The Updike's

Presley - Age 3 Oh, Presley!  We sure love our spunky, loving, stubborn, joyous stinker!  She constantly gives us a run for our money - but we cannot imagine life without her!  She truly is a joy! Like Crew, she loves to snuggle!  She always wants to be with her mom and she lets everyone know right away if someone else is in her place snuggling with mom.  If we would let her, she would live in her pjs all day every day.  She absolutely loves puzzles and works so hard to put them together.  She loves to play with her best friend, Hazel.  They play house where they switch off being the mom and the big sister.  It is so cute!  While they are super good friends . . . they definitely know how to push each others buttons.  Love/hate relationship.  They are always begging to have a play date.  At almost 4 years-old, this little girly still loves her food pouches.  I really think that it is a soother for her. ...

Crew - Age 5 Crewster, our snuggle bug who tries to always make everyone happy - - even if it means giving up something that he wants or likes.  He especially idolizes his big sister, Lily.  He love to hang out with her and that warms my heart.  He loves to wrestle and play nerf guns with Boston.  When the big kids are at school he likes to play with Presley.  (Presley will be so sad when he goes to full day school next year).  He loves to write the sweetest notes for all of us and his teachers. Although Crew loves to please others . . . he can be super stubborn.  If there is something that he doesn't want to do - we cannot budge him one bit.  (Kind of reminds me of his Uncle Grant) :)  I'm hoping that this trait will do him good in the years to come. Crew loves to play with his friends.  Especial with his best friend, Zach.  His sociableness is the one thing that gets him into trouble at school.  He loves to talk wit...

Boston - Age 7 Boy oh boy!!  How did we get so lucky to have B-Boy?  He makes life so much more fun!  He loves to be the life of the party and his beautiful smile shines through all of his shenanigans.   Boston is such a good friend.  Many have commented on his mature social connections.  He just has a  knack of connecting with people and making situations calm.  His teacher told me of an incident in class where a student was frustrated with a particular group assignment.  She tried to work with him -but to no avail.  She noticed later that Boston was talking to this young boy and was reassuring him about their group project.  Apparently, Boston had calmed down this boy enough to make him want to participate.  Proud parent moment.   Boston is smart and studious.  Though he doesn't always like to do his homework - he catches onto new concepts fairly easily and enjoys school.  When he is asked to do...

Lily - Age 9 This little love is growing up way too fast!  She is such a light!  Though she still has a spunky personality  - she has calmed down a lot and has become more aware of herself and others.  She is so kind and so thoughtful of others.  The other day she was telling me about a special needs girl in her class that begs and begs for Lily to play with her.  Lily was trying so hard to figure out how to please this sweet little girl but also please her best friends that wanted to play with her also.  It warmed this mom's heart to hear her trying to make everyone happy.  We had such a good discussion on balancing everything.   In the last couple of weeks, Garrett and I have noticed her spiritual side awakening.  She has been reading The Book of Mormon on her own at night and even though she doesn't understand everything that she is reading - she has committed to herself to keep on plugging along in her reading.  We a...

 Presley - Moana  Boston - Storm Trooper  Lily - Devil  Crew - Storm Trooper  Lily begged garrett and I for months to dress up for Halloween.  We finally complied and purchased cheap costumes for her sake.  Dragon and Unicorn.    Church Parade  Pumpkin Carving  Presley's preschool Halloween party  School Parade