2010 recap

I found this from a blog I read and thought I would try it this year.  Feel free to use it yourself if you'd like to.


1. What did you do in 2010 that you’d never done before?

actually owned 2 vehicles at the same time 

Zumba

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I didn't make any resolutions this year.  super easy to achieve!  I will make a few this year.

3.  Did someone close to you give birth?

I did!  And quite a few friends.

4. Did anyone close to you die?

no, thank goodness!

5. What countries did you visit?
stayed in the good ol' USA, in fact, I'm pretty sure I didn't leave the state of Utah

6. What would you like to have in 2011 that you lacked in 2010?

A better relationship with my siblings.

7. What dates from 2010 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
July 24, the day we moved into this house

August 23, the day I had Eli

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?


Giving birth to my 4th child completely drug free

9. What was your biggest failure?

I try to forget all my shortcomings.  Why dwell on the bad stuff?

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

Nothing besides the pregnancy.  I had Gestional Diabetes, but it went away when I gave birth

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Our new house!  The minivan.

12. Where did most of your money go?

Fixing up the house and Medical stuff

13. What did you get really excited about?

Adding to the family and moving into a newer, bigger house!

14. What song will always remind you of 2010?
don't have one

15. Compared to this time last year, are you:

happier or sadder? I was super happy at this time last year because I had just found out we were expecting a baby!  But I'm definitely not sadder this year!

thinner or fatter?thinner by about 5 lbs

richer or poorer? poorer (medical bills,  house fixer upper bills, etc)

16. What do you wish you’d done more of?


reading with the kids, scrapbooking

17. What do you wish you’d done less of?


wasting time online

18. How did you spend Christmas?

with my cute family all nice and cozy in our house.  Later we had dinner with Chris's family

19. What was your favorite TV program?
I discovered the wonder of Glee.  I'm a Gleek!

20. What were your favorite books of the year?
I really liked Shutter Island, but I can't recommend it (language!)

21. What was your favorite music from this year?


My favorite Pandora station plays James Blunt, Jon Mayer, Coldplay, and 5 for Fighting.  I like that stuff a lot!

22. What were your favorite films of the year?
Nothing stands out in my mind.  I have yet to see the new Harry Potter movie.  I like Avatar, but I think that is the only one I saw in Theaters!

23. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 36.  We got pizza the night before and my parents came for dinner the night of.

24. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

If Tristan had a friend or two.

27. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2010.


There are a lot of people who love me and my family.  We asked for and received tons of help with fixing up the house and moving.  We had a huge outpouring of generosity when Eli was born with friends and family giving gifts, providing meals and taking care of the kids.  Now I need to pay it forward and I am so excited!  I guess the lesson I learned is that most people are good and I need to love them!

storm

I love that it snowed and I had nowhere to go today.  Chris ran some errands, but I stayed nice and warm and snug in our house.  We ran the fire almost all day long.  It was a lovely lazy day today.  I'm going to be sad when school starts and the kids have to be there everyday, and Chris has to work so I'll have to be the chauffeur instead of him!  I have really enjoyed the last couple of days and I'm glad we all had a break to celebrate Christmas!

ah man!

I just realized that I didn't ever write in here yesterday!  I can't believe I broke my streak!  But I did go 27 days which is awesome!

Nothing exciting happened at all yesterday.  Maybe that's why I didn't write.  Hopefully today I can think of something interesting to make up for it.

4 month stats

Today Eli had his 4 month well baby check-up.

He is looking so good!  Here are his newest stats:
weight: 13 pounds 4 ounces
height : 25 and 3/4 inches
(they measured his head, but I don't keep track of that)
He's a beanpole for sure!  But just perfect to me.

His head is a little flat on one side, but nothing to be concerned about.  We'll just try to get him to sleep on the other side more often.  He got 2 shots and cried, but not nearly as hard as he did last time. We're just glad those yucky nasty shots will help keep our baby healthy. He has a small case of cradle cap, but we were advised to scrub it with a soft toothbrush and some Dawn dishwashing detergent.  I'm sure that will fix it right up.

Man oh man do we love this little guy!

if Joseph and Mary were on Facebook

Christmas came to our house!

Christmas eve

After the gifts were open

Best gift ever!

Eli with some of his gifts (he's sitting in his new high chair)

Christmas did indeed find our house!  Unfortunately I was too caught up in the fun and excitement that I forgot to take any pictures until it was all over.  The kids all got everything they asked for on their letters to Santa!  Lucky kids!  Even Eli decided he liked ripping the paper off the gifts, but it wasn't to see what was inside, it was to eat the paper!

