2007 In Review

Some highlights/memories of the past year:

January

• Wedding of Steve & Jordan Sessions
• Wedding of Kimberly & Mike Menssen
• Jeff’s Winter Retreat- Jeff and Angela spend 3 days in lovely McCall Idaho at a UW Medical conference & enjoy staying at the cabin, skiing, hot springs, and spending time together!
• Jacob turns 3!
• Fun lunches & get togethers with Stevens girls (every month in Idaho)
• Mutual activities every Wednesday (every month in Idaho)

February

• Find out I’m Pregnant!!
• Happy Valentines’s Day! Jeff and I get to go out.
• Beauty & the Beast BSU gymnastics/wrestling meet.
• Steven’s girls lunch at Blue Moon for memorizing Relief Society Theme.
• Walker children accident
• Lots of time at Idaho Athletic
• Library Music & Motion classes

March

• General YW broadcast with Mom & Lacey. First time in a long time, complete with dinner/dessert afterwards.
• General Conference- Including a weekend packed with family, fun and games.
• First OB Dr’s visit
• Lots of yard work! Chopping trees, removing grass, landscaping, etc.
• Dad released as bishop
• Track meets begin for Lacey & Cole. Many Friday afternoons through May spent at the memory filled Eagle High track.
• Lots of tennis with Stevens Family

April

• Jeff turns 30!
• Fishing trip- Jeff, Jacob and Dad Stevens
• Lay sod in the yard
• Easter. Egg hunts at Grandma & Grandpa’s houses.
• Prom prep with Lacey- picking up flowers, getting nails done, and having fun!
• Jonathan’s Mission farewell- Forman family here, Stevens family pictures, lots of games, tennis, etc

May

• Ultrasound. It’s A…? Who knows? Baby decides not to cooperate!
• Our Home in Boise is Up for Sale!
• Houston gets mission call to Concepcion, Chile
• JC Penny portraits for Jacob & Caleb- worst picture experience ever! J
• Shopping Trip with Mom. Scott & Amanda and family help with packing/cleaning.
• Mother’s Day- Jeff on call again
• Stake Conference – Mom watches boys while Jeff and I go to adult session
• Crazy for Craigslist-selling items to get ready to move
• Keeping house perfect for the countless showings!
• Stevens Memorial Day Camping Trip

June

• Fetal Fotos Ultrasound, $85 later we learn…It’s a Boy! Yea!
• Packing, packing, and more packing
• Full Price offer on our Home- yea!
• Dinners, games, and time with families between packing. Joe’s Crabshack with Mom Stevens & Nettie. Our last game night with Cahoons- pinochle until 3am
• Home Inspection- Ready to kill an inspector!
• Eagle Fun Days- Parade, Rodeo, fun & games. Cole babysits with Jeff and I double date with Mom & Dad Tanner
• Baby Shower- thrown by Young Women, so sweet of them!
• Sign papers and close on Home!
• Houston goes through the temple
• Pack up trailer, say our goodbyes to family & shed some tears as we head across the country, doing yet again another cross country move. This move with two boys ages 3, and 1 ½, and 24 weeks pregnant.
• Arrive in Philadelphia
• Grandma & Grandpa Haworth's 50th Anniversary- we missed the celebration as we were in Philadelphia already.

July

• Get settled in our sublet in Havertown, PA. 113 Woodbine Road becomes home for the next couple of months.
• Celebrate 4^th of July. Parade, spend time at the park, get completely rained out at fireworks that evening.
• Jeff completes orientation and begins his 2^nd year of residency in ophthalmology.
• Lots of searching for homes in Pennsylvania & New Jersey.
• Wedding of Shawnee & Austin Jenkins
  
• A new ward every week for a while

August

• Our 5-year anniversary! Go out to eat with the boys included, still have lots of fun!
• David Bryan Sorensen born Aug 4^th.
• Early birthday gift, Jeff gets me a new digital piano. We enjoy a drive to New Jersey as a family.
• Lots of call days & nights for Jeff, not quite as bad as the 32-hours shifts last year though-Jeff doesn’t have to spend the night at the hospital.
• Lots and lots of walk to the post office. A month of selling Cricut cartridges. This is a sweet memory. Even being very pregnant in the hot weather, the boys and I had so much fun doing this. We'd try to get out in the morning before it got too hot, then we'd walk almost 2 miles there and back. I'd push Caleb in the stroller and Jacob would walk with me. We had a lot of fun conversations & lots of times would have a popsicle when we got home. It was a good way to pass the sometimes very long and somewhat lonely days.
  
