Summer 2011

Ward Family -- Midway, UT 2011

Will and cousin Jane Hawkins

The girls got a kick out of Will's faux-hawk

Grandpa Ward introducing Will to the wonders of capri-sun after our Mt. Timpanogas hike

Girls' afternoon tea with all of the girls in anticipation for Miffy's departure to study at Cambridge for the summer.

The girls and Lucy Hawkins on Temple Square

With Aunt Katie riding the Trax around Salt Lake

In the park with Aunt Katie

Emily with Claire Southwick. We were overjoyed and surprised when we were able to connect with our dear friends, the Southwicks, at the Intermountain Suzuki Institute. Emily and Claire were babies together in Boston and have been pen pals at times since. This was our first time seeing each other in 4 years!

Kristen and I with our two little violinists.

Will snoozing with Grandpa McLaughlin during Abby's final recital

Jane and Aunt Miffy enjoying the delights of Hires

Riding the train at Hoagle Zoo with Auntie Em, Lucy, and Jane Hawkins

Grammie and some of the girls.

Ready for a fireworks extravaganza -- compliments of Grandpa Ward. It was quite a show!

Beautiful Midway, where we had a wonderful Ward Family reunion.

Jane reading stories with Grandpa McLaughlin

A nighttime picture at the base of Delicate Arch in Arches National Park. As we were driving through Moab, we decided on the spur of the moment to hike to the arch. Fortunately, there was a good moon out since we were sans flashlights and all wearing flip-flops.

The older girls went on a date with Mommy and Daddy to the Taming of the Shrew ballet

Mark, Uncles Dave and Matt, and the Oldroyd boys had a "ball" searching for lost golf balls on the golf course in Midway

We all enjoyed a special lunch with sweet Grammie Virginia

Will having some cousin bonding time with Cannon Ward

Emily and Grandpa roasting marshmallows

Jane and Cannon loved playing and wrestling together

Mom and Dad gave us such a special gift -- an afternoon of childcare so that we could all go to the temple toegether. We had such fun being all together and having lunch afterward together at the Dodo

Abby at Deer Creek Reservoir

Jane playing in the sand

With Grammie

on the beach in Galveston

Dinner with Dolls at Chik-fil-A -- anything to stay out of the heat and add a little variety to the hot days!

Jane begins ballet!

End of School

Abby and her friend Calla were chosen to sing in the school's variety show. They were so cute singing "Oh, You Beautiful Doll!"

Mark and Emily at her end-of-the-year picnic

At Abby's end-of-year school picnic

Emily and her friend Sophie singing "I Won't Grow Up" for the school variety show.

Abby's dance recital

April and May

Birthday Boy! Our sweet blue-eyed boy is one! William being completely oblivious to the magnitude of the occasion made it through the day in his normal, pleasant, mellow way until it was cake time. Then, after a few tentative dabs with his forefinger, he dug in with a gusto. Before . . .

Ready for the big W . . .

After!

Birthday bliss!

I love Mother's Day!! This year I was speaking to a friend who said she hates the holiday because it reminds her of all her weaknesses and shortcomings as a mother. Since I all too diligently remind myself of mine every other day of the year, I look forward to a reprieve from such feelings on Mother's Day. Aside from spending time with my family and enjoying being pampered for the day, for me it is all about the tenderly homemade, eagerly-presented little Mother's Day momentos from my little chicks that I slip into my scrapbook and save forever. I remember the first one I ever received when Emily was three and brought home an egg carton corsage from preschool -- how proudly I wore it to church that Sunday! And this year, little Jane gave me this lovely green ("Since green is your favorite color, Mommy!") tissue paper corsage. I loved it and loved spending the morning with Jane at her preschool's Mother's Day Tea!

Can I say how much I love this girl?! Jane got ahold of the camera and snapped this shot of Emily cleaning the kitchen. And she was cleaning it as a surprise. Emily is so wonderfully capable and willing to help out around the house. I can usually count on her to tackle an assignment right away and do it well and quickly. She often rallies the girls (who tend to be a little more sluggish in the cleaning department, although they have many other stellar qualities, of course :)) and gets them involved by making it fun.

Trouble . . .

And more trouble!

William is a BUSY boy these days! Quiet, but deadly (to the cleanliness of the house, that is). He is insatiably curious about what is in every cabinet and behind every door. He always wants to be exploring. He's also so very boy (very different from girl, I'm discovering). He loves throwing things, and batting things with his hands, and loves balls. I guess I can't necessarily plan on a future with him sitting still at the table for an hour coloring quietly in his coloring book. His favorite person in the world is Daddy! Even if I am holding him when Mark is in the room, he starts to cry and leans forward to clutch Daddy as if there was no joy in life without him. Mark, of course, can't get enough of this and they are big-time buddies. I am especially grateful for this bond when William happens to wake up in the middle of the night and I can nudge Mark and mumble, "You know he really wants you . . ."

Bathtime -- Will loves it and will just sit and splash and splash and splash.

Church Easter egg hunt.

No one was out and about on our street, the mosquitoes were swarming (Will was attacked 14 times in the space of the three mintutes it took us to snap these) -- so I didn't make it into the family Easter photo, but we had to get one of Mark sporting his new seersucker suit (he's been wanting one for years).

February and March

Will at 10 months (can he really already be 10 months?!). He was determined to keep trying to stand (and could usually balance for a few minutes once we got him propped up), despite the fact that he only began crawling today. He sure manages to get around, though. I'm a little apprehensive about how busy he will become once he's really on the move.

