Thanks Gayle!

I have the best friend that doubles as my personal photographer! I'm the baby of my family and I always felt a little left out that by the time I came around there weren't as many pictures of me as the other kids. Well, I guess that will be the opposite problem with my kids. Little Lucy is the only one I have professional-type baby pictures of. Thanks to Gayle! Here are a few favorites:




She also took some new family pictures for us. Here's our favorite one:



Also, Gayle tipped us off to a local high school production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat last weekend. With her family and mine we qualified for the group rate... and that wasn't counting the kids 5 and under who were free! We had so much fun and I found out that Brad was in a production of this when he was in high school. Who knew?
Audrey revealed after the play that she was in love with Joseph. I told her how I used to always get a little enamored with the leads in plays that I went to as a child too, and really, what's not to love? They can sing, dance and look great in make-up! I figured that I am getting old because now instead of falling in love with Joseph I just kept thinking "I bet his mother is so proud of him!"
Good times! We definitely need to go to more high school theater productions! Very family friendly!
Thanks again Gayle!

Halloween

Halloween came and went. We we lucky enough to not have to buy any new costumes this year. Thanks to grandma for making an awesome vampire cape for Ben! Thanks to Mimi for thinking Brad was so nerdy that you bought him the Star Trek costume years ago. We love that nerdy is making a comeback! And thanks to 1 year old Ava for letting Lucy wear your kitty costume! Also, thanks to cousins for out growing and passing down awesome costumes!

Big Day

Last Sunday we blessed little Lucy and Jacob was baptized. It was a busy day, but so wonderful to celebrate these two milestones! Lucy was great during her blessing and she looked beautiful! Grandpa enjoyed holding her during church and reminiscing about his mother Lucille and how she must have been held by her adoring grandpa in church so many years ago. It was wonderful to have my mother here for so long and that my dad could come out for the blessing and baptism. Jen and her kids were also able to come from Denver for the weekend.

Jacob gladly waited a whole month to be baptized, so that we could do it all this weekend. I didn't even make it through the opening song, before I started crying. I am so proud of Jacob and the person he is. He was so ready to be baptized and so excited about it! I feel so blessed to have such great older boys to set the example for all the rest of the kids. Ever since Ben's baptism last year Jacob has anxiously awaited receiving his gift from his grandparents: His own set of scriptures. He has come home from school every day this week and has read at least one chapter. I love his enthusiasm, and he has inspired me to do a little better. What would I do without my kids?

I Love Lucy!

She's finally here! Monday morning, October 12th, we went to the hospital to be induced. She came faster than expected, and I got an epidural when I was already dilated to an 8. Good news is it kind of took the edge off. Kind of. She weighed in at 8 lbs 11 oz and 21 inches long. When I first saw her all I could think of was that she was identical to Audrey when she was born. Just like Audrey she had they had to call in the respiratory techs to suction her out at birth, but after a couple of hours on oxygen, she was just as perfect as can be!

She has the sweetest demeanor and is a great nurser. I already can't imagine life without her.
Of course, the kids are thrilled with their new baby sister and I am feeling tired, but great! My mom is here for the next two weeks, and it is so nice to have her here! We'll post more later!
Ben and Lucy

Jacob and Lucy

Sisters! Audrey was the first of the kids to hold Lucy. Everyone felt like that was only fair. She is a very proud big sister!

Eric and Lucy

Grandma, Mom and the 7 dwarves

The rest of the trip...

Okay, it has been so long that I don't even remember, but I must finish this, so I can get on with the rest of my life...

We did an Olympic Peninsula tour one day, taking in the beach, the rain forest and of course for all you Twilight fans... we went to Forks. My camera died at the beach and I haven't got them from my sis yet, but here are some shots from the other two locations...
The rain forest was really dark, the pictures didn't turn out great, but here's one most of the cousins in a really big tree. This was definitely a high light of the trip!

And on to Forks. Read the books, they're okay, had to go to make friends jealous...




And now on to one of the best parts of the whole trip... The Relay for Life
We had so much fun and were able to raise over $3000 as a team. Thank you to so many of you who donated to our cause. We were truly overwhelmed by the generosity of our friends!
Here's a picture of my favorite cancer survivors: Dad, Mom and Brad

The theme for the Relay for Life was Back to the Future/ 80's. We had fun entering in some of the contests. Audrey and I entered the "80's Icon look a like contest". She was a rubix cube, of course, and I was Madonna in "Papa Don't Preach". We had to go around getting donations. We had to take a break from soliciting to have Audrey's hair cut for locks of love. So, unfortunately we didn't win.