• Mary Janette Howell born August 17^th.
• Happy Birthday to Me! The Big 23. Matt & Ericka watch the boys while Jeff and I go out to Alma De Cuba downtown.
• First OB Dr’s visit here in Philly, I’m now 31 ½ weeks.
• Wedding of Whitney & Aaron
  
• Spend a few days in a hotel in Delaware while we wait for our new apartment. Move in August 30^th.

September

• Caleb turns 2!
• Lots of getting settled into our new aparment, thanks to friends for help moving big furniture up the tiny stairwell.
• Crazy for Craigslist again- this time to supply furniture for our new place.
• Playgroups on Wednesdays (every month through December)
• Stake Conference- fun to see many of our old friends from the Stake
• Jacob starts Preschool, mommy cries.

October

• Dr’s appointments. Lots of them. Thanks to friends for watching boys!
• Preschool Tuesdays & Thursdays at 9:45. Enjoying one-on-one time with Caleb.
• General Conference. Watching at home and at the church.
• Oct 18, Due Date comes….and goes.
• Happy Birthday Matthew Lyle Stevens! October 19, 2007. 7 pounds 20 inches. Completely perfect and beautiful.
• Adjusting to life with 3 children, and a newborn! We are a happy family!
• Noble family visits for a day.
• Happy Halloween! – Ward Halloween party, carving pumpkins, trick-or-treating with Jacob, Caleb & Matthew. So much fun.
• Kristie and Tom engaged!

November

• Mom Tanner comes out to visit for a week. We love having her here and enjoy every single minute. Sad when she leaves.
• Month of crafts & cards. Making Thank You cards, Super Saturday.
• Birth of Gideon Stoddard Stevens, November 2.
  
• First time teaching in Relief Society
• Grandma & Grandpa Tanner leave for Mexico Mission
  
• Matthew turns a month old. Time flies!
• Happy Thanksgiving! Kimberly & Mike come up from Virginia to spend the holiday with us. Talking, laughing, playing games, love every minute!
• Still not getting much sleep, but loving the newborn stage all over again!

December

• It’s beginning to look like Christmas. Putting up decorations and trimming the tree of course.
• First Presidency Christmas Devotional- snuggled up together as a family on the couch eating popcorn and listening to the beautiful music and wonderful messages.
• Christmas shopping, making gifts, sending gifts, feeling stressed and having fun at the same time
• Helping at Jacob’s Preschool party.
• The Exodus in the ward. Had fun doing lots of callings, teaching relief society, playing piano in primary, primary chorister, librarian. Great way to see & meet people I wouldn’t normally!
• High Priest social- dinner with families of the high priests
• Jeff having some time off. We love those days!
• Merry Christmas & Happy New Year. Spending this time together with our little family here in Philadelphia!

Christmas Projects

Now that Christmas is over & presents have been opened, I can finally post some pictures of things I was working on! First of all, I was so excited to learn a few months back that the Cricut machines can cut vinyl; opening tons of opportunities. My little ‘bug’ was busy this season and has definitely proven worthy of cost!

There were some other projects as well, but these were just a few of my favorites.

