Toothless!

It happened! Jackson lost his first tooth! He was so excited and proud of the big moment that pushed him into the crowd of "grown-up kid." He wrote letters to his classmates at school to let them know the exciting news. I'm glad we don't have to worry about texting or tweeting at this age! Letters are just great!

 Above he is holding the prized tooth...he's excited for the tooth fairy to bring him money. Apparently, Jake from his class got $2 for his tooth, I told him Jake must have gotten his dollars and quarters mixed up because the tooth fairy I know only hands out quarters :)

Below, Jackson is on the phone with Dad to tell him the news. Dad is very sad to see Jackson growing up. Brian told Jackson the only way for Jackson to stop getting older is by spending more time with dad, how ironic that the tooth fell out when he was gone!

Out with the old, in with the new

 Brian's truck died. sniff, sniff. It was official. To fix it would have cost more than the truck was worth and we couldn't guarantee that it would solve all it's future problems!  Sad day, even Jackson cried. BUT Brian did move on...to another, younger version of the same truck! It's nice and we all love it. It makes his little red truck look...little! I somehow hope he wouldn't move along so quickly if it was me that passed! ha ha...

Another Missionary!

 My youngest brother is headed to the MTC tomorrow. His mission call is to Xalapa, Mexico. I'm excited for him. Last weekend, we had the opportunity to attend the temple. my mom had all six of her children and most of their spouses there! it was a great moment for our family!

 I'm proud of Brandon's decision to serve and excited for the experiences he will have (and a bit envious he'll learn to be fluent in Spanish)! I realized that there are almost as many years between Brandon and I as there are between him and Jackson! It was crazy to think about that and the amount of life experiences that happen in those years. I was mostly out of the home while Brandon was growing up, but I think I learned most about him at his farewell talk. He gave a fantastic talk.

 Brandon has always been really great with the kids! They will miss him! They keep asking "How old will I be when Brandon gets back?" I like this picture of the kids with uncle Brandon, and look forward to seeing how much they grow while he's gone!

Proud Parents! They have something to be proud about! All six children are active members of the church, have been through the temple, and all sons have served missions... I hope to say the same about my children someday!

Calvin at 9 months

Our sweet boy is growing up! He's getting a bit attached to his mommy, but I don't mind :) 

The big things for this month are:

 1) he's sleeping better (finally) but not long at night as we'd like. We switched him to Eli's old room and put Eli in Calvin's room so that Calvin would be further away and not wake us up any more...ha ha ha! 

2) he got two new teeth in on top! I tried to capture it in his smile, but he didn't want to part his lips very much, the stinker :) 

3) he's climbing the stairs all by himself! The kids have been great and watching the stairs for me and telling me when Calvin is on them, and sometimes help to bring him back down, or stay near him so he doesn't fall. It's super helpful and they love having the chance to help out with Calvin. 

4) He's feeding himself and likes to use his pincher fingers. They are so chubby and cute.  I love watching my babies concentrate so hard to get that food in their mouths! He's also on a bottle and almost weened entirely! Yay! Freedom for me!

Zoey has been telling random people that her sister Paisley is coming...and most people take that as an announcement that her mom is pregnant. For the record, I'm NOT! But Zoey is excited to get a sister someday and asks all the time if she's coming? Did she go to another family? Is she alone in heaven? Why is it taking so long?!?! All questions that make for a fun conversation with her. She really wants a sister. I tell her to be patient and we'll see what Heavenly Father has planned!