A Little Romance

For any if you who know me well, you know I'm not the romantic type. But every once in a while it is nice to have a little mush in your life! And that is the reason for my sign. Christian, who is a complete romantic, was looking for a good gift for his new bride and I had seen this sign on pinterest and knew it would be perfect. We scoured the interweb and couldn't find a good version of it, so I asked my friend Jessica's sister if she could make him one, and maybe one for me too! Didn't she do such a fantastic job? I keep telling Jessica she needs to sell more of them because they are perfect. And now every morning I look at my mushy little sign and it makes me smile. Perfect

A New Year and New Obsessions

I know it is the middle of January, but I'm just getting around to setting some "goals" for the year. You know how it is, a day late and a dollar short. That is kind of how I'm feeling these days. Just a little behind, but we will get there! So here are the things I want to think about this year:
1. Lose the baby weight {hopefully quickly because it is killing me!}

2. Daily personal scripture study

3. Be nicer to my children {Carson suggested that one for me-uh!}

4. Take some pictures of myself. Funny I was looking through pictures from last year and I think that there were probably 3 pictures of me in the millions that I take. Mostly it was because I'm behind the camera most of the time and the majority of last year I was pregnant and who really wants their picture taken? But this year, I'm going to get in some pictures

And speaking of pictures, do you Instagram? I'm kind of obsessed with it, I love getting pictures of everyday little things, I love the fun filters, and I love looking at all the other pictures people post. Really, if you have an iphone, you must try it and then let me know so I can follow you.

The Utah Part

After Christmas we flew up to Utah for Christian and Kim's wedding. It was a double bonus that we got to spend some time with Cam's family, and introduce them to our little Drew.

With both families there we also had a chance to bless Drew. It was so nice to do it at Cam's parents with just family around. And as another bonus, Drew slept through the whole thing, a first for my kids. You like Cam's scruffy look? He's so rugged.

We had lots of quality time with the Reese cousins Carson was treated to his first BYU basketball game with Cam, Grandpa and Uncle Taylor.
We briefly went ice skating, briefly.

Don't let this smile fool you, this poor cute boy was so sick the entire trip. He was a trooper.

And of course the main event was Kim and Christian being married in the Draper temple. It was the most beautiful ceremony, and they were so happy. Crazy to think that my dweeby little brother is married- good luck Kim!

I loved this picture, the wind was crazy! Even Christian's hair is whipping around.

Christmas Run Down

One of the perks of Cam's job, is a nice 4 week paternity leave. And it was perfect timing that he was able to be "off" during Christmas, so we were able to do some real traveling. So we headed off to Arizona to play. We played with soda geysers

We went to the Phoenix zoo and rode a camel. {So nice to stroll through a zoo without having a serious cardio workout from the hills}

And fed a giraffe

Went to see some temple lights {with about 300 of our closest friends, what a mad house!}

This little Drew was a champ. He did so well on the drive and for the most part was a pretty happy little baby. He never had to touch the ground, so he really didn't have much to complain about!

Toured the luminaries on Christmas Eve. Carson was a little confused why we were lighting up the street if Santa lands on the roof. Deep deep questions bud!

Hooked a trailer up to Grandpa's old tractor and sang carols through the neighborhood.

And checked the computer about 50 times to track Santa's progress.

Pictures

I had my friend Jessica come over and help me take some pictures of the boys. We must have taken 300 pictures, and were able to get some pretty cute pictures of my little monkeys.

And because I'm kind of crazy about invitations/announcements, this is how ours turned out this year:

Carson turns 7

On the first visit to the doctor, I was happily told that I am expecting a new little one and the due day would be November 14th, Carson's birthday. While very excited, Carson began fretting and fretting that this new little friend would come on his birthday and he was not very excited about that possibility. I knew the chances were pretty slim that it would be his exact birthday, but for whatever reason, it was important to me that he had a good party to make him feel important. So we decided that a Chuck-e-Cheese party would be the best way to go. He was all sorts of excited about the party, 2 parts in particular. As you can see below, one of the things he was NOT excited about was the possibility of having to eat the ice cream.

He was, however, so excited about the Token crown and the ticket blaster. Both of which did not disappoint.

Such a happy party and a happy boy! We love this guy and can't believe that he is already 7!

Baby Drew

Our new little addition has finally made his grand entrance into the world. Drew Cameron was born November 9th, and weighed only 7 lbs 6 oz. a fact I found shocking compared to how large my belly was. And what do you know, it was another boy- I know, we all knew it would be. But the nice thing is that he fits right in and we are just so glad to have him here safely.

In some ways this was the easiest of my deliveries, but not so great in other ways. Like how it started. As it turns out the stomach flu is a very effective way to induce labor. It is a miserable, but effective. At about 11:00 on Tuesday night when the nausea was finally wearing off, I was realizing that the "cramps" I had were in fact contractions that were coming more regularly. I started to panic a little bit with the bad timing of the whole thing and promptly began disinfecting the house. But it all worked out well, the delivery was surprisingly quick, he was healthy and a carbon copy of my other little boys. We also realized how extremely lucky this little guy was. He had managed to tie a complete knot in the umbilical cord which could have been very bad.

Anyway, we are so glad to have our little guy here. He is being adored by his brothers and has been a dreamy little guy so far. Let's just hope that keeps up.