Bonding with Brody

Our Little Princesses

Brody

So here are some pictures of our newest family member. Brody was born Nov. 18th at 11:20am after a VERY fast labor - he didn't even wait for the person giving the epidural (I couldn't spell it) to leave the room. As my Dr. was running in and getting her gloves on -- there comes Brody! He was 7# 4oz. (same as Max) and 21 1/4 inches. So far he is a good sleeper (he let me sleep 4 hours at a time last night) We'll see what he does his first night home! So far all the kids are loving him, especially Max, who is really soft and gentle with Brody. Brody is pretty easy going, he doesn't cry very much at all, even when he was circumcized. When he's awake he just looks around and takes it all in. Ryan brought the kids to the hospital to eat dinner w/ us last night and Brody dealt very nicely with all the mauling, but I guess Heavenly Father knows what we can handle and won't send a first child personality to a fourth child position!

Halloween 2008

Halloween was pretty fun, if not drawn out this year. Our town rec center had a trunk or treat the weekend before Halloween, then the school parties, then the ward trunk or treat, then actual Halloween. I was hoping that the kids would get so much candy at the trunk or treats that we would only have to go trick or treating to the neighbors we knew. No such luck, and 2 hours of trick or treating later they were finally ready to call it a night. Max was a trooper, he made it about 1 1/2 hours before I had to carry him. He fell asleep on the last street before we went home. The weather was so nice, we didn't even need jackets.

Making sugar cookies

Riley's preschool party

At the pumpkin patch. We went for FHE and just as we got there it started to rain. So we grabbed the best pumpkins we could find and went home. It kind of stinks b/c they have a little "petting zoo" and bouncy slide and hay maze to play on. Oh well, maybe next year.

The finished product

Carving the pumpkins. I don't love this part, but this is Emma's 2nd favorite thing about Halloween (after the candy of course)

The night before Halloween our ward had a Trunk or Treat. The weather was really warm so it was a lot of fun!

Our own Hannah Montanna!

High School Musical's Gabriella!

Everybody Loves a Parade

A few weekends ago we went with our neighbors to our town highschool's homecoming parade. We were in a really good spot to get a lot of candy, we were towards the end and there were no other kids around. The floats were pretty cute, Emma's elementary school had a bunch of kids walking and riding bikes and scooters. Emma (surprisingly) wanted to be in it, but sadly it did not work out. There were tears, but I think the candy made up for the disappointment. I love small town living (although it is nice to have the city 20 minutes away), but sadly we aren't THAT small town, the parade didn't even turn around an come back through,(Creamery Picnic anyone?), but good times were had by all. One of these days we will get out to a game, they are pretty fun to watch!

Mmm Mmm Good

I love LOVE freezer jam, I could eat it like soup. So when my friend Jarrie found this out, and also found out I had no clue how to make it(as I am homemaking challenged), she offered to teach me how (if I had known how easy it was, I would have already had a freezer full!). So King Soopers had a pretty good deal on strawberries last week and we spent the afternoon making freezer jam. Heaven smiled on us, as we had exactly enough strawberry mush for our last batch, and the bread I decided 3/4 of the way through to put in the bread maker (the only way to make it!) finished at the exact same time as we did. So we taste tested our work on hot from the oven (breadmaker) bread. YUM!!! Thanks Jarrie for helping me!



The fruits of our labor!

Cool Dude(just a funny picture)

A Little Culture

We even got to see a crash, one car just hit the side of the track, but it was pretty cool!

A few weekends ago we went with some friends to the speedway (that we didn't know was 10 minutes from our house). It was so much fun, kind of an adrenalin pumping experience:) The kids really liked it, even the incredible noise of the engines! The best part was "intermission" where they had people from the audience race each other. The winner was an old guy w/ a pretty smokin' corvette! But there was a souped up turbo geo that gave him a run for his money:) It reminded me of one summer in high school that my friend Phillip and I went up in the mountains somewhere by Lolo where there was a big family reunion, and everybody had these souped up, trashed cars/trucks and they raced them in a meadow. We dubbed them "The Redneck Races," - Good times:) I think we will definitely be going back there again!

Emma's Brownies

Emma was on treat for family home evening on Monday, and she made these brownies all by herself. Ryan manned the oven and I got out the measuring cups she needed, but other than that she did the brownies and frosting (chocolate/raspberry frosting) herself! Way to go Emma! They were delicious (as you can see, by Wed. they are almost gone!)

Tattoo Girl

Riley is our child who is going to come home one day with a tattoo or strange piercing. When she was a little younger she would sneak pens into the car and write on herself as we drove. When asked what was she doing she would reply "giving myself tattoos". So she went over to her friends house and came home with stamps all over her arms, legs and stomach. She did have them all over her face, but her friend's mom had washed those off. This picture is after I had already washed off several, and then realized I should record it for posterity.

Labor Day

Emma's mad photography skills

I am slowly catching up on our blog, so I am up to Labor Day (yea me)! We went hiking in Boulder in the morning and then to the pool for our last hurrah (which lasted about 1 hour, Max was TIRED!) Emma did enter the hula hoop contest (very big step for her, she's so shy and all) Then we had some friends over for BBQ and games. It was a fun/busy day to end the summer:)

The Hula hoop contest

First days of school

Emma's first day of 2nd grade. She loves school as much as I did (not so much). But so far she has only had a few "I don't want to go to school" days! She really likes her teacher, Mrs. Simms, but there are 32!!! kids in her class. I think Mrs. Simms is probably pretty exhausted by the end of the day!

Riley's first day of preschool. She is loving it, she comes home in such a good mood!!!! When she is gone Max takes a nap and I have a few hours to do nothing at all:)

FATSO Campout

So in July or August our ward had its annual father-son campout. Ryan took Max up just for the evening, b/c he wanted to go waterskiing w/ his family the next day. They had a great time! It was long enough ago that I honestly can't remember what the girls and I did, I think we ended up at the mall:) I love that the girls are getting old enough to want to do things I like to do! (the last picture is at the lake the next day!)

The best sound

Riley and Max tend to fight a lot, so this is a rare moment that I thought I had better preserve!

Who?

Take the Quiz here!

Can you believe she's 7!?!?

For Emma's 7th birthday she had a Build-a-Bear party. I highly recommend this, as all we had to do was show up w/ cupcakes. No clean up, I didn't even have to be in charge, they kept everybody together and helped them find the bears and accessories they wanted.

For dinner we had family over, Emma wanted orange chicken, yellow rice (chicken rice-a-roni) and rainbow jello (which I forgot to make!)

Max abandoned his dinosaur "Dinosaur" for Rileys pink bed and a purple bear

But in the end he kept the more "masculine" choice! (Much to daddy's relief)