We got up this morning about 7am.  Connor was up and waiting but we had to wake up all the other kids. It's been a great day.  We've all had fun playing with our new toys and just relaxing and enjoying each other.  Can you believe that next year we will have a toddler celebrating with us? I can't wait!  We had Christmas dinner with Chris's parents and brothers and sister.  It was a very yummy dinner and great company.  I just love being surrounded by people who love me.  Tomorrow my parents are coming to see us so we'll get some lovin' from them too.

Merry Christmas!

Tonight, he is Mine.

"singing reeves to sleep tonight, i thought again of Mary. i am as grateful as she must have been for that achingly brief period of infancy in my son's life-- for the time when i alone am able to meet his every need and protect against his every fear. i cannot prevent forever the inevitable sorrow and pain of life from finding him-- i know that one day he must face his own future-- but tonight, at least, he is mine"




This is a post from a facebook friend.  I know she was probably referring to the song "Mary's Lullaby"  I found the words.  Here they are


All mine in your loveliness baby, all mine.
All mine in your holiness baby divine.
Sing on herald angels in chorus sublime;
Sing on and adore, for tonight you are mine.

The wise men are coming to worship their King,
The shepherds are kneeling their homage to bring.
Out yonder the star over Judah will keep.
No harm will befall thee, then sleep baby sleep.

O let me enfold thee, my baby tonight,
While legions are singing in joyous delight.
A new star has risen to hail thee divine,
For you are a king, but tonight you are mine.

Away spectered future of sorrow and plight,
Away to the years that must follow tonight.
The pangs of Gethsemane, let them be dim,
The red drops on Calvary, not Lord, for Him!

O let me enfold thee, my baby tonight,
While legions are singing in joyous delight.
A new star has risen to hail thee divine,
For you are a king, but tonight you are mine.

Sing on herald angels in chorus sublime;
Sing on and adore, for tonight you are mine. 


To my friend Lorna, and to the Mother of Jesus, I too am grateful for the sweet time I have to hold my little baby.  He may not ever be as great a man as our Savior, but I am so glad  he will grow up and do great things.  I am so very grateful that tonight, he is mine. How I wish I could say that he will forever be mine, but I know he needs to grow up and be tested, just like the rest of us.  I'm so thankful for my Savior for all he has done for me and I'm so thankful that we get to celebrate his birth during this season. I hope I can teach my sweet baby boy and his siblings all about their older brother and that we can all live in a way that will lead us back to him and our Father.

Merry CHRISTmas!  I hope we can keep Christ in our hearts tomorrow and everyday!

Keep on trucking....and, 4 months old!

 As I mentioned yesterday, Anna got the opportunity to spend some time on the truck with her Grandpa.  They met up about 1:30 on Monday and got back about 10:00 this morning.  They traveled through the storms and even had to put chains on the tires.  Anna went to 2 different states, Arizona and Nevada.

Grandpa's truck has a bunk bed and Anna got the top!  She had such a great time and liked having Grandpa all to herself!

The baby on top is now 4 months old!  Time has flown by.  He's so much fun.  We just can't get enough of him.  He and Connor are the best buds around.

what I did today

Today I didn't leave my house.  Literally.  I didn't check the mail, I didn't take out any trash.

But I did finish all my craft projects that I wanted to finish before Christmas! Chris and I cut out and sewed all 5 snuggies.  We will all be cozy and warm.  I finished Eli's stocking and Chris's owl hat.

I got the gifts all wrapped and ready to go to Richfield.

I tried a new recipe for dinner.  It wasn't a success, but at least we tried.  Ham bone soup.  Not for us!  But the homemade cornbread was tasty.

We also watched a whole lot of the tv show Psych.  It's a great show!  Connor likes it too.

Anna will be home tomorrow, she has spent the last 3 days trucking with my dad.  I've missed her.  Our house is completely different when she isn't here.

you will die from the cuteness!

Eli has discovered his toes.  Whenever he doesn't have socks on they go straight to his mouth.  So cute!

Also today, we put him on his tummy and he turned completely around. 360 degrees!  He'll be scooting around in no time at all.  I can't believe he'll be 4 months old on Thursday.

8 minutes to spare!

I was in bed and almost asleep when I realized I haven't posted today!

