Heidi's 5th Birthday Party

Today we celebrated Heidi's 5th birthday with her friends from church. She wanted an art party so we (Joe and I) did our best to deliver something fun. Thank goodness we have a real artist in the family to help with all the prep.

Her friends Emi, Seneya, Luke, Anika, and Ella came to celebrate. We started off picking aprons as each guest arrived and coloring in some frames with oil pastels.

Then we moved over to Bob Ross and played "High-five the artist". Each child got to give Bob Ross a high-five with the paint that matched their apron. They loved getting their hand all messy in the paint. It was my favorite part. Those kids were so cute about it.

Afterward they got to paint their own masterpiece. I loved their creativity.

Joe got the piñata ready while I cleared the paint table to get ready for cake, ice cream and snacks. 

Heidi loved her cupcake piñata and her 6-layer, bigger-than-her-face rainbow cake.

It was interesting that the thing that was most eaten was the fruit that we offered. Barely any ice cream or cake was eaten. Kids just wanted fruit! No cheese or crackers either. 

We finished off with some presents and 2 hours were up, just like that! Perfect! 

We love our Heidi girl and we are glad she had a great party. She gave us hugs to show her appreciation after everyone left. 5 years of this sweet girl in our family! She is sweet, funny, imaginative, a performer, girlie, graceful, and loving. 

Heidi, we think the world of you and are so grateful for who you are and all the love, joy, fun, and humor you bring to our little family. You always want to play and spend one-on-one time with mom or dad. You love that quality time. You also love being hugged, kissed, and cuddled. I love all of you!! Love, Mom 

Summer 2014

July flew by and we were busy! Here are some pics from the end of July 2014

We liked to visit the splash pad, in rain or shine. I promised Heidi that she could get a snow cone at the splash pad one day. It started pouring rain. I quickly packed up all our stuff and told the girls to head toward the car. Heidi ran toward the Sno Shack in a panic instead. She thought she wouldn't get the snow cone that I promised her. She was willing to do it all by herself. She took her wallet with her and looked for her dollar. She was happy that she finally got her snow cone. This girl has guts and a major sweet tooth. 

Pioneer Day! Who could forget? July 24th we celebrated Pioneer Day with a 5k run from the Provo Temple to the unfinished Provo City Center Temple. Maia started on her scooter but realized the bumpy road hurt her hands too much so we stored the scooter away and she finished the race with me. Joe took his modern-day hand cart (aka jogging stroller) and ran ahead of us slow pokes. But we all finished and it was a fun experience for our family.

Above: before the race. Below: after the race. Don't mention the courtesy shuttle back to the parking lot to Joe. We could have run a 10-15k in the same amount of time it took the 5k committee to figure out shuttles. It was a joke. But, we'll know how to do it next year.  

After the race we had a picnic up at Hobble Creek Canyon. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed being together.

At the end of July my oldest niece, Marin, came out to attend EFY and a Habits for Life camp at BYU. It was so fun to spend some time with her between camps.

Especially at the BYU Creamery. Mmmm.

At the beginning of August Maia decided to try her hand at basketball and completed a basketball camp at Springville High School. She said she didn't really like it. However, she really liked the t-shirt she got at the end of camp and said she wanted to do the camp next year. She'll do anything for a new t-shirt, I guess.

Heidi is improving in her speech fluency. She has hit an all-time low on number of stutters on an evaluation at therapy! We are so proud of her. She is working hard and we are excited about her progress. Maia has even come to a couple of sessions of Heidi's speech therapy to receive training on how to support Heidi in her speech. It's a family process.

Maia has officially started soccer season. So far, she likes it! I'm wondering if her outfit has anything to do with it.

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Saige turned 9 months on August 5th. She has two teeth and is average for her height and weight. 

Here are her stats from her 9 month appt.

Height: 28 in. (66%)

Weight: 18 lbs. (48%)

Head Circumference: 43 cm. (27%) 

Saige is finally crawling! She is our latest crawler and our latest teether out of the girls. We like that she is taking things slowly.  She is, by far, our best eater. She is always hungry.

Maia started school on Tuesday (August 19th). She is in the first grade and goes to school ALL DAY! That's her favorite part about the 1st grade. Her teacher is Mrs. Chatterley and she loves school.

We had a Back to School party after the first day of school. All of Maia's friends from Primary came over to celebrate the 1st day of 1st grade.  We took pictures, had snacks, filled out an interview page for each child, and played games. 

Heidi was my model while I tried out different photo spots. I got pictures of all of Maia's friends but I forgot to take Maia's picture!!! I couldn't believe it!! What was I thinking? 

Heidi loved the balloons from the party and the light rain. She decided to dance and run in the rain with her balloon. I think it was the best part of her whole day. She is such a free spirit. She just sings and dances every day.

