January

Sean started walking at the very beginning of the year.  Here he is, after only one week of walking.  He was really wobbly for the whole first month or so, but now he's a pro!  I can't get a video to upload, so I'll try again later.

For the last 9 months or so, we've been involved in a babysitting co-op.  It is the best thing ever!!!!  Every Friday we take our kids to one of 5 family's houses.  They spend the evening there playing, having snacks, and watching movies while John and I get to go on a date.  Then every 5 weeks it's our turn to babysit.  There can be up to 18 kids including our own, but it is so worth it every other Friday when we can go out and spend quality time together! 

This is John and some of the kids on our babysitting night.

Erin loves to take pictures, especially of Sean!  They had a great time taking these ones together. 

Also in January, Devin's Chinese class put on a program for the Chinese New Year.  It was really fun to see the kids sing and recite in Chinese! 

They made these Dragons for the occasion.

November '11

November brought tons of snow!  (we haven't had much since).  We got two major snow storms and the kids loved playing in it. 

 They got really creative!

We had Thanksgiving at my Mom and Dad's house again this year.  It was a quiet weekend, cause we were the only ones there!

While we were there, we went to see Santa. 

Erin and Devin had very specific things they were asking for.

Sean wanted nothing to do with Santa.

Colin wanted to ask Santa for things, but would not sit on his lap.  John happened to be sick the day we went to see Santa, so I had to hold Sean while helping Colin stand next to Santa and tell him what he wanted. It was comedy!  Sean was screaming, because he didn't like Santa, and Colin was whispering his requests.  This was a very good Santa!  He didn't seem to mind at all. 

  Grandma helped the big kids decorate a Gingerbread house too!  We had a great time there at Thanksgiving.

November 29th was Sean's 1st Birthday! 

 I can't believe my baby's 1!  He had a great day and was very pleased with his presents.

He grabbed the dinosaurs off his cake right away, and wondered why we were all singing.

At first, he didn't know what to do with this colorful thing in front of him.  When he touched it it made his hands sticky and he didn't like it. 

But when I gave him a taste of the frosting, he dug in!!!  He has a major sweet tooth now!

September '11

I can't believe that I still have Summer stuff on my blog, and it's the dead of Winter.  Time to catch up!  September means School, and I have 3 in school this year!  They all started on the same day:  the day after Labor day.  Everyone was excited.  Erin is in 4th grade this year.

Devin (going into 1st grade) bumped his head right before this picture!  Then we rushed him right out the door to school!  Oops!

Colin was excited, but nervous to start preschool.  When I left him he cried.  But once he discovered how fun it was, he never cried again.

We also went to the Utah State Fair.  After doing several things as a family, we let the kids each choose 1 ride to go on. 

Erin chose this bungee bouncer.  She loved it! 

They all loved the animals!

Also in September, Erin got her Brown Belt!  Only one more belt left!

September 15th was Colin's 4th Birthday!  He's getting so big!  I decided that this year it would be fun for him to have his first friend party!  He invited 4 friends, and they had a great time!

Then later on when John got home, we celebrated again with more cake and ice cream!

On September 17th, John ran the marathon that he had been training for all summer!  His goal was to do it in 4 hours.  He did pretty well!  He did it in 4 hours 15 minutes!  An excellent time for his very first marathon ever!

Devin has started losing his baby teeth!  He lost the first one in August and the second one in September.

And what did the tooth fairy do with his 2 teeth?  She passed them on to Sean!  (Sean really got his first 2 teeth in July, but it was kind of cute that he had the 2 teeth that Devin was missing)  :-)

Here's my cut Sean at 10 months old!  At this point he was doing an army crawl, pulling to stand, clapping, mimicking everything, and just being a cutie (when he wasn't teething).

July

We spent the 4th of July in Delta this year! We had a great time swimming in the kiddie pool outside, going on the 4-wheeler, and seeing the parade. In the park afterwards, Devin and Erin participated in the fish catch. They got to catch a fish with their hands! Colin was not interested at all. I don't blame him

Devin turned 6 this Year! I can't believe he's 6 already! We had a great low key family party. He is a sweet boy! We love you Devin.

John's work put on a great Summer party in preview of the new Harry Potter movie. We got t-shirts, and we got to make potions, be sorted into houses with the sorting hat, see cool reptiles, and dress up in Harry Potter costumes. We even got cool treats for the movie like chocolate frogs, pumpkin juice, and Butter Beer! Then we took the kids to a friend's house while we went to a 3d preview showing of the movie. It was a ton of fun!

In the middle of July we went to a really fun Family reunion with my Mom's family. They had lunch, a water slide, and some fun games to play. Thanks to Mandy, Stacy, and Valerie for putting it on.

In July Sean was 7 months old. He loves to play with toys and with his brothers and sister. up until this point he was generally staying in the same spot, but in July he really started to roll around! He could get all the way across the room eventually as he moved from one toy to another rolling along as he went.

My birthday was in July too. I'm now 32 and John treated me to dinner and a banana cream pie!

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June

In June we were busy with Soccer! (It started in May) Devin loves to play Soccer! And this year John surprised us all by volunteering to be his coach! I think they both really enjoyed it! At least it made us be on time to every game!

John ran his half marathon in June too. His goal was to run it in less than 2 hours. and he did just that! he ran it in 1 hour 50 minutes! Way to go John!

At 6 months old (in June), Sean is getting big. he sits up really well and is a fun little boy!

He's even starting to grab onto the swing! It's time to pack away all the little baby toys!

We also took the kids swimming at a new pool in our area. It was Sean's first time, and he loved it. There was no water shyness at all!

At the end of the month, Erin got her red belt 2nd degree, and John got his Brown belts. I think we're well protected at our house!