DeArton Christmas 2007

On Christmas Eve we headed over to Kim and Gregs. We were served a delicious chicken dinner and then we had a reading/performance of Luke 2, as seen in the following video:





This time around, Dallis got to be mother Mary, with baby Graham as baby Jesus



The 'enactment' of the Christmas story basically consisted of the cousins hovering over baby Graham and kissing his head.

We all opened pajamas and then after getting the kids to bed broke out some games. Brynn wouldn't go down so she stayed up for quite awhile.



After she was really worn out, she finally nodded off on the couch.











We all slept over, and the next morning our kids woke up first (of course). We went out to the tree to find our stockings packed with gifts. The girls each got a princess doll in their stockings. Pretty soon, everyone was up and gathered around the tree. We took turns opening gifts, and everyone was pleased and had a good time. The best part was how our girls got more dolls, princesses, and barbies than I can count but it seems they spent all of Christmas Day playing with Thomas and his Robosapien! Go figure =)
































After that calmed down, Pop-Pop took Dallis and Thomas outside for some sledding. He hooked up an old tire to a chain behind his tractor/lawn mower and they got to ride on it. This movie will help you get the idea.



Of course the highlight of Christmas this year for us was having our new baby boy Graham with us. We hope you enjoyed reading about our Christmas as much as we did experiencing it.

Pre-Christmas and Baby Blessing at Grandma Roberts

To kick off the Christmas festivities, we went over to Grandma and Grandpa Robert's place on Sunday. The occasion was the blessing of my sister Heather's new baby, Jordan. And, since we weren't going to be back over on Christmas day, we did gift exchanges as well.


Here's a picture of Brynn with Jordan in her blessing outfit.



The cousins sang "Families can be Together Forever" before the blessing. You can see how involved Dallis was, and Hadley is conspicuously missing from this picture.



The cousins also dressed up to perform the nativity. Our girls were wisemen, which Dallis was excited about. Brynn loved her tunic so much that she kept it on the entire time!



Kyla holding Grahammert.



Brynn loves her new pillow!

We received great gifts and had a great time with everyone, especially Heather and Dallas and Katie (Brandon left early) whom we don't get to see too often. We played Mormon Mouthful, a new game that my Mom gave me and just hung out.

Did we say Marcus? That is spelled g-r-a-h-a-m

Yeah- we realized after four days of 'Marcus' that we had not chosen the right name for our little boy! Jana- our sister-in-law- came over for a visit and reminded us that we had really liked Graham before we knew the supposed gender of our baby. As soon as she said it I knew that there was no way I could keep calling our new one Marcus.
That night I asked Todd if he was totally sure about the name- then brought up Graham. It turns out neither one of us was very in love with the first name- but we had no problem getting excited about Graham Jacob Freed! We were able to get Graham home from the hospital last night. Dallis has been a little confused with the 'loss' of Hazel and the switching to Graham. She has decided his name should be Graham Marcus Jacob. All the girls are so delighted to have him home- even Brynnie seems to be happy about it! Here are some oxygen-tube free pictures so everyone will have an easier time noticing how dang CUTE the boy is!! A-M

Um . . . what the heck is THAT?

Until just a few days ago, I was perfectly contented to be immersed in a sea of pink for the next twenty years. At 20 weeks pregnant, Ann-Michelle and I visited the doctors office for the ultrasound when they reveal the sex of your baby. While pointing out and naming the pertinent female body parts on the screen, the tech informed us in no uncertain terms that in her entire career she had only been wrong about baby gender four times. Little did we know that we were about the bust the curve!

On Sunday while getting ready for church, we realized that we needed to get to the hospital. At 36 weeks our baby was still a little early, but we were hopeful that we could have the baby this year. On zero notice we were able to pack the girls off to Grandma's (thanks Kim!) and get checked in at labor and delivery. Ann-Michelle endured about 9 hours of pre-labor like a champion before our newest finally arrived. The baby wasn't about to wait for the doctor, however. Whether he was impatient or the doctor was slow I will leave to the judgement of the reader, but when he arrived I saw something utterly unexpected. But . . . we have that pink carseat in the car, I said to myself. And a brand new pink diaper bag, and pink clothes, and . . . and my man-child was born!

