Happy 4th Birthday Rusty!!!

Well Rusty, you're 4 years old now. Your family loves you very much. You have a great time with your cousins, friends, and teachers. Everyone thinks that you're hilarious. You are a very social little kid. You have the ability to make friends easily. You are really into superheroes right now. You love Veggie Tales, Star Wars, Transformers, and anyone wearing a mask and a cape. You are very good at puzzles. You often do them and you are getting to the point where you don't need our help on puzzles with 25 pieces, up to 100 pieces. Sienna loves to play with you and will often follow you around like a shadow and repeat words that you say. You can drive mommy and daddy nuts sometimes but we are so proud of the little boy that you are growing up to be.

If you know Rusty, you'll know that he is very particular on what he will eat. He doesn't even like candy or very many things considered to be junk food. The two main sugary things that he does enjoy are doughnuts and churros. Well we adapted a traditional birthday cake to make it your own. Your Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles from both sides came over on your birthday. We enjoyed some deli sandwiches and your birthday cake of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. Everyone had a great time and they really think the world of you.

We love you pal.

Halloween 2009!

We had a good time this year! We took a really nice drive to a pumpkin patch in Paradise, UT in Cache Valley to pick out our pumpkins. We had fun carving different designs on the Monday before Halloween. Amber, Rusty, and Sienna enjoyed a Halloween party at their school and we all had fun trick-or-treating.

Family Portraits...

So we have super nice guy for a neighbor. His name is Mark, he's a retired Delta Airlines Pilot and he has a passion for his hobby which is photography. Unexpectedly, he asked if he could shoot pictures of our family for "practice," and Amber and I were only all to willing to oblige him. I really liked how these pictures turned out. So if you haven't seen our family for a little while, we hope you enjoy some of these "updated" pictures of our little family.

Amber seems to get more and more beautiful the longer we are married, both on the inside and on the outside. I really lucked out!

Rusty and Sienna have their little sibling spats like most children I would expect, but I still think that they really do like each other and we (as their parents) really appreciate that they like to be around each other. (So far....)

I love this picture of my girls.

Rusty looks so grown up in this picture. It kills me.

Thank you Mark (our neighbor) for providing these memories for our family! We so appreciate it.

Trip to Idaho Falls...

July 2009:

We always enjoy a trip to Idaho Falls to see Uncle Rod, Aunt Jess, Cousin Dave and Cousin Zach.

Rod: (Referring to Dave and Rusty) "Nitro and Glycerine"

Sienna and Zach on a kiddie ride. I love Zach's expression in this picture.


Uncle Rod, Aunt Jess, Dave and Zach in front of the Idaho Falls Temple.

Zach and Amber in front of the Idaho Falls Temple.

These guys spent a lot of time in this little pool. We enjoyed playing in the water in David's backyard. He had a Spider-Man slip-n-slide which only Daddy enjoyed. We also played games, watched movies, and saw the Interstellar Space Station and U.S. Shuttle Endeavor fly over the earth for about 5 minutes, watching it like a big star passing overhead.

Fireworks...

July 2009:

We stayed for the Kaysville Fireworks Show later that night. The kids were excited to be outside when it was so dark and late. I think they sensed something cool was going to happen but just couldn't quite put their finger on it until the fireworks began. All in all, it was a fun day.


The Fam.

The Fam + Grandpa Mehr, Uncle Connor, Uncle Garrett, and Great-Grandma Sheffield.

Zach and Amber

Let the show begin.... (I love this picture of them sitting side by side. They stayed like that throughout the show.)

Happy 4th of July!

July 2009:

We enjoyed watching the Kaysville Parade to start off the July 4th Celebrations. It was over-cast, but that made for pretty mildly warm day.

Rusty and Grandpa Mehr

Great-Grandma Sheffield, Uncle Connor, Grandma Mehr, and Sienna.

Sienna really got into it.

Brothers: Uncle Connor and Uncle Garrett

"Hey look Ma, No hands!

Camping!!!