Family Home Evening Board

This one took a while, but it was so fun to see it come together so nicely. I got the board and sanded it. Jeff routed the edges with his new router saw & bit set (actually an early Christmas present for both of us). Then I painted it, and carefully planned out the letters/sizes etc. I found a little sign shop that was run by a nice lady who even let me try some of her vinyl for free. After cutting out all the letters (with my handy-dandy Cricut of course!) in paper, I positioned them accordingly and then one-by-one replaced them with the vinyl letters, using masking tape in place of transfer tape. From that point Jeff drilled the holes for me; then I bought pegs, painted them and placed them in the board. The final step was getting each name/star finished; painting, doing the letters, punching the holes, (with another useful scrapbooking tool nonetheless- the Cropadile. See honey, all these scrapbooking items really are useful!) and threading the ribbon. The letters were a little trickier to do since some of them had to be smaller, but I found a way to cut them smaller and I think they turned out nice. Anyway, I was pretty excited about this project. Although it was busy and sat on my kitchen table many a night, it was well-worth the time. Plus, Jeff helped out with this one so he was pretty proud of his handy work as well!

Name Boards

Another project involving wood boards, paint and vinyl letters. Once again I found the wood at Home Depot; sanded it and had it cut to size. From that point, it was picking out the paint color and painting the boards. It’s amazing how many coats of paint you have to put on sometimes! Then it was time for some help from the Cricut, cutting out the letters in paper and positioning them on the boards. Next I cut out vinyl letters and placed them one-by-one on the boards with my improvised transfer tape.

Paper Doll Book

Back in August, they came out with the new and exclusive Paper Doll Dress Up cartridge for the Cricut machines. In addition to providing a nice amount of extra income by selling a bunch of them on ebay (they were exclusive to AC Moore a craft store found only back east and some sold on ebay for $200 each) this cartridge is packed with tons of fun things! I had wanted to do a paper doll project for a while, so when I found out we had my almost 3-year old niece for Christmas I was excited. Jacob and Caleb had a blast helping me pick out what “outfits” we would cut out for the doll. We did thirteen outfits: pink princess with crown, superhero, genie, ballerina, red dress with hat, wedding dress with veil, cowgirl with hat, basic everyday outfit, Hawaiian girl, purple princess with crown, pixie, pioneer with bonnet, and another pretty maroon & orange dress. After cutting out and putting together all the outfits, I cut out the doll; then each piece was laminated. From there I put magnets on each piece. I think the biggest challenge was finding a way to adhere the magnet to the laminated surface; nothing seemed to stick really well. Finally I found something that worked – glue dots. Then I found the folders and put the rest of it together. This project was a lot of fun & even allowed some participation from Jacob and Caleb. They, of course, weren’t interested in the girl clothes with the exception of picking out which ones they thought Kadie would like the most; but they had fun choosing other things for me to cut out for them- dragons, swords, boys, horses, dinosaurs, etc. We did those in between some of the dress ups. Anyway, we all had a lot of fun with this one!

Scrapbook Pages

I think this project was also lots of fun. We had Gideon for Christmas, my new little nephew that is two weeks younger than Matthew and baby number seven for the Stevens family. He got some baby toys as well, but I thought it would be fun to do a couple scrapbook pages. The layouts came together pretty quickly and I finished them in just a little over a day. It’s not too hard when you have good pictures of such cute kids!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas ended up being really special and a fun time to be with our boys-minus the seemingly constant battle of sickness. Jeff and I had fun getting everything set up on Christmas Eve and making our little apartment look fun & exciting. Jacob and Caleb were so excited the next morning and I loved seeing their excited little faces as they came running out & saw what Santa had brought them. They loved the train set, as I suspected they would; and had to be reminded about the other gifts. They spent most of the day playing with it and took breaks to play with some of their other toys.

Matthew was such a sweet little baby & slept most of the morning, but then woke up to give us some great smiles & some great photos with his little gifts. He won’t remember much about his first Christmas, but we sure had fun with him!

Jeff was his normal self. Every year we talk about how we don't need much ourselves, and that we'll just go light. But every year Jeff manages to completely spoil me way beyond what he should! He's so bad; using the excuse that he found a 'really great deal.' Anyway, he founds some really fun things including a new stroller, some great new workout clothes, and a few really cute dresses & pairs of shoes. It's great, I have a husband who I completely trust to pick out my clothes because he has great taste! I found him some fun things as well.

