Summer Fun

When I sat down to do this post, I didn't think we had much to post about, but I was wrong. Apparently we have been keeping busy. We had a barbecue with my roommate from college and her family. It was fun for our kids to meet some new friends.


My sister's family entertained us with their fireworks on the 4th of July. Kian was perplexed about the whole experience and wasn't sure it was fun, but he didn't cry.


We went to the days of '47 family fun fair this year and had a great time, despite the rain. There were 3 bounce houses, but 2 were deflated due to wind. But the one that was up was the princess one, so all was well.

Kian was there, too.

Lily graduated from her on-line preschool.

We've been trying to teach Kian a different method of traveling, but so far he's not convinced there is a better way than the upside-down inchworm method.




We still have two very cute little girls.

Their daddy took them camping in the backyard. Kate lasted about 10 minutes before she came back into the house.

We returned to our annual tradition of attending the children's pioneer day parade, after missing it last year. We missed a lot of things last year.

We hiked around Silver Lake and even most of the way to Twin Lakes.

Kian has a few new tricks. One is waving and saying "Hi." Another is using his pincher grasp to put food into his mouth with his left hand. Hooray! We also gave him a haircut today with the clippers. Pictures will be coming forthwith, but consider these the before pictures, because of course we only thought to get the camera half-way through.

Kian month by month

Newborn

One month

Two months

Three months

Four months

Five months

Six months

Seven months

Eight months

Nine months

Ten months

Eleven Months

Twelve months

Thirteen months

Update on Kian

Those are Kian's preemie clothes we have hanging on the wall in his room. When he first wore them he was swimming in them. Every once in a while we hold him up there to see how much he's grown. A bit, I'd say.

Everyone always wants to know how Kian is doing, and we always say he is doing great, which he is. Here's a little more detail on that. Kian just turned 13 months, or 10 months adjusted. As far as milestones, he pretty much stuck at about 6 months until he learns to sit up on his own. Aside from that his biggest hang-up right now is putting weight through his right shoulder. He just doesn't do it. So he can't learned to crawl/creep until that happens. So we are working on lots of exercises to help him push on the floor with his arm straight so that he has to bear weight on his shoulder. He weighs about 16 lbs, give or take. At our most recent neonatal follow-up appointment we were told by the psychologist that he is right-on his adjusted age for intelligence and language (hooray) and the occupational therapist said he thinks that with the physical therapy and time, Kian will show no more handicap than being very left handed. Everyone agrees that he is much better in reality that he appears on paper, meaning they expect to see worse when they read his history. So of course we are very pleased, and grateful for all your prayers, which we are realizing now how they have been answered.

Arts Fest

We went to the Utah Arts Festival last weekend. Chris gets free tickets through work, and its always a fun time. We got there extra early this year, so we spent some time in the downtown library until the gates opened.



There is a kids area at Arts fest where they have a ton of hands-on things for the kids to do. We had a blast.

Boy, she looks concerned, doesn't she?

This was a ginormous puppet made of yarn. It was kind of fun to make it move.

Family Reunion

My family had a reunion in Idaho in June, and it was a great time. We hiked the R mountain.

Chris, Kian and Lily went all the way to the R, while the rest of us waited at the top.


Kian ate watermelon for the first time. And loved it.

Megan, Olivia, Lily and Kate-- The little girl cousins. Aren't they adorable? Other things we did in Rexburg-- went to the planetarium at BYU-I, toured the new buildings on campus, played and played and played, went fishing, climbed the rock wall, watched movies, and ate lots. Thanks, family. You are the best. I have the group picture somewhere, I just don't know where Chris put it. I'll post that later.