July Newsletter & Slideshow

https://picasaweb.google.com/103753336633055957263/2014_07_Slideshow

Hamilton Newsletter

July 2014

FAMILY:  Whew! We’re already well into August & just sitting down to write this! That is about how it’s been this summer – too busy to even think! July started out, of course, in Richfield for the 4^th. The parade was wonderful and the kids had fun getting snowcones afterwards in the park. Grandma & Grandpa fed us wonderfully, as always, and we had fun watching the kids light fireworks. The 5^th was Ireland’s birthday & we spend half of it in Richfield and half in Cedar. She got to open some fun gifts and have a water party & then we headed to Cedar where the Potts side cousins were showing up. Aunt Cindy made her & Joshua an awesome Lego Movie cake & she got to open more gifts. Sunday, July 6^th, was Noelle’s blessing day. We are so thankful for everyone that showed up to support our family. It was a beautiful blessing and we are grateful to be able to have Noelle in our family. After the blessing, the Edwards family stayed for a few days while Jason headed out to his 50-mile scout hike in the High Unitas. The girls had fun with their cousins – swimming in the lake & the pool, flying kites, sleeping outside, watching movies, and having fun! Also- they got to take turns with mom sleepovers while daddy was out of town.  On the 10^th, we had the Bealers & Andersons over for an impromptu dinner J And on 7/11, since we don’t have a 7/11 in Cedar City, we flipped a coin (heads – right, tails – left) until we got to the first gas station, which was Maverick. There we each got an Icee (close enough to a slurpee) & enjoyed them while we headed to the Renaissance Faire at the Main Street park. It was a lot of fun! The girls went on bounce houses, made crowns, and enjoyed seeing all the booths. Ireland bought a beautiful fan and McKinley bought a whistle that sounds & is shaped like a bird. It was a fun afternoon! On the 17^th, we met daddy at the cemetery and had a wonderful picnic at Link’s bench. On the 19^th, Grandma & Grandpa Potts come with Adiahah and Nathan – friends from London & they stayed for a few days while they went to Bryce Canyon, Zions NP, and the Shakespeare Festival. It was wonderful to meet them! They also joined us for FHE and it was neat to share more about the Plan of Salvation with them. On the 24^th of July, we went to the church for the annual Pioneer Day breakfast & then we headed over to watch the parade. McKinley got to be with the Seussical Float & it was so fun to see her in the parade! Afterwards, we walked over to Mike’s Food Hut & got some lunch. On the 25^th & 26^th,   we headed up to the Benson cabin for some fun with our friends! What a great time was spent around the campfire, 4-wheeling, horseback riding, fishing, boat riding, and visiting!  On the way back to Cedar, we dropped off the 3 older girls in Richfield to spend a few days with Grandma Devenish. They had fun going to a cabin and meeting new friends! & mom and dad had fun meeting for a lunch date and enjoying some (relative) peace & quiet J Also this month we’ve gotten to eat some of the vegetables from our garden! Lettuce and sugar snap peas have been growing in abundance. Yummm!

JASON:  Jason’s big 50 mile hike was the 2^nd week of July and he really enjoyed it, though he said it was not easy. When they dropped him off, they said he caught the most fish out of anyone! (didn’t surprise us ;) He said the views were incredible and it was neat to get to know some of the guys better.  Jason has been quite the handiman – fixing his phone screen that Heidi broke while running. Great job! Jason helped chop some wood at the Benson cabin at the end of the month & his back seemed to pay for it for the next week or 2 L

 HEIDI: Heidi enjoyed an 8 mile run on Independence Day morning & is now up to over 9 miles, preparing for the half marathon in September. When Cindy was here visiting, they decided they needed a boost in motivation for eating & exercising, so they decided to set up the 8-week challenge. We had about 10 people sign up & the winner will get around $200! It’s been good for Heidi with customized weekly challenges and it has helped her get more workout time in when she otherwise wouldn’t have after long nights with Noelle. Unfortunately, Heidi had more cell phone trouble this month. First, she jumped into the community pool after Ireland, who was really struggling, and ruined her S4 phone. Then, she borrowed Jason’s phone to go running & tripped & fell and smashed his screen L

McKINLEY:

-McKinley continues to work hard in her play practice. The songs are fun to listen to & McKinley’s costume is so cute! We can’t wait to see her perform next month!

-McKinley had a hard time when her daddy left for his scout hike. She didn’t sleep well and had lots of fears. One night she was looking at Link’s memory book and just started sobbing. She begged to watch Link’s funeral slideshow, so we did. She sure misses her baby brother.

-One of the things McKinley likes to do is have mom print out the lyrics to one of her favorite songs (like Every Little Thing, by Mindy Gledhill) and then she copies – handwritten – the lyrics to a sheet of paper & practices the words.

-Ever since we got the piano from our neighbors, we have been impressed at how McKinley has taken to it! She has learned about 6 songs and knows them by heart and has also started playing songs she likes by ear. Her grandmas have helped her learn and we are hoping to get her into piano lessons in the near future!

-McKinley got to meet a new friend that was her age while visiting with Grandma Devenish – she had a lot of fun!

-McKinley & Amanda Neff have been pen pals again this summer. McKinley is playing pen pal hangman with her. It’s so fun. And Amanda is getting a baby sister soon too!

-Adiahah did three braids in McKinley’s hair while she was here. So cute!

-One day McKinley decided to make crowns for our entire family. They were SO SO cute & creative!

