Recent Happenings

I'm getting behind on my blogging so I figured I would do this post and bring it up to date.

Dads For Doughnuts

Matthew's school had an activity for the dads last week and Karl was able to go with Matthew. It was a great chance for them to spend some one on one time together. They had doughnuts and read books together. Karl enjoyed the time he spent with Matthew but wished the activity had been a little bit better organized. While they were gone Steven, Summer, and I watched "Kung Foo Panda" because Steven was feeling a bit left out. We told him it would be his turn to spend some alone time with Daddy.

Baby Jillian Grace

Last Friday my sister Cindy had a new baby-Jillian Grace. I was able to go and see her at the hospital. She sure is a cutie. The kids haven't seen her yet even though she is home now because Matthew has had a bit of a cough. So we are waiting for him to get better. Karl got to see her for the first time yesterday when we took some Thanksgiving dinner over to Cindy.

Because of the H1N1 flu the kids couldn't go to the hospital to see Jillian so I took these pictures so I could show them to the kids. Summer saw them and said "baby", then she kissed the camera and said "Awww!" It was so cute!

Some recent random pictures

My niece Annika

Two cute girls-Annika and Summer

I thought this was cute. Steven was sitting in the laundry basket with Summer on his lap

I told Steven to go and wash his hands and he came out of the bathroom looking like this.

I thought Summer had the funniest facial expressions in this picture and the next.

I took this picture because it was the first time I was able to get all of Summer's hair up in a pony tail. I've done it with piggy tails before but not a pony. It still needs to get a little bit longer probably. But notice her beautiful bow made by her Aunt Stephanie.

Steven and Tigger. For some reason he likes to hold things up to his face when his picture is being taken.

Thanksgiving

Yesterday we spent Thanksgiving with my parents and brother. We were happy that Karl had the day off. One of the advantages of being a store manager is that he gets the major holidays off. He has to work all the days before and the days after but not on the holiday. As an assistant manager he always had to work the holidays (usually 2 out of the 3 of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's). Two Thanksgivings ago he worked all day, came home for dinner and then went back to work. What a wonderful contrast this year was. We had a wonderful dinner and then took some food over to my sister's house since she didn't want to bring the baby out. So we got to hold the baby too!

I love Thanksgiving because I am so blessed and it gives me a chance to remember all the wonderful things in my life. Here are just a few of the countless things that I am thankful for:

-a wonderful husband who I love and who loves me and works so hard to support us

-three amazing children who greatly enrich my life each and every day

-a wonderful extended family who are always there for support (both my side and Karl's)

-the gospel

-my Savior Jesus Christ

-a living prophet

-a home to live in

-good friends

-food

-clothing

-Karl's stable job particularly at this time when the economy is so shaky

-I could go on and on!

I am truly blessed and so grateful for the wonderful season of Thanksgiving!

I forgot to take any pictures at Thanksgiving dinner so these pictures of Jillian are the only ones I have from Thanksgiving day!

Halloween and other updates.

Since it is now about halfway through November I figured it was time to post our Halloween pictures. We had a fun Halloween weekend. The Thursday before was Matthew's Halloween party at school. I went in to see the costume and parade and to help at the party. It was a lot of fun.

Matthew lining up for his school costume parade (he was "Bumblebee" from Transformers)

Matthew with his class. His teacher, Mrs. Cottrell is the ref. The other lady is Mrs. Hammer, the tutor. Matthew is in the middle row on the left side.

Friday we met Karl at work and the kids got their pictures taken with the Walgreens Halloween witch. After that we went to our ward's truck or treat and chili/soup cook-off. As usual we had a lot of fun.

Steven as Superman

Karl and I went to the truck-or-treat as BYU fans!

Summer wouldn't keep her bunny ears on. We gave her a pink nose and whiskers but she had wiped it all off before we even got to the church.

Coloring Halloween pictures

You can see the remnants of her whiskers!

Marching in the costume parade. I marched with them to help Summer.

Saturday we got our annual pumpkin shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's. After that the kids got their costumes on and we went by my Grandma's house first and then to my parents' house for trick-or-treating since their neighborhood is better for that than ours. Summer went to a couple of houses and then was tired so we dropped her off with my parents so the boys could trick-or-treat longer. They got a great haul.

I just had to take this picture of Steven eating his breakfast on Halloween morning. He got the spoon all by himself! Measuring spoons are great for eating cereal!!

Summer fell asleep in the car on her way over to my Grandma's.

All the kids with my Grandma

The boys with their cousin Annika

Some other updates:

We got all of Summer's lab results back and everything is normal (yay!). There was one count that was a little elevated that could indicate a food allergy. We have her on a high calorie diet and if that helps her gain weight then they won't worry about it but if not they will try to figure out if she is allergic to something.

Last Saturday was the last Saturday that Karl will have off until January. So we decided to spend it as a family. We met both of our younger brothers for lunch. Then we visited with Karl's grandmother and by coincidence his aunt and uncle came while we were there. So we got to visit with them too. After that we went to visit another brother of Karl's and his family. We didn't get to see his brother because he was working but our kids had a lot of fun with their cousins. It was a fun day.