Highlights of today:
Eli laughed
I went to lunch with my friends
Anna is on an adventure with her Grandpa on his big truck
We went Christmas Caroling with our ward

The Christmas shopping is almost done (Chris bought his own gift today.  I hope he likes it ha ha).  Just need to finish Eli's stocking, Chris's owl hat and make 5 snuggies.  Ok, still a lot to do.  It will get done and it will be an amazing Christmas.  It always is.  I love my little family!

Family Christmas party

Eli with Great Grandma Betty

Eli with Uncle Paul

Eli and Aunt Becky

Connor whacking the Dora  Pinata.  Poor Dora!

Tristan has the last turn!

With Uncle David. And a photo bomber.

Mad scramble for the treats.  No peanuts this year!

Cousins Zeke and Kyra

Cousins Gabby and Kaylee

What a great family!

Chris, Eli, and David.  Grandpa in the background.

Yesterday we had Chris's family party.  We drove to Cedar Hills.  We ate a good lunch with ham and lots of side dishes.  The kids broke the pinata and then did their cousin book exchange.  It was nice to see the family and the kids had fun playing with their cousins.

too tired

tomorrow I will post about the family christmas party we went to today.  tonight I am too tired.

that is all

one year ago today...

I saw 2 pink lines.

I was so excited!  A new baby!  I knew my life was going to change in a big way.  But definitely a good way!

I put a hot dog bun in the oven , took a picture, and sent Chris a text message since we has working.  At the time, my phone was not a good one for sending picture texts, so he hadn't gotten it by the time I picked him up from work.

So I showed it to him.

"A bun in the oven, huh?  We've still got it!"

I'm so thankful for that sweet little bun.

We waited clear until February to tell anybody.  That was so hard, but it was kind of fun having our little secret!

best decision ever!

16 years ago I married my best friend.  I thought I loved him then.  Little did I know, I would learn so much about this man.  I love him so much more than I ever thought possible. So glad we are together now, and for all eternity.

I wish I could post some pictures, but I'm so tired, I can't remember how to scan photos.  Chris is working late so he won't be able to help me for a few days.  We are going to celebrate on Saturday.

I love you Chris.  I'm so happy and I love our life together!

my underwear are starting to smell less like turkey

Finally!

you see, when we cooked the Thanksgiving turkey, Chris cleaned up some of the juice with a towel.  He then put the towel in the washing machine.  The next day, I started a load of whites without realizing the towel was there.  All the clothes came out turkey fresh!  Chris thought he smelled like turkey because he ate so much of it (3 days straight!).

I gathered up all the stinky whites and tried to wash them several times.  I used vinegar.  I used bleach.  I used hot water. I used combinations of the prior.  Nothing worked.  But time is slowly showing that the smell will leave.

So if you are near me and you start to crave turkey, perhaps this is why.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today turned out to be much better than I thought it would be.  I woke up way too early.  Eli woke up at 4:30 to eat and I just couldn't fall back to sleep.  I just kept thinking.  Sometimes that just isn't good for a person!  So I finally got up and wrote a list of the things I needed to do today.  Didn't do all of them, but got a lot crossed off my list. The biggest thing was finishing the gift for my in laws. I hope they like it.  I plan on posting pictures of the things I make for gifts this year.

16 years ago was my last night as a single lady.  More on that tomorrow.

bleh

Tomorrow is going to be crazy busy.  Let's hope I don't go crazy.  That is all.

Another Monday

I can't believe I am actually sticking to this!  Today is the 13th day in a row that I have written in this blog. I'm pretty impressed with myself.

I decided to make a list of the things I am making for gifts and etc.  I'm really hoping I get them all finished in time.

crocheted afghan for the in-laws
owl hat for Chris
hat for Michael
Eli's stocking
snuggie for me
snuggie for Chris
snuggie for Tristan
snuggie for Connor
snuggie for Anna
(maybe a small blanket for Eli with the leftover fleece)
something for Lexi (still trying to figure that one out, she needs Christmas decorations--any ideas?)
hand print pillow for Eli's first Christmas

The scary thing is that I have only started on 2 of those things.  The afghan is close to being finished and I started on Eli's stocking.  I have the fabric for the snuggies, and the yarn for Chris's hat.  I think once I figure out and make one snuggie the others will be easy (fingers crossed).

I got the Christmas cards from Costco today and got the letters written, printed and folded.  I need to address the envelopes and stamp and mail those in the next couple of days.

I'd also like to bake goodies for my neighborhood friends.  I just don't know if I'll have time.  I hope so, I really do like to bake and give away goodies!

Christmas is in 12 days.  gulp.