We were able to talk with our families that afternoon/evening and it sounds like they all had a wonderful Christmas. I was feeling a little sad that we weren’t there with them, but we were really able to focus on Jacob, Caleb, Matthew which mattered the most, and ended up being so much fun. All in all it was a great Christmas, a wonderful time to celebrate our Savior. I’m so grateful for Him. I'm also really for Jeff who made this year so great. I feel so fortunate to have such a wonderful husband who loves me and is so optimistic and happy about everything!

Pre-Christmas Crazies

Sorry about the huge travel log, but this will eventually be a book and I want to remember all the little details!

Monday the 10^th, first day of a two-part shopping swap in which Moms swapped watching kids in order to do some Christmas shopping! Monday was my babysitting day. We went to the Farnsworths and had about 15 kids all 3 and under for three hours. It was pretty fun and the kids had a good time without any major issues.

Wednesday the 12^th was day two of the shopping swap and my day to shop! I hit a few stores, Home Depot, Michaels & Ross. I got quite a bit done, but you’re always wishing you could have finished more! Matthew was pretty good for me, but he’s showing signs that he is very much like his brothers & father. He cried pretty much the whole time while we were in Michaels (must be something about craft stores for boys!)

On Thursday, the 13^th, Jacob’s preschool had their Christmas party and I was fortunate enough to be able to help out at it. Caleb went to play with a friend, Zea Clayton during the party; and I took Matthew with me. I loved being at the preschool and seeing all the kids. They have so much fun, and they were excited for the party. I especially loved seeing how excited Jacob was to see me there. He got a big smile on his face and quickly told all his friends, “Look, my Mom is here!” I don’t imagine he’ll always be that excited when Mom comes to help out in his classroom, so I’ll enjoy it while I can! Anyway, I got there as they were cleaning up their toys and was able to set up my station. We made cute little Christmas wreaths with paper plates, paper, sparkles & bells. The kids all did great and I had fun being there with them. Matthew was perfect & slept almost the entire time. At the end, the preschool were kids were able to perform a special song, “Christmas Bells” for the parents that they had been working on. They did so great. I love to watch Jacob sing & do the actions, he did a great job! I still can’t believe that Jacob is old enough to be in preschool, but I’m sure having fun watching him.

On the 14^th, there wasn’t too much going on. Clara & Max came over for a while, while Kari took some friends to the airport. Then we had the Newell kids over for the evening while Kent & Robyn enjoyed a much-needed and enjoyed night out together. We’ll swap with them sometime in the next week or so, and Jeff and I are looking forward to a night out as well! We had fun with all 6 boys together, they definitely come up with some creative things to do!

On Saturday the 15^th I had an awesome opportunity! I actually went out and did a little Christmas shopping all by myself! Jeff was on-call that day, but luckily didn’t get called in to the hospital. I was able to go out for about 2 ½ hours and pretty much finished up all of the shopping. What a great feeling. It’s nice to get out by yourself sometimes too. Thanks to Jeff for watching the boys.

Sunday the 16^th, Jeff was on-call once again. He had to go into the hospital to see some patients, but all in all not too bad of a weekend. I substituted as the primary chorister today and had a great time. It’s been a while since I’ve been in primary and it was fun to be with the kids again, especially since Jacob and the other senior nursery kids came in for singing time!

Tuesday the 18^th, I had great plans of getting all the Christmas gifts packaged and shipped. Luckily my friend Kari called me and had the same idea. So we finished up what we needed to work on and did a kid-swap while we ran to the post office. What a way to go. I think the post office is my least favorite place to go when I have the kids with me. Usually I’ll just print out my shipping label so I can drop off the package without having to wait in line, but I had two really big packages so that wasn’t an option. Jacob and Caleb loved it, they love any excuse to play with Clara & Max. It sure made it much easier, and I was so happy to have the packages off. (Note: the first package got to my mom on the 20^th, two days after being shipped! The second package didn’t get there until about 3:30 on the 24^th, Christmas Eve. I was stressing a little over that one. It’s so funny how two different packages being sent from the same location, at the same time, and almost the same size, to almost the same location can take different amounts of time! I’m just glad they both made it before Christmas)

Wednesday the 19^th, there wasn’t too much going on. It was a major cleaning day for me. Having gotten all my packages sent off, I was so glad to have nothing else to do but clean & do laundry! That’s what my day was spent doing and it felt so good! I’m sure my family appreciated it as well. That night a couple friends came over to wrap some presents together. It was a fun evening together visiting and enjoying some laughs. That night Jeff and I also got to watch the new Harry Potter movie compliments of Netflix! The movie was a little disappointing, but we still had fun spending time together!

