We are alive

Just wanted to pop in and say that we are still alive over here.

And like every January, I am feeling the pressure to finish up our blog from the previous year.

We print off our blog into a book every year, so the game is on for me!

In other news, Samuel had an appointment with the pediatric pulmonologist today.

His lungs are awesome!  And he weighs 15 pounds.

Let me put that in perspective...Sam is 5 1/2 months old and he weighs 15 pounds.

Max weighed 18 pounds at ONE year old.

Samuel is a chunky, happy little baby that you would never guess had problems at the start.

I love these three little monkeys.

Thanksgiving: Part 2

As I said in Thanksgiving: Part 1, we ended up hosting Thanksgiving dinner at our house.

It was kind of a last minute thing, but it just made more sense to do it at our place.

We enjoyed having everyone over and dinner was wonderful, as always. I think all the kids had fun too!

All the cousins together. Some were more cooperative than others. 

This is one of about fifty where Max is actually looking at the camera. The little ones had a hard time.

Actually, that's not true. Sam was awesome! He didn't fight the pictures at all.
We love our family! Thanks for the fun Thanksgiving.

 

 

 

 

(Picture borrowed from Shel. Thanks!!!)

Thanksgiving: Part 1

We are lucky enough to live within a half hour of Michael's parents.

With that said, we are also lucky enough to party when siblings stop by for a weekend visit.

And play when they come for the holidays. We love being close to the action:)

Michael's entire family was together for Thanksgiving this year.

That is two parents, six siblings and six spouses and twenty-one grandchildren.

Two families stayed with us, and we ended up hosting Thanksgiving dinner at our home.

The week flew by and we had a blast with everyone.

One of Michael's brother and his family came the weekend before. 

We stole a couple of the kids to come spend the night. It was Annie's birthday, so we made waffles.

It's becoming a birthday tradition at our house. 

 Cousins watching a movie together.  They could never get quite comfortable enough. 

Sam with his pants on his head. And his own personal rainbow loom bracelet courtesy of Ben.  

An all adult dinner (missing one couple) at Johnny Carino's, followed by a date to The Hunger Games. 

Such a fun night! Thanks CJ, Carson and Mom and Dad for making it possible.

Cousin sleepover. We only had to go in and warn the two little girls a few times.

 

 

 Annual Christmas in the Night Sky the day after Thanksgiving. 

Max and Sam were both asleep, so Michael and Kat were the only ones who braved the cold.

The fireworks were beautiful and we had a perfect view.

Being Thankful

It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving is over and Christmas is almost here.

The days, weeks and months all seem to pass quicker and quicker with each new year.

Slow down time! You are going way too fast for my comfort. 

Here are a few moments from our Thanksgiving holiday before we jump into Christmas.

1. Give Thanks banner I made a few years ago.

2.Maxwell brought this darling thankful turkey home from nursery one Sunday.  His nursery leaders are awesome. They go above and beyond every week.

3. Our thankful tree. We've made one the last few years. It is a fun little tradition. Max was thankful for juice and Kathryn wrote a few things down including mummy dogs, school, family, dad, Max, mom and Sam.

4. Kathryn made these hats at preschool one day. Love them!

The rest of Kat's birthday

Kathryn requested to go swimming on her birthday. 

There are several geothermal swimming pools close to us, so we went to our favorite one. 

In fact, it had just re-opened that very day after being closed for maintenance. 

We had a lot of fun. Mainly, we tried to keep our children (Maxwell, the wild child) alive. 

We paid extra to have the whole pool to ourselves...Just kidding. Only luck.

After swimming, we met Michael's parents at our favorite Mexican restaurant for dinner. 

When the owner found out it was Kathryn's birthday, she brought out a special dessert for her. 

Kat was even nice enough to let them relight the candle so Max could blow it out too. 

 Then we went back home to open presents and have cake.

Kathryn got a stroller, pajamas, I Spy game, My Little Pony set and Fancy Nancy Books.

The Ponies and Fancy Nancy were a huge hit. And Max hasn't let go of the stroller.

Again, so nice of Kathryn to be such a good big sister.

 

 

 

Kathryn wanted Jello Cake for her birthday.She had it last year, so she wanted it again this year.

Happy birthday my sweet and darling daughter! We love you so much.

October wrap-up

Row 1: Kathryn is really into nails right now and she requested to paint mine; My home-boy and girl with their pet dog; Max holding Sam during family movie night; Play date with a friend.
Row 2: Me and my boys; Fish pond at our ward harvest party; silly face Kat; More of me and my boy.
Row 3: Money from the tooth fairy; Max at ward harvest party; Cousins and friends at the park in Utah; Mike and Max at the park on our Utah trip.
Row 4: Daddy daughter breakfast date at our favorite restaurant; Max literally chewing rocks; Kathryn sporting our silly purple clown wig; My darling little baby Sam.

 And of course, during the month of October, there was a pumpkin that needed to be carved (grown by us).
Kathryn, Maxwell and I contributed a little bit, but the real work was done by Michael.
I think that's how it goes every year. He's a pretty good sport to accept the "requested" challenge.
He even carved the pumpkin to look like Kathryn this year, missing tooth and all.

 On Halloween, Michael's technician came over on her lunch break to paint Kat and her friend's nails.
They were over the moon with excitement when I told them she was coming (we love you Yo Yo)!
She even painted their nails to match their Halloween costumes (blue and purple). The girls were in heaven.

We stopped at the pharmacy to visit Daddy.
Normally we help pass out candy for the community trick-or-treating event, but we were short on time.
The kids did get to show off their costumes, and we ran into one of Kathryn's darling friend.

The kids made a quick trick-or-treating stop at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

This was the only picture I got of all of them together.

Maxwell was a dinosaur, but he wouldn't wear the hat without his own hat underneath.

Kathryn was a perfectly perfect Cinderella. 

And Samuel was a monkey, which was the same costume Max wore two years ago.

We rushed home and I made homemade pizza for dinner while Michael took the kids trick-or-treating.
One of Michael's part-time technician and her family joined us again this year.
It was a fun and busy day. The kids consumed WAY too much candy and stayed up WAY too late.
But that's the fun of Halloween, right?! We had so much blast.