Annika's One Year Pictures...

Ok, so with all of the other kids we took many trips to the photography studio. This is Annika's 1st trip and we went to the Buy Buy Baby Studio in Sandy, Utah. She did great once she got the hang of it and after we cleaned her up from getting car sick on the way down Provo Canyon. Poor girl, never feed her fruit squeezers - Mango fruit on a curvy road!!!

Our walking, little girl

Today was the day, she took her usual 10 steps but then kept on going. She has walked more than crawling today, she is not turning back. Every time she finds a place to pull herself up she is off and running again. Watch out world her comes Annika!!! I was trying to get her to pose for these pictures however, she kept walking to me. Sorry if they are a little fuzzy! But you get the idea.

Pig Weigh In....

Today I took the measurement of Blue's girth and legnth. His girth was 35 inches and his length from the base of his ears to the base of his tail was 38 inches. I have a formula from the 4H office that will give me the estimate weight for my pig by taking these measurements. I take the girth (35) and square the number, which give me the girth result of 1,225. Then I multipy 1,225 by the length (38) to get 46,550 and divide it by 400 for an estimated weight of 116.4 lbs. That is not bad for a 7 week time period. When we picked him up he weighted about 65 pounds so he has gained 51.6 lbs since then! We have about 10 weeks until Augest 1st, Blue needs to weigh between 230-290 lbs. by that date. So right now the goal is to have him gain about 13 lbs a week so he will reach the 250 lbs. goal I have set.

Birthday Party Cake...

I decided to break up all the pictures of her party into 2 posts. Here is her cake...can you tell she enjoyed it!

Annika's 1st Birthday Party!!

Its hard to believe our little girl is now ONE! Time is just flying by. Her actual birthday is April 16th. However, our home was plagued with sickness for the whole month of April starting with Hunter and working its way thru. So we knew we would not be able to have a party until everyone felt better... so on May 12 we celebrated her big day in our backyard. It was a beautiful day here in Utah. She was surrounded by some of our wonderful friends here in Utah.

The pig breaks out...

Is a pig really smart enough to lift the gate latch up??? Um, well kind of... he actually just lifts up the entire gate with his snout and pushes the gate off the hinge. Don't worry Craig has fixed the problem. But in the mean time pig enjoyed rooting in the flower beds and gave us a run for our money as we tried to lure him back to the pen.

A Driving Permit for Hunter...

I was down to the wire. You see Hunter is heading to Dixie, Idaho with Nanny and Papa to help out with bear hunting season. We talked about getting his permit before he left so he could practice in areas less traveled. However time just kept slipping away so just hours before he jumped in the truck to head to Idaho, he, I and Mandy drove down to the Utah DMV. He was very nervous but PASSED. I was kind of a crash course in studying for just 24 hours prior to taking the test, but he did OK. What a relief, here is a picture with everyone but Annika - she was sleeping at the time. But then we got one with her, grandma and Hunter before they left.

Long lost friends.....

When we moved to Utah in January of 2011 Hunter and Lexy kept reminding me of some "Idaho Friends" we had left Idaho in 2006 for Lehi Utah. The Hansen Family lived only about 1 block from our house in Nampa, Idaho. We had many fun summers together swimming, biking and playing the the sand box! Lorena and I were even pregnant at the same time... her with Jon (their 5th) and I with Hudson. After trying numerous times to find their phone number and emailing the wrong address serveral times. Lorena and I finally stumbled upon each other at the Utah Christian Homeschoolers conference. It was a Divine intervention because Craig and I were attending the conference and they were just picking up some books at the vendor hall. Regardless, we finally go the families together on April 22nd for a BBQ. Then we had 2 Hansen boys spend the night for a few days (the benefits of homeschooling!!!) Hunter, Jonathan and Josh camped out in our tent trailer in the front yard, they built boats to float down the stream, split wood and burned old tree branches. Fun was had by all. Here are a few photos to celebrate the reunion of old friends...