Music and the Spoken Word

Today I took Tristan, Connor, and Anna to the Conference Center on Temple Square to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir perform Music and the Spoken Word.  Eli and Chris stayed home because people under the age of 8 aren't allowed.  It was a beautiful program. They sang Christmas songs.  I love Christmas music. It was a really good way to start a Sunday!

I found out the the program has been going since 1929.  The broadcast we went to was the 4,239th show. It is the longest running broadcast ever.  It was fun to be a part of the audience today and I hope to be able to go again someday.

The Entertainer

This is how you do it Dad

Mom, you better sign me up for lessons before I lose interest.

Christmas Concert

Last night, Coonor had his choir concert.  He and the other members of the "Legacy Legends" (middle school choir) performed some Christmas songs.  They sang Panis Angelicus, Angel's Carol, and Go Tell it on the Mountain.  They also sang a song with the Madrigals(High School choir).  

It was a beautiful rendition of Silent Night.

warming up

singing with the choir

It was a great concert.  They sounded great!  Glad that Connor has the chance to have this experience.

what I've been doing

There is a lovely lady in my ward who is a Zumba instructor.  She is so great because she teaches a free class 2 nights a week at our church. Anybody is invited.
I always have fun and I'm glad to go and exercise!

An essay, by Tristan

   An essay

      This is the beginning of my 600-word essay, which is rather self-referential and somewhat purposeless. This is the second sentence, which informs you that this is the second sentence and that, by extension, this essay is going to be quite ridiculous and silly. This is the third sentence, which is the last numbered sentence, and tells you about how pointless the numbering was getting. This is a sentence to apologize for how silly and purposelessly self this paragraph has become, and to introduce to the real purpose of this sentence, which is to tell you that this essay is about the writing of essays.

      In this paragraph, the author will tell the reader about essays. Essays are defined in various ways, one of which is as “a piece of short non-fiction writing designed for  various purposes, such as education, persuasion for certain viewpoints, or to tell people about an event”. Essays are often written by students for educational purposes, which generally starts in late elementary school and gets more advanced until college, wherein they can often  be hundreds of pages long.

      This paragraph notes that the writer, who will now address himself in the first person, has written several essays, of which this is one. The first essays written by the aforementioned “I” started during or near the fifth grade. These essays were presumably short, three paragraph items, which were probably not very good, as I had little to no experience in the writing of essays. Since that time, I have been writing essays more frequently, and hopefully with more quality then those first few essays.

      This paragraph is to tell you the reason for this essay. The purpose of this essay is hopefully to teach people more about essays, and additionally to possibly get a good grade. The topic of this essay was suggested by the author’s father, and was initially disregarded by the author, until he realized that he had no better ideas. The ideas considered by the author before his father’s suggestion included: an uneventful move, several scout camps, a description of a Saturday, and the lack of interesting events occurring within the author’s life. These ideas were disregarded by the author as not interesting enough to write an essay on or, in the case of the last one, lacking enough detail to write an entire 600-word essay about. And so, in the end, this slightly odd topic was chosen, and then it was necessary to write the essay and make it long enough to be considered an actual essay as opposed to a short paragraph. 

      This paragraph concerns the steps required in producing this essay. The author chose to start with an odd listing of sentences, with was rather different from the rest of the essay, presumably because the author considered it to be unnecessary silliness that nevertheless served as a good introduction to the slightly less random body of the essay. He then decided for his own bizarre reasons to discuss the nature of an essay, including its purposes and definition. For his third paragraph, he finally chose to notice that this was intended to be about him, and wrote about his experiences in writing essays, which started in the fourth grade. The next paragraph was about this essay in particular, starting with the purpose of this essay and ending with the essay beginning to be written. The last two paragraphs are perhaps the most self-referential, as they are both entirely about the essay that contains them. This is the fifth and last paragraph, which talks about the rest of the essay, including itself. This is my last sentence, which tells you that this is the end of the essay.

9 pounds of poi?

Anna in the muumuu that was mine when I was 10.

Last night was Anna's school program.  Her class did a song called,"The 12 Days of Christmas Hawaiian Style"  Here are the words:
"Numba one day of Christmas my Tutu gave to me:

One Myna bird in one papaya tree

Two coconuts

Three dried squid

Four flower leis

Five big fat pigs

Six hula lessons

Seven shrimps a swimmin'

Eight ukuleles 

Nine pounds of poi

Ten cans of root beer

Eleven missionaries

Twelve televisions

The kids all looked so cute decked out in their Hawaiian finery.  Grandma and Grandpa R got to come too.