We attempted to keep the big surprise a secret so that we could see people's reactions when they came to see the new baby. Both Grandma's had a classic reaction. Kim was laughing like we must be joking. Diane said, "But, what is she doing wrapped up in a blue blanket?" Priceless.



Marcus Jacob


Ann-Michelle stayed at the hospital an extra night to be close to Marcus, and I brought all the girls in to visit her.


Unfortunately, with Marcus being born a little early we haven't been able to have a ton of alone time with him and consequently don't have as many pictures as we would like. We also haven't been able to bring him home yet. His breathing is improving every day though, and we should have him home soon.

Normally, we don't wax spiritual on this blog but we have received untold amounts of love and support over the last couple of days and just want to say thanks. We are very grateful. We have felt and seen Heavenly Father's hand through the Christlike example of service shown by our dear family members in the birth of our new baby, who came just two days after I finished school, one day after we got our new car (big enough to transport our new family size), and even a week before Christmas. What an answer to prayer!

Merry Christmas to everyone!

The CHRISTMAS LETTER

Happy Holidays and thanks for checking out our blog-style Christmas Letter! 2007 has been another eventful year for the Freed family!

Todd and Ann-Michelle

This year we thought that adding to our crazy schedule would be fun- so both Todd and I enrolled as full-time students at BYU-Idaho. We began our action-packed adventures in January, and while I am enjoying time off this fall, Todd has continued on in the Fast-Grad program. This moves his graduation date up by a year, so we have that to look forward to! Todd is still enjoying working at DocuTech, and manages to do well there in addition to school. We bought our first home in March. I started on painting walls as soon as possible and almost have them finished 8 months later! We put a fence up in September and will happily recommend our fence-guy for anyone who is interested! We were happy to discover that another baby will be joining our family and even excited to discover that it will be another girl! We hope to be sending baby announcements shortly after this letter is read!

Dallis

What a year for our oldest princess! Dallis completed her year at dance classes in May. She has been practicing writing her name and counting. Dallis performed in her first Primary program- happily playing instead of singing! We are glad she didn't start crying! Barbie has made her grand entrance into Dallis's toy box- a fact that still makes me sad. It feels like the sign of Dallis's constant dedication to growing up before I am ready. She is such a friendly one, too! She is the little girl at the grocery store that strikes up a conversation with anyone passing by. Of course topics usually consist of which toys she is wanting at the moment or the main characters of the latest Disney movie we just watched (5 times in a row). Dallis is also very happy to help whenever I need Brynn or Hadley to come to me- she will drag them back to me almost every time! We are really enjoying our Dallerina and all of her little spark!


Hadley

Hadley remains the opportunist of our little band- from permanent markers on the wall to helping herself to an entire gallon of juice. She still hasn't put together that an 8 oz cup can't hold all that liquid. Of course she is just so sweet we can easily forget the entire roll of toilet paper in the toilet incident(s)! Hadley is still very cuddly and, when feeling lovey, will give the very best hugs! She is Dallis's constant playmate, from Ponies to Barbies to pretend phone-calls- these girls really keep each other occupied! Of course, pulling hair has to fit in there somewhere, as well! Hadley loves to 'sing'- doing the cutest toddler falsetto you ever heard! We love our little fire-cracker and do our best to keep up!!


Brynn

Of course there is much to be said about Brynnie's accomplishments over this last year! She started the year with no teeth, barely a crawl, but the sweetest smile ever! The smile faded only a little as she began cutting teeth. We loved Brynn's take on crawling- imitating an army crawl rather than a toddler one- pretty funny! She started walking in September and is now a full partner-in-crime with her big sisters, whom she loves. We sometimes worry that she is getting left out, but she seems completely content to sit back and giggle with(or at?) her big sisters. Brynnie has picked up a few words like 'thank you' and 'cheese!'-for the camera of course- My favorite is 'Haddy', which covers both sisters! She has also started sleeping in a toddler bed recently. We are having so much fun playing with our Brynnter-bean and watching her personality develop!



