Our Family of 6: 2011

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Halloween

This year we had "Princess Tangled" (aka Rapunzel), Elmo, and a Bunny at our house for Halloween, which starts early here in Stillwater. The first celebration was the Tuesday before, when the city has a huge party downtown.

There were tons of kids and kid games and candy, of course. Kyle got a fireman hat, which was really exciting!

The next Halloween celebration was Thursday night when we had the church Chili Cook-Off and Trunk-or-Treating. We were sad that Brad couldn't come to this party but the kids had a blast. They got to walk around with one of the teen-age girls in the ward so I could hand out candy to other kids and I think Kyle was a bit smitten with her. :) Olivia & Kyle were thrilled about all the treats they were given and so excited that they got to eat 2 pieces of candy that night!

On Friday we went out to dinner at IHOP and the kids got free "Scary Face Pancakes" which they thought were "de-lish-iss"! They thought the pancakes were pretty funny because they had cookies & candy & "frosting" on them.

Cara & Boppa were visiting on the day of Halloween, which made it even more fun! We picked out a pumpkin (at Walmart!), went out to dinner, and went real trick-or-treating (in a neighborhood, from house to house, which they'd never done before).

The kids were a bit nervous at first but they quickly got the idea and didn't want to stop.

Halloween isn't my favorite holiday and this is most we've ever celebrated it but we actually had a lot of fun. By the way, the kids keep reminding me that "we really need to carve our pumpkin to make a jack-o-lantern". I guess we'll have to try doing that again but I doubt they'll help once we get started. :)

Monday, October 24, 2011

Talented Women

I feel so blessed to have such talented family members! Since Olivia was born my Grandma A. has knit many adorable sweaters for my children. Besides making sweaters for her great-grandchildren, my Grandma knits and sells sweaters to raise money for charity--isn't that a great idea? In this picture Kyle is wearing a BYU sweater, which Brad was really excited about!

Here is Great-Grandma with Olivia & Kyle wearing her sweaters at Easter.

They LOVE their sweaters from Great-Grandma and other people compliment me on them all the time! Here is a picture of the most recent sweaters that she made! Thank you Grandma!

Brad's mom has made some cute baby blankets and a gorgeous quilt for Olivia. She made Brad & I an amazing quilt for our wedding.

She is a very talented seamstress and made a dress that fit Olivia perfectly, without even seeing Olivia for a few months! She has also sewn me some skirts that I love because they fit so well.

My Mom has crocheted each of the kids really soft baby blankets and made lots of warm winter hats. She has also sewn them cute matching Hawaiian outfits. Here are their outfits from this year. Since we had such a ridiculously hot summer the kids had lots of chances to wear their matching shorts.

Thanks to each of you for spending so much time to make us such beautiful and thoughtful gifts! We love you!

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Pre-School

Olivia had her first day of pre-school on August 22nd. I think she was a little nervous, but she did great that first day! She is going to the Methodist pre-school here and she loves it! She goes to school on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday mornings for about 2.5 hours. She has 4 teachers (Miss Diane, Miss Mel, Miss Melanie, & Miss Chris), who are very kind and loving. At school Olivia's favorite things are painting, playing with the babies, doing projects, being with her teachers, and playing with her favorite friend, Eunice. She tells me that she eats snack every day there so she won't be too hungry. It's been really good for her to get to be the big girl who goes to school. Olivia says that she and Daddy both have to go to school to do their work and make money for our family (I wish she made money by going to school instead of spending money).

Kyle and I have been having lots of fun together while Olivia is at school. One of Kyle's favorite things to do while Olivia is gone is to clean the bathtubs! He also likes to work on his ABC book that we are making. Each day we do a different letter and find pictures of words that start with that letter to cut out and put in his book. He likes to take his book everywhere! Kyle really likes helping to take Olivia to school and helping to pick her up. He helps her hang up her backpack, wash her hands, and put her name on the board saying that she's in class. The teachers tell me every day that he should be at school too, but I'm enjoying having time with just him for the first time ever. He is excited to go to school when he's 4, like Olivia.

Claire takes a nap while Olivia is at school, which she doesn't really like, but she does anyway--she needs her beauty sleep. We all miss Olivia while she is gone and are excited to see her again at the end of her school days.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Swimming

We had a HOT summer here in Oklahoma--especially coming from cool, wet Seattle! We loved our new blow-up pool and sprinkler!

We could only use them in the mornings though because it was just too hot in the afternoons to go out at all (most days it was over 105 degrees, which shouldn't be legal)! We were sure grateful for our air conditioning, especially the 2 times that it quit working.

