Recap of Christmas

We had a great Christmas season, and now we are back to real life! It was fun while it lasted!

We celebrated Christmas here at our house on Christmas Eve morning, before heading out on the road to travel to Mesa.

Hallie wrote the "Dear Santa" and "Hallie"

We got to have Christmas all over again on Christmas morning at my parents house.

Ike and the not-so-reverent Jaxson...he kept kicking Ike

My Dad reciting Luke 2

All the girls got matching shirts

Kamryn was fascinated with the wrapping paper

We had so much fun with my family. We were all together for Christmas this year. It's always sad to have to say good-bye and go home.

We also had a family reunion with the Wright over Christmas, celebrating my Grandpa Tom's 90th birthday. Pictures of that to come!

6 Months Already

Kamryn is 6 months today! It's hard for me to believe. This little girl has brought so much joy and happiness to our home. To me, there is nothing better than having a little infant to love on. I always tell Wes that I'm afraid after I am done having babies for myself that I will always be baby hungry. Maybe I'll get over it once I'm out of this stage of life...I hope!

Anyways, I tried feeding Kamryn some rice cereal this week for the first time. I think the pictures speak for themselves.
Haha, I love these pictures. I'm hoping the rice cereal will help her start sleeping through the night (wishful thinking).

Kamryn at 6 months:

• She sleeps regularly during the day...two solid naps, sometimes a short evening nap
• Some weeks she'll only wake up once at night (she has never slept through the night), and other weeks she gets up 3-4 times :(
• She sits for a few seconds at a time
• She is starting to creep a tiny bit when she is on her stomach. She has started pushing up a little bit.
• She likes to play with her toys. It's fun to watch her focus in on something and grab for it.
• Kamryn is pretty easy going and happy.
• She won't go to sleep in your arms, she has to be in her own crib or sometimes in her car seat.
• I thought her hair was growing in strawberry blond, but now I think it's going to be red, as in RED.
• She loves her baths, and pumps her legs like a maniac.

We love our Kamryn baby!

Gingerbread Houses

Well, it was pretty much a bust. I had been looking forward to making the houses with the kids for a couple of weeks now. We decided to do it tonight, but they didn't turn out so well. I didn't make the frosting thick enough, and then half the graham crackers were broken when we opened the box. Oh, well... the kids still had fun. Hopefully next year will be better!

The boys' house didn't last long because of the frosting...I made sure to thicken mine before I made it!

Hallie decided she wanted pink frosting, so then the boys had to have blue frosting...

Playing in the Snow

We had a nice relaxing day on Saturday. We watched a few movies, ran a couple errands, the kids and Wes played in the snow, we went to a baptism, and then out to eat. It was nice to have Wes home for a day without a huge list of to-do's!

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas

Here are a few of our Christmas decorations. We had a storm come through yesterday/last night and dump a couple of inches of snow. We are staying home today and doing some baking! I love staying inside when it's so cold outside (and really windy too, but that's almost a given, right?).

Hallie's 4th Birthday

Hallie's birthday always falls around Thanksgiving. Since we were here this year (well up at the ranch), we had her party up there. All of Wes' s family and my parents were able to come. Hallie was so excited for her special day.

I found these bird balloon making kits at Big Lots. The kids each got to make one, and thought it was pretty fun. Hallie had the flamingo:

And Jaxson had a toucan:The kids helped to gather the leaves off the patio before the party began. Hallie liked using the leaf blower, even though it was really heavy for her.

Our attempts at picture taking before church didn't go as well as we hoped (that's always the case though). Wes was already at church in a meeting...
The kids loved having Grandma and Grandpa here! And I loved having 2 other adults to help me get the kids ready for church! It's always fun when my parents came come. The kids love having their attention.

Hallie got a lot of fun gifts. She is having so much fun playing with all her new stuff this week.

Sitting Around

Kamryn is starting to get the hang of sitting up by herself. The kids think this is great!

Helping with Chores

Hallie can be easily bribed with money. She has a lot of loose change in her piggy bank. If you were to ask her what she is saving for, she would tell you that she is saving up her money to buy Shasta back. (Shasta is a horse that we sold last year). Yes, it's sad. We told her that Shasta got married and had to go live with her husband.

Anyway, Hallie likes to help fold the rags I use for cleaning to earn money. I asked her to pile them up, but she didn't like the idea. When she was finished I came to check on her, and this is what I found.

Hallie's Quote of the Day

"I'm a good dancer. I'm a Popstar."

All in one Doctor's visit!

I took all three kids to t he doctor on Tuesday. Kamryn needed her 4 month shots (even though she is now 5 months), and Jax and Hallie needed their yearly check-ups done. My goal in scheduling all three for the same time was to only have to pay one co-pay, and to save time.

Well, save time I suppose I did, but they wouldn't let me just pay one co-pay, I had to pay all three. :( And since Hallie is not 4 yet (she will be on the 28th), they wouldn't give her any immunizations. So, "at my earliest convenience", I can bring her back. Hmmm, wonder when that will be convenient. It took a ton of convincing just to get her to see the doctor, and now we'll have to do it all over again. Oh well.