July 2009:

We've continued an unofficial tradition starting from last year of camping around July 3rd-July 4th up at Doc's Flat in Mantua, UT. Last year it was me, B, and Matt and our families. This year it was me, B, and Ben with our families. It was a good time, just chillin', eating hot dogs and s'mores and watching the boys play with each and get dirty. All in all, it was fun just to hang out with friends. We missed Matt (Heywood) and Josh (Harper) and their families though.

Sienna really enjoyed little Josh's camp chair. I think she sat in it alot more than he did.

Li and Jess

Li, Jess, Becca, B, and Ben

All the boys lined up to take turns getting water squirted into their mouths by Boyd and getting all wet...

...so they just decided, "to heck with shirts, we're gonna strut our stuff." Pictured left to right, Asher, Josh, Rusty, and Evan

"Look! In the Sky! It's a bird, it's a plane, it's...

So Amber and I brought back this Superman T-Shirt from Six Flags last summer. Here is a shot of two "Super-men," Grandpa Peterson and Rusty last summer. Since we have brought it back, it has been his "woobie" (equivalent of a baby blanket that the child becomes addictively dependent on). It's one of those shirts that every time it is clean, he is putting it on and wears it for 1-2 days before it gets dirty and has to be washed again. It's now getting holes and is fading quite a bit, but Rusty feels like a Million Bucks in it. It's gonna be a sad day when we have to get rid of his Superman shirt.

Yep, you'll always be a "Super" guy, Rusty.

More Swimming!!!

June 2009:

Well, like I said, the kids favorite thing to do is to go swimming so we found ourselves back in Bountiful enjoying a hot Summer Day....

...And this time Uncle Connor and Aunt Lacie joined us. Can you guys believe how big Connor has gotten. He has really taken off (in height) this last year. "Whoa Connor, put those away! We didn't buy tickets to the Gun Show." Notice that Rusty is now wearing a life-jacket. For more explanation on that, see the story in my earlier post "Swimming"

Rusty thought it was great of Aunt Lacie to join him at the pool. He sure loves his Aunt Lacie!

The Fam, poolside.

Lacie's Graduation Celebration...

Congratulations to Lacie "La-Quisha" Mehr. Class of 2009!

Sisters

Mom, Lacie, and Dad. "Hey! Look everybody! I just matriculated! (Inside Joke)

Sienna peruses the Menu at Robintino's as we celebrate Lacie's graduation from High School.

Sienna, Daddy, and Grandma Sheffield

Swimming!!!

May 2009:

So if there is a silver lining in my time of being unemployed, it has definitely got to be how much time I am able to spend with Amber and the kids. It seems like when I started working for Fidelity Investments moving forward, it was so competitive, there was more money to be made, so I was working alot. And it's not that I enjoy being unemployed, I have been looking for steady work since February of this year, but this economy doesn't make it easy to find a good job. It has been extremely frustrating and a bit depressing to the ego. But if there is a sure-fire way to cheer me up, it's to see my kids smiling, laughing, and having a good time. One of the things that they enjoy most is swimming. There is a pretty big indoor/outdoor pool in Bountiful, close to where Amber's grandparents live which we really like to go to.


A quick story about this picture above. You can see a barrier separating the kiddie pool where Rusty, Sienna and I are, from a lazy river that encircles the entire indoor pool. Well, right after Amber took this picture, she went to go put the camera away so that she could join us in the water. I thought Rusty was right there next to me, and it seemed like only seconds had occured when we all heard the Lifeguard's whistle going nuts and the Lifeguard jumping into that lazy river. Rusty had climbed on that barrier and jumped into the lazy river. He was pulled under the water and away from the point from where he jumped in by about 30 feet. That scared the living day-lights out of Amber and I. And after the initial embarrasment of "who is that boy's parents to let something like that happen" and Amber later commenting "and here I was a state championship swimmer and swim coach," it really hit me hard how bad it could have been. Life is so fragile and it doesn't take long for any tragedy to happen. Rusty is fine, but it was a nice little reminder to us about how precious our children are, and how much of a blessing it is to have a loving Heavenly Father watching out for our family.

That boy is gonna wear a life-jacket until he is in his 20's!!! That or until he learns how to swim.