Let It Snow

Jackson had a ball out in the fresh snow on Thursday. Poor Addie was having a tough time with a double ear infection. After she finally fell asleep, Jackson and I ran around and played in the snow for a little while.  

He was super excited!

 

The only way I could get him to finally come in was a big mug of hot chocolate.

  We wish you a very Merry Christmas filled with family, friends and the love of our Savior in your hearts. 

Happy 1st Birthday Addie!!

Our baby is 1! We sang Happy Birthday to her with Grandma and Grandpa Carroll on facetime. Afterwards, she ate her first piece of cake. She was surprisingly neat and clean. Markham and I giggled that Jackson and Kaity made a bigger mess than she did.  She is such a little cutie and has quite the little personality. She loves music and will dance anytime she hears it. She says "hi" and smiles, showing off her adorable little dimples. She loves her brother and sister and crawls around after them all day. She is a Daddy's girl and loves it when he carries her around the house with him. Her favorite foods are bananas, yogurt and avocados. She made the switch to whole milk without issue and we are loving it. She is happy and content and a great sleeper. She is good to us and we love her to pieces!!

stats:

weight 21.5lbs : 72nd percentile

height: 30.25:  85th percentile

Following the pattern...all of our kiddos grow super fast and big and then slow way down and are tiny. Both Kaity and Jacks were on the upper end of the range too when they were babies, but now they are around the 25th percentile. I am grateful they were all born big and healthy!

Gingerbread Houses

This month has been such a crazy fast whirlwind of parties and family vacations, making and delivering neighbor gifts, shopping, wrapping, etc.  So much fun that we really had to work hard to find time for our  gingerbread houses. 

 I'm glad we fit them in. The kiddos had a blast and they turned out cute.I'm pretty Jackson ate more candy than he put on his house but that's half the fun. In a couple years little Addie Cake will be decorating her own with them.

And I suspect it will come faster than I would like. 

Company Christmas Party

We always look forward to the Company Christmas Party. It's for the whole family, which is so nice. The kiddos love to visit with Santa and unwrap their present. All the children get a wrapped age appropriate toy with their name on it. Yes, it's super impressive. There were probably 75+ kiddos there.  

 Kaity and Jackson have the Santa thing down. Adelyn was very nervous and did not know what the heck was going on. She lost it after a few seconds. 

Oh Santa, that is so cool!! I almost wanted to sit on Santa's lap to get a better look at that red light.

What a little cutie. Looking super grown up. Makes me sad.

 

The kiddos were happy. Fun night!

Sun Valley 2013

Every December we get together with my whole family in Sun Valley. We always have a really great time. This year we took the kids climbing and swimming at the Y. Seriously the fanciest YMCA I have ever been to -complete with swimming suit spinners to dry your suits in a snap and a water bottle machine that fills yours bottle. As well as a super awesome climbing wall. We have decided it is a must when we are in Sun Valley.

 Getting harnessed in. What a cutie

Way to go Jacks!

The kiddos were champs and did their best. I was totally impressed. 

I wish I had a picture of the entire group. But this one is pretty cute.

One Year Later

Last Christmas is a blur. Little Addie was so inconsolable and I was so exhausted. The poor little girl must have been in terrible pain. She never stopped crying. I don't have many pictures of her in her first 8 weeks because I was always nursing her or I was trying to get her to sleep. This year was a much lighter, happier and more rested Christmas. 

A year later she is all smiles and a very happy baby. She had a lot of fun helping trim the tree.

Disney!!!

We got home about a week ago from our super fun vacation to California. I am just barely getting to the blog after struggling to catch up on all the holiday stuff and laundry and shopping, etc. etc. We had such a MAGICAL time! I know that is so cliche, but seriously I love Disneyland!! It was our first trip as a family. Little Adelyn stayed home with Grandma Carroll. The four of us went full throttle! It was perfect. The weather was wonderful and the lines were short!

In line for Nemo's submarine ride. Kaity's favorite.

Autotopia! 

Stopping to re-fuel. Watch out- mom is apparently starving to death. I didn't know I was in this shot, thanks Markham.

Star Tours!

 Having a little treat on Main Street. 

 Thankfully we skipped the teacups and settled for this photo opp.

  Mickey!