Kamryn is 24 inches and 12 pounds 11 ounces. They didn't give me her percentiles, but she is right on track with how small Hallie was, so I'm sure she is at the bottom of the chart.

Jaxson is 34.5 inches and 26.5 pounds. He is in the 25% for both. She was happy that his weight is in proportion to his height now. (For a long time he was less than 3%).

And Hallie is 38.5 inches and 33.5 pounds. The doctor said that her height is 25% and her weight is 50%, but that can't be right...she is so skinny and small still.

Jax didn't even cry when he got his shot! He didn't make any fuss at all. Kamryn cried for just a second when they poked her, and was fine when I picked her up.

It was kind of crazy to get all three undressed and dressed, while answering questions, filling out paperwork (5 pages on each kid!), trying to keep Kamryn happy and keep her from rolling off the table, keeping Jaxson from jumping off the table and from poking/biting/tickling Hallie and from touching Kamryn too rough, convincing Hallie that it is ok if the doctor examines her, etc. BUT, it was nice to have one appointment instead of 3. And then next time Kamryn goes in, I'll just have them do Hallies shot then.

We're grateful to have happy, healthy kids!

My winnings!

Here is what I picked out from Red Letter Words, the company that sponsored the giveaway I won on the Nester's blog. I love it! It will go in our bedroom, not sure exactly where yet.

Early Christmas Present

We got an early Christmas present last week. I had to clean out quite a bit of clothes from our closet to get it to fit (that needed to be done regardless). Now I can rest peacefully, knowing Wes's guns are locked up safe and sound. The only problem is that the kids think it is a toy because of the dial thingy...we're working on that!

One down, 2 to go

Hallie is finally, totally, completely potty trained!! She's been potty trained during the day for well over a year and a half. For the past month she has been waking up dry in her diaper in the morning. So I finally decided to let her wear underwear to bed, and she hasn't had an accident yet!This is exciting news in our family:).

Halloween Festivities

So, we had our bi-ward trunk or treat last Wednesday night. Typically we have carnival games in the gym, and then move outside for the trunk or treating part. Well, the snow was coming down hard at that point, so they moved the trunk-or-treating inside, along the hallways. It was so congested and hot, it almost felt good to be out in the snow when it was time to go to home. This was by far the coldest Halloween we've had since living here. (Although, by Saturday the weather was nice again and all the snow had melted off).

at the trunk-or-treat, the kids loved the bouncy house in the background. it even had a slide in it

We recycled costumes, as we do every year. Click here to see last years.


We carved pumpkins on Friday night, much to Wes's dismay. Apparently he doesn't like to carve pumpkins, but even more so when the kids are cranky (Jaxson) and need to go to bed. I tried to get good pictures on my camera, but could not figure it out! The flash kept going off, and then if it didn't, they were really blurry.

this is the "boys" pumpkin. Wes carved Jax's name into one side

This is the other side of the boys'

The girl's pumpkin..a scary cat. Hallie was mad I didn't carve her name into it

The 1st Snow of the Season

Just in time for our ward's trunk-or-treat tonight!

Kamryn-4 months

Kamryn is 4 months old today! We aren't going to the doctor for another few weeks, so I don't have her stats.

Kamryn is rolling over all the time now. She mostly likes to be on her stomach, and will lay there and watch what is going on around her for a long time. When she finally gets tired she starts crying for someone to roll her back over.


Kamryn can't decide if she wants to be a good sleeper or not. Some days she only wakes up once, but lately it's been 2 or 3 times.


She has lost more hair than Hallie of Jaxson ever did. Her left side is almost completely bald (that is the side she usually sleeps on). I'm about ready to trim the one big patch she has right on top. The few hairs that have started to grow back in are much lighter than her red hair she has now. I still think she will have some red in her hair, but its looking much lighter so far.

For the most part Kamryn is a happy girl. She is loved by all of us. We can't get enough of her smiles and babbling!

Meet Snappers

This is Snappers (named by Hallie).

While I was getting ready for every one to show up for the party Saturday night, I kept looking out the sliding glass door to see if Wes had shown up. To my surprise, there was a white goat right outside the door.

I tried to get my dad to catch him, but the goat kept running away, plus my dad was in his suit, so he didn't want to chase the goat down. We let him go, figuring the owner would find him sometime.

Sunday morning the goat showed up at my in-laws door. Andy caught him and tied him up until after church. Wes built a pen up at our house for a temporary fix. We hope we can find his owner, but if not we will give him to the lady that bought our other goats.



This goat is LOUD. He's been waking us up early everyday. And he is stinky! When we had goats before, they were in the corral, so I guess I didn't notice the smell or noise so much. But his pen is right outside our house (Wes keeps moving it around soSnappers will eat all our weeds). I'm ready to get rid of him!