Emily turns *9*! It's hard to believe how fast this girl is growing! We didn't do a party this year (for the benefit of Mommy's sanity, we're phasing into every-other-year parties), but we had a great day! Mark took her for a special daddy-daughter birthday breakfast, and Jane, Will, and I ate lunch with her at school. We then all went to dinner at her favorite restaurant -- The Rainforest Cafe. She was thrilled to receive a basketball, a scooter, and permission to get her ears pierced from Mom and Dad, and she was so happy to add to her already immense stuffed animal collection with these new acquisitions from her grandparents.

The day was rather hectic and so we went by Ooh La La Bakery for her to pick out a birthday cupcake (and I couldn't find the candles that I knew were around somewhere and which I found the following day -- hence the enormous candle sticking out of the cupcake). When she was going to bed she said, "Today has been such a great birthday! Not the best, but a great one!" :)

Emily's Favorites at Age 9:

Color -- Sea green

Activity -- Riding Bikes

Sport -- Soccer

Game -- Sorry!

Food -- Mashed potatoes and Subway tuna fish sandwiches

Book -- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Holiday -- Christmas

Month -- March

Season -- Spring

Treat -- Brownies

Animal -- Arctic Fox

Movie -- Swiss Family Robinson

Scripture -- 2 Nephi 32:3 -- "Feast upon the words of Christ for they will tell you all things what ye should do."

Place to Visit -- Utah

Place I Want to Visit -- Paris

What I want to be when I grow up -- An animal scientist

Jane is a child who loves having a plan (think every night hearing: "Mommy, what are we doing tomorrow? And then what are we doing after that?" and so on and so forth). She also loves having things to look forward to (who doesn't?), so it was no surprise that when her teacher at school started talking about their upcoming Father's Night, she was all eagerness for the day to arrive. She was thrilled (understatement) to have a special night with just her and Daddy and since it is rodeo season here, they had a cowboy-themed night. Usually Jane is quite particular about what she will wear, but she was more than eager to dress up in her cowgirl duds. She and Daddy had so much fun and she was especially happy to be able to stay out late.

Her responses that she had prepared about her Dad:

I think my dad is 13 years old.

My dad likes to watch football on TV.

My dad likes to eat turkey and when he cookes he usually makes hamburgers.

My dad and I like to play Zingo together.

My dad has a very important job. His job is working on the computer.

I love my dad because he tucks me in bed.

Will at 9 months. He loves books -- turning the pages that is, which he prefers to listening to the story. He is just constantly pleasant and cheerful and unbelievably patient for a baby (isn't that a requirement for a fourth baby?). For all of his mild-manneredness, he is very curious and always wants to have something in his hands.

Will at 8 months -- it's been awhile since we've posted :).

For some time, Emily has been preparing to enter the Spring Festival for piano students in our area. She has been working hard and really polished her pieces. It came as a fun surprise when, a few hours after playing for her judge, we received a call from her teacher telling us that she was one of the few to be invited to play in an honors recital that evening!

Nervously awaiting her turn to play.

This is still difficult for me to write about, but in mid-February, we had a real scare with Abby. We were enjoying a social after church one Sunday and Abby came and told me that she was feeling sick. I thought she was coming down with one of the bugs that has been rampantly tearing through our area and so I packed the kids in the car and went home. In our two minute drive from the church to our house, she threw up twice and by the time I got her in the house, she was in a really bad way. I still thought it was a bug so I got her changed and down in bed with a bucket (she threw up about four or five more times) and went to change my clothes. I came back a few moments later and discovered that she was gasping for breath and had some hives appearing around her mouth. Realizing that she must have ingested something with nuts in it, I ran to call Mark (who was still at church) and grab our Epi-pen. I ran back to her room to find her sitting up in bed, turning blue. I asked her what she was saying, and she said, "I was saying a prayer." And hers and ours were answered. I gave her the Epi-pen just as Mark got home -- it didn't seem to make any difference -- and we tore out to the car and drove to the hospital (fortunately just five mintues away). By the time we got there, she was completely blue, becoming listless, and struggling to get any breath at all. We ran into the emergency room and within moments she was hooked up to everything necessary and a team of five doctors and nurses was working with her. It was inspiring to see how prompt and capable they all were in helping our little Abby! We are so grateful! After about two hours, her oxygen levels were more normal, but since she still needed the oxygen to keep them that way, she was admitted overnight. With the resiliency of childhood, she was soon thoroughly enjoying being able to control the bed, tv, and lights from her bed, and being served hospital food. We were so glad when she was able to go home the next day. She is now doing great, although I suffered from PTSD for a long time afterward. It made me realize just how uncertain this life is. One minute she was running around with the other kids, full of life. The next, we almost lost her. The staff at the ER said that the Epi-pen saved her life. We are so grateful for prayers answered, for the priesthood power, for tender mercies as seemingly simple as living close to the church so Mark could get home in time, and living so close to a hospital. We're so very grateful for all of the service we received -- for our neighbor who dropped everything in a moment to come and watch the kids after a frantic phone call, for a visiting teacher who brought over her family's own Sunday dinner so that the kids would have something to eat and then who brought us dinner again the next day, for a sister-in-law who was willing to stay with the kids as long as we needed, for friends who came to visit Abby in the hospital.

One of the hazards of being a father of three young daughters: one might occasionally be called upon to play such girly games as Princess-opoly.

We had such fun making our Valentine's this year!

As well as our Valentine's cookies . . .

And eating our special Valentine's meal . . .

Some of our Valentine's pizzas.

Jane loved coloring her puzzle Valentine's for her class this year.