After we assured him that we weren't going to do anything he didn't want us to do, he calmed down a bit. One night while I was at a church activity he got brave enough to let Andrew pull it out. I came home to a happy boy with a missing bottom tooth. That evening (after a late night visit to the grocery store to get cash) the tooth fairy came and left him a dollar. His other bottom tooth is loose too, but it has yet to come out.

The rest of 2010

For anyone who may still be checking this blog, here are a few pictures of what we spent the last few months of 2010 doing...

Makenna turns Three

Our little princess is one year older. She has the funnest personality and gets prettier every day. She loves to dress up in her princess dress, play in the sandbox, and swing. She loves Dora and Diego. Probably her favorite thing is to play with Parker. I am so glad that she's in our family and that I get to be her mom.

Parker's first day of Kindergarten

It happened. We have a kindergartener. He just loves his teacher and being in school. I was a little emotional in the week before he started school, but just really excited for him on the day of. He's a pretty independent kid, so he just walked right into his classroom with out even a look back at us. He's doing great and we couldn't be more proud!

Labor Day

On Labor Day we went to the plane museum at Hill Airforce Base and then to the Ogden Dinosaur Park. The park was sort of Parker's holy grail. Life-sized dinosaurs everywhere. He was in heaven.

Bear Lake and This Is the Place State Park

We went with some family down to Bear Lake for a weekend. The kids had lots of fun on the beach and riding around in the boat. I'm not much of a sun/beach person, but I made it.(: A few weeks later, we took the kids to This Is the Place State Park. They have a lot of neat things to do that I had no idea were there. Makenna rode a horse there named Banjo and now yells, "Banjo!" whenever she sees a horse.

Trek 2010

Andrew works with the young men and so we had the opportunity, in August, to go on trek with the youth of our ward to Martin's Cove. We were dressed up as pioneers the whole time and got to push handcarts. Martin's Cove is an area in WY that the people in the Martin Handcart Company took refuge in when they could go no further in their trek West because of the weather (snow storms) and lack of supplies. The wind there is constant and gets totally insane at times, so I can't imagine how cold it must have been in the winter with snow blowing everywhere. 20% of their company died along the way and many of them died in or near Martin's Cove. Really, I could go on and on about their story. They had such strength and faith and were willing to give everything (and many did) for the gospel. I knew that the place was special and had been dedicated by Pres. Hinckley but skeptical me wasn't totally sure it would be any different than any place else. I was so wrong. It is hallowed ground. There is a spirit there that can't be explained. I knew that the lives of our youth would be touched and changed, but I never expected my own life to be so changed because of this experience. The pioneer ancestor I represented was my great-great-great grandma Martha Jane Knowlton Coray. She and her husband, Howard, made the trek to Utah in 1850. At the time they had 6 children under the age of 8, including an infant. I can hardly take my 2 kids to the store, let alone my 6 kids thousands of miles in a wagon. I gained so much respect for her and her family. It was an amazing experience. One that I wil always be grateful I had.

(Here we are in our pioneer garb)