Thursday the 20^th was another catch-up laundry day. That evening I went visiting teaching. My companion Arnita Lee and I were able to visit with a couple sisters in the ward. I left at 6:00 and didn’t get home until 9:30, but it was good knowing we were able to have such a great visit.

On Friday the 21^st, Jeff was in charge of the year-end high priest group party. It was a pretty fun evening and involved having the high priests and their families, along with Elder & Sister Hayman having a get-together at the Royal Buffet. We pretty much had a dinner party in which all the cooking and cleaning up was done by others. Love that. It was fun to get together and visit with everyone. Jacob and Caleb were in heaven knowing they could choose whatever they wanted. Jacob’s favorite were the crabs, the whole ones, and he ate a whole one all by himself. I didn’t love watching that. Caleb was a bit of a crazy man as usual and kept us busy chasing him from running out of the party room and around the restaurant. His favorite was the desert bar of course. Matthew was a great baby once again and was pretty happy most of the time. Sister Hayman held him for a while and he slept in her arms while I helped Jacob and Caleb. It was a fun evening with many of our friends.

On Saturday the 22^nd we finished up things around the house. I ran a couple quick errands. Then I had a reminder that Jeff is absolutely the best husband ever. He took the boys with him to run a couple errands so that I could take a nap. Matthew is such a sweet angel baby, but his sleep habits at night aren’t the greatest. It doesn’t help that I’ve been staying up late too, but anyway, I’ve been low on sleep. The nap felt great and I was happy that the boys were so good for Jeff.

On the 23^rd, I taught the Relief Society lesson. It went well and I sure enjoy the comments and participation from the women in the ward. That night after dinner, we got together with some friends who were also staying here for the holidays; the Griffets, Claytons, Marshs, Newells, and Ritters. We decided to have a little Christmas program together. Nothing is better than good friends when you don’t have your family close by. It was great and the kids had a lot of fun dressing up and acting out the nativity story. Jacob and Caleb were the wise men. I have to give praise to Jeff for the construction of their great crowns! He helped the boys cut them out and decorate them all by himself. Jacob made the comment before we left, “I’m a good-lookin’ wise man!” and he was right!
It was a little crazy with all fourteen kids running around playing together (actually 13, Matthew was an angel baby and slept through the whole evening), but it was fun to do the program and be able to sit and visit with our friends, enjoying great refreshments, wonderful company, and the true Spirit of Christmas!

Monday the 24^th, Christmas Eve. I wish I could have said that Christmas Eve was more of an enjoyable day, but to be honest it wasn’t the greatest day. For some reason the boys were a little grouchy and I wasn’t feeling overly cheerful. It was just one of those days where nothing works out! I think Christmas Eve was the day we missed being with our families the most. I’m happy to say though, that it ended up being a much better evening. We had a yummy ham dinner together and talked about Jesus & Christmas. Then we opened presents from cousins and watched a Christmas movie together. Jeff and I had a fun evening getting everything ready, and I was truly feeling grateful for such a wonderful family and the blessing of being together forever!

Ward Christmas Party

December 8^th was our ward Christmas party. First of all, it was kind of funny; for some reason in my mind I was thinking that the party was Friday night. So Friday evening I got the boys all ready, had the mashed potatoes done, and was just waiting for Jeff to get home so we could go. We were going out the door when we ran into someone from our ward who reminded us that the party was Saturday night, not Friday night. Somehow I just completely mixed up the days. At least the potatoes which were easily refrigerated until the next night. At that point we figured we’d take advantage of the fact that we were all ready to go, so we went to Friendly’s for dinner & had a fun evening anyway!