Jackson's favorite was Buzz Lightyear's Astroblaster. One of the few we hit twice. The kids also loved the classics I remember as a kid- The Haunted Mansion, Roger Rabbit, Alice in Wonderland, Snow White and Toad's Wild Ride. Markham and I loved Pirates!! So nostalgic and fun. The kids were unsure. They were not convinced the pirates weren't real. Jackson kept yelling "Hi" to them. lol. People were cracking up.  They weren't huge fans of the roller coasters. We took them on Space Mountain very early on- way too dark, way too fast and way too scary. It ruined them. But they were good sports and went on Splash Mountain anyway.

What fun memories. It flew by in a flash. We decided to hit the Nemo Submarine ride one more time before we had to leave. Kaity was cuddled in on Markham's lap. It was dark, but I could see her little face illuminated by the light coming through the window. I wanted a picture but didn't want to ruin the moment so I tucked it away in my memory bank where some of my favorite pictures are held.  Her little face, so young, so full of wonder. She whispered something to Markham, he whispered something back. It was sweet. I remember going to Disney as a kid with my parents and siblings and now here I was with my own little family. I caught myself getting a little misty. I am so sentimental lately. Good grief. I looked down at Jackson and found him snoring! He was out like a light! I saved his little head just before it slammed into the observation window. Sentimental moment over.

Anyway, we had a really really wonderful time. Thanks Grandma for taking care of Adelyn for us!. 

Fun Times in California

We had a lot of fun with Markham's family over Thanksgiving. We played games.

Kaity and Grandma baked mini cupcakes. 

 She wants to have her own bakery someday. Too cute.  

A little snuggle with Aunt Jen. The kiddos had fun playing with cousins, which I got no pictures of. Booo

The boys totally worn out after playing hard. It was so beautiful there. Absolutely perfect weather. We thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.

Thanks for all the good times and yummy food Grandma and Grandpa!! We love ya!

Thanksgiving Turkey

Kaity helped Grandma with the turkey for Thanksgiving. I really can't handle the whole ordeal. 

 Take good notes Kaity, you won' t learn this from your momma. I keep telling Markham when it's our turn to host I plan to buy the turkey cooked. I'm not sure if he knows I'm not joking.

She handled it like an old pro. Thanks Grandma. We will need another few lessons before I can expect Kaity to cook the turkey, ha!

blessings

This time of year is so fabulous. I love to think about all the things that make life rich. For FHE we made lists of all our blessings. Gratitude is so important. I pray we do a good job instilling this principle into our kiddos.

It was fun to hear Kaity and Jackson recite their lists out loud. 

Kaity: My brother and sister, my parents, my grandma and grandpa, aunts and uncles, my car, my house, my friends.

Jackson: My family - (recited individually) my dog, the Holy Ghost, Primary, my teachers. 

 I am grateful for a ridiculously selfless and infinitely patient husband and best friend who makes this journey through life so fun. I am grateful for our beautiful, happy and healthy kiddos.

I am grateful for food to feed them, clothes to dress them and warm beds to put them to sleep.

I am grateful for the simple things that we all have- electricity, a washing machine, flushing toilets and running water, etc. etc.,  It's hard to imagine life without these things but plenty of people have and still do  manage without. Last Sunday at church, a speaker shared a story about a family who lived before electricity was commonplace. They had a really tough year on the farm and struggled to gather a nice meal for Thanksgiving dinner, but they had electricity and each other. wow. we are so blessed. I feel so gross for ever taking what I have for granted. 

I am grateful to know we have a Father in Heaven. That this life isn't it. That we are eternal beings capable of being with our families forever. I am grateful for Jesus Christ and His Atonement which makes that possible. This knowledge is true happiness. And for that, I am grateful. 

A little after dinner snuggle.

 

Kaitlyn enjoying those wonderful crunchy fall leaves. She knows of my love affair for everything fall. She collected some leaves and made me a beautiful collage. What a sweetie.

 Little Addie is growing too fast. She is getting more and more independent and doing new things every day. New words are "Momma", "Baba" (bottle) and "Uh-oh." With Kaitlyn, I was so excited for her to do new things and reach the next milestone. It's different with Adelyn. My heart aches a little knowing this will be the last baby I rock to sleep every night, the last little crawler I will have at my feet and the last time I will be folding tiny little onsies.

Savor, savor, savor these moments.