Birthdays and Trees

There is always so much going on throughout December.  We have two birthdays in our family and both were fun.

We always celebrate Will's and my dad's birthdays together.  They both had their own candles to blow out.

Will opening his presents.  

And my dad was 'helped' by three little girls.

We made a huge poster card for Will's actual birthday a couple of days later.  You can almost tell that it says 'Happy Birthday' under all the kids coloring.

There had to be balloons for Rachel's birthday a week later.  A balloon fight is birthday tradition. But I don't think a balloon stands much of a chance against a Christmas tree.

Rachel opening some presents.  She was excited about this elf hat costume.

Blowing out the candles.  My siblings from Utah were traveling down for Christmas this day so we were able to spend the afternoon with them also.  That made it extra fun.

And onto the Umatilla tree lighting ceremony.  The city mayor guy gave a speech and then they flipped the switch and everyone oohed and aahed over the pretty lights.

Then we quickly went in out of the cold and enjoyed cookies and apple cider.

Santa made an appearance.  We had to stand in a long, slow line for our turn.

Adam also got to sit on Santa's lap.

At the end of the ceremony they gave out awards for the Umatilla coloring contest.  Whitney got second place out of all the Kindergartners.  I thought that was pretty amazing.  She is a good colorer.  I guess all those hours of us coloring together have paid off.  Great Job Whitney!

So we have been having fun.

More Baby Pictures

So we do have a very, very cute baby.  And I know that we are a little biased, but others have told us he is awfully cute also.  We think we will keep him.

A couple of random baby pictures.  Megan tries to give him some loves.  She, unfortunately, stuffs the binky in too far and just makes things worse.  But at least she is trying.  And she is very gentle with the baby.

Whitney and Rachel really like to pose Adam in places and ask me to take a picture.  Here Adam "plays" our piano.

A little football player already.

I love little baby outfits; they are so adorable.  This onesie says 'Mommy's Little Monster'.

We surprised Will by bringing Adam to work so he could show off to his coworkers.  Everybody oohed and aahed over him.  

Adam takes a look at a toy from the Guptills.  Emily sent us a nice present, thanks for the gift.  Rachel and Megan really like this toy also; it plays music when you pull a string.  Adam looked at it for like five whole seconds.  In a couple of months he will probably love it.

Will's mom bought this blanket from Ruth; she made it herself.  I think it is beautiful and fun.

And this Mickey Mouse blanket was made by my mom.  It is good to get a 'boy' blanket since we had so much girl stuff beforehand.  Thanks for the blankets.  

Will's mom was able to come for a day.  Unfortunately, she wasn't feeling too good, so we didn't do much.  But we did get a picture of Adam with Grandma Keeler.  It was fun to see you for a little while.

Anyway, those are some more pictures of our cute baby.  He is doing really well - eats well and sleeps well.  What else can you ask from a newborn?

Thanksgiving Pictures

My mom was so kind to wait and have Thanksgiving with us after leaving the hospital.  Here are some pictures from our trip down to Pasco.

The girls were very excited to see their brother again.  Whitney likes to hold him in each new outfit.  She has also made up a song and dance for him - "I'm so cool, I'm so cool", over and over.  It is quite funny.

The traditional Pre-Thanksgiving feast.  I was holding Adam while taking this picture and that was as close as he got to his first Thanksgiving meal.

The girls really enjoyed my mom's rolls.

The next day we went on a hunt for a Christmas tree.  This was the first time my girls had gone looking for a tree.  Will stayed home with Adam because it was too cold.  The poor girls had red noses and complained a lot about being too cold.  Maybe that is why we don't usually take them to get a tree.

We found the perfect one.  Whitney was pretty fascinated with why they cut off part of the trunk.

After bringing it home and getting it set up, it was time to put up the decorations.  Adam did one also, with a lot of help.

Whitney, Rachel, and Megan basically covered the bottom of the tree (on one side).  They loved putting up the decorations.  I think some adults helped spread things around afterwards.

And we went to church in my parents ward.  Ruth made this little shirt for Adam.  I don't remember how she said she put the tie on, but it was really cute.

We had a great Thanksgiving and felt extra blessed with our new family addition.  I hope everyone else had a good day also.

Welcome Adam!

So little Adam was born on November 25th at 7:53 pm.  He is adorable.

So Adam was 8 pounds 2 ounces and 22 1/2 inches long.  That makes him the biggest and longest of all our babies.  He also has pretty big feet.  So maybe that means he will be tall in the future.

