Friday, August 11, 2017

July Newsletter & Slideshow

Slideshow:

https://goo.gl/photos/HFp1uERjvtr3viaU7

Hamilton Newsletter
June 2017

FAMILY: July flew by but we sure did enjoy it!! Some of our adventures for our themes (make-it Monday, taste-it Tuesday, etc) were making silhouettes with everything we love drawn in them, making homemade cookie dough ice cream sandwiches, strawberry lemonade bars, and going to the DUP Museum and library. The 4th in Richfield was fun as always. We did the parade, water balloon fun, and yummy BBQ. And of course watching the great fireworks! This year was a bit more adventurous than most as we watched the neighbors’ fireworks start a fire not once but TWICE! The firemen & police were involved – we’re just glad everyone was safe. On the 5th (Ireland’s birthday!! – see her section for more details) we had lunch at Winger’s (Ireland’s choice) and then headed up to Fishlake! We stayed in a tiny cabin by the Lakeside store. It was pretty rustic J but we had a great time fishing, roasting marshmallows, going to the Fishlake Lodge, reading books, going for drives, hikes, and of course more fishing J We even rented a little aluminum boat for a half day and everyone caught fish! It was a lot of fun. One interesting adventure was the potguts that were all over by our cabin. The girls loved to chase them around into their holes & under the store. One day, we had TWO wander into our cabin and it was interesting trying to get them back out!  We stayed until Saturday, then went back to Richfield, picked up Sydney, and headed back to Cedar. Trisha had her baby girl, Rachel Lucia on July 10th – welcome to the family Rachel!!  In other BIG NEWS – the Bealers moved back!! We got together with them for some ice cream after we got back from Fishlake & Heidi has enjoyed getting her running friend back & McKinley has enjoyed having her good friend, Addison, back. On the 13th we went to the annual Renaissance Fair and it rained like crazy, as usual! On the 15th, McKinley & Kezia did a lemonade stand / bake sale (strawberry lemonade bars & chocolate PB bars) on the corner of 700 S. & Ridge. They did SO well! Earned almost $80!! They are saving up for Disneyland and will have plenty of money for souvenirs! On the 18th we went swimming at the Gregerson pool with the Hillsteads & had a bunch of fun! Mom & Dad went to the temple twice this month – once we alternated days doing initiatory. Then on the 20th, Keeley watched the girls so we could go do an endowment session. We didn’t get out till after 10! But it was awesome and we are so excited to get some of these family names done!! Mom took all the olders on back-to-school dates to get some new school clothes. It was fun to spend some extra one-on-one time with them! On the 21st, we met daddy at the cemetery and had our picnic at Link’s bench. Mom made a special yummy salad & we had lots of fruits, veggies, and lemonade. We loved spending time there – and there was a cute little rolly polly that said hello to all of us.  Afterwards, we went to the DUP (Daughters of Utah Pioneers) Museum. It was neat to see all the relics and learn more about the Cedar City pioneers. Mom even bought all the olders a pioneer bonnet. After that, we walked in the heat for a few blocks to Palette Creamery for some yummy ice cream. On one of our thinking Thursdays, the girls made an EPIC fort downstairs! It stretched from the couches clear to the cabinets and they used pretty much every blanket, pillow, and chair in the house! After it was done, we turned off the lights and had a read-a-thon. Then we all did little oral book reports on what we read. It was fun! On the 22nd, after working in the yard and downstairs, we headed to Parowan for some yummy cinnamon rolls and then up to Brian Head for some live music & car show. It was a bit cold & rainy, but we had a lot of fun! Pioneer Day, the 24th, was the annual ward breakfast & then parade. The girls wore their new bonnets J We tried to live like pioneers as much as possible, not using electricity, batteries, or the internet. We even turned off the AC. That afternoon it rained quite a bit, but after the storm, we headed to East Canyon park where we played in the stream and puddles and enjoyed ourselves immensely J On Friday, the 28th, after a week of getting to bed by 9:45pm and not complaining about chores, the girls earned a campout/late-over. McKinley invited Micaela, Ireland invited Mahina, and Kezia invited Macie. We set up a tent and the girls had fun playing in the tent, roasting hot dogs, smores, and starburst, and mom even set up the projector outside & we watched Boss Baby with our friends. It was a lot of crazy fun J The older girls all slept outside that night and had fun. On the 31st, McKinley & Kezia got a HUGE package of goodies from their penpal, Belle Haines, including bead-os, Shopkins stuff, and new markers. So fun!  Also this month we put our basement room on the internet for college & had LOTS of response! In the end, we decided to go with a couple cute girls – Zhane and Truly. We are excited for this new adventure and hope that it goes well. Also this month, our garden was producing well – we got lots of peas and some raspberries (not as many as we’d like), and at the end of the month, we got to eat some yummy corn and the tomatoes are just starting to ripen up, too! We love peeking out the back window to see the “girl corner” – with the Prices, and the Schoppmans, and our girls all hanging out, walking on the wall, jumping on the tramp, playing in the sandbox, and just laughing and having a great time. Unfortunately, our air conditioner has not been doing well this month L Most every day, the temp inside gets above the set point & the AC freezes up. We had someone new come look at it and he suggested a new unit ($3k+) L We will survive this summer, but we may look at doing it next summer.

