Family Christmas Party

It was a ton of food, fun, and chaos at the Schow Family Christmas Party on Saturday night. There was a ton of talk of babies (Congrats to Steve and Christin) which may have been quite boring to those of you without babies (as Madeline pointed out). But overall, I think everyone had a lot of fun. I thought the White Elephant gifts this year were top notch (even though it may take me all year to forgive Ed and Annie for sending us home with two, live fish). As always, it was good to be together and see everyone again. Merry Christmas (until next year)!

Santa (from the 'hood):

I probably should have given some warning to the people in the following pictures...SORRY! I just panned around the room, and I don't think everyone was ready.

We ended the evening with Grandpa accompanying several favorite Christmas songs on the guitar while the kids danced around the room.

Christmas Eve Dinner

We had such a wonderful time at dinner on Christmas Eve (and we missed everyone that couldn't make it). We had the entire restaurant to ourselves so I didn't worry too much about the rowdy children (my rowdy children to be more specific). We don't get to see each other very often, and I love catching up with everyone. The food was delicious, and the company was so much fun.  Merry Christmas everybody!

The classic "Grandpa Strangle Hug":

My favorite part of this next picture is Abby's tongue in Lisa's drink. I wonder if Lisa realized this later when she went to drink it. Hmmm....

The kind, generous, thoughtful people who funded this wonderful evening:

Everyone was excited to see Jeff again, but Grandma and Grandpa were particularly captivated. Although, in the future, I think it would be much more fun if we went to visit him. I seriously doubt that there would be a Christmas Eve blizzard on Maui.

My favorite picture of the night:

Baby Noyes

I had a doctor's appointment today and we asked about a gender ultrasound. There was an opening so we decided to find out a few weeks early. I am 17 weeks along.

IT'S A BOY!

Here's the proof!

Foot

Halloween with the Hamiltons!

Apparently the lot has fallen to me this time to post on the blog. I guess I can understand that this would be the case. Sarah is a little occupied taking care of two kids and trying to maintain her sanity with a husband who is thirty going on three himself. Anyway, here is a brief update for everyone who is curious to discover what has been going on behind the closed doors of this branch of the Hamilton Clan.

Halloween was an interesting event around our house. Every year it seems that we have large plans that don't quite seem to pan out. This year seemed to be no special exception to the standard we have set in previous years. Our ward had a trunk or treat that we neglected to attend because, instead, we decided to attend a similar event hosted by my work. Our varsity football team was playing in a playoff game against Snake River and on of the local businesses offered to host a tail gate party and trunk or treat for the community. It was really quite fun. All of my students were excited to meet Laila, she was a week old and I had not really been to work since she was born, so the kids felt a little neglected. They were all very kind and gave Aiden and his little friend Heigan lots of candy. Here are a few pictures of the experience with some commentary.

Aiden and I are gutting the pumpkin. He refused to touch the insides because he said that they were "yucky."

Aiden decided early on that he wanted to be Captain America this year and Sarah worked really really hard on his costume. Getting him to keep the mask on was a bit is a struggle, but the costume came out remarkable good. Aiden demands that he wear it at least once a week and refers to it as his "Capn'merica jammies." Heigan, his little neighbor friend was Peter Pan. The two looked very very cute!

Here is the full outfit, shield and all. I made the shield; I was pretty proud of it.

Running around, Cap is about to take out the Pan. hehehehe

Aiden and Heigan painted pumpkins becuase they are too young to play with knives, hehe! Aiden took the painting to an extreme when finished his pumpkin he decided to paint a jack-o-lantern on his stomach.
This is our little military painter. hehehe!
The two boys getting down and dirty wiht the paints and the pumpkins.This is our little Picasso. He is very serious about his art and has decided that he loves to color, draw, paint, and play wiht Play-dough. He is very cute about it. Last week he came to work to visit me and spent the last two hours of the day drawing on my white boards with my students and educating them on what superheroes were which. They were all very impresed and suggested that we should send him to the Oprah show and Late Night with Letterman. I'm working on it hehehe!

Anyway, our Halloween was really fun, we spent it with friends and enjoyed the evening quite a bit. We hope that all of you had a good time handing out candy and trick or treating.

Cheers,
Sarah, Price, Aiden, and Laila

Life with Laila

It was great to have my mom come for a couple days to help out, make dinner and she even cleaned! I think my house was cleaner than it has been for a long time! Thanks mom! My sisters all came for a visit the first couple days after we got home, and it was fun to have them. Aiden sure loves them! My mom also took Aiden for a couple days the first week. I'm sure he had a blast; he went to a Halloween carnival and played with the cat, and cousin Logan while Price, Laila, and I rested.
She changed so fast, her chubby cheeks shrunk down to reveal a real chin :) She loves opening her eyes and be awake for long periods of time (for a baby). She is quite content to just look around, until she gets overtired and needs to be coaxed to sleep. Her eyes are so big! I am still getting used to them. Since she doesn't really look like Aiden, I feel like she is not familiar yet!
Daddy's belly is a good place to sleep. She is good about sleeping on her own, but at night her favorite place is right by mom.
She did NOT like her first bath. Aiden didn't either, but he loved every one after that, so we'll see how it goes!
All wrapped up after her bath.


Aiden has been really great with her. He hasn't been jealous at all, although sometimes he tells me "don't feed her, mom". He gives her soft kisses and loves, and always asks "what's baby doing?" On Friday while I was trying to get ready to go to Price's school, he was tormenting her a little in the bouncy chair, trying to 'help' I'm sure, but that has been the worst of it. He usually just plays on his own and checks in occasionally on Laila and mom.
It has been a good two weeks. A little hard, of course, adjusting, but luckily Laila has been a pretty good sleeper and eater. What more could you ask for in a newborn? We are not an any kind of a schedule, and I look forward to a little predictability. It's hard to know sometimes whether I should let her sleep or wake her up to feed her. (during the day, of course, I've learned about night!) At her one week doctor's appointment she had already gained 6 ounces!


She is definitely a girl. She makes a fuss if you disrupt her by changing her and when she is hungry there is no distracting her! She can't decide whether she likes the binky, but she hasn't found her fingers yet and seems to want SOMETHING!

The hardest thing has been having a sick two-year-old! Last week Aiden got a cold and unfortunately passed it onto Laila. She has a stuffy nose and a cough. The past two days she has been throwing up, but doesn't have a fever. Yucky! It breaks my heart to not be able to do anything! Hopefully it will not last long...