The dress she wore was the one I got when we went to visit my grandparents when they were on their mission to Hawaii 26 years ago!  

Mele Kalikimaka!

Monday

Anna had her Christmas program today.  We took pictures, but I want to wait to post it after I get the words to the song her class sang.  The 12 days of Christmas Hawaii style.  So more on that tomorrow.

Don't really have much to post today.  Spent the day doing laundry, crocheting a Christmas gift, finishing up the decorating and watching a few episodes of  The Office, season 3. (the one with the bat and Jim convinces Dwight that he got bit and is turning into a vampire.  Love it!)

My parents came for dinner again.  It's nice having them around.  My mom is visiting her doctors and they are making sure that she is still free of cancer.  They have to do some more testing tomorrow.  Say a prayer that everything goes well and she is ok.

Tomorrow I get to go to the grocery store!  YAY!  Also I am going to lunch with a friend to celebrate my birthday.  I'm hoping to get the supplies to make Eli's stocking.  Maybe I'll even find time to run the vacuum.

Sorry this post is so lame, but I made a goal and I plan to achieve it!

thirty what?

Today is my birthday.  I am 36 years old.  It has been a good day.  My parents came to visit and brought a box full of all kinds of memories.  Included were some pictures.  I especially liked this one and thought I'd share.  I thought the kids looked like Chris.  Now I think they look like me!  Look at that chin!

It's funny, I remember my parents when they were the age I am now.  I thought they were so smart and knew so much.  Now I know that they were probably just winging it like I am now.

Happy Birthday to me!

Visit with Santa

Today was our ward Christmas party. It was held at "This is the Place" state park.  After we ate, Santa came.  The older kids weren't interested in seeing Santa, but I decided Eli was.  Santa was so gentle and kind.  He told Eli we were a lucky family to have such a sweet baby in our house at Christmas time.  I agree!  Eli was good and didn't cry and only pulled on Santa's beard a little.

Connor and Anna and the rest of the Primary did a Christmas program.  They both did a good job.  Anna had a speaking part and I heard her better than anybody else.  She spoke loud and clear and did a great job.  Connor and the other older boys sang "We Three Kings of Orient Are" and I'm sure the people on the front row heard them.  I don't know. It's hard to expect a group of 10 and 11 year old boys to sing very loudly.  It was a nice program.

O Christmas Tree!

 This year we preordered our Christmas tree.  It was offered as a Groupon so we got it for a really good price.  The tree was supposed to be delivered on the Friday or Saturday after Thanksgiving, but since there were many lovely storms, the delivery was delayed.  We got our tree late Tuesday night.  It is by far the prettiest tree we have ever had, and it smells sooooo good!
I got all the lights put on (we didn't have enough so we had to buy more. We ended up with 1000 lights!)  And tonight we finally got to put the decorations on.

Lots of lights and red bulbs.  The bulbs are new this year.  Look how tall Tristan is.  Holy Cow, slow down kid!

If you look closely, you can see Anna.

Anna decorated the cat

Eli wasn't able to help decorate this year, but he approves of the new ornaments.

Connor made sure we had Christmas tunes and that there weren't any bald spots.

Tomorrow I plan to spotlight some of my favorite ornaments.

Every woman deserves...

A well fitting bra.  Get measured.  Spend some money.  You won't regret it.  If you need a recommendation of a place to go, ask in the comments.
Seriously.  You'll thank me.

A day in the life of....

So I decided to try to write a little something every day this month.  It will probably be just boring mundane things about my day.  I just feel like I need to write more since I am really lousy at keeping a real journal.  Plus, it might be interesting to come back and read these things someday.

So here is my day today:
I got up and made a list of things to do.  Here is the list:
get dressed
pay bills
make menu
make grocery list
get ready (hair and make-up)
go to store
make chili
go to activity days
put lights on the tree

I am happy to say all these things were accomplished.  Chris made the chili for me while I was at Activity days, that was nice to come home to. Oh and I ran out of lights (you'd think 800 would be enough) so I have to finish that task tomorrow after a trip to the store.

I hate paying bills.  I dread it every week.  I used to pay them on Fridays.  Then it changed to Mondays.  Now we're lucky if we get them paid by Wednesday.  It's not much fun.  Especially when you call to pay on the Dr. bill and the lady tells you that the insurance company told her that the baby's coverage has been terminated.  WHAT?  so call the insurance company and find out that that's not the case and they will resubmit the bills.  Stupid insurance.  Don't even get me started.  The thing that made me mad was that they told me that if I didn't pay on the balance of his account they wouldn't be able to see him anymore.  HI, I was calling to pay on his bill.  SHEESH. (guess I got started, ha ha).

