Anna is Turning 1

Her birthday party will be at Honey and Papa's next Saturday, April 12th at 5 pm. All Vegas and St. George cousins are required to attend, and any other cousins who might be passing through or would like an excuse to go to St. George, please come!!!

Anna Batesakorva

I got this picture last night and when we woke up to roads completely frozen over this morning I thought it would be the perfect time to post it. Also, I thought you might like to see Anna in her Easter dress (this was given to her by Aunt Jenn at her baby shower. Who knew she'd look so cute in it, even though not surprisingly she has mastered the art of stink eye. I get stink eye A LOT.)



She also picked up finger wagging somewhere. She gives you stink eye, and wags her finger back and forth letting you know she's not happy with whatever it is you are doing. If you're singing a song she doesn't approve of, or playing a game she's not in the mood for, and pretty much 100% of the time if Steve is holding her and I come towards her she gives me a dirty look and wags that fat little finger letting me know she's NOT going to go to me. It's hilarious, so we're always doing things we know she won't like to see her do it.

The Dock Goes Bye Bye

As some of you know there are some renovations going on at the river house. Matt and Ruben were there this weekend and tore the deck out. This next weekend (conference weekend) Matt will be going back to rebuild the deck. If anyone would like to join him and come help that would be great.

Paige Walks!

Paige took her first tentative steps the Saturday night before Easter at Grandma & Grandpa Miller's house; of course I missed it - Amber and I were at Yummy Yogurt. She repeated the trick as soon as we got back though, and all week I've continued to encourage her to keep it up, but she wouldn't ever take more than 3 or 4 steps at a time. That changed today at church. We were out in the foyer during 3rd hour and something must have clicked, because all of a sudden she was walking! I video-taped her when we got home, as soon as she woke up from her nap. Yay, Paige!

SIX MONTHS

Hallie had her six month checkup today and seems to be perfectly healthy!! (are you sure doctor? look harder...)

She didn't even fuss while being examined and sucked on the cherry flavored tongue stick (name?) for twenty minutes just to make sure she got all the flavoring off. She had three shots, but doesn't seem to have any lasting damage...

She has been so busy lately. She talks all the time (blah, blah, blah), grabs and holds on to toys, is rolling over BOTH ways now and is eating her rice cereal much better! She loves her brother and sister, sometimes I'm surprised, she almost gets stepped on just about every time they walk by.

I admit to a few tears here and there as I realize how much she's grown, but I love the here and now and look forward to all the fun times we will have in the future! We are so lucky to have Hallie in our family.

Hoppy Easter Bunny

Easter Sunday at grandma and grandpas was beautiful! It was sunny and warm and we all had a great time hunting for eggs and swimming!

it's exciting times at the bates residence

first, anna's birthday is coming up and her grandma anna couldn't help herself and bought her present early. it's her own little chair that has anna embriodered on it. so far mostly she just climbs all over it and falls, but i did manage to get a shot of her sitting in it - too bad the flash was on.

second, pretty much every waking free moment in our house is spent playing guitar hero (but don't think we've moved up to intermediate level because what fun would that be?). our nanny took these pictures of us playing yesterday - yes, we pay our nanny to watch our child while we play guitar hero. okay, not really, but we did for a half hour yesterday (and $5 well spent i might add). and i'm not going to feed badly about it either because at least someone was watching her, unlike mom and ann who would play atari like fiends while we all fended for ourselves. touche!

Coming to a City near you

My girlfriend and I will be flying out to California tomrrow (Wednesday March 19th) and I wanted to drop a quick line to say hello and let you all know our plans. We will be visiting the LA/SD crowd for the first week and then head to the river. From there we are up to Vegas and then St George. Unfortunately we will not make it up to Provo, Heber, or Salt Lake City but maybe next time. The price for tickets into LA and out of Salt Lake City were simply too expensive and the distance was too far to drive. So, I hope to see everyone who is near those places in the next few weeks!

Garnica's Oasis

Where are the Guitar Hero pictures? We are neglecting the family blog people!!

Anyone else noticed that...

Grandpa has learned the art of email forwarding? This is progress, people.

The Jeeps Maiden Voyage

Exciting, I know- but we've been waiting for MONTHS for the weather to warm up enough so we could let the boys take their jeep for a spin. Porter's been patiently waiting since Christmas for the Jeep to finally get 'gas' (that's how we've kept it out of commission this long 'sorry buddy, it's out of "gas"')- well it's now got some gas, and he and Seth really enjoyed driving up and down and around the road yesterday- with Morgan's careful supervision I assure you. Anyway, with the weather obligingly warming up to a balmy 45 degrees, off they went.

In the Pool

We're all about as white as Vampires, so you might need to shield your eyes from the glare!


I promise I'm wearing a bathing suit!



Last year before our trip to Tunisia, we bought Andrew his first bathing suit. It still fits, and he got to use it again last weekend! Thanks for letting us stay with you, Grandma and Grandpa! Grandpa told us that he's really looking forward to all of us coming to see him at Easter!

aloha and mahalo

We had a great trip to Hawaii. That's the short version. If you're interested in the travel log and too many pictures you can check out our blog. If anyone ever is planning another trip let us know because we can't wait until next time!