Adam was not too sure at first about this bath.  

But he actually started liking it after just a minute.  The warm water must feel good after being born into a cold November day.

Notice the mo-hawk that the nurse gave him.  He must be a boy.  Look how alert he was.

One of the nurses took our picture.

Will was able to feed Adam his first bottle.  I thought that was only fair since I always get to hold the baby first right after delivery.  I don't think Adam ate very much from his bottle, but I think Will liked the chance to feed him.

And we had visitors the next day.  My mom had been watching the girls (after a frantic phone call at like 5:00 Wednesday evening).  The girls all took turns holding him.

Kaitlin and Allison also came to see him; they were back in Pasco for Thanksgiving already so that was convenient.  Notice Megan on the hospital bed.  She was more fascinated by the room than the baby.  Oh well.

This is the onesie that we put on Adam before taking him home.  It says "Tough Like Daddy".  Of course, Will showed off his tough face.

And he looks so small in his car seat.  It is amazing that in a few months he will have grown so much to fill out that car seat. Adam and I passed all our tests and we were able to leave Thursday evening. Hooray!

We are so happy to have a new little addition to our family.  I keep reminding myself that we are a family of six now.  What a great blessing for Thanksgiving.

Our First "Snow"

So what do these three cute girls have in common?

Will took some pictures of the girls before church.  They don't usually look this happy after church.

Anyway, these girls LOVE the snow.  We got a little "snow" this morning.  And the emphasis is on little.  It was like a centimeter.  

Of course, we had to go try it out.

Megan wasn't too sure about it at first.  But her sisters' excitement helped build up her own.

Here we are trying to catch a snowflake in our mouths.  Whitney and I were able to get some, but I don't think Rachel ever got the hang of it.

And then snow was discovered on leaves.  I probably should have prevented them from licking leaves.  But hey, you are only young once.  

And finding snow on a broken chair.  Megan was funny because she would scoop up snow with her glove and then put it close to her mouth and then wouldn't put it in her mouth.  She must have thought it was too weird to put something from outside into her mouth.

Like tradition, we had to have hot chocolate after the first snow.

The hot chocolate (which Whitney informed me was warm chocolate) was very well loved.  I hope that amount of snow is all we get for awhile.  One centimeter that is all melted by 2:00 is what I can handle.

Here Comes Halloween

I wanted to dress up as a family again this year, like we did with the Incredibles two years ago.  I just think that is really fun.  But I also knew that I was going to be huge pregnant, so I would need to accommodate that.  Here is our costume.

So I was Prego (everyone got a big kick out of this one), Will was spaghetti and meatballs, and the three girls were three little chefs.  I thought it was a cute idea.

And they waited patiently for Halloween to wear their Halloween shirts.

You cannot really tell, but we made pumpkin shaped sugar cookies.  Whitney wanted me to put some flour on her cheeks so she could really look like a chef.

This was trick-or-treating on Main street in Hermiston.  Notice the lack of hats on the girls, it was so windy that we finally took off the chef hats (after both Will and I taking turns chasing them down the street).  We were not the only ones; it was almost humorous watching all the adults chasing missing masks and candy buckets with sad children in the back.

Seeing a kid in a Scooby Doo costume.  That is what my girls really wanted to be, but I didn't want to buy all the things necessary to make those outfits.

We went to the mall on Halloween morning for some fun activities.

The girls got to make a 'monster' on a stick, play some little carnival games, and eat some 'monster goo'.  There were a ton of kids there and we lost Rachel for a few minutes, so then we decided to go home.

This was at my parents' ward Halloween party.  I tried warning Megan several times that the chili was hot.  But she didn't believe me.  Poor girl.

Showing off the face painting.  We were the first kids to get our faces painted, so we didn't have to stand in a long line.

This one was cool.  It was glow in the dark ring toss.  The girls were amazed.

Doing the cupcake walk.  For some reason, I never think about this game but I remember really liking it as a kid.  Whitney and Rachel both got their cupcakes really quickly, but poor Megan kept having to go around and around.

Then we had to taste our cupcakes.  Megan wins for messiest child.  Her cupcake had black frosting on top and it turned her tongue and chin all black.

It was raining that evening.  So the trunk-or-treating was brought inside.  The girls made the rounds twice, so now we have plenty of candy.  I might have stolen a chocolate or two also.

Anyway, those were our fun Halloween happenings.  Now we are just eagerly waiting for our new little baby to arrive.