Happy Birthday Aiden!!

Can I just tell you how much I love this kid! He is smart and kind and helpful and he is usually very happy. Here are a few of my favorite things about Aiden:
He gets distracted easily (especially when doing the dishes) but when I remind him to get back on task he always replies with a quick "Oh sorry."
When he is nervous about something he asks a ton of questions (they usually start with "wait...wait, what about...")
He knows how to annoy his older sisters (like any little brother should) but he has a fair amount of patience when his little brother shows him the same kindness.
He loves to read.
He plays his chest like a drum
He wants to be famous
He recently got into the G.A.T.E. program
He's an all around good kid.

I didn't take many pictures on his birthday (I know what a bad mom), but I hope the cute baby pictures will make up for that

Three for Three

Aiden's the latest to inherit my eyesight. He's not a fan of the glasses and he's fairly certain his eyes will be better by next year. I think he looks so handsome!

First Day of School 2011

Back to school, back to school! The first day of school went pretty well in the Edwards house (there's a first for everything right?). Kaylee is old hand at the middle school thing, being in 7th grade and all. It didn't hurt that she knew she was going to have several of her good friends in most of her classes. Her schedule did get changed around a bit to accommodate a pre-algebra class, but that's what you get for being smart;) Reports are she had a good day. I didn't get any pictures of her because waking up at 6:30 makes my brain a little slow. Ashton (5th grade) was a little sad that none of her friends from last year are in her class, but she really likes her teacher and she gets to see most of her friends at recess anyway. Aiden (3rd grade) really likes his teacher too. It may have something to do with "Cookie Friday" but I think he would love his class regardless. I'm really excited for him because his teacher last year wasn't our favorite so he is due for a good one. Dalin started kindergarten. The school used to have only grades 3-5 and this year it switched to K-5 so luckily Dalin gets to be in the same school as Ashton and Aiden. His teacher is really nice but she had been teaching 4th grade so she's adjusting to kindergarten life too. There are about 38 kids in the class which is kind of insane. His teacher said if the get five more kindergarteners at the school they can get another teacher, so I'm hoping for that because sheesh! Best quote of the day comes from Dalin. He had a homework sheet where he had to color like five things which was almost to much for him to bear. He looks up at me and says, "I didn't even say anything mean about the principal and my teacher still gave me homework!" It's going to be a long year:)

The kids all set their clothes out the night before, it was pretty cute to see in the morning.

The elementaries



Dalin was a little nervous. He told me there were two girls in his class who cried, but he didn't cry, he "held his tears"

The Lazy Days of Summer...emphasis on lazy

This is our first full summer and I had all kinds of plans. Unfortunately I forgot one thing. It is H-O-T, hot! I mean the kind of hot that makes you tell your husband to ask for a transfer up north so you never have to deal with this kind of summer heat again. We did make it out of the house a couple of times, but I'm afraid there aren't too many pictures to prove it. Here are the few pictures that show we do know what the world outside our four walls look like.

Kaylee and the newest beehives on their way to their first girls camp. I know it doesn't really look like they were headed to camp, but they did baptisms for the dead in St. George on the way.

We took our annual library sponsored trip too Shark Reef. Again you can't really tell we were there, but trust me we were.

We did cousin shopping and I didn't get any pictures of the girls. This was the first year we took the boys and the only picture I got was their "huddle" to decide what kind of shirt to get.

We went to the temple with our primary and it was AWESOME! It really deserves it's own post but I'll refer you back to the lazy part of the title.

Edwards Family Reunion

Most of the Edwards crew. We were unfortunately missing Emily's husband and daughters and Lindsay's husband and daughters. Maybe next time:)

Chris's family lives all over the place. We are lucky enough to have one of his sisters here in Vegas, but his parents are in Arkansas, a sister in New York, another sister in Texas and his brother who lives in Utah is going to be moving to Rhode Island in August. That along with his parents upcoming 40th anniversary and a baby blessing seemed like a good reason to have a family reunion. We decided to rent a house in Salt Lake so we could spend actual quality time with the Edwards family. The house we had originally reserved became a case of false advertising (it was dirty, not wheelchair accessible, and previously had cats) so the rental agency was contacted and we were moved to a bigger much nicer house. It was awesome! There was a hot tub, a game room with air hockey foozeball and ping pong, 5 bedroom, 3 1/2 bath and enough space that the whole family could just hang out and not feel like we were on top of each other. There were fireworks across the street on Fri and Sat night and a parade that on the street next to the house on Sat morning. They said those were for Taylorsville days, but I'm choosing to believe it was for our family. It was fabulous to relax and visit and play together as a family. Everything worked out perfectly. Thank goodness aunt Lindsay and aunt Kim took lots of pictures, because I don't think I even took my camera out.

This picture cracks me up! It is typical Chris. These poor girls put up with a lot from their older brother.

I have a Young Woman now...

12! Kaylee is 12! It's kind of blowing my mind. When did I become the lady old enough to have a 12 year old? Alright, I know it's not about me;) This year Kaylee had a friend party and we decided to have a movie theme. I use the term "theme" loosely though because besides the invitations and cupcakes looking like popcorn, there wasn't much more movie involved. The girls had pizza, played some "Minute to Win It" games (thank goodness for that show and it's instant party games:) then we were off to the movies to watch Kung Fu Panda 2. Kaylee thought it was fun (so did I), so SUCCESS! Happy Birthday Kaylee, we LOVE YOU!

After we had played the games all the girls wanted to try "Face the cookie". They had to move a cookie from their forehead to their mouth using only their facial muscles. They decided laying down was the best technique for this challenge. It was pretty hilarious

Dalin 5.0

Yep he's 5, can you believe it! I'm still coming to terms with it myself. I think I have a hard time with every one of his birthdays because he's my baby, but five is a doozie. Five is kindergarten. Five is big. Okay, enough of that, moving on. Dalin has been counting down the days to his birthday since Christmas (168 in case you wondered). And he has been asking for a "Power Ranger Switch Head" for 120 of those days. He got his Power Ranger and enough to constitute a "good haul". He also had a Happy Meal date with his dad and there is a rumor that someone let him drive the car. What more could a five year old ask for:)

Here are some of his favorite things:

Food: Popsicles, watermelon & strawberries
Toy: Power Ranger Switch head
TV Show: Power Rangers Samurai
Movie: Kung Fu Panda 2 (or whatever the latest cartoon movie happens to be)
Color: Green
Super Hero: Spiderman
Thing to do: Play

Dalin requested this "cake". It's not very pretty, but it's made up of his two of his favorite things.

The Runaway Kid

For Christmas I made the kids pillowcases out of some super soft fabric. Kaylee, Ashton and Aiden immediately put theirs on their pillow. Dalin tried his out for a couple of days then decided it was too big for his pillow (he refuses to use a full size pillow) so it kind of got forgotten. One day he decided it would make a good blanket/toy holder so he loaded it up with his favorite things and carried it around the house. I needed to go to the mall and I let him bring it, figuring he would leave it in the car. I was wrong. The following was an effort to get him to leave his loot behind.

Me: "Dalin people are going to think you ran away from home if you bring all that stuff in"

Dalin: "They will look at you and know you are my mother. How could I be running away when my mother is right there."

"They might think I'm Santa but I don't have a hat."

"I could be a robber but I'm not wearing robber clothes either."

What other argument could I have?

Not only did he have a treasure bag, but a handy seat for the elevator ride:)