Lucy's 7th Birthday

Lucy had her birthday two days after Christmas.  Poor girl.   :)  She wanted to go get a mani/pedi for her activity so we hit the salon in the afternoon for that.  Then we had my family over for Lego friends sugar cookies (Lucy's original idea) and presents, with a Despicable Me 2 showing to finish off the night.  Lucy is so much fun to have in our family.  She is always making us laugh.  She has been loving being in Chinese immersion (a spot opened up this year so she joined).  It has been challenging for her to catch up with the other kids who have already been in it for a year and a month but she is amazing.  She never gets discouraged or down about it she just enjoys all the learning she is doing.  Lucy is constantly singing--Taylor Swift songs, Frozen songs, or the Chinese songs she is learning at school.  She wanted a karaoke machine for Christmas.  Lucy loves to color and do crafts and get her nails painted.  Lucy also loves to pick out outfits for herself and lays them out for the next day.  Esther even has her pick outfits for her too.  She made this sign for her birthday with John and was pretty proud of it.  Lucy is really starting to pick up on reading and can't wait to be able to read the fairy books that Esther used to love.  She is still trying to grow her hair out like Rapunzel and is slowly making progress.  :)  Lucy is very sweet with Wesley and LOVES taking care of him and even changing his diaper (Esther has been passing on that for a while).  Lucy loves to play with friends too--as soon as her homework is done she is darting across the street to find a friend one way or another.  :)  We sure love our little Lulu.  

  

Christmas Eve/Christmas

We had a pretty good Christmas Eve and Christmas--it was small but nice.  My family was all in Orlando and we didn't have any of John's family this year so it was just the six of us.  We had a delicious Christmas Eve dinner (clam chowder, pear salad, pretzel jello, and sourdough bread), and had our own little program. The thing about a small group is it goes by pretty fast so by 7:30 we were ready for our Christmas movie!  We actually couldn't find the one we were looking for (Elf) so John got Smurfs from the redbox.  That was about as good as you can imagine.  Then we set cookies out for Santa and it was bedtime.  Santa came, the kids woke up in the morning at 7 (the earliest allowed time), and we had a fun relaxing morning of opening presents and playing with new toys and games.  

 Our little Christmas Eve dinner.

 The kids in their Christmas Eve jammies--they had wanted to put them on since Christmas Eve morning and asked at least 10 times throughout the day if they could open them.  

 There were little screams from Lucy when she opened her Frozen doll.

 There was lots of Lego assembly Christmas morning. 

 Wes enjoyed his Santa jammies and a new "snotsucker" for Christmas.  

 Esther with some of her Lego friends highschool.

Santa finally brought Isaac some boy dressups for the house.  Now he doesn't have to resign himself to the princess dresses that dominate the dress-up box.  

In the late afternoon we headed into Salt Lake City to see the lights on Temple Square and we also hit Little America for their Christmas buffet with our friends.  It was cold but nice to get out.  On the way home we stopped and visited Iris (and Grandma and Sam) and put two candles on her grave.  Two for the two years she's been gone for Christmas.  When we got home the kids did some American Idol xbox game singing with their friends.  Who knew they would love that game so much.  Santa is pretty darn smart.   

Wesley-3 Months Old

Wes is 3 months old!  He is getting so chubby and giggly.  He even has some nice wrist rolls going for him.  Isaac calls him "Wes-a-we" even though we've tried to help him with those L's.  Wesley is amazing.  It's so fun to watch him grow and develop.  He's starting to figure out his arms and really enjoys sucking on his fists as well as making random sucking noises.  Wes still spits up a lot which means he often smells like baby vomit but we still can't stop kissing him.  Especially his big old cheeks. He is still waking up once a night but usually it's not too bad.  It's looking like he is going to keep his blue eyes like his sisters.  Trying to carry Wes in his car seat may be giving us some permanent back problems.  He is a one heavy dude.  

We still can't get enough of him...

Wesley's Blessing Day

We blessed Wesley today.  He was very excited about his new sweater romper for the blessing.  I was thankful for the family and friends we had there supporting us but these events always make me feel the loss of my mom more deeply.  It was a pretty emotional weekend but I feel so blessed to have this sweet little boy in our home.  

 Mr. Serious

 Such a great picture of us I had to post it.  Ha ha ha... actually the only one that wasn't blurry.  

Ps..  Honey I think I need a new camera...

 Almost impossible to get these four monkeys all looking normally happy.  

 This shot was Esther's idea--so I rolled with it.  They really all love kissing him.  Especially Isaac.

He has a cold this week and I've told him he can only kiss his legs but it's really hard for him.

 Finally a smile now that the day is over.

A close-up of those excellent kissable cheeks.  

Wesley-2 Months Old

 Big Wes is two months old!  At his appointment we found out he has doubled his birth weight in the two short months he has been alive. Some have been calling him "piglet".  We are loving all his smiles and chubbiness.  There is some definite cooing going on too that is pretty darn cute.  He is mostly waking up once at night to eat (if I put him to bed pretty late and he also wakes up pretty early) but we're trying to celebrate our small victories.  Isaac loves to call him "fussy boy" although he is pretty mild tempered and doesn't cry very much.  When he does cry, Isaac does NOT like it.  The girls still love doting on him although he gets heavy for them pretty fast.  I can barely carry his carseat with him in it for very long!  Isaac gives him the most kisses--even before eating breakfast he wants to kiss the baby and instead of a goodnight kiss from me he would rather give Wes a hug and kiss.  Those cheeks are pretty fun to kiss.

Wes, just because.

 

Halloween!!

Halloween is not my favorite holiday but the kids sure love it.  This year Esther spiked a huge fever the night before and she was tearful as she realized that night it meant she would not get to go to school and enjoy her class Halloween party.  We took her to get swabbed just to make sure it wasn't strep--there were many tears about swab fears too.  No strep so she had to just get through the virus.  Fortunately, with the help of some medication, by the evening she felt up to trick or treating just for a little while.  We dropped her off after an hour and hit a few more houses because Isaac and Lucy weren't "done" and I figured it was okay since they didn't have school the next day.  

  John HATES dressing up but I did get him to wear this awesome skeleton tee and it was pretty cute that he matched little Wesley's costume/pajamas.  

 The big sick "baby".  

 Minion!

 Taylor Swift striking a pose in her fancy dress.  

It's actually just Esther's old Christmas dress but she was happy as long as she got to buy red lipstick and a toy microphone.  Done.  

 Family Halloween pic--Wes has a hard time focusing for pics.

 My dad and Ann came for dinner--they wore their crazy Jazz hats. 

Those crazies.

Sorting and trading candy is always the best part of the night.  John and I enjoy stealing all of Isaac's prohibited candy (anything with nuts) and eating it as our necessary parental duty.

The Annual Awesome Pumpkin Carving Party with the Ayala's

A sweet friend always invites us to her pumpkin carving party.  We get to eat yummy soup, rolls, apples, and dessert and then we go crazy carving our pumpkins.  Mostly, the kids do the designing and John ends up doing the carving but we all still have a good time. 

 Lucy was really into her jack-o-lantern's eyelashes.

 Isaac picked this green pumpkin that crossbred in our garden--we didn't 

even plant pumpkins this year but thanks to not throwing out rotting pumpkins 

the year before we got them again this year.  Yay. 

 Esther focusing on her serious design.

 The party people.

 

The cute kids and their festive pumpkins.