Our sweet boy Bryant!

Where has the time gone, I remember just yesterday I was holding my sweet baby boy and now you are all grown up. You fill our lives with all kinds of joy, excitement, pondering, and sweetness. I love how you have taught me what a little boy is like with his guns, trains and cars going all the time. You have so much energy each and everyday sometimes I wish I could bottle it up and drink it when I have no more left. Bryant has so much creativity, and engineering ablility it is amazing, you might say that he takes after both his dad, and his older sister who are also creative. He builds the best hot wheels and geo trax and comes up with fun ideas to do with any toy you give him. He loves to play spys with his friends and nerf guns, and loves his new swing set in the backyard.

Bryant loves to make all of us laugh, especially his younger sisters. You could say that he cares more about their happiness than his own. He always wants to make sure that they are always taken care of, and have what they need. He is this ways with any baby, he just loves them. Whoever he marries is going to be one lucky girl. He will be a great husband and daddy someday.

Bryant loves school, and learning. He picks up on things so quickly, and adores books. He loves to have me read about the planets and different construction vehicles. His dad gave him a set of train dvds that consist of videos of real steam engines. Somedays I feel like we live at a train station with all the train movies going and his Geo Trax or Thomas tracks set up. Such is the life of a boy. We sure love this sweet boy, he will always be close to my heart.

Our Sweet Sassy Sara!

I thought it would be neat to have a post about each of our sweet kids. Talk about each of their talents, quirks and fun things that they have done. When Sara was born we noticed that she had an incredibly long tongue, in fact Aunt Paula noticed it. Sara loves to stick out her tongue and have people copy her. I love this pictures, just wish the lighting was better. She is so adorable, happy, and sweet. There is never a day when she doesn't do something that makes me laugh.

And yes Sara that is your tongue.

Such a contemplative look. Sara is very smart, and loves puzzles. I can always seem to see the wheels in her head turning, it seems that Bryant and her have the same kind of personalities in a lot of ways. They both love to learn and ask questions, love to read books, and love their mommy. Yeah for me!

Sara loves the show Yo Gabba Gabba! This is her and Foofa from the show. If you listen carefully you can hear her sing along with each and every song. She also loves to sing a ton of other songs, and can be heard singing througout the house. I love her little voice, and hope it never leaves my memory.

Sara is definately a true girl, she loves chocolate. What more can I say, she got that from me. Sara also loves yogurt, bananas, milk, and hot dogs. Wow what a cutie with the chocolate face.

Sara loves getting her picture taken, she often brings toys over to me when I have the camera out and wants me to take their picture with her. Thank goodness she doesn't mind the camera since her mom scrapbooks. Sara definately fills our home with love, laughter, and joy. We love Sara, and are so grateful that she is a member of our family.

Raking leaves for fun?

I have always wanted to take some pictures of my kids in the fall. So one afternoon in December (our Arizona fal) while at my parents house the kids decided to rake the leaves in a big pile just to jump in them. I got some awesome shots thanks to my dads great camera. I just love how everything that my kids do seems to have a purpose for fun. Hopefully I can look at life more like that.

My kids love to play outside for which I am grateful, especially at Grandma and Grandpa Baker's house. Emma loves to swing on the rope swing, and I just found out that this is the same rope swing that my sisters and I swung on at our daddy daughter campouts. I am so glad my dad thought to save it. I love seeing the joy in my kids eyes, they are wonderful!

First Day of School, a little late I know.

Emma was really excited about going back to school this year. I can't believe she is in the 3rd grade. That is the grade that I really started to remember my school years and life. Her teacher's name is Mrs. Tracy Dean, and she is in room 12 at Zaharis Elementary School. She is looking forward to a great year, and has already had a great first quarter. Yeah Emma!


Bryant was so excited to start Kindergarten this year at Zaharis, he goes half day in the afternoon. The bus picks him up right in front our house and he rides the "big bus" home with Emma after school. His teacher's name is Mrs. Stephanie Moore in room 60. He only has 13 kids in his class and loves his teacher and friends in his class. He is going to be so ready to go to first grade, all day next year. Especially since he has been going half day since he was three for speech. I am sure it will still be an adjustment though.