As a tribute to our adventures in 2007, we have put together a video slideshow of the year's events. We hope you enjoy it.


(audio by The Smashing Pumpkins)

We hope you all have a Merry Christmas and wish you the best in 2008.

Acid Reflux and Bulbous Cows

Well- I decided that a post about my true feelings on being pregnant was in order. First, I would like to say that I have made it to 34 weeks with NO BED REST! Hoorah! I know that it is not actually anything I had to do with, but I am counting it as a personal accomplishment anyway. I am just saying out loud - in case the divine-labor-fairies are listening with a kind ear- that Todd is done with this semester on the 14th of December. That is a Friday and I think I have a cookie-making party on the 15th, SO that evening or Sunday morning are very convenient times for me to go into labor. Really- I won't mind at all if it happens any time that week. Okay- message sent.
I am now in the part of life-creating that is so frustrating. Anything I eat or drink ends up burning my throat like crazy. I was taking prescription heart burn medicine- but it was making my stomach feel funny. That is the story of these last few weeks, (note- I said FEW)- Trade one pain for another. Do I sleep on my back and let my legs ache? Do I sleep on my side and feel the acid reflux all the way to my ears and feel my giant belly pulling toward the mattress? Do I sit to rest my swelling feet and have baby all in my ribs? Do I stand up and relive my ribs at the expense of my lower back? Anyway- I know that these complaints can easily be swept away with some sticky sweet comment like 'You are going to have a BABY- isn't that worth all of it?' Yes, I answer- but I am thinking 'How exactly does that make me feel better?' Oh, it doesn't- it is just to shut me up. My sister Kristie described my shape the best- I am bulbous. I like to refer to myself as puffy- but bulbous is really the right word. I am attaching a picture so that you can see what this word means when applied to a person.

Autumn and Birthdays

Well its getting chillier, cold enough in fact to freeze up the clutch on my truck this morning.

We celebrated Dallis's birthday last weekend in grand style. On friday night (her actual birthday), Ann-Michelle and I took Dallis out to dinner at the Olive Garden, just the three of us. She was able to get a special - red - drink just like mommy and have a whole host of happy waiters and waitresses sing happy birthday to her, which she just loved. There was one frustrating part, however. After she found out that the other two girls were going to grandma Diane's house, she decided she would rather do that than have 'birthday dinner'! (they ended up staying at our house with grandma, but that didnt change things.) In any event, she quickly forgot about that once we got to the birthday dinner.

Saturday was pretty crazy. We had scheduled to meet up with family at Leo's Place for Dallis's birthday party at 3:00. That morning I was helping my grandparents move so we were going to have those two events end-to-end as it was, but as luck would have it, we ended up at the doctor's office around 1:30 with Ann-Michelle experiencing pretty bad contractions and back pain. Not to be outdone, we still had the 'party', albeit an hour late, and Ann-Michelle stayed home to rest. Because of these complications some attendees were unable to make it but Dallis and Hadley still had tons of fun on the big toy they have there. Thanks to Mom-Mom, Pop-Pop and Allison for making it to the party!
We also opened toys and had Sleeping Beauty decorated cake (thanks Kristy) that night at Greg and Kim's. In all we think Dallis's birthday was quite a success.
(sorry, I didn't really get any pictures of the aforementioned).

In addition, we took the girls to the park on Capitol a few weeks ago for some Autumn pictures. Here are some highlights.

