The Holidays and Some More Fun Stuff

We headed to see the lights at Temple Square this week. The weather was decent and so was the crowd size. We had a fun evening together. Never mind the picture below where it looks like Libbie could drop Jaren at any second. To her defense he is quite large.


The evening wasn't complete without a "silly" picture.


Such a trooper in the cold and in the stroller.

The Setting Up of the Tree


As a tradition every year we set up the tree, all the girls take a turn trying to put the star atop the tree. Mom is not usually included in the "all the girls" category, but this year they all insisted I try it out. Here I am in all my glory. And I am happy to say Nathan didn't spin really fast with me on his shoulders like he does to our little ones.

Nathan found Mallory silently torturing/loving Jaren. He was laying so still and being so patient. Awww...

We had Thanksgiving dinner at our house this year with a good-sized crowd. I was a ding-dong and forgot to get a picture of our whole group, but here are some of the fun highlights: many a fashion show, dance party, and music concert.




Cousin story time under the table. Pretty darn cute!

Will you just look at what my baby is doing lately...pulling himself up into standing position. Makes me happy and sad.

Jaren is somewhat of a picky eater and is very leery of anything we try to put in his mouth. He's getting the hang of the whole solids thing slowly but surely.

We've had some great snow...at least great for the kids anyway. I just stay inside where it's warm.

Spook-a-licious

Although it rained on Halloween this year, the kids had a great time trick-or-treating with Dad and some fun friends. Mom and Grandma Jill held down the fort. Here are the cuties in their costumes...we had a pirate, a black widow, a cowgirl, Nemo, and a pumpkin.

This family is weird part II...

But we clean up pretty nice sometimes. Our friend Amy was nice enough to take some photos of us this summer. Here we all are looking summery, just in time for it to start looking gloomy outside.

This family is weird...

But we sure did have a fun time carving pumpkins this year.

Claire was pained by the innards of her pumpkin. She thought it was quite disgusting.

Jaren checking out his first pumpkin. He liked it...for licking anyway.

We Love Fall Break

For fall break this year we headed down south with Caleb and Marci and their boys. The first day we spent some time in Zion hiking a crowded, but fun trail. The kids had fun picking up every rock and stick in sight and looking at a couple lizards and the friendly squirrels. We got to ride the bus, have a picnic, and our visit was quickly halted by the explosion of Wyatt's diaper. Thankfully the babies were very cooperative in all our travels. What troopers we have.


The kids "trying hard" not to get too muddy or wet.

Uncle Caleb was nice enough to carry Claire for quite a while...even if she wouldn't give him anything but a death stare.


We spent some time in Snow Canyon. I had never been there before. I thought it was gorgeous! The kids (minus Claire) had a great time climbing the rocks that were perfectly sticky for their little feet.




Mallory asked me to take this picture of her while "she pretented to climb". Ha ha. So cute and funny.

We went to the gleaming white St. George temple for a quick visit.

Jaren was super excited to be at the temple.



Caleb's and Marci's friends were generous enough to let us use their vacation home in the St. George area. It was fabulous! The kids had a great time playing tennis in the backyard, climbing the brick wall to their "secret fountain", and swimming in the community pool. The first night we were there, Nathan and Caleb walked the kids to the pool to just check it out. It was an adventurous outing to say the least. Henry tripped and fell, Mallory tripped and fell twice (one of the times in a puddle...she was soaked), and while the guys were talking to a stranger, Claire decided to drop trou because "she needed to go potty". Not sure when she decided that was protocol.




All the kids took a turn standing by the palm tree in the backyard.




And a couple fun pictures of our little boy who isn't so little.

A Family is Forever

Saturday we had a great day in our family. We were able to go to the Timpanogos Temple to be sealed to Jaren. The girls looked so beautiful in their white clothes. I hope it's something they will remember forever so we can all be inside the temple again someday when they are older. Jaren was a trooper and slept through the majority of the time we were there. I was a little worried about the older ladies who were going to have to lug his chubby self around, but I guess as soon as we left him in the nursery, he fell asleep and they were able to push him around in a stroller. Awwww...Anyway it really was a fabulous day. Right after the temple sealing, we headed to our church house to bless Jaren as well. Here he is looking super cute in his white clothes.


People who came for our day, minus a few who snuck away.




Saturday was also Mia's birthday. It was fun to have quite a bit of family around to help us celebrate. I hope she had a good day.

Mia with her Lego Cake.