And, we're back!

A few of you have emailed me and said that you aren't doing the Facebook thing. Thanks for the feedback! So, I'll just keep doing both, as we love our family and friends and want to share the joy! Here are some recent photos of our little Miri Joy and her brothers. She is getting bigger and more expressive by the minute! The boys have been so loving and supportive - she's a lucky girl, for sure!

Closing down the Blog....

We've decided to stop posting on the blog for now. Facebook is so much easier. So, please come find us on Facebook and check out the pictures, updates, etc. It's too much work to try and keep up two sites. We'd love to see you there!

Miri Joy Photo Shoot

Our friend, Cecilie Ott, professional photographer, gave Miri a photo shoot as a shower gift. Here are a few of the pictures.

Welcome Home Miri!

The boys made a welcome home banner for Miri. Riley also made a sign for the front door that said "If you have a baby, do not enter". He told us that he wrote that sign because he wanted to make sure Jody would give him the baby to hold before she came in the house. The boys continue to hold her and love on her every chance they get. Tyson accidentally startled the baby and she threw her hands in the air (like babies do) and he said, "Mom, everytime I kiss her, she's ready for action". Lots of sweetness going on here....

More pictures

I want to post a few more pictures of Miri's first 24 hours. We had lots of visitors, including her brother, her great-grandmother Dorothy (Steurer) Nyquist, and her Aunt Net (Jenette). I love the pictures of her with her brothers. The love that eminated from her older brothers is hard to describe. It was a sacred and sweet experience to see them greet their baby sister. Riley was proud to be the one holding her when she filled her diaper for the first time. He is certainly someone who can appreciate a good potty moment. The look of pride and joy on his face was unforgettable. I think his brothers were jealous that he got to be the one. Ah, the things our little boys care about! Miri is scheduled for a professional photo shoot on Monday, June 15th, with Cecilie Ott, our dear friend and neighbor, who gave Jody a photo shoot for a shower gift. We're looking forward to getting some great photos of our little sweetie.

Welcome Miri Joy!

Miri Joy Steurer was born today, June 10, at 5:30pm. She weighed in at 7 pounds 11 oz. and she was 19.5 inches long. She is healthy, Jody is healthy, and we're all so grateful to have her here. The boys came up to the hospital tonight to visit her and were absolutely sweet with her. Here is a small sampling of pictures from our special day.

Paper Boys

Andy and Riley decided they wanted take on a weekly paper route for the "Today in Dixie" newspaper so they could earn extra money. They each got a route that totals more than 220 papers. They loaded up their papers in their bags and set out tonight for their first run. We instantly had two bike wrecks not 50 feet from our driveway as they struggled to figure out how to navigate a bike and two full bags of newspapers. At the first house, the paper landed in a tree. Needless to say, they were pretty discouraged with this rough start. They eventually figured out a system and I rode alongside them in my air-conditioned car (such a sacrifice) to help them get through the route. I'll go with them one more time to make sure they've got it and then it will be their own. They were strutting with a sense of accomplishment when they got home! I was pretty proud of these guys for taking this on. 

She's almost here!

Two weeks and counting!  Here's a picture of the three boys with their hands on Miri.  They can't wait for her to join our family!

Guitar Hymns

Ryan Tilby has released an album of guitar hymns.  He performs them solo without any overdubbing or multi-tracking.  That's a fancy way of basically saying that Ryan recorded these arrangements in one take without going back to add extra guitars or fixing mistakes.  The result is a simply and heartfelt collection of hymns that unveil the beauty and power of these sacred songs.  I highly recommend purchasing this album!

Pogo Rye

Riley chose the pogo stick for his talent at the 1st grade talent show today.  Watch him dazzle the crowd with his thrilling demonstration of balance and agility.  His record is 140 bounces.  Can you count how many he did today (hint:  it's not 140).  

Jody's Maternity Album

I received an offer from my friend, Jeff, to have his professional photographer sister-in-law show me a few techniques in shooting portraits. I talked Jody into posing for the portraits. This is truly an act of love on her part, as she prefers to be off camera as much as possible! Melissa generously shared a truckload of photography tips and techniques in our 90 minutes together. Check out Melissa's photography blog at: http://melissaephotography.blogspot.com/. Here are a few samples of our shoot...

Easter Ties

The boys received ties in their Easter baskets this morning. Don't they look sharp in their Sunday clothes? We had a great Easter morning complete with a big breakfast of eggs, sausage, juice, and toast. We had a morning devotional on the life of the Savior, his death and resurrection, and the glorious promise of life eternal. It's been a wonderful day!

Wild and Crazy Guys

Riley put his gum on his face and said, "I'm a Mexican". He's been watching too much "3 Amigos"....

Tyson, Riley, and Andy - Brothers in Arms

Heaven....

Another gem from our little Tyson.......

"Hey mom, what if I was late to pre-school and they kicked me up to Heaven and then I'd be flying and then Heavenly Father would come and hug and kiss me?"

Pinewood Derby Champ!

Tonight was the annual Pinewood Derby races in our cub scout pack. Our home teacher's brother wrote the speed secrets book and generously shared his knowledge with us. The level of engineering involved in building a fast car these days is brain-melting. It's great fun to work together to figure out the physics of how to create a fast car. Andy's car was a team project that involved a few different men in our ward. It was great to see the support and help everyone contributed to help the boys build their cars. This is Andy's last Pinewood Derby, since next year he'll be an 11 year-old boy scout.

He took 1st place in the Webelos division and will be advancing to the district races (they gave him a golden ticket that he could take to enter that race....very Willy Wonka-ish). We went out to eat at Andy's favorite restaurant (Fazoli's) afterwards to celebrate. Here are some photos and videos of the big night.

At the weigh-in, we were .8 oz too light, so I taped some change to the car at the last minute to get the full 5oz. It was a shame that our home scale wasn't that accurate, as it kind of ruined his cool flame decals he had worked so hard on.

Spring fever!

Spring is finally here! We have blossoms on our peach tree and we began planting our garden. It's wonderful to celebrate growth and renewal!


Jody and Riley are getting the garden ready in this photo. We planted a variety of vegetables in our little garden, such as broccoli, squash, cucumbers, peas, beans, potatoes, carrots, spinach, and zucchini.

Riley is an excellent helper in the garden. He wanted to get his hands on each seed to put them in the ground.

Speaking of new life, we decided on a name for our little girl....

We are going to name her Miri Joy Steurer, after her two grandmothers (Miriam Steurer and Joy Young). We think it's adorable and a wonderful tribute to two great ladies!

BMX Fever

I pretty much took February off...ever have one of those months?

We bought the boys new BMX bikes and they have discovered an empty lot down the street that has been transformed into a BMX heaven by the locals. You can always catch a group of boys at this lot building jumps and trying them out. I think the bikes will ultimately be the cheap part....I forsee some ER bills in my future....

Riley

Andy

Nana's birthday party!

"Nana" Steurer celebrated her birthday today at our house with a dinner, cake & ice-cream, and a pinata. We had a great time! She had the grandkids take on the pinata oldest to youngest and then finally Olivia smacked it down. Lots of sugared up kids in St. George tonight!