Matthew & Sterling Palmer with Bishop Storm

Saturday, the real night of the party was a lot of fun. They had an excellent ham & mashed potatoes dinner with all the sides & dessert. Afterwards they did a piñata for the kids. It was fun, but got a little crazy at the end. Some of the older kids are pretty rough and didn’t give the younger ones much of a chance for those ‘highly desirable’ dollar store toys! They had a good time anyway with no injuries.

The highlight of the night for the boys (Jacob anyway) was the visit from Santa. Caleb still isn’t quite sure how he feels about Santa! It was fun for them to sit on Santa’s lap and tell him what they wanted. Jacob’s only request was a piggybank. Not sure where that came from, but it’s good info for me! (Side note: would you believe how hard it is to find a piggybank? I was hoping I wouldn’t have to make the drive clear up to ToysRUs, but they didn’t have a piggybank at Target, Ross, KB Toys, or any of the other toy stores at the mall. The ‘new thing’ is apparently ATM machines for kids. Some even allow you to enter your own name & personal pin number. Great idea, but a little advanced for a 3 year old.) Anyway it was a fun evening to spend with friends. We had a great time.

Two Months

Matthew is two months old today! I still am amazed. He's really starting to change and grow up. I love the big smiles he's been giving. He's starting to respond to Jacob and Caleb when they play with him and talk to him; he'll smile & kick his legs and move his arms as fast as he can. I love to watch him. He's definitely putting on the weight and his legs are getting a little chubby. So cute. He's starting to sleep longer stretches at night, and seems to be getting on more of a schedule during the day. Even though Matthew is baby number three, it doesn't make all the changes & achievements any less special or exciting. I'm still as excited as I was with my first, the only difference is that it's happening a lot faster than I remember it with the first. I'm excited for his first Christmas. We love you Matthew.

Random Thoughts

Christmas time is crazy! I love it, but I'm constantly wishing there were more hours in a day. There have been lots of great things going on... helping out at Jacob's preschool Christmas party, our ward Christmas party, and just plain old having fun. I have tons of pictures that need to be uploaded to the computer & lots of journaling that needs to be done. After all, I'm planning on doing a book and want all the fun details of this month! At least family gifts are finished and shipped; hopefully that means I'll have a little more time. Hmmm, we'll see. At least I'll be able to go to bed before 2am. Funny how a couple weeks of that can wear on you. I'm excited though, Jeff will finally have some time off so we're planning on enjoying some time as a family. I still can't believe Christmas is less than a week away. You just really have to enjoy every moment because it sure doesn't last long.

Random
-Today looking at the local grocery store ad online, Jacob really wanted some orange juice and told me excitedly, "Look Mom, that orange juice is on Sale!"
-Caleb's latest 'most used phrase' is "No, I don't want it." He's constantly giving that answer when I offer him something, or anytime he doesn't want to do something. Kind of funny
-Jacob & Caleb have been enjoying our advent calender with the little treats inside for each day before Christmas. It's something I remember being a lot of fun when I was little, and it's fun to see them get so excited about it as well.
-Matthew is really turning into a cute, plump little guy. He's sure fun and I love the big smiles he's starting to give. Wow, he's two months old today!

Just Chillin'

Jacob and Caleb have both enjoyed having a new baby around. They enjoy Matthew, and they also enjoy all the things that come with babies. All the new little toys have been fun to play with, they’ve had some fun times spreading (or throwing) all the little baby diapers around, and of course are completely fascinated with the baby swing & bouncer chair.

Now Caleb knows that he’s not supposed to play in the swing and the bouncer chair, and yet I continually have to tell him to climb off the chair, or to stop leaning in the swing. He knows that it’s a no-no, and yet he still continues to do it.

