Monday, July 13, 2015

June Newsletter & Slideshow

https://picasaweb.google.com/103753336633055957263/2015_06Slideshow


Hamilton Newsletter
June 2015
FAMILY: June was a wonderful month! We sure have loved summer so far :) We got to check off a lot of our summer bucket-list items! Including painting & constructing a castle out of our washer box, making Wendy's chocolate shakes, making glitter magnets, going to the St. George splash park, making sand pudding, making toilet paper roll animals & people, going to the Lake at the Hills, making smoothies, slushes & homemade ice cream, hiking Hidden Haven, swimming at the aquatic center, making 4th of July crafts, having a picnic at Woods' ranch, and much more! It's been so fun to have "Make-it Monday," "Try-it Tuesday," "Water Wednesday," "Thinking Thursday," & "Forest Friday." The girls really look forward to the fun activities & mom loves spending extra time with her girls. At the beginning of the month, daddy took the girls to the circus! They hadn't been in a couple years, so they had fun! But the sad part was that Kezi got sunscreen in her eyes and they were really hurting, so mom had to come get her & she didn't see much of the show :( Some terribly tragic news this month was that Grandma Potts' cousin in California accidentally backed up and killed his 6 year old granddaughter . GG & Grandma Potts flew to California to support them and be there for the funeral of this sweet girl. Also - one of the young men in our ward (who Jason was over when he was in YM), was driving with his girlfriend and they got into an accident & she was killed. Our hearts are broken for this family. On June 16th, Heidi & the girls headed up to SLC for our annual "friend & family catch-up week." Jason actually ended up having a work meeting in Escalante that week anyway, so it worked out. We had fun going to a splash park with Anna Packard and her girls, going to IKEA, going to the zoo with the Bensons (there were moving dinosaurs there! & mom got all the girls hats), driving to Syracuse to meet up with Heidi's friend, Gayla, playing at the Matthews' home in Herriman, hanging out with the Simons at a Daybreak park, having breakfast at Joseph's new place, and Grandpa taking the girls to see the new movie, Inside Out. Heidi also got to have separate get-togethers with her cheerleader friends and Park City friends. It was a wonderful catch-up week! That next weekend, we hosted one of Heidi's SIDS mom friends (July) to a BBQ while they were in town for her daughter's archery competition. Our kids really got a long and we enjoyed visiting. We also have been hosting our new neighbors, the Petersen's for dinner, while they work on their new home to get ready to move in. They have 6 children, so it will be fun to have more kids on our street!  In-between all of this fun was getting the hardwood put in our front room, building shelves in the garage (whew! a LOT of work!), planting our garden, moving forward with buying an SUU rental with the Potts, and organizing and decorating to prepare for Ireland's upcoming baptism. It was a wonderful month!  

JASON: Jason continues to have many work force planning meetings and he had his trip to Escalante for work. This year, Father's Day and Jason's birthday were in the same week! We had fun spoiling him with breakfast in bed, treasure hunts, HAPPY FATHER'S DAY signs, cards, making his favorite foods, & giving gifts. For his birthday dinner, we got a sitter & went to Milt's. Jason also worked hard this month building shelves in the garage & it's SO nice to be able to start really organizing the garage!

HEIDI: Heidi is enjoying her new activity days calling. This month she got to go with the girls to the Shakespeare greenshow, and making lip gloss. Also - Heidi helped with her Relief Society calling - making posters, door flyers, and taking pictures for the fun Family Reunion Idea night. Heidi was ready for a change & chopped about a foot off her hair! :) She had to deal with a yucky cold sore that lasted almost 2 weeks, which wasn't fun :( Heidi really enjoyed catching up with friends this summer. It's nice to keep those connections over the years and see what everyone is up to. Heidi has been busy decorating and had fun (maybe a little too much fun?) at IKEA getting things to put here & there around the house. It definitely feels more like home now that we have things on the walls and there is more organization & places to put things. She also worked on making our home really decorated for the 4th of July, including string starts, a jar with red, white & blue beans in it, hankerchief banners, pillows for the front yard, red, white & blue flowers in the front yard barrels, and some other patriotic touches around the house (Including painting our front door blue) :) Heidi also read "Rekindled" this month & really loved it! Also - she's started doing strength workouts on Tuesdays & Thursdays with her friend, Carmen, so that has been fun!