JASON: Jason had a great July this year getting to do some things he loves – he got to do a lot of fishing at a place that holds a lot of memories for him – Fishlake. He also borrowed his brother’s side-by-side and went on a long ride with some guys in the neighborhood/ward. He played hard – and he worked hard, too. At the rental, he & grandpa Potts spent about a full day putting in the AC units, putting in a new washer, and some other miscellaneous things. He also worked in the yard at our house, too. One day an old retired Forest Service worker came to Jason’s building. Jason walked him around, listened to him, and was his friendly self. Later, that man wrote a letter & cc’d many important people, praising Jason. We are so proud of him, too <3 o:p="">

HEIDI: Heidi enjoyed the time at Fishlake, unplugged, and read a couple books including Jackie Ha-Ha (a book McKinley has been wanting her to read) and the Hotel on the Corner of Bitter & Sweet. She also read Ever (a book Ireland wanted her to read). She’s still trying to get into her groove with her new primary calling and all the changes that continue to happen. She’s been trying to get more miles in as well & is up to 9 miles, trying to get ready for the upcoming Cedar Half.

McKINLEY:
-McKinley continues to walk with Karmiyah and has fun being creative with her – playing games and doing volleyball.
-McKinley continues to bake yummy treats!! She and Kezia made super-rich brownies for their teachers and all their church classmates.
-McKinley got to go bowling twice this month! Once with her primary class – the Whitney’s took them – and once for earning date points! She and dad went bowling one night and he even filmed her getting a strike!
-We are so proud of the hard work that McKinley & Kezia did to put on the lemonade stand this month!
-McKinley gave a talk in primary (mom forgot to tell her until the day of the talk :-0) Thankfully, she pulled it off beautifully and even looked through mom’s newsletters & shared the story about when Rainbow Truck was missing & we said a prayer & found him. Everyone got a kick out of hearing about Rainbow Truck
J
-McKinley was so sweet and wrote letters full of love for each member of the Edwards family and mailed them. They were happy to get them
J
-McKinley & mom have been butting heads a bit lately about personal progress. Mom thinks she should wait until she turns 12 to begin her personal progress. But Karmiyah is already doing it and the personal progress leader is not discouraging it, though she has told the girls to get their Faith in God before they do their personal progress. One Sunday, though, McKinley was so mad about it that she was refusing to go to church. We are thankful she changed her mind and ended up coming.
-McKinley was first to go on a 1-on-1 school clothes shopping date with mom. They went to the D.I. first and had lots of fun looking at crazy clothes & trying things on. She got quite a few cute shirts & pants. Then we went to Walmart & picked out her first day of school outfit. It’s really cute!