It's Time

Well, it's time to get back to the blogging world, as requested by my MIL. Thank you, Grace. And after hearing that my sister lost ALL  of her pictures of her kids from birth to present, when her external hard drive crashed, I decided that it wouldn't be a terrible thing to start the family blog back up.

So, let's catch up. We moved from Boston last year and we are currently in Utah but not sure how long we will be here. We are at the fork in the career road once again. But, even through all these different roads we have been blessed and have had good experiences. I believe there is a reason for everything. We keep learning through it all and I am grateful for that.

Aug. 2013:

• Maia started kindergarten! She loved her teacher, Mrs. Miner, and all her friends in her class. She loves school.
• Joe also starts working at Modaliti design firm in SLC.

Sept. 2013:

• I turned 34. Oh dear.

Oct. 2013:

• Ran into health insurance coverage problems that stressed us out to the max! However, we were blessed to get coverage just 5 days before our baby girl was born.

Nov. 2013:

• We had another sweet girl join our family. Saige is a pure delight and we are so glad that she is part of our family.

Dec. 2013:

• We spent Christmas in California this year. We hadn't been to California for over two years so it was good to spend it with the family for Christmas.

Jan. 2014:

• On our way back to Utah, we stopped in Las Vegas to see Joe's sister and spend New Year's there.
• While we were in Vegas, Joe got word that Modaliti's designers decided to quit and thus started the phasing out of Joe's job and role at Modaliti.
• Joe then got called to become the Elders Quorum President in our ward.
• Heidi turned 3 in January as well. She is Miss Personality and is in her own world at times playing dress-up and princess. She loves to dance and sing and is very graceful in her movements.
• Maia and Heidi are enrolled in ballet at Charisma Dance Studio.

Feb. 2014:

• We headed back to California to attend a black tie event at Cal Poly Pamona where my dad was inducted into the Engineering Hall of Fame.
• We also surprised the girls with a day at Disneyland where we spent precious time waiting for (and hunting down) princesses.

Mar. 2014:

• We were surprised and panicked when we heard that my dad suffered a heart attack and we drove down to California for a 3rd time in 4 months. He got a stent put in and we took a week to monitor him and make sure he took it easy which is not easy for my dad at all. He cannot stay still. We are blessed that he is still with us.
• We noticed that Heidi had been struggling with some stuttering issues since January and decided to put her in therapy.

April 2014:

• After finishing a lot of contract work at Modaliti, Joe decided to start his own business. We felt good about that decision and he has been working hard on it since.

May 2014:

• Saige was finally blessed at home at six months old. She cried pretty much the whole time.
• Maia finished kindergarten!
• Maia turned 6 years old and hds her first big birthday party at Springcreek Park, Rio style.
• Maia and Heidi had their first ballet recital and they did an excellent job. They looked so cute in their costumes even though Joe and I hate that they had to wear makeup.
• We also went to our first real rodeo in Spanish Fork with some friends. It was a fun night and a great kickoff to summer.

June 2014:

• Joe was contracted out to Kaleidoscope Design in Seattle to work on a project at Microsoft for a month. While Joe was gone, I decided to take a vacation with the girls to Wyoming to visit my dad, then to Arizona to spend time with my mom and sisters at mom's timeshare in Phoenix, and then to California for Maia's first year at Cousins Camp. Joe flied out to Phoenix for Father's Day, the only day and a half that I got to see him the whole month!

• Joe's sister Marla had her second baby. This time it's a girl, Hannah. We got to see her on our way back to Utah. She's a pretty little thing.

July 2014:

• Morin Family Reunion- Wes, Conrad, Voof and Grace all came out to American Fork (Carrie's house) to play. We went to the Provo Rec Center, the aquarium, the canyon, and spent the 4th of July camped out in front of Helaman Halls, BYU, and watched the fireworks launched from the stadium.
• Maia and Heidi started swim lessons the following week. It ran for two weeks. Maia did a basketball camp for 3 days at Springville High School that second week of swimming lessons.
• Joe celebrated his 35th birthday on the 14th of July. He ages extremely well. 
• We got another surprise visit from Voof and Grace on their way back from camping in Idaho and we spent the day at the Museum of Natural Curiosity at Thanksgiving Point.

• The Springville Splash Pad became a weekly visit for us in July.
• On Pioneer Day we ran the Temple to Temple 5k as a family. The event was a fun one.
• Maia lost her tooth Pioneer Day morning at around 3 am, hoping that the tooth fairy would still come that same night/morning.
• Dad came to visit for lunch after he dropped off my brother at the SLC airport. Brian broke his ankle pretty severely the week before while fishing with some co-workers in Wyoming. We were lucky that he was with good co-workers and just minutes from my dad's house. 9 pins and 1 plate later, he is on the mend. He flew back to CA  today in bandages.

This year has been a crazy one but it has been packed with so much fun! We are grateful for our families and our health through this year.

Caught up? I hope so. I'll try to keep this updated a bit more.