Mr. Smiles

 I love it when babies really start to smile, and Grant has been smiling for the last couple of weeks, our earliest smiler.  Maybe it will be a precursor for him being a Happy Child in the future.  We are sure loving our little guy and so happy to have him.  Check out those chunky cheeks already, I love it.  I hope his little baby acne goes away soon.

Thanks mom for the cute blanket and outfit.  

Fall Fun

Raking leaves is the one job I do not have to even ask the kids to do.  They are always more than happy to volunteer there services, and since we only have one rake they also use our big broom and snow shovel.  It is very entertaining to watch, we only had tears twice from someone getting hit from the equipment, all things considered I's day that was pretty good.

 

 Our happy little Lady Bug

 Our fierce Football Player

 Our courageous Fire Fighter

 Our clever Detective

 We had a lot of fun decorating pumpkins this year.  It's nice when your kids get old enough to do most of the dirty work.  Violet even wanted a piece of the action, and Ben did all his own carving this year-which he was very excited about.

 Someone "Booed" us this year and left crazy glasses for all the kids.  It was a very fitting gift for our household and the kids played with them a ton.  We'll have to bring those out every Halloween now.

Happy Halloween--Here are the crazies before going Trick or Treating.  I love watching my children get excited about life.

Baby Number 5

 GRANT LAVELL

It's a boy!!  Grant arrived on September  24, 2012 at 3:53am.  He weighed 6 lbs - 6 ozs, and was 19 inches long.  It was a smooth delivery overall and we are so happy to have him here and healthy.  He is surprisingly really blonde with cute little blue eyes, which I guess is now more of a normal for us.

 I can hardly believe we now have 5 kids, but here is our adorable bunch and they absolutely love having a new baby brother.  Alec and Ty are so pleased to say he looks like them.

He is so sweet and easy to love!!

We were so spoiled this time to have both of our parents come and stay with us to help with the baby.  We loved every minute of it, and the kids loved the attention.  It was hard to say good-bye knowing I would be on our own and very our numbered.  Here are Luke's parents with our group.

Here are my parents with the our crazies.

First Day of School

The kids started school the end of August and they were extremely excited.  Ben is our big 3rd grader and Alec finally gets to go all day like Ben and eat school lunch as a 1st grader.

Ty started Preschool the middle of September and absolutely loves it.  He goes MWF mornings and comes home teaching Violet her letters.  Violet seems to not mind being home with out the boys, but is ready for him when he comes home.

Paramount Eye Care--Open

 Here is Luke's beautiful new office for his new practice.  It has been quite the adventure this past year putting his business together, but we are so happy with how things have turned out thus far.  We opened our doors on July 18th thanks to many hands who made it possible.  Here is the link to his website if you want to check it out.  Paramount Eye Care.

Here is our little family at the ribbon cutting ceremony.  The man in the green is our awesome builder Rod from Alturas Construction who did an amazing job.  I am going to blame my poor blogging (at least this year) to starting a business.  I knew it would be time consuming and difficult to start a new practice from scratch, but really I had no idea how involved I would be.  A year to remember.

 Front Desk

 Optical

Waiting Room

Kid Update!!

Are lives have been pretty busy, especially just before school let out.  Here are a few things the kids have been up to recently.  On the last day of school both of the boys received an academic award for the school year, so they were very excited about receiving their certificates and Burger King coupons.  Ben also participated in the school talent show and played a piano solo he has been working on the past few weeks.  He looked stunning in his little suit, playing for all the students.

 Here is the first Pinewood Derby Car for our little family.  Luke and Ben had a great time making it together, and learned a lot in the process.

 Alec did a great job in the Kindergarten Graduation Program.  He loves to sing, and was really excited for this big event.  He also just finished off the soccer season, and had a blast playing.  Turns out he is a good little soccer player, and thanks to lots of hours playing with his older brother in the back yard, he had a really successful season.

 Congrats to Ty, he is finally tall enough this summer to ride our training wheel bike.  He likes be big like his brothers, but still struggles a little to keep his feet on the petals.  He'll have it down before summers over, especially since bike riding is the new favorite thing around here.

Our baby girl is now a big girl in her twin bed!!  She turns 2 already this Friday so we thought we'd give the big bed a try for awhile and give the crib a break before our new little BOY comes this fall.  She has been in it for about a week now, and is doing awesome!!  No tears, only caught her out of bed twice and after putting her back in she stays.  I love that she still calls for me to come get her when she wakes up in the morning and after nap.

The Start of Paramount Eye Care

April 27, 2012:  We finally have the start to our new business.  The long awaited ground breaking arrived with much anticipation.  

 May 10, 2012:  Pouring the cement slab, another big step in the building process.  The kids had fun putting their hand prints outside of Luke's office door.  Now every time we check on the building Violet finds the hand prints and puts her hand in each one until she gets to one that fits and then gets all excited talking gibberish and pointing to herself.

May 15, 2012:  The framing is well under way.  It was fun to see how fast the building started to look like something, and in no time at all we were seeing the plans take shape.

 The kids love going to the new construction site, not only to climb the dirt mounds that are still there, but they love exploring the area.  Ben is especially full of questions, and is the one that is always asking to go, and he wants to go to see the men working.

 May 21, 2012:  Framing is almost completed.  We can now walk through rooms and the outside is taking on more of its future form.  Now we are hoping that all the dimensions we chose will really be the right size, it is hard to tell with just the frames up.  We have made a few minor changes and will hopefully not have to make very  many more.

 May 29, 2012:  Windows are in, and doors followed shortly after.  Ironically it all happened just before a big wind storm came, so everything was nice and protected.

Ben's Baptism

Ben's Baptism was such a great experience. I don't know that I was fully prepared for how strong the spirit was. It was a really neat experience both for Ben and us as parents. We had lots of family support for this event, which was a fun surprise. I can hardly believe that Ben is old enough to take this step, but it was fun to see him excited and ready for the event. He invited his school teacher who he really admires, so it was fun to have her share in this special moment. I love this picture of Luke and Ben in their suits. Ben looks so big and handsome, and seeing the boys I love looking so sharp and can't even begin to understand how blessed I truly am.
England cousins dressed up for Easter Sunday.
Megan was glad to have one other girl to get dressed up with. She basically got Violet ready for me. Two girls with no sisters.
Ben's Grandma (Luke's Mom) makes blankets for all of her grandkids when they get baptized. She is currently on a temple mission in Washington DC, but she still managed to get one done for Ben and all the cousins his age. She is amazing, and Ben loves his new blanket along with the rest of the crazy bunch at my house.

Easter Baskets!!

BEN

ALEC

TY

VIOLET

The Easter Bunny hides all the baskets on Easter morning, so we had lots of searching and smiles.

Coloring Easter Eggs!!

We had a fun time coloring eggs this year with cousins. We learned that plastic containers that come with the kits are never a good idea. Lots of eggs, lots of fun!!

My sister and her family came to visit this Easter and to attend Ben's Baptism, we had a lot of fun.

Violet thought cracking/squeezing the eggs was just as fun as coloring them.

Trevin and Ben had fun making boats and sailor hats for their colored eggs, they were very creative.

We had an egg coloring contest, and everyone picked their favorite egg to enter. The babies were the judges, it was pretty fun.