The baby bouncer I had with Jacob and Caleb was good, but not quite as sturdy and eventually bent down to the point where you could bounce the baby and they would bump the floor. With Matthew I bought a new Boppy brand baby bouncer. It’s been great and I’ve loved it. It’s also nice to know that it’s built more sturdy than our previous bouncer. Yet again, I came out this morning and here’s where I found Caleb; sitting back, drink in hand, relaxing in the baby bouncer. The funny thing is that he just looks at me with a face that says, “What’s up Mom? I’m just hanging out, doing my thing.”

Finally I had to take a picture and then forbid him from ever getting into the chair again. (Or at least until tomorrow!) Anyway, it just made me laugh. And once again, I’m grateful that this bouncer chair is built stronger because at least it seems to be doing pretty good!

P.S. THIS IS POST #100! WOO-HOO.

Weekly Happenings

Matthew had his 6 week visit this past week. He was 22.5 inches long and weighed in at 11lbs 4oz. All around a perfectly average little guy. He's really growing up. He's starting to smile at us and coo and talk. I love it!
We've also come to realize that Matthew really does NOT enjoy baths! In fact it's a pretty painful experience for Matthew as well as our ears. It's one of those areas where Jeff and I are playing 'Paper-Rocks-Scissors' to see who has to give him his bath! I've decided that sponge baths are the way to go, at least for a few more weeks until he starts to enjoy actually being in the water.
He's starting to sleep a little better and actually did about a 6-hour stretch.
Now I just need to get to bed earlier & enjoy that sleeping time! The Christmas season is busy enough that I find myself trying to work on Christmas presents every minute possible while the boys are sleeping; which means I stay up way too late. Anyway, the goal is to get everything finished as soon as possible & shipped. I wish I could post pictures of things I'm working on but... can't give away the surprises just yet!

More to Follow... I'm going to take advantage of the time while Matthew's sleeping to work on gifts...

Also, we finally took a new family photo. Cute, not ideal, but neither were the circumstances. We'd been out all day, it was freezing (literally- 32 degrees) cold, and we didn't have a lot of time with daylight, before the ward party, or with our kids temperaments. I think this was the last photo we took. Poor kids were freezing, I especially felt bad for sweet little Matthew. They were sure good sports, especially with a promise of hot chocolate once the process was over!

Freddy The Fish

Last week we had one of those, "Daddy is the Coolest" moments. We had been out Saturday morning to do some grocery shopping, and a little Christmas shopping. We were finished with the grocery part and I was just finishing up the last few things at another store. When we had driven up to the area, the boys saw a huge aquarium store and immediately begged us to go inside. We told them we would when we were finished.
So anyway, I was getting a few things I needed and I could tell the boys (mainly Jeff) were getting bored. So he decided that he would drive on over to the aquarium to take the boys to look around while I finished up, and then I would walk over when I was through.
Now they were just going to look at the fish, but of course the 'kid' in Jeff came out. When I got over, out they came with a fish tank, rocks, fish food, and of course...a new fish. Which was quickly given the name of "Freddy." Although I wasn't too thrilled right at first (In my mind I'm thinking of how I will now have an added responsibility of cleaning a fish tank every week & making sure my boys don't....well, you can imagine) But it didn't take too long, especially seeing how excited Jacob and Caleb were, to be okay about the fish. He actually is a really beautiful red beta fish too. He'll add some color to the entertainment center.
So Freddy the fish has become the latest addition to our family. Luckily I found a place that's good to put the fish tank. High and not easily climbable, but still in a place where they boys can see him. They love to come out and say good morning to him and look forward to feeding him in the mornings & at night.
Well Freddy seems to be doing well, and I hope he'll stick around for a while! In the least, it will give us a good opportunity for a "Plan of Salvation" family home evening when he does finally pass on! So here's to the newest member of our family, Freddy the fish.

Matthew's Blessing Day

Today was Matthew's Blessing Day. It was such a special day. First of all, thanks to Grandma & Grandpa for the handsome outfit, Matthew looked great in it! It was fun to have him all dressed up. Jeff performed the blessing at church and it was so neat. Even though it's the third time we've done this, it doesn't make it any less special. Jeff did a wonderful job. We are so grateful to have Matthew Lyle here!