Tagged

Alright Elise- I am finally responding to one of your tags. First I would like to say that every time I have read my name on a tagged list on the Hansen blog I have expected to get some sort of e-mail tag or something that comes to me personally. I think that my name on the blog is the invite- so here it goes. As explained by Elise I am supposed to tag 6 people after listing 6 facts about me and that leads into the first fact 1. I HATE chain stuff-not the participating part- but the part at the end, when you have to come up with people to pass it along to and realize that you don't have a big enough social circle to adequately pass it on. So, I am going to list 6 things and then call it good- I am working on making friends,so future tags will be more successful.
2. I love LOVE to make desserts- I like to try new things that involve chocolate or maybe sweetened condensed milk. I feel a little hesitant when it comes to fruity desserts, but try most of them anyway. As many new recipes as I have tried I can still never guess what it is going to taste like by just reading the recipe-some people have mad skills.
3. I find it a major hit against a retailer if the company does not have a good dotcom shopping option. Like Target- they have the WORST shipping issues and take weeks to notify you if your order cannot be fulfilled. I am always excited to find a new website that sells and ships well, making my ventures into public shopping minimal(I don't really like going out to shop).
4. I love fall and early spring because it is not freezing, but I still get to wear sweaters or long sleeve shirts- my favorite type of clothing! I really like jackets and cardigans, too. I hate summer primarily because I have to figure out how to dress and I really hate hot weather. I could never live in Texas or Florida, but would really enjoy Washington(surprise!).
5. I don't like to watch my grammar when typing. I don't even like capitalizing "I" or using capital letter with proper nouns. I feel like I don't watch my words when I am casually talking to someone, why should I be careful when casually typing? Here is the best part- when I receive an email or something without proper punctuation I get a little lost. So, although I don't like to do it- I can see the value.
6. I love organization- Tubs for each type of toy, a drawer just for tape and another just for pens, files for each bill- ooh, AND Excel spreadsheets! I LOVE Microsoft Office! I really think I am a born-secretary! Too bad they don't make fat loot, hmmmm.

Halloween 2007

Here are a couple of photos from Halloween. We took the girls to DocuTech for the annual Halloween event.

Fences, Birthdays and so much more

Alright - I know Hadley's birthday was over a month ago, but its better late than never, right? We had a fun time with cousins and aunts and uncles and grandparents. Hadley loved all her new toys, as is evidenced by the following album.

Hadleys Birthday

And, of course, the token Cake-Eating Video(tm)




The other thing that happened at our place (even more than a month ago) was we had a fence put in to establish a backyard for the kids. I have been waiting to take pictures of it for weeks but kept getting frustrated by bad weather. I finally got around to it today, so here are the pictures. You can even see the stopsign that has become quite conspicuous since the fence was put in.

Fenced Backyard

Out of context

Almost everything said out of context is bound to confuse and maybe even amuse- oh wow, that is a great rhyme. I don't know where I come up with this stuff- its like a gift from God or something. (I am sure Flatlands know where that is from!) Anyway- song lyrics are the very best out of context lines in the world. My top two favorites- currently- are "Oh it stings to be stung" from the band What Made Milwaukee Famous and "You think my singin's out of tune, but it makes me money" from KISS(Don't worry Dad, I don't really listen to KISS!).

Goodbye Wayne

Well- I am happy to say that Wayne was voted off my show last night. It is good because he really was the worst dancer. My bet is that Mark Cuban is dancing on borrowed time now!(Doesn't Wayne's partner Cheryl look like she knew this was coming?)

Dancing with the Stars

Everyone has their weaknesses- I have to say mine is the totally cheesy and poorly dressed 'Dancing with the Stars' on ABC. I have to admit, that although I readily watch the show- I never actually vote. I watch it online the day after you can vote, so maybe that is where I get a little hung up. ANYWAY- I just am so surprised at last night's results! Wayne Newton is a competitor this year and is really the worst dancer. He is stiff and slow- but super famous, which is why he beat out one of the better dancers Albert Reed- do you think if I had cast all 11 of my votes I could have made the difference? I don't think so either. I will probably watch Wayne kick out a few more better dancers and still not start voting- but I fully plan on complaining about it. Mr. Las Vegas, pshaw- since when can't an Abercrombie model beat out a household name and international icon?

Aerial View

The other day we went in to Brynn's room to wake her up from her nap and we found her buried under her bed sheet. Brynn is also moving up in the world - not only is she now walking, she is riding in a face-first car seat ! And see my amazing strength in action. All this and more in this brand new slide show!

Reasons Toothpaste is better than Pooh

1. Toothpaste smells better and is actually made to go in your mouth- (Hadley has been confused on this point a time or two)
2. When smeared into the carpet, toothpaste, with its cleaning agent capabilities, actually leaves the crime scene looking better than before it was squirted everywhere. Pooh does not help a carpet look better.
3. The word 'toohpaste' is more fun to say and will always sound smarter in conversation than 'pooh'.
4. When your toddler asks for help with her pooh, you will always wish she had said toothpaste.

