American Pyes

Easter Sunday was a special day for us.  We started it out by blessing our new baby boy in Marietta.  Then we followed our church services up with our nephew's baptism.  After church we enjoyed Easter dinner at Nana and Papaw's house.  We finished the day with an easter egg hunt and lots of playing with cousins.  Jonathan was such a star.  He looked so handsome in his white.  All the kids fought over who got to hold him all day.

Just a few more pics before we left the hospital.  Richard has always had the honor of changing the first poopy/tar filled diaper of all of our children.  Jonathan slept a lot while we were in the hospital lets see if he can keep this up at home.

The evening after Jonathan was born all the kids came to meet their newest sibling.  They were all so excited to see him.  Hannah was immediately at ease holding him.  Sarah was only interested for a few seconds. Nana and Papaw have been a huge help.  We are so glad that they were able to come and stay with the kids.

Our little leap day baby arrived February 29th at 12:01 pm.  He was 8 lbs. 1.5 oz and 19 3/4 in. long.  I was induced so there were no big surprises but his birth was a little traumatic because he came out very fast with the cord around his neck.  Both Jonathan and mom are doing great.

Jonathan's first picture.

This is us getting ready to leave the delivery room so that we can settle in  in our recovery room.

Wow! Number five.  Richard looks a little tired.

We were feeling festive for New Years Eve this year so we decided that we would invite some people over for a big party.  Unfortunately, we started getting sick in the middle of the week so we decided maybe that wasn't a very good idea.  Luckily, everyone was healthy again by the time new years eve hit but by then it was too late to invite people over so we decided to have a party with just our family.  We asked the kids what treats they wanted and we went to the store and bought everything they said.  We decided to go with a Superman theme.  We started out by everyone making their own pizzas (Richard was proud of his super pizza).  Then we enjoyed our orange sodas in bottles (apparently the bottles make it more special).  We made up our buffet table of cookies, cream puffs, veggies, jello, chips and other junk and then we watched the first two Superman movies.  Our jello was supposed to represent kryptonite.  Then we toasted in the new year with sparkling cider.  Everyone except Sarah and mummy made it to midnight.  We all had a lot of fun and we were glad that we decided to make it only a family thing.

Christmas day at Nana and Papaw's house is always so exciting.  Most of the cousins were there.  Everyone had a great day.  This year Christmas fell on Sunday so we opened gifts nice and early in the morning and then we headed to church for a special sacrament meeting where almost all of the adults in our family participated in the program.  Nana and I were left to keep all of these kids quiet during the program.  There were all very good for the most part.

We trade families who we give gifts to each year for Christmas.  This year we had my brother Don's family.  Since I have discovered my love for woodworking this year I thought I would attempt to make something for them.  It was a little difficult since I am getting big with this pregnancy but I was determined to finish.  I also left it a little late but I wasn't going to let that stop me.  I was really happy with how these adirondack chairs turned out.  I had fun painting them in their favorite colors and personalizing them for them.  We also gave them marshmallows and roasting sticks since these are meant to go around their fire pit.  My kids were pretty jealous of them.  I had them test the chairs for me and they all said they wanted me to make them one.  I don't think that's going to happen- they weren't too hard to make but I certainly don't feel up to starting anymore of them.