Christmas

Aside from getting our portable DVD player stolen out of our car, in my parents driveway, we had a GREAT Christmas. Christmas Eve we decided to start a new tradition of going out to eat. This year we went to Angie's and all the kids were actually good. We came home and did a shortened version of the Christmas story. Instead of just reading it we highlighted certain parts that named all the people in our nativity and then the kids would place them in the nativity setting. It works to keep them involved. After that, they opened their pajamas and one gift from their sibling were off to bed.

Caroline was thrilled about her Justin Bieber book from Liz.

Before the kids went to bed I told them if they woke up before us that there would be a string across the stairs with bells on it and they had to ring it to get us. I didn't want to miss seeing their reactions. Plus I have to turn on the tree, music and video camera. Quite a production! We heard the girls around 7:15 and they were just playing in their rooms. Bella and Cooper were in our room around 7:45 so I went to see what the girls were doing. They were playing the Wii. I was shocked. I wondered if they forgot about Santa. 15 minutes later the bells rand and we got going on the morning. I made them stand there and wait for a picture of course. It was a great Christmas with many wonderful gifts.

After a few hours we headed down to Sandy to hang with the family. We exchanged presents with each other and ate good food. I'm not sure who was more excited about this gift. JK.

We were able to get in a few games, eat way too much food, enjoy being with family and experience major chaos, but it was all great!

In the past

I was going through my pictures and came across some things I've failed to mention but don't want to  forget. I also came across the rest of my Thanksgiving pictures. I didn't know where they had gone, but here are a few more.

Both Liz and Caroline wanted the turkey legs. They thought they'd be like drumsticks of the chicken. Needless to say, she didn't finish this!

 The boys...

I was able to make it down for a visit with my grandparents in Provo and was able to get this cute picture with all of them.

Elizabeth had a piano recital and we were both nervous of a particular part. She had practiced and practiced and it paid off! She played it her best yet. She really does have a talent for the piano. She looks so grown up in this picture. 

The girls had their school music program and Caroline had a speaking part. She was so excited and did perfectly with pauses and inflection. She's a performer for sure. The other day she said she wanted to do a dance by herself on the stage at school. We're hoping to get her into dance soon.

While we were waiting, Cooper and Papa John were goofing around.

I took a few pictures of Charlotte in the Santa hat. She's so smiley and giggles a lot too. She's so fun!

Traumatic!

We took Elizabeth to the orthodontist the other day to see what course of action we had ahead of us. Unfortunately she got my mouth (crowding ). She won't get braces for a few years, until she's like 12 or 13, but he said she needed to have a few teeth pulled to make room for the adult teeth coming in. Brian told her he would do it and I was really surprised at how okay she was with it. She told me, "I'm going to go to Daddy's office after school on Monday and get my teeth pulled." I was waiting for the screaming and yelling, but it didn't happen. When I told Brian he told me he had said to her she could pick out whatever treat she wanted when they were done.

 Well, so after school we all went to his office. It's closed on Mondays so it was just us. As soon as she got in the chair she started getting nervous. Brian gave her some gas which didn't sit well with her, so he turned it off and tried getting her numb with the q-tips first. She was even nervous about that. After a few minutes he tried to put the needle in and she 'bout hit the ceiling. Without going into major detail, 45 minutes later she finally got the shot and didn't even feel it. I started crying once she got it because she was so nervous and I kept telling her to look in my eyes and I could see her fear and so once she was done I was able to let down a little. I was so proud of her because I know it was scary for her and she finally did it. Brian said he wasn't going to let her leave without doing it because then she'd always be afraid and might not even get back in the chair again. He even gave himself a shot to show her that it didn't hurt. That's a loving father!

Once it was all done she was mostly upset about her lip being numb. She did NOT like that. By then we were done being nice and calm and told her to suck it up. Just kidding, we didn't, but we wanted to. We ran by the store and I was off getting the groceries while Brian took her to the candy aisle to get her treat. When they showed up she was carrying a nearly 3 pound bag of Hershey Kisses. I said, "is that what she's getting?! What is it.... like $9.00?". I was thinking more along the line of a candy bar or bag of Skittles. He asked her, "can we get the smaller bag?" (as if she'd say yes) , but then he turned to me and said, "I told her she could get whatever she wanted, plus she saved us a lot of money by letting me do it and not getting her knocked out at a Pediatric Dentist." So I said, "next time we might want to be a little more specific." Anyway, we were all glad to have that done!

Too fast!

The days are going by so fast I can't keep up! Charlotte just hit 2 months. It's amazing how much faster those months go than the last 2 of pregnancy! She's been a little bit of a challenge, only in the way that she wanted to be held and loved all day, so it's not all that bad. She sleeps great at night, so at least I get sleep. She's been great the last several days though, so hopefully we're getting into something new here. She's been smiling a lot lately. Here's one of the firsts I finally caught with the camera.

Then yesterday I attempted the 2 month old shots. These were taken at like 9:00 at night. After her 4+ hour nap (she even slept through the whole ward party).

The kids have been doing great with her still. They love her... sometimes a little too much. Cooper and Bella have started playing together a lot more and play together well. Aren't they cute?!

The other day I realized that Bella needed a princess picture like the other girls and I never get her dressed up like one like I did the others, so we took a few minutes, did her hair and put on some makeup to get a few shots. She didn't last long, but I think we got one that will work ok.

Thanksgiving was a blast. We had all my family over to sleepover. Even my aunt Sondra and cousin Kaitlin. It was a lot of fun. Lots of good food and good company!

But really.... lots of good food. And pie.... we had 13 pies. Enough for each adult to have their own... which I nearly did the Sunday after when I came home and ate half a pie for lunch. I'm still wearing it!

This was cute. The other day I was feeding Charlotte and came in to see this... Cooper and Bella in her bed with him reading to her. Love moments like this.

I then realized that I have no recent pictures of Liz or Caroline. Of course, they're gone most of the day, but I'll get around to that for the next post.

Bella

Because the last few days I've noticed how much she's growing up and I can't get enough of her pouty lips, amazing hair and beautiful blue eyes. She's just so beautiful to me and changing too fast.

October 2010

It's amazing to me that October is gone and we're nearly half way through November.  Just after Charlotte was born we went to the Pumpkin Walk with my parents. It's such a creative thing and the displays are so amazing.

We had to get a picture of Cooper in Yoda again this year. This time he didn't get his head stuck! :)

We went to Sandy for Halloween to meet Caroline's new boyfriend and celebrate Ma's bday. It was fun to go trick-or-treating with all the kiddos.

Without discussion, all the boys were superheros. Fun.

Liz was Tinkerbell, Caroline the tooth fairy and Bella was a witch. I couldn't come up with anything for Charlotte. Oh well.

We blessed Charlotte in our home this past Sunday. We had our family and good friend Travis and his wife Bree come too.  We had some great soup and desserts afterwards. It was a nice time.

Apparently Elizabeth's lesson in church was on doing secrect services so she raked the leaves...

and changed Charlotte's diaper.

We also had a great visit with Bri's parents. They were here for 4 days (not long enough as usual) and we really had a great time. Aside from the kids being of the devil the last day, it was a real enjoyable visit and we wish they would have stayed longer. All is going well with Charlotte and the kids and we're just taking it one day at a time!