A 4-year-old's birthday

Cosette turned 4 on April 18th. She LOVES to be 4! When she was asked what she wanted for her birthday dinner, she told me pancakes. When we looked at cake ideas, she had to have a castle cake. Since I was making cake, she wanted to decorate one too. The first picture is Cosette blowing out the candle on the cake she made for herself Friday. Then you see the castle cake for her party Saturday.


I'm 4!
Grandma and me...Grandma is moving to Texas the first week of May.

Cosette turned 4 on April 18th. She LOVES to be 4! When she was asked what she wanted for her birthday dinner, she told me pancakes. When we looked at cake ideas, she had to have a castle cake. Since I was making cake, she wanted to decorate one too. The first picture is Cosette blowing out the candle on the cake she made for herself Friday. Then you see the castle cake for her party Saturday.

Kids

Back at Spring Fest...this is Cosette's idea of hitching a ride.

Sunday Cosette decided she needed to help me feed Ethan. She did a pretty good job. About half way through she put the bowl on the counter and said Ethan wasn't hungry anymore. I asked, "Is Ethan done or are you done?". She replied, "I'm done."

Ethan fell asleep in his toy. So precious.

Cosette and Claire wanted to help make sandwiches for our picnic. Cosette set up shop on the floor (they have a yellow mat on the floor). Here's to peanut butter and honey sandwiches!

Spring Fest

Isaac...realish this now because next time you'll be on the bottom!

Wow! A hot air balloon. I want to ride.

You can't see them, but Cosette and Mommy are up in the balloon! Cosette cried the whole time because the "fire" was too loud. In fact, she calls this a "fire balloon".

What can be said? He's cute!

This is April?

Ethan is starting to rock and roll on his knees. Not long before he crawls for real.

Cosette and Isaac were so excited to get this picnic table from Aunt Janet. They eat out there whenever they possibly can.

Cosette and her friend Claire. Claire is 4 weeks older than Cosette. They built a Cinderella castle together out of Legos.

This is my pasta man!!

Kite flying in the park. Cosette wanted to fly it, but of course she ended up on the playset and Rob and I flew the kite.

Ethan is 5 months old now. He's starting to get on his hands and knees and rock. He also army crawls all over the place.

My boys!

Visit from Grandma

We went to Salt Lake to pick up Grandma on March 28th. Afterwards, we stopped by Temple Square so Cosette could see the temple. She is always sad when Rob and I go to the temple and she doesn't get to come with us. Our friend Katoba Mushala came with us to SLC. And we stopped at Natalie Woll's to visit. Janelle Youngstrom came up from Orem to visit too.

Uncle Alan gave us a hit in the Hot Wheels track! Isaac likes to sit on the stool while the cars go down the track.

Cosette and Faith - Easter Sunday

This is the head stone of my great-great grandmother. I was named after her. Her full name was Emma Althea Bingham. She's buried in Blackfoot, Idaho.

Who is my Hero

I had the sad opportunity today to attend a funeral of a 7 year old boy who died of cancer. It may have been the saddest thing I have ever been to. Today I had the opportunity to reflect on my life and who in my life has impacted me to the point of calling them my hero. It is a short list because there are thousands of people I admire and many that I call my friends but very few I will call my hero. I want to list them today. I will start at the earliest point in my life that a hero came around. His name is Jay Jones, a man of honesty and integrity who helped me see a better, happier world. Bill Braden, my Jr High Spanish teacher who helped me achieve levels that I had never thought possible and was the real person who first believed in me. From there I went with out adding a hero to my list for several years. It wasn't until college that another person came into my life and changed it forever. My home teacher Skip Tribble literally saved my life and for that I owe him all I have. He was my last hero until my wife. I do not believe I could do everyday what she does. I do not believe I would love me unconditionally like she does everyday. You see a hero to me is someone that is able to accomplish things that I feel I could not do. Not like Jordan or Tiger Woods, but on a real life level. Jay took me in and gave me shelter and food, Bill gave me his time and made sure I knew that I was important to him, Skip stepped in at a critical time of my life and gave me all he had to make sure I was okay. Emma has done more than I could have possible imagined. Today I added another person to my list. Jason Dixon is the father of that 7 year old boy. I have played basketball with him on one occasion and it was there that I learned about his son and the trials the family has been going through. This boy also had autism which is difficult enough but then add cancer on top of that and you have a pretty bad mess. The reason I added this loving father to my list was because he changed me. He stood in front of hundreds of people and cried. He shared his love for his family with this group of people today in a way that I could only look up to him and hope that I could have a fraction of the strength that he displayed today. You see I do not believe that I would be able to shoulder a burden like he has. I do not believe that I could stand in front of so many after losing one of my guiding stars. He is a hero of mine. Even though he may never know it, he has impacted my life for the good. I can only pray that I will not have the challenges that he has had and that I will never face losing one of my own children or my wife. I do not think I could survive the heart break. I look to these people on my short list for inspiration, encouragement, and hope. I hope you have heros in your life as well.

California Trip March 2008

We took our "march" down to California in our van. Ever since Cosette got a countdown calendar, she's wanted to "march" in our van to Grandma and Popi's house (we went in March).

We really had a nice time. It was great to relax and catch up with friends and family.

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Anticipation

We're all quite excited about our pending trip to California. We can count it down on one hand!! (although I could have done that from the beginning...Sign Language lets you do that...)
Cosette keeps saying, "Let's march to Grandma and Poppi's." I have to remind her that we're going IN March. Now that she knows it's March, she's doubly ready. Isaac has no clue.


Cosette is sitting on her throne. She had all the blankets set up on the stairs for her "red carpet". She's wearing Ethan's beanie on her head.

Ethan is growing so fast! It's hard to believe he's 4-months-old!

Here are my boys.

Isaac found the vasaline...we're not going to need to style his hair for awhile, the vasaline will do the trick!

Cosette on wheels

Island Park and Roller Skating

We're walking down the middle of the road in Island Park, Idaho on Saturday, February 22. You can see the 4 feet of snow on either siade of the road. Ethan was with us. His nose is poking out of the jacket of his daddy.

The local weather rock...I would say...snowy?

Family Home Evening on Monday, February 25, was at the roller rink. Cosette had a grand time.

Rob didn't skate, but I got Cosette and Isaac out there! Isaac had amazing balance. He wouldn't leave the skating floor either. He kept crawling to the entrances so he could skate some more.

Ethan loves his cousins Faith and Shandell.

Cosette in her Wolverine costume at the Carter's. The kids stayed there while Rob and I played in the snow.

Our snow day at Kelly Canyon.

I only lost my ski once going up the ski lift (out of 3 rides)

This is the hill I found myself in after going 100 mph down the ski slope. I didn't know how to stop!

Yeah

watching "moo-bies"

Aunt Tricia came to visit for the weekend. We sure enjoyed it! :-)

Happy Valentine's

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End of January...Month 1

We had the whole Idaho family over for Family Home Evening (except Mom). Rob and I were excited to be able to open our home and share with so many people. 16 people fit easily. What a blessing.
I just like pictures the snow from our front window. One of these days I'll get a picture from the park out over the valley.
Ethan is three-months-old. He is such a sweet boy. I don't want him to grow up, I'm enjoying him as a baby.
Cosette really wanted to go play in the snow. She'd been waiting for Rob to get home to go out with her. When I have the two boys, it's hard to get outside with her. She got her stuff on about 4pm and was just waiting. About 15 minutes later, she'd fallen asleep.