IRELAND:
-Happy 10th birthday Ireland! We can hardly believe our girl is double-digits now! She got lots of fun gifts in Richfield, including a green fidget spinner & candy (from Kezia), a Barbie & candy (from McKinley), a mermaid adult coloring book (from Aunt Keeley), a porcelain doll (from Grandma Devenish), and 100 gel pens, virtual reality goggles, and a Princess Ireland Barbie from mom & dad. Grandma & Grandpa Devenish had already gotten her some sparkly black shoes. For breakfast she got Krave, for lunch we all went to Wingers, and for dinner we were up at Fishlake and roasted hot dogs. Her “rite of passage” of getting her ears pierced didn’t happen until we got home from Fishlake on the 10th.  All the sisters came to see & Mahina came, too. She chose green butterfly studs and a matching necklace. She was pretty nervous and flinched a bit when the Walmart lady pierced them. But she didn’t cry at all, though she said they were warm and throbbing. She did a great job, though, and has been counting down the days till she can wear new ones
J
-Ireland read the entire first 3 books of Little House on the Prairie! Mom loved that she loved these books and even had some time reading them together for mommy & Ireland time.
-Mahina invited Ireland & Kezi over for an exotic tasting party at the Vogs, with cuisine from all over
J They had a great time!
-One day Ireland was very mad about needing to do more mopping after she thought she was finished. She slammed the mop down hard and broke off the head. We had to buy a new one
L
-Ireland’s friend, Elli, invited her to go swimming one Saturday and she had fun at the Aquatic Center with Elli & her siblings.
-Mom & Ireland got to go on their lunch date this month & she chose The Brick House again. It was yummy & mom loved the company!
-Since Ireland turned 10, the other “rite of passage” is that they get to learn about the facts of life
J Over 4 nights, Ireland got to have LOTS of mommy & daddy time, talking about the changes she is going to experience in the next few years, how babies are made, and how Satan tries to tempt our bodies in unrighteous ways. Ireland was very attentive and asked lots of questions. We prayed that the spirit would teach her and help her understand the sacred nature of the discussions we were having. She is a beautiful daughter & we are so thankful she’s ours <3 br=""> -Mom had fun with Ireland on her 1-on-1 school clothes shopping date. We got her lots of leggings and she picked out a VERY bright pants jumper outfit with some zip up sandals. She is going to look really cute J

KEZIA:
-There is a popular song right now with the lyrics “I don’t need dollar bills to have fun tonight. I love cheap thrills!” Kezia thought it was “I love cheese curls!” So… now we always sing it that way
J
- McKinley and Kezia were so sweet one Sunday & made super-rich brownies for their teachers and all their church classmates.
-One night, Kezia was in her room, looking over her birthday books. She was reading about 2012 & 2013, the year that Link died. As she read more and more, the tears started coming. Daddy was listening to the Spirit and went down to check on Kezia & found her in tears. They talked for a long time. Kezi really misses her brother. We know Link watches over & loves Kezia very much. We are all so very sad that we had to say goodbye to him.
L
-Mahina invited Ireland & Kezi over for an exotic tasting party at the Vogs, with cuisine from all over
J They had a great time!
-We are so proud of the hard work that McKinley & Kezia did to put on the lemonade stand this month!
-Mom read a book this month, called Ever by Gail Carson Levine, where the main character was named Kezi!! She had dark hair in the book, but was beautiful, loving, and selfless, just like our Kezi! And in the beginning of the book, she was 7, too!
-We had some fun mommy & Kezia times this month, including making oobleck & marshmallow paint!
-Kezia got to go 1-on-1 back to school shopping with mom & was really into blue. She picked a blue dress with some bright colors and some cute blue sandals.
-Kezia’s letter from her Spain pen pal FINALLY came! Her name is Manuela. It was fun for her to read her letter with daddy & work on writing her back.
-Since we got Noelle a mattress to go with her toddler bed, we thought Kezi could have her room back. Unfortunately, Noelle still wants to sleep right next to Kezi. But Kezi is so infinitely patient. We are so thankful for her. She’s good about letting her sleep with her. They often have trouble staying asleep, though, and end up coming into mom & dad’s room & sleeping on the floor.
-Kezia has been cute about setting out the table for breakfast.
-She also decided she wanted to help Aunt Cindy with her classroom, so we called up Aunt Cindy & she gave us some projects. Kezi is so cute to help.
-One day they were singing a song in primary and Sister Petersen wanted to sing it in different languages. She knew Kezia knew Spanish, so she asked her to come up. The Vernons helped her, but she wasn’t really prepared and was nervous & tried to sing it and she ended up crying
L She really did do a great job, though, and everyone was impressed with her Spanish!
-One Sunday evening, Kezia decided to make dinner. She made a REALLY yummy spaghetti sauce and we all ate it outside with the fancy tablecloth & dishes. It was so cute & she did an excellent job!


LINK: We have all been missing you this month, our baby boy. The Chromecast broke on our TV and we miss seeing all the pictures of you every day. Kezia especially was missing you this month as she read her birthday books from the time you were here & the time you left us. We have also been missing the rainbows this year, but we have been seeing more little bugs around that seem to want to say hello and we love that. We loved having a picnic at your bench. Our family seems so much more complete when we are there together.   

