Day 3 Smile on my face

Today as we were walking into Walmart Claire reached up and held my hand...

Me: Claire, I like holding your hand.
Claire: Yep, it makes me happy too.

I am so thankful that I am her mommy.

Thankful Day #2

This little boogie man puts a smile on my face each and everyday. This is what I see every morning when I walk into his room to get him out of the crib. He is just standing there and bouncing away with a huge smile on his face and a nose that really needs to be wiped - and I just love it.

What makes me smile...

I realize that I still have alot of October updating I need to do but I also just realized that it is November 1st. And yes, I realize I am a little slow since I should know that Nov. 1st is the day after Halloween. And just to prove how slow I am, I also realized a little late that Claire had school today. (Halloween on a monday totally messed me up) So the mother of the day award goes to me....I took Claire to school late AFTER she ate tons of candy this morning and BEFORE I could feed her a decent breakfast. And she also had a little bit of clown paint smeared on her face that of course I didn't notice until we were walking up the steps to her school and there was nothing I could do about it. Man, I am doing good today!! But back to why I was blogging, last year I tried to do a grateful post everyday leading up to Thanksgiving and I kinda failed miserably. So this year I am doing a "What put a smile on my face today" post each day.

And today is this....




Yep, a shelf dedicated to sippy cups and baby bottles just makes me smile. Especially when several years ago we weren't sure we would ever have the need for sippies or bottles.

Halloween Party

Several weeks ago we had a Halloween party with all the cousins at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Look how cool my moms house looks...and this picture doesn't even do it justice. She has these spiders all over her house and in the trees. It seriously looks so cool. I wish I could get into decorating as much as she does and I am hoping that I will when the kiddos get older and want to help me.

All the grandkids getting their pics taken. Claire has been in a "I don't want my picture taken" mood lately so I am hiding behind her and holding her in place. The little rascal.

But our little pirate was all smiles when it came to geting his picture taken

We played lots of fun games like musical pumpkins



And had gunnysack races. Yep, I "borrowed" some gunnysacks from my stepmom (some lady randomly dropped them off to her) a few years ago and they have been quite handy and nope, I don't think she will be getting them back anytime soon.






And had a root beer chugging contest.




And don't forget the pie eating contest.




And you can't forget the kiss after the contest


And of course the ongoing game was "See how many leaves Crue can stuff in his mouth when mom isn't watching". Or at least Crue thought it was a game


Thanks Mom and Ron for the great party!!

Carving Time

Part of FHE this last week was spent carving pumpkins and we loved every minute of it. Claire enjoyed it better than last year although she still thought it was gross. And Crue just wanted to munch on any piece he could get his cute little hands on.

I have the cutest boys around!!

And one cute little munchkin too!

The Pumpkin Patch

Can I just say how much I love Halloween!! It is quickly moving up my list of favorite holidays. And the older the kiddos get, the more I like it. We made it a tradition a few years ago to visit a pumpkin patch for FHE a few weeks before Halloween to pick out our pumpkins. In my opinion, it is so much better than just picking one out of a giant box at the grocery store. Well this year was a little different. Our Stake had a pumpkin patch down on the stake farm and then put together an activity for all the primary kids one saturday morning. I had to be there because of my calling in the primary and I dragged my kiddos along too. They sang a song, I think they played a game but we got there a little late, picked out pumpkins, and had donuts and apple juice. The kids loved it!

Claire and her friend Payton

And how is this little boy not the cutest guy around!! I just want to kiss those cheeks and never let go of him.


And since we didn't go to the pumpkin patch for Family home evening, we did something else that Claire also loves to do...we went swimming. Which was an adventure in itself when the fire alarms went off and pool got evactuated. Claire wasn't complaining much - she got to go swimming, see lots of firetrucks, and she had her first dipcone! (Umm ya, I didn't know they still made dipcones either.)

Tea Party

Last Saturday Claire and I attended a tea party hosted by grandma. Luke and Crue hung out at home since they had been told that boys were not allowed. Us girls had a great time.
We drank our tea (raspberry lemonade),


ate our cute little sandwiches,

sang "I'm a little teapot" and played hot teapot (hot potato),

decorated a cute little door hanger, and painted our nails. Poor grandpa showed up at the wrong time but was a good sport and let all four girls paint his nails.




Of course my favorite part was when my mom started talking to the girls about being proper or something like that and I look at the girls and Caitlyn is in the process of licking her plate clean and Claire is spooning her lemonade into her mouth. Guess our girls need a few more lessons on being proper.


And apparently I need lessons on being proper too since it looks like I am flipping off the camera...totally unintentional I promise.


We really all had a great time and the weather was perfect.

Families are Forever

There really are no words to describe how wonderful this last week has been. On monday we finalized the adoption. We were excited to have that done, but to us it was really just a step we had to take in order do what we really wanted to do...have Crue sealed to us forever. It is just odd hearing a judge say that Crue is officially our son when we have felt that for a long time, before he was even born really. On friday we were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple and it was just amazing. Our wonderful family and great friends were there with us and the day was just perfect. Then today Luke was able to bless our son at church and what a wonderful blessing it was. We are so blessed!!

First day of school

The long awaited day finally arrived. Claire has been talking about going to school for at least a year now. Every time we drove by the school she would ask again when she could go. And I'm sure it was her biggest motivator when it came to potty training. We bought her a back pack weeks ago and she took it around to show everyone...whether they cared or not. And yesterday morning she was so excited she could barely eat.



My baby girl had her first day of school. I took her early so I could try and get a few good pics and I though it might be easier on her if she got comfortable in the school before it was totally full. Ha, I think all the other parents were thinking the same thing. She was a little nervous at first and I did have to sneak out after telling her that I should go check on her backpack in the other room. (Hey, it was the only fib I could think of at the time and she thought it was a great idea!!) And I probably would have been a little sad and shed a tear or two but she was so excited which got me excited too. And the first day went great!! She came out and said "Mom, I had a good day at school and I didn't even cry!" Yay!!!

Our Little Man

Exactly six months ago Luke and I were waiting in the hallway at the hospital waiting to see our baby boy who had only arrived about 30 minutes earlier. We were so excited and at the same time it didn't seem quite real since we weren't expecting him to come for a couple more weeks. We instantly fell in love with him. Now he is six months old and keeps getting cuter each day.

Here is a few things about our little man...

- Crue is holding his own bottle which is great since he doesn't like to be held while he is eating

- He LOVES sweet potatoes

- He either sleeps through the night or I am up with him every two hours. Its always one or the other

- He wants to crawl so bad especially if his sister is in the room

- He is still the easiest baby ever

- His favorite toy is an old water bottle because of the crinkle sound it makes
- He likes sitting out on the grass and watching his big sister

- He is going to be one tough kid with Claire around...he is going to have to be :)

- Went swimming last week and he still is not a fan of the swimming pool

- He is in the 25th percentile for his weight and 90th for his height

- He thinks his big sister in the funniest person and she absolutley thrives on it

- Crue makes us so incredibly happy and we know he was meant to be part of our family