Steph's New Baby

Stephanie and Jess welcomed baby number 6 on Saturday December 20th. William Jess weighs in at a whopping 8 pounds 2 ounces. We braved the winter storm to go and visit Steph in the hospital. She is recovering well and feels that she has received the greatest Christmas present.

Let it Snow!!

Even though we live in Oregon, we do occasionally get a white Christmas, and this year is definitely it! Dylan and Courtney were so excited they ran outside in their pajamas the first morning we woke up to snow. And today we actually made a snowman! It has been fun despite the fact that it has been going on for about a week and we are all getting a little stir crazy from being stuck at home. On the plus side I now have all my presents wrapped and am getting caught up on the laundry.

As you can tell from the picture, Paige and I were in Temple Square last weekend. We were there for my cousin's wedding. Lindsay and I were roommates as well when we were in college and I promised myself I would make it to her wedding when the time came, so I went. It was great to see her again although you never get to visit with the bride too much, as they are so busy. But she was beautiful and the wedding itself was very emotional--I cried like a baby. The whole weekend was great. I got to see so much of my dad's family that live so far away I rarely get to see them. Paige was a very good baby despite being out of her schedule. Mason and Laura were there with their girls and it was so good to see them, I can't believe it has been a year! It was fun to get their little Audrey together with Paige since they are so close in age. I always leave trips like this with a head full of regrets for the things I didn't remember to say and the saddness of not knowing when we will get to see each other again. But I am grateful I went. Mom and Dad were there with me and took such good care of me. I felt like a kid again traveling with them. It reminded me of all the family vacations we took to Utah as kids. Mark and Kati were kind enough to let us stay with them as usual and I have Kati to thank for the pictures. These kind of trips also remind me just how blessed I am to have an amazing group of family and friends. This has been a great start to my holiday season.

Happy Halloween!

Well Paige wouldn't sit still for a picture and then fell asleep so this is her on Halloween. I'm not sure if you can see it, but she is wearing black cat ears. We decided she was catwoman to go with our superhero theme. The kids thought this was a great idea and had fun helping me to keep the ears on her head all night.

The justice league returns! Dylan is continuing his obsession with superheros and is batman this year. Courtney decided she wanted to be part of saving the day and not always be the one who is saved, so she wanted to be wonder woman. We went door to door trick-or-treating for the first time as well as the trunk-or-treat. They were exhausted, but they loved it.

New Pictures!!

Here are some new pictures of the kids. I just love getting pictures taken.

I can't believe Paige has enough hair for pigtails at only 7 months! She is sitting up now as you can see. She is really a very good-natured baby and stays happy most of the time although we couldn't get her to smile that day. She is eating food now and even though she is my smallest baby she is making up for it by being such a good eater!
Dylan is looking so grown-up in these pictures. He thinks he is grown up too and wants to do everything himself! If only his independent streak extended to wanting to go potty himself. Ah well--someday.
Here is Courtney in her first official school picture. We tried to put curls in her hair that day and it only partly worked. She was happy with it though so I guess that is what counts. She is loving school and feels like such a big girl.

It's pumpkin patch time!

Ok so this is my favorite time of year. Some other ladies in the ward and I decided to take a trip to EZ Orchards so that the kids could pick out a pumpkin. It was so much fun! I know I look ridiculous in this picture but it is the only one with Paige in it and the kids look good anyway. We took a hayride out to the pumpkin patch. They were allowed to pick any pumpkin they could lift by themselves. It was a muddy day, but it never rained!Dylan LOVED the tractor. Then we went out to the apple orchard to pick an apple--they were huge! After that we went through the corn maze. There was a slide in the middle and all the kids got dirty sliding down. They had a few farm animals for the kids to see at the end. Courtney even enjoyed looking at the animals there since they had baby piglets. In her mind only baby animals are not to be feared. She thought they looked just like Wilbur from Charlotte's Web. We were given hot cider and a donut to finish things off. It was difficult to get them to leave so we could make it back home for Courtney's bus. Later we drew pictures on our pumpkins. Courtney's is a princess of course and Dylan's is Batman. Please excuse my lack of artistic skill.

Courtney Starts Kindergarten!

Yesterday was a difficult day for me. My stomach was tied in knots but Courtney seemed fine. I worried that she would be scared or overwhelmed. In the end, when we walked her to her class she seemed shy but excited. We gave her a hug and I was the one holding back tears. Later, we walked out to her bus stop to wait for her to come home. When I saw her coming off the bus safe and sound I almost started crying again. I'm sure it will get easier at least I hope so!