Blaze's Baby Blessing...

We are so thankful for all of the love and support we recieve from our family. It meant so much to us to have family travel through the trecherous snow and ice to be there for Blaze's baby blessing. Other than the weather, it was such a great day to remember. Blaze is so blessed to have so many people who love him and support him in the gospel. James blessed him, and both grandpas were in the circle along with some uncles: Dan, Caleb, Andrew, and Kraig. Afterward we met back at our house, and much to the guy's chagrin, we took pictures! Blaze was so handsome in his little white tux from Grandma Ce Ce, and the other kids were all matching, so we couldn't resist taking several pictures! We're going to have to photo shop one of them for our Christmas card.

Meeting the Williamson Grandparents...

The Williamson's were in town and finally got to meet baby Blaze. We went to the Incredible Pizza Co. for the first time, and the kids had a blast! The boys loved the race cars, and Alanna LOVED the mini bowling. It was the perfect size for her, and she took over bowling for James and I since she was having so much. After each bowl, she would run around and give high 5's to everyone watching her. She really enjoyed all of the attention! Blaze loved being held and cuddled - it makes for much better sleeping. He is just exhausted from all the growing he's been doing :)

Thanksgiving...

We spent Thanksgiving with the Perkins this year and had a great feast. My mom has a tradition of making these candy turkeys and placing them at each table setting. Of course, the kids gobbled theirs up first and weren't hungry for the real turkey and feast. Uncle Caleb and Aunt Lauren told Jackson he could have a penny for every bite of food he ate. He told them that a penny isn't very much! Lauren told him that the gas station near them has penny candies, and that sure did motivate him to clean his plate! He and Paul are so excited to spend their dollar.

In preparation for a school Thanksgiving feast, Jackson made a really cool Pilgrim and Indian costume. He learned all about he first Thanksgiving and how the Indians taught the Pilgrims to plant crops in the new world. My mom added to that by having all the good sports dress up as Pilgrims and Indians to read a Thanksgiving story.

We have been so blessed this year with our new addition: baby Blaze, a new and improved job for James, good health, and most of all the gospel of Jesus Christ to help us keep an eternal perspective.

See the LOVE...

Sarah's Birthday...

Luke's (my brother) birthday is the day after mine, and Caleb made this awesome "Candyland" cake for the both of us. He told me he was going to make me a cake and asked if I had any requests, and I jokingly told him I wanted a Barbie Ferrari. He couldn't figure out how to pull that off, but he knows how much I LOVE candy and thought this would be fitting. I think it's such a creative idea and I loved that he made it for us. He was disappointed that it didn't look exactly like the "Candyland" game board, but I think it's better!

I got beautiful flowers delivered from my in-laws. James tried to claim they were from him, but it's just the candy gram that's from him. My brother Andrew served us dinner at the restaurant he works at including a bacon covered chocolate bar. It sounds weird, but it was actually really good. Do you see a candy theme here? They all know me and my love for candy! My cute Beehives left the balloons and poster on our door. I felt very loved on my birthday!

Nostalgia..,

Did you read the Romona Quimby series when you were 6 or 7 years old? I LOVED them. I have been so excited to get my set of books from my parents house to share them with Jackson. We have the very old version of "Romona and her Mother" - the one with a bathroom sink filled with toothpaste on the cover. I thought that was so funny when I was a kid and really wanted to do what Ramona did - take a brand new tube of toothpaste and "decorate" the sink with it. I never dared though! My brother Andrew did.

I am now very nervous that my son Paul is going to try the same thing. He has been eying the book and asking me questions about Romona and the toothpaste. I can see the wheels turning, and that's a very bad thing. I am just nervously waiting for the day he decides to get creative. Has this happened in your household?

BUSTED!!!!

Last night Alanna sneaked into the pantry to get some Dum Dum suckers from the Halloween stash (4 of them to be exact). I was getting the older boys ready for bed and hadn't been downstairs for a bit. I looked over at Alanna who was shoving a sucker into Blaze's mouth and laughing while he excitedly sucked on it! I panicked and asked James if he had seen her doing that earlier. He sheepishly grinned and said, "Well, I actually started it"! James doesn't see why he shouldn't give our 6 WEEK OLD BABY a Dum Dum sucker, because "he likes it!" What am I going to do with him?

Sickness...

Since we have had Blaze I have tried harder than ever to make sure we all wash hands, use hand sanitizer, stay away from sick people, etc. Of course, as luck would have it, it's just been one illness after another. The kids and I all got a pretty bad cold when Blaze was 2 weeks old, and he got it too. At four weeks post-pardom, I got mastitis (not contagious, but very miserable). Then we all got round 2 of a cold, and Alanna has missed 3 weeks of playschool because her green snot and cough just won't go away.

Yesterday, I woke up feeling nausous and went into the bathroom to throw up. Then I started blacking out and headed back to my bed to lay down. The next thing I knew I was on the floor and realized I had passed out. I mustered up all of my energy to call out to James and he came in and said "Wow, you must have been out for at least 30 seconds. I heard you hit the wall." So, why didn't he come in and help me? He said he thought it was just one of the kids. So, why wouldn't you check out if anyone was hurt? Anyway, my neck/head hurt, my cheek is sore, I hurt my wrist, and I have a rug burn on my knee from the incident. I spent the whole day flat in bed after throwing up a few times. At least it happened on a day when James was here to take care of the kids. I missed two parties though - I am so tired of being sick! Hopefully we've seen the worst of it!

Happy Birthday James!

We celebrated James's Birthday on November 3rd! Of course we had ice cream cake, which I think is the only thing that he looks forward to on his b-day. I really don't think he cares about anything else! We got him a certificate to do "I fly", "Flo Rider", and rock climbing at the Solomon Center. So, we will have some entertaining times watching him enjoy his gift.

Here is our Fat Man, Blaze. I can't believe he is 6 weeks old already. He got so big so fast! At one month he was already 11 lbs, we need to weigh him again, but I'm guessing he's at least 13 lbs right now. He continues to be a very mellow and easy going baby. We all love him so much!

Happy Halloween!!!!

Surprisingly, I'm not a huge fan of Halloween, even though it's all about candy. I don't really get into dressing up and all the spooky and dead decorations etc. In our neighborhood many houses are decorated just as much as people decorate for Christmas! And, everyone wants to have a Halloween party! I lost track of how many parties the kids had between school and family and neighbors! It's all fun though. I just don't know when Halloween became such a huge deal! It just wasn't that way when I was growing up. Jackson and Paul insisted on being ghosts this year, much to James's dismay. After going to one party, Jackson changed his mind and wanted to be a Jedi for his other parties. I told him maybe next year! Alanna was the cutest fairy princess and danced around the house high on sugar. Blaze was Winnie the Pooh, but only for a few pictures. Unfortunately, the weather this year was drizzly and cold, so Blaze and I stayed home in our warm quiet house and had a relaxing evening!