Camping with the Neilsons

Last weekend we went camping with our friends the Neilsons at Picnkey State Recreation Area. It was also Free Fishing Day that Saturday so the kids had lots of fun trying to catch tiny fish. We split up the meals and really had fun, but it is easy to forget how tiring camping can be! 

Babies who should be sleeping like to roll around in the tent instead!  The older kids shared a backpacking tent and I think they fell asleep around 11 or so. That made for a short night :)  

Climbing up the slide at the part of the park where we had lunch. She went down so many times!  Sad they don't make slides like this anymore - it is the kind I remember from my childhood days!

And this is what happens after you get all unpacked and the laundry is started. Babies and dads fall asleep quickly!

As Rebecca said right before we left the house to pick up Jacob at school and Jeff at work:
me: Rebecca, do you remember what camping is?
Rebecca: When you have a really great time?

Yep!  That sums it up!

Last day of Young Fives!

Jacob finished his school year on Thursday. I brought to bring watermelon in for his class and play with them outside for a bit (which Rebecca loved!) and so I took a few pictures of the last day festivities. It's been a good year for Jacob and he has grown a lot and he's looking forward to Kindergarten in a few months.

Waiting for his carpool one last time!

I think Rebecca only missed a couple of times coming out to meet  our "carpool buddy" as we called him . She was a very faithful helper every day - even closing the automatic van doors after Jacob was safely buckled in.

These next few shots were taken very quickly but I thought they turned out so funny. The kids are standing by our flowers that opened up just that day! 

Rebecca looks up towards the street...

She spots the van, as does Jacob...

She flees towards the hill...love that hair! 

And they're off!  

Playing with "the really really white sand" outside the school. 

Jacob being silly with his carpool buddy.  Their class started out with 8 boys in September and then ended with 12 boys total. All the moms agreed that the teacher is a bit of a saint because those are some very, very busy boys!!  

I took about 6 pictures of Jacob with his teacher Mrs. Warner and could not for the life of me get him to cooperate very well. At least they were color coordinated :)  

Graduation!

After a lot of hard work over the last 5 years, Jeff graduated with his Ph.D. in Accounting. Graduation was the first weekend in May and we were grateful that Jeff's mom and my parents could come celebrate. 

Here are the two slides about Jeff from the slideshow we saw during the luncheon honoring the Ross Business School  Ph.D. graduates.

All the students had a little blurb about them written by their advisers. I thought Jeff's was one of the best up there. (And yes, it's true about the apple, of course!)

At the luncheon

Outside Hill Auditorium before the Convocation for MBAs & PhDs.  As soon as I heard "Pomp and Circumstance" I started crying just thinking about how much of a labor of love this has been for Jeff. He really loves what he does, and works really hard at everything, and I love that about him. 

Jeff told my parents he wanted a bubble machine for his graduation present. He told me he had told them that and he said something like, "I think my trick worked!  The kids will have a nice bubble machine!"  I love this picture - the bubble machine is great but the smiles are so fun.

Sunday morning of that weekend we had Stake Conference which meant church was 1 hour later than usual for us. We  got ready and headed over to the business school to take pictures with the family.

Everyone had a turn to wear Dad's hat! Well, except Mom. But I'd worn my own before :)  

From his first day of classes at U-M...

...to now!

Dissertation is all defended, boxes have been moved from Jeff's office here in Ann Arbor to his new office at Ohio State's Fisher School of Business and are feeling a little more ready for the next phase of life.  

9 months!

Sarah crossed the 9 month mark on May 17th. In this last month since then she has worked on clapping, sitting up for longer and longer periods of time, waving, eating all sorts of good things, and doing the "so big!" arms above her head.  If she is well-rested and fed she is such a fun, easy-going baby. I sometimes have to tell her she should cry a little harder to let me know she needs a diaper change - sometimes she doesn't really let me know that it is unpleasant for her!

