Cassie 2010

Cassandra Denise joined our family on July 5, after an easy labor and delivery. She was very pleasant and content even from the very beginning. I think they only thing that was a little weird was what a noisy sleeper and eater she was! She sounded kind of like a cat purring for the first couple days. It quieted down during sleep a little after that, but she was still loud while nursing-- sounding like a little, high-pitched horn--while she drank. Cilla took these awesome pictures of her when she was 2 weeks old and really NOT in the mood for a photo shoot.

Cassie has been swaddled from the get-go, and still likes to be mummified for her night-time sleep.

Cassie seemed to just join into the daily life of our house pretty easily. Maybe it was just because it was summertime, but it seemed like she and the rest of the household adjusted pretty quickly. Maybe that was partly due to the tremendous amount of sleeping she did at first- and that she hardly ever cries.

Cassie was blessed in August . In her blessing, I remember something unique- that music would be important in her life. I know she loves musical toys, listening to piano lessons, and listening to me play the guitar. I guess we'll see what she likes in the future...

Cassie was born with a lot of dark hair (at least by our standards). She is the only one of our kids to have ANY curl whatsoever! Gradually the sides and back fell out- leaving a curly mohawk. Now, the mohawk is gone and a light brown fuzz has replaced it.

A mischevious grin...

Happy while watching me cook. She often hung out in the bouncy seat while I made dinner.

She loves to suck on her hands, fists, or fingers for fun. I was wondering if she was going to be a thumb-sucker, but she doesn't consistently suck on her hands. She usually just whimpers if she wants her pacifier so she can go to sleep.

Here she is with her cousins, Michael and Hailey. It will be fun to see how similar/different they will be as they grow. Michael is 6 weeks younger and Hailey is about 12 weeks younger.

Many people haven't ever heard Cassie laughing. She is generally so quiet and content that she doesn't say much. In this video Spencer really gets her going! It's really cute!




Here's an example of her loud sleeping.

Cassie has changed so much! She's now 7 months old- rolling, sitting, playing with toys, clapping, laughing, eating from a spoon, and making some funny sounds. We love Cassie!

Kara 2010

Kara has grown so much during 2010! She was just a quiet, little toddler when the year started, and now she is a talking, independent little girl! Kara is so fun to have around. She likes so many things. In this picture, she decided to get back into the tub after she was dressed. She LOVES water and going to the swimming pool. She has always liked baths and being in the water. She loves to roam the swimming pool and run around. She goes under quite a bit, but it doesn't seem to bother her- she just keeps going.

Kara really loves to look at books and read stories to herself. Of course, she likes it even better if someone is willing to read to her, but she often goes off by herself with a stack of picture books and tells herself a story. She also likes to color in coloring books and do puzzles.

I think Kara's greatest love is for FOOD! This girl loves to eat- and she eats just about anything. (It is SO nice!!) She even likes salad now. She likes just about every food and drink. She loves it when people leave out their snacks- then she gobbles them up!

I wouldn't call Kara shy- but she is generally more quiet when there's a big crowd of people around. Sometimes she shies away from people, but mostly she loves getting one-on-one attention. She really likes babysitters and "my class" at church. She likes going to play at other people's houses and already has a few friends. (By the way, this picture is from Father's Day...)

Kara is actually pretty good at cleaning up after herself. She almost always puts her dishes in the sink after meals, and she will throw wrappers in the garbage. If she asks to play with something out of the closet, I usually make her clean up something she has already played with first. So, she usually cleans it up (sometimes while singing the clean-up song), and brings it to me before asking for something else. She also likes to wash her hands in the sink and use a napkin at meal-times.

Kara adjusted really well to Cassie joining our family. I think that having Cassie during the summer helped, because Kara got more attention from her siblings. She seems to like Cassie, but pretty much treats her like part of the furniture right now. I'm sure that once she gets crawling...and grabbing toys...there will be more interaction.

Kara seems like a pretty mature toddler, until she does some of the typical toddler-messy stuff- like dumping out an entire bag of cereal, or clearing off an entire bookshelf in 5 seconds.

I think Kara enjoys going new places and having different experiences. She seemed to really like going to Utah this past summer and visiting friends and family.

Here she is when we were picking peaches. May I recommend NEVER taking a free-roaming toddler to pick peaches?? She had lots of fun finding all the yucky ones on the ground and throwing all the good ones into the boxes.

Kara turned 2 in September, and got a shopping cart and a few other random toys.

Kara loves chasing our cats around and grabbing them. She had fun getting this chicken!

Kara has grown and changed so much this year! She is now a silly, talking, dancing, playing-pretend, Dora-loving, little girl with cute little pigtails. I'm excited to see what the coming year brings!

