Hike to Cecret Lake

We took our first real hike as a family up to Cecret Lake. What a beautiful hike it was! It was two miles round trip and fairly steep the closer we got to the lake, but worth it! Tyson did great, he didn't complain at all until we were almost back to the car and Karissa just loved being outside!

4th of July

I didn't get many pictures this year of our 4th of July fun but here a a few! Tyson loves the poppers and the ground flowers!!!

Can't believe she is 1!!!

Karissa is officially 1 year old! I can hardly believe it and what a year it has been! I can't say this past year has been the easiest, in fact it has been a bit of a struggle with her for most of the year, but we are blessed to have this sweet baby in our family and SOOOOOOO... happy that she has been happy these past few days. (Why does teething have to hurt so bad!?)

To celebrate Karissa's special day we had a simple party filled with family, fun, cake and ice cream! We celebrated a little early, but we wanted to be sure to have Auntie Emy, Uncle Mike and cousin David here! Emy was so sweet to help me make the cupcakes for the party. We made the chocolate butterflies the night before to be sure they had plenty of time to set up. Everything else was done the day of and I have to say I think the cupcakes turned out pretty cute!

Karissa was a little unsure of what was going on, but once she had that first bite of chocolate I don't think she cared about all the cameras flashing and family watching. It was her very first taste of chocolate and I think she liked it. She didn't eat much of the rest of the cupcake, but was having fun playing in the frosting!

It's funny, time didn't seem to fly by quite as fast with Tyson as it seems to have with Karissa. I vividly remember her birth and it really does seem like it was yesterday! She is a petite little thing and we just love her so much!!!! I took her in for her 1 year check up and she is a whopping 13.8 lbs. No sumo babies in this family;) The important thing is that she is healthy! She will gain more weight in time, but for now it's kind of nice having a lighter baby to carry around!

Things about Karissa:

Crawls everywhere
Can pull her self up and walk along the furniture
Points at everything
LOVES to play with her brother!
LOVES her bathes
Loves to be held by mom
Officially has four teeth, with two more almost broken through
She's enjoying more and more foods, especially green smoothies
Still wakes up an average of twice a night to eat
Enjoys knocking over towers built by mom or her brother
Not a big snuggler
Likes to be outside
Drinks from a sippy cup by herself
She has the cutest little cheeks and pretty little hands with long dainty fingers.
Loves to play peek-a-boo when getting her diaper changed

Karissa, I want you to know how much I love you! You have been a challenge, but more importantly a blessing in my life! I love to watch you learn, grow and explore! As the years go on I hope and pray that you will always look to your Father in Heaven for guidance in this life as well as to your dad, brother and I. Tyson loves you so much and I know that he will be a tremendous example to you. I pray that our relationship my be strong as you get older, and I pray that I can be the mother that you need and deserve. I love you more than words can express and I have received no greater gifts in this life than those of you, Tyson and your dad! Please be patient with me as I have so many weaknesses that I'm constantly striving to change. I know that you can be, will be and are a strength to me in so many ways as I progress in this life. We love you so much! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

ROCKETS!!!

Ben has been building rockets with the young men these past few weeks and Tyson had so much fun watching them launch them that he and Ben built one of their own. We had to put off the launch several times due to the wind, but we finally had a calm enough day to send it flying. Unfortunately the hobby shop only had the motors for the smaller rockets in stock so Tyson's didn't go very high. He was a little disappointed but Ben plans on launching again when he can get the bigger motors.





While the boys were setting up I was taking some random pictures of Karissa. She would NOT get on the grass. She wanted to crawl to me so bad, but she couldn't handle the grass.

Fun with science!

I found a book of kitchen science projects at the library and Tyson and I have been having fun experimenting. The first one was using milk, a little dish soap and food coloring. You take a dish of milk, add a single drop of food coloring, then you take a toothpick dipped in dish soap and you touch the food coloring with the tip of the toothpick. This causes the food coloring to spread. We called it "milk art", and it was pretty fun.






Tyson's favorite experiment was the volcano. We probably used at least a half gallon of vinegar on this one.

Hiking

We went on our first family hike for the year a few weeks ago. We got up early and headed up Little Cottonwood Canyon where we found a random trail. It lead up to a beautiful waterfall. Karissa loved riding on my back and Tyson had fun climbing around. We had a good time and the weather was perfect!

Scary pictures of me...UH!





Is it just me or does Ben look like he is about 12 in this picture?




Ben helping Tyson down the rocks.

Bath time!

Karissa loves, loves, loves her baths! She likes to lay on her tummy and scoot through the tub. Sometimes when she is really being cranky we will take a couple of baths during the day. It's my saving grace when she is giving me a hard time!

Looking at these pictures you can't help but love her...so cute!