Here is Claire the first time she wore her swimming suit and went swimming. I don't think such little babies are supposed to swim--the smallest swim diapers I could find came almost all the way to her armpits and the smallest swimming suits were also too big. She did look cute though and Claire did like being in the pool with Daddy so we didn't worry too much about the rest!

Olivia & Kyle also had fun swimming with their cousins Tanner, Caden, & Brady!

Claire took many naps in the stroller during swimming time--but she had her swim suit on too. We love swimming. I'm so glad that everyone in our family loves the water!

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Busy Weekend

(I'm not sure why but I can't seem to make the pictures any bigger, sorry!)

This weekend was a busy and a fun one! On Saturday Brad graduated from UW with his PhD in Accounting. On Sunday Claire had her baby blessing at church. We were grateful to have Brad's parents, his brother Nathan, my parents, and my grandparents come for our special weekend!

One of the highlights of the weekend was when Brad first came downstairs wearing his purple robe. Kyle looked at him and burst out laughing! He said, "Daddy, boys DON'T wear dresses!" It was really cute and very funny.

Here is Brad on the huge screen getting his diploma. They read his name in the big university graduation ceremony since Brad got his PhD--it was fun to hear his name and see him on the big screen (the kids were excited about that).

Brad got his Hood at the Business School graduation. It's so hard to believe that it's all real--after 5 years Brad has finished his PhD! I'm so proud of his hard work and great accomplishment! In some ways it's been a really long 5 years and in other ways it's gone really fast. We've loved living in Seattle and we will really miss it here.

Olivia & Kyle stayed home (and went to bed) while we went to the Business School Graduation Ceremony Saturday night. When people saw Brad & I with Claire, they kept congratulating us on having a baby while Brad was getting his PhD. We smiled and said thanks but we had to laugh later since the baby they saw was not our 1st baby like they thought, but actually our 3rd baby born during the PhD program. Another memorable moment was when Claire decided that the hooding ceremony would be a good time for a blowout! We were able to wait (without too big of a mess) until Brad was finished and then we had to go out to change her. There was nowhere to change her but the floor so I found a corner and once I got started I realized I didn't have any wipes--I always have wipes!!! What an adventure! :)

Sunday was Claire's baby blessing. She has been our happiest baby and she was the only one who cried and fussed during the blessing. We're grateful for those special and happy moments and that both of our fathers could be there to help with her blessing. Claire was able to wear my beautiful blessing dress that my Grandma Alexander made. (Olivia also wore it for her baby blessing.) Here we are--a family of 5, with a PhD for a husband/father--I can hardly believe how blessed we've been!

And in just a few more days we'll start the next part of our lives, in Oklahoma!

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Our New Baby

Baby #3 is here! Claire Elizabeth was born on Monday, March 14 at 6:19pm. She weighed 7lbs. 13oz. and was 21in. long.

Her birth was somewhat of a miracle. Here's the short version of her birth story... I woke up at 4:45 am with painful contractions and had very strong but irregular contractions all day. The contractions were close to 5 minutes apart, lasting for about a minute, for a few hours but they were not like clockwork. I was getting ready to call the midwives when my water broke, at about 5:15pm. I called them after that and they said to come in after about an hour. As soon as I got off the phone my contractions became almost constant and I felt like I needed to push. After 5 minutes I called back and the midwife said to get right into the car and come to the birth center. We left right away and Brad drove as fast as he could (I don't know if I've ever seen him drive so fast--we were grateful he didn't get a ticket!). It was a rare day in Seattle--there was almost no traffic! It was the most uncomfortable, long car ride of my life! It was so hard to not push and I was scared the baby would be born in the car. We got there and I barely made it into the room. I started pushing right away. 9 minutes later, our baby girl was born! We were SO grateful that we made it and that we were done so fast.

Olivia always said the baby was a girl--and she was right! We're grateful because if we brought home a boy baby she probably would have told us to take him back.

The kids asked all the time when our new baby would come to our house

so they were really excited to meet her when she came! For a few months now Olivia and Kyle have said that our baby's name is "Kailey Olivia." However, after meeting her Olivia decided that her name was really "Kailey Hailey." They did not believe us when we told them that the baby's name is actually Claire and refused to call her anything but Kailey for a few days. Olivia does not like her name but she does call her Claire now and Kyle still calls her Kailey quite a bit. Kyle also likes to ask why we are calling her Claire. Olivia and Kyle LOVE their baby, which is so fun and cute to watch. Olivia wants to hold (and carry) Claire all the time. Kyle brings her toys and his special blanket to use constantly and can hardly keep from crying himself whenever she starts to cry.

It's already been 3 weeks and we can't remember life without Claire! She is a completely sweet and peaceful baby! She even smiles for us (mostly Brad) all the time. We are so grateful for her.

Our Family of 6