Yesterday Rebecca was sad about something and I was holding Sarah after I changed her. I told Rebecca that Sarah helps me to be happy and I put Sarah right in front of Rebecca and held her there until Rebecca was giggling and smiling again. Jacob loves helping Sarah practice saying "dadadada" and he uses a really high-pitched voice to talk to her. Sometimes I tell him to bring it down a level/octave but most of the time it is pretty cute.  We really love having Sarah around and I am thinking they wrote "The Happiest Baby on the Block" about her just a few years before she was born.

Her little tiger is missing from these pictures. I knew I had seen it somewhere just that day but could not locate it. Well that place was my nightstand - I found it as soon as I went to go to bed that night. I never got around to retaking any pictures so we'll never know how she compared to the toy at 9 months...stay tuned for 10 months in just a few short days :)

Catching up!

I had no idea it had been 3 months since the last post. Rebecca would say, "Oopsie, Mommy!"  :)

Just wanted to post a few pictures of this little baby of ours who is not quite as little as she was in January when I last posted.

Six months:

Seven months:

This big sister is hilarious because she seems to appear whenever I am trying to take Sarah's picture. Most of the time they get too wiggly when they pose together but this one turned out fairly cute and not as blurry as the others.  

 Eight months:

Rebecca's hair falling out of braids is a clue that I usually don't remember to take these pictures until the end of the day :)  

And lest we forget the boys, here are a couple other memories that have been made recently:

Jeff and our neighbors built this big snow fort during the last big snowstorm of the winter. I had high hopes for it remaining (in some form or another) until we moved this summer but that dream didn't pan out and now there is just grass there where the fort stood.  

Jeff playing with bubbles. This is the new big hit with the kids (our kids and others' children!). I have tried many times to do it but Jeff does it much better than I can. They just keep getting bigger - I took this picture a couple weeks ago and the bubbles are much larger now! 

The kids playing a game inspired by Jeff reading them The Story of Doctor Dolittle and The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle. If you've read the book or seen the original 1967 movie you might guess this is a pushmi-pullyu. 

Jacob playing the piano. He took lessons the last few months and has enjoyed it but this day he was just playing for fun and making up all sorts of words. My favorite part was the sunglasses. :)  

Four month and five month photos!

I can't believe it but the calendar tells me Sarah is 5 months today - time for another picture with her trusty tiger (trusty as in he was hiding underneath her dresser so I spent a little time looking for him today!).  In honor of her five-month mark, she decided to roll over for the first time yesterday on January 16th. I caught the second rolling instance on camera which was pretty exciting. Only the child of an almost-accounting-professor would roll on command for money, right? :)  I have lots to update on and I think it will be a good thing to keep me busy these next several weeks when Jeff is interviewing.  Well, you know, blogging and doing the dishes...


A few notes about Sarah - she is a wonderful little baby. I am convinced we haven't ever really had a "real baby" in the sense that they need to be held all the time or else they'll scream or that I have to hold her while she sleeps or something like that. I think 3 kids is just hard even if the baby is extremely good-natured!  We love it when she is smiling while still keeping a pacifier in her mouth, when she gives us "hugs" as the other kids call it (I would call it slightly less spastic placement of arms when they happen to be giving her a hug), when she makes all sorts of happy sing-songy noises, when she sits and eats while we read lots and lots of books all of us together and look forward to the adventures next month will provide when she starts eating yummy pureed fruits and veggies!

Four Months Old - Dec. 17th, 2012

Not excited about sharing her photo shoot with the sibs...

Five Months Old - Jan. 17th, 2013:

Rolling over video is here!

Today is also the 10th anniversary of when I became an aunt for the first time. When my sister Jamie had her first baby I was so so so excited!  I printed off the first pictures they sent, laminated them and hung them up on my apartment door at Casa Dea. Looking back that seems a little odd but I think I was just wanting everyone to know that a proud aunt lived there! :)  Jamie & Jason were living in Louisiana at the time and I ached to be there. Luckily the next year they moved to Utah and since I was still at BYU I got to have lots of fun times with my niece Kirby just a little later on. Before it happens it is hard to imagine just how much you'll love your sister's kids, but that is a really amazing bond for sure!  Happy Birthday to Kirby!