For Activity Days we helped the girls learn how to make some gifts.  We did hair flowers, a vinyl lettering project, and a treat.  I was going to teach them how to crochet a flower, but none of them are anywhere close to knowing how to do that yet.  baby steps.  I like this calling, it's fun to be with Anna and the girls that are her age.  There are over 20 girls in our group.  Luckily we usually have them split up in to two groups.  I get to help with the 8-9 year olds and it's really fun!

We got our tree delivered.  Boy, was that nice.  No pine needles to vacuum out of the van!  I would have liked to have had it sooner, but it got delayed because of the weather.  It's a beautiful tree, the best one we've ever had!  I take pictures once it has the lights and decorations on it.

I haven't even started shopping for Christmas yet.  I am working on some home made gifts but the shopping.... I'm really having a hard time wanting to spend money this year.  I think we've spent enough on this house and having a baby.  You are welcome economy!

We had a great thanksgiving.  We hosted my family, my parents and my brother Michael came.  The food was good and it was pretty relaxed.  I liked it very much.  Then on Saturday we had Chris's family over.  We all made personal mini pizzas.  I think it was a fun get together.  Everyone was there except for our nephew and one of Chris's brothers.  There were 25 people total!   I like that we finally have a big enough house to have these big get togethers!

                                                              Cousins Zeke, Sam and Emma

                                                                            Cousin Kaylee

                                                          Cousin Alex and Aunt Lisa

                                                                Grandma, Aunt Tanya and Eli

Thanksgiving Day crowd

Eli's first Thanksgiving.  What a cutie!  He just discovered his tongue and he sticks it out all the time!  Enjoy the cuteness of his thanksgiving outfit.  I made the shirt and my mom gave him the hat.  He slept through dinner.  Maybe next year he'll be able to take part a little bit more.

Aren't you so excited to see what I have to say tomorrow?

Thanksgiving is over, let the Christmas season begin!

Halloween 2010

Frankenstein, Owlet, and Dorothy

We went trunk or treating with our new ward.  It was actually all the wards that meet in our building.  We ran out of candy very quickly.  And we had a big bag!

 I made all the costumes.  Anna's jumper was totally just a made up pattern.  I'm happy with how it turned out.  The laces were an afterthought but really added to the outfit.   I love the wig!

 Eli the owl.  He looked so cute!  I love this costume so much!  I sewed felt "feathers" all over one of his outfits and then crochets the owl hat.  He has owls on his shoes, but you can't see them in the picture.

 We decided to go crash our old ward's trunk or treat as well.  It was rainy so the kids trick or treated in the gym. It was my favorite way ever!  These guys won the kids costume contest.  I'm not really sure what Tristan is dressed as.

 Scary Frankestein!

 Close up of the owl hat.  I'm thinking about making and selling these.  You think I'd have buyers?

Close up on the Owl.  He is just too cute!

My favorite part of Halloween is making the costumes.  The only reason we go trick or treating is so people can see them.  What can I say, I'm a show off.  I'm really happy with how they turned out and the kids had fun dressing up in them.  I got the idea for the Frankenstein from Familyfun.com  they have so many cute costume ideas with step by step instructions.  I wonder what's in store next year. I'm hoping Chris and I dress up.  We'll see!

2 months old!

 Could he be any cuter?  Eli is officially 2 months old.  The time has passed so quickly!  Here are some facts about Eli:

He loves his swing

He loves his siblings, especially Connor

He smiles when you talk to him, he's happiest in the morning

He can lift up his eyebrow and does it when he's confused

He likes baths

He loves to get his jammies on

He doesn't like having a bubble

He won't take a binky, we've tried 4 kinds

He still hasn't taken a bottle, we are going to try again tonight

He likes to be carried in the Moby wrap, but only sometimes and only if you are moving around until he falls asleep

Here he is with Connor's dog, Ho Ho (Connor named it when he was 2, it used to have a Santa hat).  The jammies he is wearing are the very first item of clothing I bought for him when he was about the size of a jumbo shrimp. I love the ducky feet!

Eli went to the doctor for his two week checkup.  He now weighs 10 pounds 10 ounces (which is 3 pounds bigger than his birthweight).  He is 22 3/4 inches long (which is 2 1/4 inches longer than when he was born).  The doctor says he is doing great!