Lindsey 2010

Lindsey is such a sweet little girl. She is everything that is girly and loves everything pink, frilly, and bedazzled. Lindsey really loves clothes- particularly skirts and dresses. The frillier the better. Rain, snow, or summer time- she wants a skirt on with cute shoes. She was thrilled to get several new pairs of shoes for Christmas, and often asks if we can go shopping to get new clothes.

Lindsey's doing her second year of preschool this year. She really enjoys her friends. Last year, she would huddle up with her blanket on many mornings of preschool and just watch for a while. Luckily, she has outgrown that and dives right into all the activities this year. She is learning about all that pre-Kindergarten stuff, and I'm teaching her to read. She can read words like,"on, sock, and cat". She's pretty good at math, too. Spencer taught her how to play chess, so I heard that she mostly knows how to move the pieces, but I think they usually let her cheat...

Lindsey's favorite foods are: cheese pizza, noodles, meatballs and rice, cheese, and juice and snacks and treats. She basically doesn't eat any fruits or vegetables except raw carrots, although she loves juice. I'm hoping her resolve cracks one of these days...

Lindsey and Penny have a special bond. I think Penny likes Lindsey because she is calm and sits around with her blankets a lot. She isn't loud and crazy. Penny will often hide in the girl's room at night and fall asleep with Lindsey at bedtime.

Lindsey ran in the Starlight parade for the first time last year and LOVED it. From what I heard, everyone thought she was so cute. She gave about a thousand high 5's.

Lindsey is really cute with Cassie. She talks baby-talk to her and makes Cassie laugh.

Lindsey loves her daddy-dates with Larry. She is very talkative, if you give her a chance and there's no sibling competition for attention. She's got a fun imagination.

For Lindsey's 4th birthday, she had a party with friends. She loves her boy-friends just as much as her girl-friends. She loves to go places and visit people and is always asking what new and exciting things we are planning on doing. (She's usually disappointed- how many new and exciting things can you do every day?)

Lindsey played soccer this year. Larry was her coach. Mostly she liked the treats afterwards and running around holding hands with her friends. She wasn't too ferocious, but very cute. She likes soccer, but really likes dance classes better. She says that she wants to be a ballerina someday.

Spencer 2010

Spencer is the self-appointed comedian of the family. He loves to say funny things and get reactions out of people. He loves to goof around. This picture is of him waiting for the St. Patrick's Day parade. (Note the coat, gloves, and flip-flops). Spencer was totally crazy about puzzles the first half of the year (he still likes them, but isn't always working on one). He always likes to document the latest one that he's done by having a picture taken. By the way, he did have some help on this one.

I can't remember why, but Spencer finished a big goal and earned a party. He wanted a puzzle party. So, we spent about 2 hours doing all the puzzles in the house (minus a few of the ones with lots of pieces). It was a lot of fun for all of us.

Spencer loves candy! And getting presents! But he will often share- especially with Lindsey and Kara. He is really good to them and will often play games with them or read to them.

Spencer LOVES to be active and outside. I think he kind of forgets that during our rainy winters, but he always has a big smile on his face after riding his bike or running around in the backyard. He likes to make a soup in our turtle sand box with leaves, bark, and mud and stir it up with a big stick.

Spencer went fishing for the first time and caught a fish right away. He was excited- but didn't want to eat the fish. He LOVES apple slices, and likes yogurt, cheese, other fruit, pizza, and bread, and of course yummy ice cream, treats, and snacks.

Spencer ran with Larry in the Starlight parade again this past year. He really loves to run and is looking forward to "running club" again this spring. It's a class once a week, where you play running games and take jogs into the woods.

Spencer loves to ham it up for the camera and made lots of movies this summer about his puzzles, Legos, and train tracks. I also saw a lot of the inside of his mouth and running around the house.

For Spencer's birthday party this year, he invited some friends to go on the boat at great-Grandpa's house. They had pizza and some of them went tubing. Afterwards, we had a pinata and cake at the house.

Spencer is doing awesome at school. He likes PE the best, but pretty much likes everything. He is a great student and is a good reader and great at math. He'd rather do other things than sit and read a book- like play chess with someone, chase the girls around the house, or play with his nerf swords.

Spencer is also doing really awesome at piano. If he's ever bored, he just sits down at the piano and plays. It usually only takes him a few times through a song to pass it off. He likes to play in the book that is in the next level for fun. He's the best of our kids at reading music as well.

Spencer made these Lego glasses a while ago. For a while he looked like quite a jack-o-lantern with his missing bottom teeth. He is very creative.

To sum it up, Spencer is awesome and an all-around bright, funny kid!