{January 2015: Pregnancy, Family Fun, Scouts, Sleepy Kids...}

My Eighth Month of Pregnancy, of our future Little Man.  Sweet, Sleepy Snuggles for Daddy {Mark} & Baby Girl H. :)

  Our Family of Seven, {Soon to be Eight}!  Such Exciting Times!  Sweet, Sleepy H & C.  

 Our 2 Boys {Soon to be 3!}, Sleepy Little Man C {& the Crown he made in class at Church}; & our son E, when he won 3rd Place in the Pinewood Derby at Scouts.

 Our 3 Girls.  Sleepy K, H Snuggling our Kitty Peaches, and Big Sis R doing 'Lil Sis K's Hair.

{December 2014: Christmas, Pregnancy, Family Fun, Continuing...}

Hello again.  I am continuing on from where we left off.  December 2014.  I will try to catch up as soon as possible.  In December 2014...I performed my violin, in the Stake Orchestra, for our church, for a Christmas Nativity Program.  It was wonderful to play in an orchestra again!  Mark and I were also asked to sing a duet, which we performed in our Ward at church, for the Christmas program.  We sang "What Child is This?"  It was and always is fun singing together.  We had a fabulous time!  I was 7 months pregnant, with our 6th child, at the time, as well.

 We have many Christmas traditions that we enjoy doing as a family.  One is: making and decorating a Gingerbread house.  So much fun!  Our daughter R, performed in her Christmas Music Concert, with the other Third Graders, from her school.

Our Family had a blast at their Class Christmas Parties, at school.  Our daughter K, at her Kindergarten Christmas party, with her siblings H & C.  Our Daughters R & K in R's Class for her Christmas party.  Our sons E & C at E's Class Christmas Party.  Mark and our son C, in his Classroom, for his Christmas Party.

Our Three Ginger Kittens, are Loved so much by our Family!  Our kids named them: Pikachu, Apricot and Peaches.  They are such adorable, and sweet Kittens and we adore their spunky, loving personalities!

 We had a Beautiful and Magical Christmas celebration with our Sweet Kiddos.  We love this special time of year!  We enjoy our fun traditions together; some more are: reading Christmas stories, watching Christmas movies, Caroling together, performing the Nativity Story, Christmas morning Breakfast, Christmas Eve Party, Christmas Dinner, Christmas Light Scavenger Hunt, Sledding, Hot Chocolate, Christmas Pajamas, Christmas Ornaments, Singing together, Crafts...

 We celebrated Christmas Day at our House with our Kiddos, and a couple days later, we went up to Oregon to spend Christmas with Mark's side of the family.  We enjoyed doing fun things with them; including going sledding with our cousins.  The kids had a blast doing that!  

We also celebrated New Years Eve, with Mark's side of the Family.  We had a fun party and celebration, and enjoyed ringing in 2015 with them. 

{Family Visits, Thanksgiving WA, Baby I, Our Kitties: November 2014}

In November, we had a visit from my Sister Angela, her Husband Grant, and their 6 girls.  We always have a blast visiting with them.  Mark and Grant have known each other since they were babies, so they have a special friendship; and are the reason why Mark and I met each other.

 The kids always enjoy playing with their cousins.

We are loving having more room, for our kids to play; in our new house!

 My big sis Angela and I {I'm 6 months pregnant {in these pictures} with our Baby #6}. {Thanks Ang for taking these pics of me!}

I love when my kiddos play together.  So sweet.

The Kids playing in the snow.  Little man C and Baby H sharing an adorable, sweet kiss.

Here is the Story of how we got our 3 Kittens:  When we were driving up to Washington to spend time with my side of the family for Thanksgiving {we had a great time taking my brother Tom up with us, from BYU}, there were 3 Ginger kittens that were abandoned at my in-laws house in Oregon {we stopped there on the way up from Idaho}.  They are the sweetest kittens ever and are so great with our kids.  The kids loved playing with and petting them.

We thought for sure that these adorable kittens would be gone when we came back from Washington, but when we came back they were still at Mark's parent's house!  Mark's Dad is severely allergic to all animals {but especially cats}, so they were going to have to take them to the animal shelter.

I love Cats, and the kids having been asking for Cats for years, and the kittens were So adorable and So Sweet, that we had to rescue them, and take them home with us to our new house.  

When we arrived up in Washington, we got to see my sister Celestia's adorable new baby girl I.  Our Baby H was so excited to see her, and loved her right away.  She even named her baby doll after her, when we got back home to Idaho.

The Kids were all So Excited to meet their new baby cousin I.  She is a beautiful little baby.

The kids had so much fun playing with their cousins.  I love this picture of Baby H, kissing Grandpa {my Dad}.  So precious and sweet.

Little Miss K loved playing with Cousin A, and Little Man C had so much fun with Cousin C.  Mark holding his new niece Baby I.

The kids enjoyed the Delicious Thanksgiving Food, with Grandpa, Grandma, Aunts, Uncles and many cousins.

 Baby H, liked playing with her Cousin S.  Mark and I enjoyed helping make Thanksgiving Dinner and then eating it together.