My niece Madeleine did win the "big hair" contest.

Here is Stephen walking his laps with Aunt Anna and cousin Joel

Ben and cousins Braden and Joel taking laps with the Spirit Stick

There were also some perks like Massages for donations...(best I've felt in months!)

Eric and Stephen enjoyed the mini golf

Jacob was our big fund raiser for the evening. He went around solving the rubix cube for donations. He raised $70. Needless to say his time got faster and faster. I think his fastest time recorded was 2 min 22 secs. Not bad for a 7-year old! His first love is still football though!

On our way home we went through Spokane and visited our friends Cara and Jaime and their beautiful daughter Maddie (it was great to see you guys!) And then through Idaho Falls to show the kids where we were married.

It was great to get home after being gone so long, but we loved every minute of it (okay, not the vomiting part)But almost every minute of it! Thanks to everyone we got to see along the way!
We were greeted at home with news that our cat Venus had kittens. We have now given away two out of the three keeping only our new addition: Saturn.

While in Washington...

I told you this was going to take a long time to post all the vacation. We were gone for over 3 weeks, so there was a lot to report!

The first day we were in Washington we went down to Portland with my parents to OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry) Very cool. I remember going when I was a kid, but it was in a different location and a lot smaller. It was great to get in with our Amarillo Discovery center pass for free. Love saving the big bucks!
This is Brad, when I told him "It's not about you--it's about the kids" This was a common theme for the trip. Hard to remember sometimes, when we're tired!

Here are some random pics from OMSI:
Grandpa and Samuel

Audrey, Eric and Stephen (2 chipmunks) and Samuel

Grandma, Brad, Jacob and Audrey

Audrey, Jacob and Stephen



That night we spent with my brother, George in Vancouver and Brad flew home to work the next morning. The kids and I went to Fort Vancouver and then headed back up to my parents house for the weekend.
The weekend began with Samuel throwing up on the way up to my parents. Then, Stephen started throwing up on Sunday, while I was holding him in the Chapel at church. Yum! By Monday morning Eric was sick and so the three big kids went in our van with 5 cousins and 2 uncles to Mt. St. Helens. I was sad not to go with them, but we had our own special eruptions going on at the house!


At the mountain

Family Totem

To Washington!!

Wow! This trip came 1 1/2 weeks after the New Mexico trip and during that week and a half I sold nachos and hot dogs with my dear friend Heather for 5 days at a fair! Good times! I miss you Heather!

First day the kids and I drove up to Denver. Brad met us up there that night after work. He had to bring his car so that he could fly home and back again. Anyway, the first night was lovely getting to see my sister Jen and her family and also our friends Matt and Sarah who just moved to Denver from Amarillo. We had a lovely evening and then took off early the next morning to head to Utah.

We drove into Utah on July 24th, Pioneer Day. We went up to BYU campus and walked around. We were a little disappointed that the Bookstore was closed and most of the buildings, but it was still great to see all the old and new!



That night we drove out to Eagle Mountain to stay with our friends Kirk and Joy. We had a great time with them! We miss you guys! The kids especially enjoyed the Primary Pioneer Parade and playing Legos with Gid.




Sunday we went down to Springville to attend church in our old ward. It was so great to see so many people who we went through so much with! After church we got to see our dear neighbors and take a tour of our old house. That was fun! Audrey and Eric were so excited about it. They ran upstairs and started looking through things. When I told them not to touch things, they said, "but all of this used to be ours!" I had to of course tell them that only the house itself used to be ours. It was funny.
Monday morning we were able to go to the Mt. Oquirrh Temple Open House. It was a great experience for the kids and for us!
Then we went to visit my Aunt and Uncle in South Jordan. They fed us a great lunch and it was so nice to visit with them!

That night we headed to Nampa, Idaho to stay with some friends. Unfortunately, were also going out of town that day. They graciously let us stay at their house anyway. It was wonderful of them to be so kind. We felt right at home and were able to get a good start in the morning and finally make it to my Parents home that afternoon!