Ode To Us

So there isn't really any specific occasion for this movie or anything in particular that it is meant to commemorate - other than the awesomeness that is US! I saw something cool like this on Elise's blog and I thought I would give it a shot - I think it turned out pretty well.



(audio at http://www.jonathancoulton.com/songs)

Pills

Elise has mentioned that she is dealing with a little pill, Gordon, lately. It must be pill season- Dallis has just recently decided that all communication must be done in forms of whiiinnneeyyy voices and even all out tear-fests. This morning's inspiration- dessert for breakfast. Dallis began asking for dessert at 7 am- I said no, we eat dessert after lunch and after dinner(if you are lucky and somehow we have one). She ate her yogurt and cereal breakfast and then began whining for- dessert. Well- eventually we made it to lunch. Who knew that ravioli could make a little girl cry? By the way- it can. Yes, she got her dessert- after 4 hours of whining for it and after I almost on-my-knees-begged her to eat 3 raviolis. Her Majesty naps now and all is quiet- but in reading about her cousin, I know the next wave of pill-plague is coming soon.

Thats One Small Step for Brynn . . .

One Giant Leap for Freed-kind
(couldn't resist).

So Brynn has started walking, and I thought I would post up this video of some of her very first steps into the wide wide world.

Reasons, the series

I had started emailing Caitlan a beginning series that I have titled 'Reasons'. As a general rule, and maybe bad person habit, I like to express my opinion and back it up with a couple of reasons. Generally my opinions and reasons are useless to rest of the world- so, what better topic to blog on?! This is a repeat version for Cait, but to those few who read our blog- here is what you can start to expect randomly from me. And for anyone who didn't already know- I have an unnamed obsession with jokes about inflicting pain- I think it came from Lewis Black
http://www.comedycentral.com/comedians/browse/b/lewis_black.jhtml

Here you are, A-M

Reasons I want to shoot my face with a dart gun
1. Dart guns do not require permits like real guns, so buying one will not present the hassles that a 9 mil. purchase would
2. Dart guns can't be too expensive- they sell them at Wal-Mart, I think
3. The darts from a dart gun can't penetrate as deeply as real bullets- but they will cause enough pain to take my mind off of the normal mental anguish brought on by all the stupid, stupid people allowed to exist
4. I have used the face-in-a-blender joke too many times

Well- as most of you already know . . .

We are so SO excited to announce that our little band of princesses will be joined by yet another little GIRL!! Hooray! We wanted to deal all in pink- and hey, who said you can't get what you wish for. Our doctor actually winced when he calculated the ages of our children and then thought about the teenage years. I am glad the pain of our future can be felt by another! My money is on brown hair- (I have lost any hope of bringing a red-head into this world)- but, my sister Kristie is guessing this will be the one with hair like mine. The baby looks great and is right on schedule as far as size and development goes. We really hope to have the baby in December- maybe a day or two after Christmas? Maybe I am asking too much?

The Joys of Mud

We didn't see them sneak over to the mud pit ... but once we found them, they having far too much fun to interrupt.

Buck Family Reunion

(1443.2 miles, 66.053 gallons, or $195.14 - yielding 21.85 MPG or $0.14 DPM)

Over the weekend and the early part of this week we went on a trip to the Buck family reunion. The Bucks are Ann-Michelle's maternal grandmothers brothers and sisters, and their families. Many of them live in Oregon, but alot of people traveled, even one family from Boston. We had alot of fun and were glad to take our first real family trip! We had a hotel along the way on both ends of the trip to break up the driving. The reunion was held at the Belknap hot springs near Bend, OR.

This first picture shows the girls relaxing to a DVD with the Hansen boys - one of the few ways we were able to actually get them to settle down. Thanks to them for thinking to bring the DVD player!



You can see how green it is and some of the outdoors that we got to enjoy.



More greenage.



We got Hadley a new bike for the trip. As you can see, she wasn't real attached to it. She actually didn't ride it at all! Oh well - we are hoping she will when she gets a little older.