NOELLE:
-We got Noelle a mattress for her toddler bed, and we put it in Kezia’s room, but she still doesn’t seem to want to sleep in it – she wants to always sleep right next to Kezia.
-Noelle doesn’t love loud noises, like thunder & fireworks. When they come, she yells “PUT YOUR EARS ON SO THE THUNDER CAN’T HEAR YOU!” and proceeds to put her hands over her ears
J
-Even with the noise, she did love the fireworks this year & mommy loved sitting by her, hearing her exclaim “That’s my yellow!”
J
-One day Noelle wasn’t wanting to take a shower. Mommy said “I’ll let you play the monster game on my phone if you take a shower.” She said “But… it will get wet!” (I probably should have said AFTER you take a shower)
J
-Kezia spent a lot of time making peanut butter bars and when mom came from the other room, she caught Noelle smashing it and pouring salt & raw eggs all over it
L Needless to say, we had to re-do them L
-Noelle was trying to use a mechanical pencil one day and was struggling. She turned & said “mom! Help me turn it on!”
-Noelle usually comes into mom & dad’s room at least 4 times a week in the middle of the night
L
-Noelle & Oaklyn seem to be not getting along very well lately as Oaklyn finds her independence & wants things that Noelle has or gets mad when Noelle takes her things away. One day mom came into the room to find Oaklyn crying. Mom asked if Noelle stepped on her hand. Noelle responded. “No, I didn’t step on her hand!! I just kicked her in the face!”
L
-But Noelle does love her baby sister, too. We were at the park on the 24th of July and Oaklyn was playing in the puddles in the volleyball sand. A boy came and was talking to her & touched her shoulder & Noelle came over & pushed him gently & said to him “Don’t. Just… don’t”
-One morning Noelle apparently woke up on the wrong side of the bed. At breakfast, she had a full 10-minute crying session because she wanted her sugar back and she couldn’t see it in her milk.
-Noelle is pretty much obsessed with the hose. She wants her “jet spray!” and she loves to squeeze the trigger & spray anything & everything she can – including her baby sister.
-We know Noelle will sure miss her sister when they go back to school next month. They (especially Kezia) are so good to play with her and include her and let her have fun with them. 

 OAKLYN:
-Almost one year old! We can’t believe how fast this year has flown by. We are SO thankful for our Oaklyn!
-Oaklyn is saying all kinds of words! Some of the cutest are “blah blah blah” (like Hotel Transylvania) and she is pretty good about saying “Hi!” to everyone and doing her cute pageant wave
J
-An open dishwasher is never safe with Oaklyn around – she LOVES to pull everything out and stand on it. She has fallen off a couple times, too
L
-She has gotten the hang of going down the stairs the right way. Hooray!!
-She is pretty much running everywhere! It’s still kind of a sumo wrestler run, but she’s running! She just HAS to be right up there with her sisters.
-Oaklyn LOVES watermelon. She will eat it for dayzzz! Another favorite – beans.

-She is getting very good at sleeping through the night & we are SO very thankful! She also did really well sleeping through all the noise on the 4th & 24th this month.
-Oaklyn loves to point everywhere. & she does that thing where she takes something & shows it to you like she wants you to take it, but she really just wants to show it to you.
-She has the CUTEST curls in the back of her head. Especially when she gets out of the bath, the curls are so adorable. We don’t think they’ll stay, but we will cherish every minute we get with them.
-She still does the scrunchy-nose smile that we all love so much
J
-Oaklyn actually LOVES using utensils and is getting pretty good at it!
-Diaper changing continues to be an adventure as she is FAST and will get away from you lickety-split!
-She loves sleeping on her tummy – and usually with her bum up in the air!
-Oaklyn LOVES books! She wants to “read” any and every book she gets! The problem is that she’s VERY destructive with the paper ones & has ruined more than one library book
L
-She has started to show a lot of interest in the potty!!!
L L L
-Her favorite drawers to empty are the bowls, plates and plasticware drawers. The floor is often messy in the kitchen! She also LOVES to find, pull out, and eat all the toilet paper or tissues she can find!
-She loves to hang out in the halls at church with her friend Charlotte
J
-Grandpa Potts came through town a couple times and Oaklyn was just SO happy to see him! She would sit on his lap, give him loves, and follow him around everywhere.