Bridals

A few Bridals for Lucy.....

Vampire.....

A few weeks ago I posted about Lucas getting his first tooth. Well, now that tooth has grown in as well as the one on the opposite side, so right now he looks like a little vampire. It is so cute when he smiles. I just love it. I wanted to post these pictures because his other top front teeth are just about ready to poke through.

Jared's trip to California

Last week Jared had the opportunity to go California with our friends, Trent & Tyler. They left on Wednesday and they got home Saturday night. When Jared got home and I looked at the pictures I was a little jealous that we have to be here in this not so pleasant weather and he got to be there in the 76 degree weather. But he had a lot of fun and I always get so much done at home when he's gone. As a side note, January is a good month to go to places like Knott's Berry Farm. They only paid $24.99. That is about half price, plus he said that they didn't wait in line at all, they just walked on to most of the rides.

Newport Beach

Jared & Trent

Tyler (it's the only picture Jared got of him, he didn't' want his picture taken)

Santa Monica

Professor

My brother Henry and his family moved to Ohio this week. They have been searching and praying for so long for a good job for Henry, and he was finally able to find one. He is going to be a professor at a college in Ohio. We are so excited for them.

Aulene, Henry, Elmo, Krista, & baby Orin

Kisses!!!!

My baby boy is such a sweetheart. He has such a kind personality. His newest trick is kissing. He loves to give kisses to everyone especially other babies. We have this little book that has a mirror on the back of it and one day he was sitting on the floor kissing the book, we finally figured out that all he knew was there was another baby there and he was giving the baby kisses. (He still hasn't figured out the whole mirror thing). It was so adorable. (notice him checking out the camera from the corner of his eye, he is not a big fan of the camera)

Another Wedding

My older sister Lucy is (finally) getting married. She has found the nicest guy and they are getting married on January 30th. A couple of weeks ago I took a few pictures for her. She already had a friend take some for her, but she wanted more to choose from for her invitation. So we took some. I think they turned out cute. We are so excited for them. Congratulations Lucy & Lee!!!!

Help For Haiti

As all of you know on January 12, 2010, a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck near the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince. So many lives where lost and there was such widespread destruction of so many homes, buildings, hospitals, & more. It is just heartbreaking to now see all the pictures and hear all the stories that are coming out of Haiti. Knowing that Haiti has always been such an impoverished country, we can only imagine what life must be like now!

Our family like so many others felt like we needed to do something so we got on our church website and donated to the LDS Humanitarian Services. There are also many blogs that will donate if you just leave a comment. Some of my favorite blogs are Thrifty Northwest Mom, you can click here to read her blog, and Money Saving Mom, click here for her website.

I encourage you to each do your part and help Haiti, by praying for them, or giving a donation. Everyone can make a difference.

11 months

Lucas is 11 months old today. I can hardly believe how the time has flown.

He is soooo much fun and we all love him so much.

MaKady and Paige just smother him with attention sometimes and he gets a little irritated.

He likes to play and crawl around and pull himself up to things. He likes to dance (honestly it is the cutest thing you have ever seen).

He also loves throwing a ball back and forth, last night he thought it was hilarious to throw it right at my head and when it would bounce off he would do a really loud laugh (so cute). He also thought it was hilarious when Paige would throw the ball at me (it wasn't as funny when Paige did it because she can throw harder)

He is also trying to stand by himself although he gives up easily and prefers to crawl.

He now has 2 teeth and still sleeps through the night. What a joy he is to have around.

Blasting in the New Year

Yes I did say blasting.... We spent our new years Eve with our friends the Painters. We cooked another deep fried turkey and all the fixings. Jared helped all the kids with their sparklers, which were a huge hit. I was home with the kids by 10:30 and slept through the New Year, which is standard for me. Maybe someday I will be able to stay up past 10:30...

On New Years Day we took the kids out to practice our 2nd Amendment. Jared gave them some instructions and then we blasted away. I loved watching my girls, they are both just so different, and this experience like all others brought out that difference. MaKady was very meticulous, she made sure to hold the gun just right and get the target perfectly in view before she pulled the trigger. She was very slow and steady, but eventually she got her rounds off. Paige on the other hand didn't really care if she was slightly off on the target, she was just excited to shoot the gun. Jared and I both took our turns as well. Let me just say, that I love target shooting. It is very stress relieving and it was a great way to start out the new year. Of course Lucas sat in the car while were where doing this and we took turns playing with him. One of these days he will be big enough to join in the fun.

Jared giving the girls some instructions about proper use of the guns.

The other thing we did on New Years day was to sit down and discuss some of our goals for the year. I wanted to write some of them down.

Paige - play with friends more often, take gymnastics

MaKady - read the book of Mormon, work harder on Personal Progress
Our goals as a family - read the Book of Mormon every night and have regular family home evening (we are not good at either of these, so we will see how it goes)

My personal goals - exercise at least 4 days a week, stop drinking so much pop, do more genealogy, and get our will in order

I know that the last one is not something that anybody really wants to do, but I feel like it is necessary.

I hope you all have a Happy New Year and if you haven't already I challenge you to make some goals and write them down.