Heres the cabin that we stayed in.



We also went white-water-rafting. Heres a pic of all of the Buck family members that went on that particular outing. (This picture was shamelessly snagged from Hansens blog.)



And last but not least, a little movie of our girls enjoying the tire swing that was just outside our cabin.



The kids had a ton of fun riding their bikes, swinging, swimming and just running around. The hot springs were actually - well, hot - and it was pretty hot up there in general so the pool wasn't quite an oasis but it was still fun.

Our Epic Adventure

For your viewing enjoyment I have prepared a small montage of pictures cataloging our adventures over the last several weeks. We begin with this wonderful shot of Brynn.




She managed to get herself into the tub while there was still water in it and you can see the results.

Next we explore the fourth of july weekend, which was alot of fun for us. We spent the evening of the 3rd at the Flatlands new home in Pocatello. Josh and Laramie brought their cute girls over as well and we had fun swimming and creating a whirlpool.






We made it over to Freeman Park for the fireworks several hours early and met up with Chris and Elise and their boys. Everyone enjoyed the show.



Taking cue from the Flatlands (and the life-sucking heat we are experiencing) we got ourselves a little pool for the kids to play in.




And last but not least, I call this one "How to Eat a Donut. Hadley-Style."




Hope you enjoyed the pictures =) Well, Brynn has begun taking her first steps over the last couple of days. Look for some video of her walking here in the next week or so.

Hope everyone is doing great!

Schoooool's out for the summer!

Well- technically school is only out for 8 weeks for Todd, my 'summer' lasts all the way to January! Todd, of course, cleaned up with a great GPA- I, on the other hand, had to keep the attitude of 'At least I passed' with 2 of my courses. Astronomy- good night! I now will avoid looking at the stars for the next two months getting myself out of the habit of trying to calculate right ascension and which horizon different constellations and the moon fall in. I would like to claim some sort of excuse for this semester- but in truth I just didn't do my best. I am a little sad to be done with Econ- the same way Todd was sad last semester to say good-bye to Chemistry. Some classes are really interesting and the subject matter is- okay, I already know I am crazy- FUN to learn! We are looking forward to our month of August- a fun Oregon trip is coming up and we are trying to get the Lava Hot Springs idea pulled together with the Hansens!
A-M

More Mitt

I know, I know ... your all dying to see more footage of Mitt, Mitch and I. Well here it is !! This was from a broadcast on another station. We are celebrities now.

Mitt-Tastic

On Friday presidential candidate (and my predicted winner for months now) Mitt Romney came to Idaho Falls. He had a campaign dinner friday night which I wanted to attend, but the minimum contribution required was $250 and I couldn't find anyone else crazy enough to part with that much money for a steak. However- I was in luck. The local republican establishment had put together a little rally at the special hangar at the airport where the Governor was set to arrive. I heard the time wrong so my brother Mitch and I actually arrived over an hour early. That was nice though, because when we got there only 10 or 15 of the 500-600 participants had arrived and we were right up front by the microphone. Below is a snippet from a video that was on the local news here. I know it looks like Mitt Romney is the focus of the video, but you can actually see Mitch and I right there in the center ^_^ Go Mitt !

Summer Days

I just wanted to do a quick post to tell about a funny thing that happened today. Brynn is getting closer and closer to walking. She will pull herself up with the aid of a chair sometimes and she loves it when we walk her around while holding both her hands. Thats about it though. So today Ann-Michelle and I were sitting at the bottom of the stairs - I can't remember exactly what we were doing. But I glanced up and there was Brynn, just standing there at the top of the stairs looking at us! She wasn't next to anything so she just stood up by herself! She must have just stood there for at least 10 seconds. It was really cute.

Also - heres a video of our failed attempt to have the girls play in the sprinklers in our little yard. It was actually kind of cold I don't know what we were thinking ^_^

Greatest Hits

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I have taken the liberty of creating a 'Greatest Hits' movie for April/May 2007, chronicling our greatest moments and finest achievements. The following events have made their way into this feature:

• Brynns first birthday


• Dallis' final dance performance


• Dallis cruising around on her training wheels


• Hadley gets a new pony!