We had fun celebrating my brother Tommy's birthday together, with our family.

The Kids had fun having Sleepovers with their Cousins.

The Kids loved meeting new sweet Baby Girl Cousin I, and it made them even more excited to meet their new baby brother in a few months.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving up in Washington with Family.  We had a great November.

{Merry Christmas} {Maternity Portraits} 2012

Merry Christmas! {Our Christmas Card}.  I {always} have a list of things I need to get done before {this} baby is born {in a little over 2 weeks}.  One is our Christmas Card and the other is {some of} my Maternity Portraits.  Here are two things on my checklist marked off.

November: Visits, Haircut, Thanksgiving, Mission Call, Twilight

This is a walk that we took, while we were up visiting my Grandma, Aunt Luetta and my Mom (who was there visiting and helping).  We had a very nice visit with them on a 5-day weekend.  We got to visit with some of my other relatives while we were there (because there are a lot of them), including my Aunt Patty and Uncle Rob.  On the walk, we found a sweet neighborhood kitten, that let all of us hold and pet it.  Very kid friendly.

The top pictures are of Mark giving Collin his very First Haircut.  I had a really hard time letting Mark cut his hair for the first time; because he had all of these bright red curls.  So adorable.  Mark cut it pretty short.  Little Miss R and Little Man E performed together in the school-wide Veteran's Day Assembly.  It was full of patriotic songs, that were very moving.  We were so proud of them!  It was nice to be able to have Mark's mom come and watch the kids perform also.

We had Thanksgiving at our home, the weekend before Thanksgiving week.  We like to establish our own traditions with our little family (even though we very much enjoy having the festivities with our extended family as well).  I gave the kids Thanksgiving Coloring and activity sheets, we read Thanksgiving books, watched Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, passed around a 5 kernel burlap sack, and each of us told 5 things that we are thankful for, and we talked about the 1st Thanksgiving.  It was wonderful.  Then we went up to Washington {we picked up my mom, on the way up and she rode there with us} and celebrated Thanksgiving with my side of the family, because it was our year to do that.  We had a fabulous time celebrating with them also.  We had all of my 6 siblings (except Tommy who is on his mission) and their families there for at least part of the celebration; although my sister's (Celestia) hubby wasn't able to come (because he's recovering from a recent surgery) and so she brought him home some food.  Afterwards, my sister Angela and I went to the Black Friday Event, and scored some fabulous deals for our kiddos.  But let me tell you, doing that while nearly 8 months pregnant, was not the best choice on my part.  My feet were SO swollen when we got home {which they usually are at this point in my pregnancy}.

The top 6 pictures are of the kiddos spending time with their cousins, while we were up visiting my side of the family in Washington.  They always love spending time with their cousins.  They built forts, had sleepovers (we watched the "Grinch" and made Chocolate chip cookies), helped Grandma decorate her Christmas tree, ate Thanksgiving at the "kids tables" and had all kinds of fun on our 5-day weekend up there for Thanksgiving.  Bottom 2 pictures, are of spending time with Mark's sister Kristy's family when they visited, and when we had Mark's parents over for dinner.

I was so thrilled when my little brother Joseph got his mission call in the mail while I was up there!  Usually with living away from the area (and everyone else in my family still is around there), I am the only one who doesn't get to be there (in person) for my brother's to read their mission calls (I usually have to listen on the phone).  But Joe got his while I was up there.  It was so exciting for us to be there when he opened and read his call to the RIVERSIDE, CALIFORNIA MISSION (English Speaking).  It was extra exciting, because our brother Thomas (pictured above left), is on his mission in the SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA MISSION (Lao and Mein Chinese Speaking).  They will be overlapping on their missions, for about a year (Missions are 2-years long).  Apparently, Joe might even be able to go be Tommy's mission companion for a couple of days, on the way down to the MTC, in Provo.  Which would be so neat for them.  The kids (and Mark and I) are so proud of Joe and Tommy for serving the Lord; and also of Mark's parents who recently returned from a mission in the DES MOINES, IOWA MISSION (English Speaking).

Well, Twilight Breaking Dawn 2 came out, and I had to go Opening night, with my Sister-in-law Summer.  It was awesome!  We loved it.  I was surprised that my Bella/Edward t-shirt still fit me, while I am super prego (I've worn it to all of the other showings of the Twilight saga).  Then while we were up in Washington, Mark and I went with Angela and Grant, and it was super fun too.  Last picture is of Little Miss R showing off her prizes, from when she went to the ER to get one staple in her head from getting an owie.  We have had the worst luck with owies with our kiddos lately.  I hope that it goes back to normal soon, which is no more owies.  But I guess with active kiddos, it's bound to happen occasionally.  It's just hard to watch them go through it.  Our Poor baby.

 Some of Little Miss R's {6 year} pictures from her Session.  To see more, view my Photo Blog.

Some of Little Miss K's {4 year} pictures from her Session.  To see more, view my Photo Blog.

 Some of Little Man C's {2 year} pictures from his Session.  To see more, view my Photo Blog.