Alyssa was really looking forward to another year in joy school. She has three of the same kids in her group again this year. Chelsea, Ryan, and Scott, and a new friend named Shayla. She loves going to her friends houses and having their moms teach them about different things from dinosaurs, to bugs. I am sure she will have a great year in joy school.

Bryant's Dog Sadie.

In March 2009 we had the privelge of dog sitting for someone in our ward. They were looking for a home for this sweet part black lab named Sadie. She was already trained and great with kids. One of the setbacks was that she was used to being in the house. We took her and she stayed in the backyard. She and Bryant became fast friends, they played fetch together and all kinds of games, he took really good care of her. Unfortunately, Sara and Alyssa were a bit afraid of her and refused to go out in the backyard, and I had just had a baby. So we decided that we could not keep her. We were so blessed to discover that Uncle Jared and Aunt Karen were looking for just such a sweet dog. They adopted her and we are lucky enough to get to visit Sadie when we stay at their home in Thatcher. This picture is one taken at their house, and Bryant loved his weekend with his Sadie Dog. Someday we hope to get a dog, for keeps when the little ones get a bit older. For now we will just keep visiting dear sweet Sadie!

Alyssa's Haircutting Tips!

A couple of weeks ago I was making Christmas cards at the kitchen table. I turned and looked at Alyssa. I thought my goodness she looks young today, and just couldn't get over it. Finally I studied her sweet face a little longer and exclaimed, "Alyssa did you cut your hair?" She as a matter a factly replied, "yes mom I did." I turned her head to discover her own lovely creation of a mullet. Oh, my goodness was it bad but she thought she did a great job so here are some of her haircutting tips for you to try in the comfort of your own home.

First find a pair of kid scissors, the exact ones that your mom used in her preschool lesson to talk about the no no's of scissor safety. Then proceed to cut your hair however you see fit. I chose a mullet cut myself, there is nothing more stylish.

Then of course put the hair in the trash so your mom doesn't notice it is there, until she is finally done making her Christmas cards. Oh and by the way isn't that where Aunt Paula puts the hair when she cuts it.

Have your mom finally notice your hair, and then have her try to cut it with adult scissors, only to find that they are too dull and she has to use the preschool safety scissors instead.

Have your mom cut off about 2 inches or more off your hair and take a picture of the sad pile of hair that she has cut off her beautiful little girl. Ahh so sad!!!!!!

Take a picture of the trim by mom, and go get it touched up by a real hairdresser.

Disclaimer: Alyssa does not claim to be a professional hairdresser and can not be held accountable for her tips presented here. For best results see a professional or Paula Neill.

The Unfortunate Udall Tradition.

We expected out fifth baby Kaelyn to hopfully be excempt from ear tube surgery. She has been a different baby in so many ways. Darker hair, well slightly darker, and more of it as well as green eyes and her temperment too. Alas she had her first ear infection at 3 weeks old, and they continued consistently every three weeks. Her pediatrician knew of our kids historys and decided to go for the tubes pretty young at 5 months. Dr. Mancuso was her ENT, he was amazing with her and Sara. So friendly with each one of them, and good about answering all of our questions. Kaelyn had her procedure done at Banner Desert Medical Center, we arrived at 5 a.m. for the pre surgery stuff, and she of course had to be fasting since midnight. I was really concerned about how she would react to that but she did surprisingly well.
She looked so adorable in her hospital gown that was way too big for her but she still looked adorable and loved smiling at all of the nurses and doctors as they came in.

Because we had to be at the hospital so early Kaelyn ended up taking a nap. Thank goodness daddy was there to put her to sleep without nursing. They both took about a 30 minute nap, while I read a book. It was some nice quite time.

Dr. Mancuso came in right before the surgery and I got a picture of Kaelyn and him together, he is pretty goofy sometime. Then we had to say goodbye to our sweet Kaelyn for a little while. The surgery only takes about 10 minutes but to me that is a lifetime when your kid is under anthesia, and they are away from you.

She did great and afterwards the nurses came and got us and she was able to eat some breakfast. I was surprised to see her so awake, and happy. We fed her and then brought her home for a long nap. And thankfully after 3 months with tubes we are happy to report no ear infections! Yeah!