• Dallis and Hadley playing in 'The Pit'

Enjoy!

Brynn is 1

Brynn had her birthday last week- she is a one-year old!! To celebrate we had a little family party at Kate Curley Park and Brynnie got her ears pierced. Here are some pictures of our little girl in her first year!

Kids say the CUTEST things

Here are a couple of my favorite quotes from Dallis and Hadley(and some mini conversations)
"Mom, I have to go to the store for some eggs and ponies" Dallis

"Oh! I'm stuck in there!" Hadley- trying to take her dress off

"We need to fill the car up today, huh Dallis" said Todd, to which Dallis replied "Yeah, cuz the car is thirsty"
Then in a follow-up conversation Todd asked Dallis what the car wanted to drink. He asked if it drinks water and she said "No- not water! I think it wants oatmeal!"

I know it doesn't sound funny- but when you hear a 2 year old say "Oh crap! Oh no!" it just makes you giggle- plus when Hadley says it she puts a hand to her cheek like she is totally frustrated!
A-M

Brynn-town

I don't think I mentioned that Ann-Michelle and I are taking a Book of Mormon class together this semester. We are really enjoying it. We can study and memorize the scriptures for the class together.

Dallis and Hadley are so crazy about ponies. They love them and carry them around everywhere it seems. The other day Dallis was carrying around a basket with some of her favorite items: 3 ponies (the Mommy pony, the Daddy pony, and the baby pony), a plastic cinderella figurine, and her favorite underwear (has ponies on it). She even took the basket up to the top bunk before bed!

Well yesterday we took Dallis and Hadley to Utah for the weekend. Since we only had Brynn we thought we would try to go watch a movie. Have any of you gone to the theater with an 11-month old? Let's just say - theres a first and a last time for everything. First she was making alot of noise, so we had to go out to get some water to put in her bottle. Then she wouldn't take the bottle so we had to go out to get warmer water. Then she threw up on me. Then she finished the bottle so we had to go out again (how are you supposed to enjoy a movie during this?). She just kept making so much noise that we actually ended up leaving before the movie was over.

The movie we went to was "The Bridge to Terabithia". In spite of my strong feelings about said movie, I will refrain from comment since I am sure many of you haven't seen it (yet).

Brynn is almost 1, we can't believe it. Here is a movie of her making some funny noises. She is crawling up and down the stairs now, actually she crawled all the way up the staircase yesterday.

Did I mention in my last post that we got the girls a new bunk bed? Heres a video of when their first time seeing it.

Ann-Michelle and I started a new semester at school last monday. She is taking several classes on-line and only needs to be on campus tuesday and thursday, which makes the commute alot easier for us this semester. I however still have to drive up to Rexburg monday through friday because of my Calculus II class. We stay pretty busy with work and school and everything else but we are enjoying it.

We also moved into our new townhouse over spring break. It is a little bigger than our old apartment a little nicer and a little more homier for us. We are hoping to get a fence put up for our backyard maybe this year so that the kids can play outside. Ann-Michelle has big plans for painting, and she has already painted the downstairs bathroom purple. She used a special technique called ragging and it looks awesome.

Brynn is a crawling machine now, and she loves playing in her walker. It can actually move now on our pergo kitchen floor, whereas on carpet she couldnt get it to budge. Hadley is potty training now and she is doing really well with the occasional accident of course, usually resulting from us not making her go before bed and then giving her a cup to drink just before falling asleep. You'd think that one would be a no-brainer. We are slowly reducing our dependence on foreign diaper companies. Dallis is growing up too fast and in dance classes right now.

Both Dallis and Hadley love saying family prayer with us. Almost any time we say prayer they will both repeat everything we say even if it isn't their turn. The other day Dallis was saying prayer before bed and this is what she said (imagine cute voice) "Heavenly Father, thank you for our family and please bless me and Hadley to sleep in mommies bed tonight" Nice try !

Ive also attached some pictures - I dont know why but I think pictures of the kids sleeping are so cute.

I hope everyone else can post about their families soon !