-Daddy helped pull out another one of McKinley’s teeth! Ireland lost one that night, too! The tooth fairy was busy! J

IRELAND:

-We had a couple real scares with Ireland this month. The first was at the Main Street Park in Richfield. There were a lot of people & she was at the park. We were on the sidelines watching her, but she didn’t see us & went looking. She was terrified & a nice lady found her. Thankfully, Ireland remembered her daddy’s phone number & we were able to get her back in our arms again. Then, a couple weeks later the Edwards were swimming with the girls in the pool. Mike was in the pool, too. Mom went to go tell Ireland it was time to get out so she could go to gymnastics. Ireland went under the rope, but the current from the lazy river kept pushing her into deeper water & she was really struggling. Mom jumped in (fully clothed) & grabbed her. Thankfully she is just fine… however mom’s phone isn’t! We are just glad that Ireland is safe, though. We sure love her.

-We can hardly believe it, but Ireland turned SEVEN years old on the 5^th! She got to have tons of fun with family since we spent the first part of the day in Richfield with her cousins on daddy’s side & the last part of her birthday in Cedar with her cousin’s on mommy’s side! Some fun gifts included Lego Friends, a Barbie fishing pole, a My Little Pony game, a cute shirt, a dress –up wedding dress, some cute new white wedge shoes that she picked out with Grandma & Grandpa Potts & MONEY! She had SUCH a fun birthday & Aunt Cindy made such a cute Lego movie cake for her & Joshua! For breakfast, she wanted Krave cereal, for lunch she wanted Ramen Noodles & for dinner she wanted pizza!

-Ireland finally cashed in on the date she earned with her date points. She decided to go fishing with her daddy & caught a big catfish!! J

-One morning Ireland woke up & came right to mom to tell her about her dream. There were blue gems and she had superpowers. And then she was in a shoe store and there was a huge octopus in one of the shoes!

-When Adiahah and Nathan came, Ireland came to mom & whispered “do they just go tan a lot mom?” J (they’re black)

-Ireland is really having a great time with her gymnastics and has started doing handstands and cartwheels all over the house! She can now pull up on the bar by herself and do a cartwheel on the beam! Yay Ireland! She can also do a front flip and front handspring on the trampoline J Her teacher talks to mom about what an awesome, strong girl Ireland is!

-Daddy helped Ireland pull another tooth this month! He pulled one of McKinley’s as well on the same night!

KEZIA:

-One of the things Kezia has been doing lately is shortening lots of words. Instead of saying “fish,” she just said “fi” and instead of saying bike, she’ll just say “bi” and expect you to guess what she means.

-The girls wanted to play in the water on the bottom deck, but we couldn’t find the spigot to the water bib. Kezia said “Maybe the wasps took it!”

-Kezia took swimming lessons this month – the first lessons she’s had! She really had fun & was so sad when it was over. She did a great job, though, and her teacher said she had no problems going in the water. In fact, she maybe was going under the water a little TOO much instead of listening to her teacher ;)

-We stopped at a place to eat in Gunnison & Kezia ordered a grill cheese sandwich. She didn’t finish it all & offered some to dad, but then pulled it away & said “No – dad! You can’t have it! It’s a GIRL cheese sandwich!”

-Mom asked Kezia what kind of lessons she would like to take & she said “hula hoop lessons.”

-Kezia got to go on a lunch date this month with daddy – she went to IHOP & she was more excited than a million trillion to get to go on a date with daddy.

-We had watermelon one day & Kezia told mom she was going to plant some watermelon seeds in the front yard. Mom kind of smiled & said okay. They have done this many times with many different seeds, but this time Kezia was consistent with watering it & what do you know? We have a little watermelon plant sprouting in our backyard!

-The night that daddy pulled a tooth from both Ireland & McKinley’s mouth, Kezia was pretty bummed. She wanted to have her dad pull her tooth out, too – even if they weren’t ready!

LINK:

We enjoyed picnicking at your bench this month, our baby boy. Mom had a few rough days this month – just missing you. Wishing we had our baby boy back. She even forgot to pay for groceries because she was in grief mode! L We did get to see some sweet rainbows this month that reminded us of you & your life. Your sister, McKinley, sure missed you and cried over you. She insisted we watch your funeral slideshow & we were all in tears by the end. We love you our duder-dude. Always & forever.

NOELLE:

-3 months this month! Noelle is growing every day!

-The 6^th was her big blessing day. She was pretty fussy for some of it, but she did good for the most part. She looked so beautiful in the dress that her sisters had worn. We feel SO very blessed to have her a part of our lives.

-She is starting to really drool & blow raspberries with her lips. It’s so cute!

-She’s doing this open month thing where she just sits there with her mouth open in this smile J

-Noelle easily gets a pretty bad rash in her neck if we’re not vigilant about cleaning it out.

-She is getting better at tummy time and has started rolling over from her tummy to her back!

-About halfway through the month, (like her siblings) Noelle stopped sleeping as good at night and has gone from waking up 1-2 times to waking up 3-4 times. L Mom is reading “The No-Cry sleep solution” to see if we can help her sleep without the tears.

-She is still eating about every 2-3 (usually more like 2) for about 6-10 minutes.

-She is really starting to kick her feet and get really excited about things. It’s SO cute!

-Noelle has really been giggling this month – she seems to be ticklish on the top of her thighs and by her collarbones. Her laugh is so sweet, but we STILL haven’t caught it on camera! She always stops when we get it out!

-She still has plenty of dark hair, but she’s lost a lot in the back & really has the old man hair going on, though she has a lot on top. The hair coming in, though, doesn’t look as dark, so we’ll see!

-She has generally been fussier this month – wanting to be held for naps & not wanting to be put down. Usually if we get her down for a nap, it’s only for about 25 minutes before she wakes up & won’t go back to sleep.

-We still love to hear her “talking” – it’s so so cute! J

-She’s still sleeping in the little vibrator chair in our room, but we are working on transitioning her to the crib.

-She still LOVES to shove those fingers in her mouth!