McKINLEY:
-McKinley started piano & voice lessons with a lady in our stake, Jan Pressgrove. She is a great teacher & McKinley is excited & eager to learn! We had our piano in our garage while our front room was being done - and then McKinley left her practice books at Grandma's, so it's been a bit difficult to practice, but she's getting there!
-McKinley is really growing up! She is fitting into small women's clothes and can wear mom's skirts to church & can wear her flip flops!
-McKinley got her new tablet and it came with a keyboard. She LOVES texting everybody - especially grandma. Grandma is sharing some articles she's written with McKinley & McKinley is working on articles for the friend that she is going to have Grandma read.
-This summer, McKinley wants to index and she also wants to start figuring out how to make vehicles that are 100% solar powered :)
-She's got to play with Olivia and Emma this month & they've had fun!

IRELAND:
-Ireland started back up with gymnastics this month at Julie's & she's really loving it! She's back to doing cartwheels, handstands, and backbends all the time - all over the house & anyplace she can find grass :)
-Ireland got to get her baptism pictures taken in St. George this month. Grandma Devenish bought her a beautiful dress and even though it was hot, the pictures turned out cute. After the pictures, mom & Ireland went to a place where you could serve your own ice cream & toppings. It was fun :)
-Ireland has had fun having friends over - especially Emmy and Isabella.
-Ireland has had fun being penpals with Kaydence, Jason's cousin's daughter in Texas.

KEZIA:
-Kezia had swimming lessons this month! She was the youngest in level 1 & her teacher said at first she wasn't sure she would be able to keep up, but she did terrific & ended up passing that level with flying colors! Now on to level 2 for next year!
-After we went to the St. George splash park, we went to Maverick for gas and icees. We were in line to pay for them, and the guy in front of us dropped some coins as he was heading out. Kezi picked them up and gave them to him. A few seconds later he handed her a dollar for her honesty. So sweet! She was very exited :)
-Kezia was doing FHE & she asked mom "Can you print out like 5 pictures of the Holy Ghost for me?"
-Daddy was so sweet for Kezia's FHE. She wanted, NEEDED checkerboard cookies & daddy helped her make them, even though it took over an hour & we didn't even start FHE till 9pm.
-Kezia has had fun with friends, too, including Paige, Adelaide & Emmy.
-Kezia got to have her lunch date with mommy this month, going out to Denny's :)


LINK:
We always love when family & friends send us pictures of rainbows - we got 2 this month (& we saw one, too!) from the Edwards who were in DisneyWorld and the Harrisons who were in Texas. Also - Grandma Potts sent you 2 tractors in the mail to put by your bench. It warms our hearts to know that you are still remembered, loved & missed. We still think about you & talk about you every single day, sweet boy. We love you & miss you.  

NOELLE: We all agree that somehow Noelle just gets cuter & cuter every day! She's 14 months this month!
-Noelle really says quite a lot of things for her age. This month she added "gentle, Shhhh, Sydney, Sit (at least we're pretty sure it's SIT ;), Grandpa, Signing Time & Alex & Leah!" The girls are all trying to get her to say their names first & in the end it was Sydney's name that won out :)
-For some reason, Noelle has started hitting her face this month :(
-We are also working with Noelle on being GENTLE (probably why this is one of her first words) to Sydney. Sydney is a patient dog, but there have been a few times where she has barked at Noelle because Noelle keeps pulling on her ears and poking her nose & eyes.
-We still need to capture it on video, but Noelle really does sing parts of "Twinkle Twinkle" and the "Signing Time" song. It's SOOOOO cute!
-Noelle also puts her finger to her lips and says "Shhhhh"
-Noelle is getting so good at stacking blocks. She stacked 3 the other day!
-She is still INFATUATED with the bathroom. She loves to play with the toilet and toilet paper.
-Mom finally put some child locks on some of the cabinets in the kitchen after she was tired of Noelle pulling out tons of crayons & markers all the time.
-Noelle really loves being with her big sisters & she already wants to be a "big girl" & do what they're doing. When Ireland is doing her tricks downstairs, she squats down and puts her head on the ground & we help her to do a somersault. So cute!
-Noelle loves to find a cup or box or anything & put random things inside.
-Noelle's teeth seem to be bothering her a lot this month & she has gone through a lot of frozen go-gurts.
-We got a baby swing for the backyard swing set & Noelle LOVES it! She just laughs & laughs.
-Noelle really loves the water. Whenever we go to a splash park, we set her down & she just heads right for the water. She will walk around & splash all afternoon :)