Family Photos

Back at the end of November we had family photos taken at a studio called Fotofly.  They did a great job and we LOVE our new family pics.  Here are a few (or like 20) of my favorites. :)

THE FAMILY 2012

THE KIDS

TALIA-age 2

BECKETT-age 2 months

DAVIN-age 4

WESTON-age 6

MOM & DAD

Talia is Two!

Two years ago at Christmastime Talia was born.  Yesterday, on 12/12/12, my baby girl turned two!  I can't believe how quickly it happened.  She is such a big girl these days.  We don't do parties for two year olds, but I'm pretty sure my birthday princess had a fun day.  She woke up to decorations, a sparkly sash, and a birthday waffle. 

 

 

 

Later while Davin was at preschool we went out to lunch at Chick Fil A with Auntie Mel.  Talia enjoyed her fries dipped in ranch and her chocolate milk.  She also loved playing in the play area!  We ran a couple errands then headed home for a nice, long birthday nap.

 

 

After her nap I painted her nails for the first time.  She thought it was so cool!  She was very proud of her pink nails and showed everyone.  It almost made me cry that my little girl is big enough to have her nails painted pink!  Wow!

That night Brad and Mel joined us for spaghetti and meatballs, presents and cupcakes.  I asked Tal last week what she wanted for her birthday dinner.  I said "What's your favorite dinner?"  Talia replied, "Ummm, tweat!"  We went with meatballs since I knew she would eat them.  She also had plenty of treats and loved her cupcake with a candle. 

For her birthday Talia got a new outfit from OshKosh, a pair of Daisy Duck pj's, a new Minnie coloring book, and a fun little doll nursery.  She loves it!  I am so relieved.  Up until now she hasn't been super into dolls, but when we brought it down and showed her how to feed her baby in the high chair and put her to sleep in the crib she got the hang of it pretty fast.  She's been carrying around her baby today too. 

Talia at two is full of personality and sass.  We love her to pieces.  She can be really sweet and loving or she can be full of attitude.  She has the most volume of any of our kids too.  Talia is talking a ton.  When she wants to.  One of her catch phrases she picked up from her brothers (and it drives me crazy when any of them say it) is "I know."  She says it almost every time I tell her to do something.  She also says "I love you" and lots of other cute phrases.  Sometimes I can't understand her but her speech gets better every day. 

Her hair is long and curly at the ends.  I love combing it out after her bath and seeing how long it is.  She also loves her clothes.  She chooses her shirt every day and I give her the matching pants.  She only wants to wear her Hello Kitty hairbow.  Talia loves to brush her teeth.  She usually ends up doing it at least 4 times a day.  She has the cutest laugh and the longest eyelashes.  She is growing up so quickly.  I never thought I would have a girl, but I am so grateful that I get to be Talia's mommy.  I hope that I can be a good example to her of how to be a strong, confident, faithful woman.  Happy Birthday Talia!

Decor & The Doctor

After all the family left I got the house back in order then Mel helped me get out the Christmas decorations!  We had fun figuring out where to put things in this new house.  I am loving all the fun Christmas decor.  On December 1st we got our Christmas tree.  It was a busy Saturday so we didn't decorate it until Sunday.  It was actually a really fabulous Sunday afternoon.  We relaxed, decorated the tree while the little ones were napping, then watched Charlie Brown Christmas and drank hot chocolate.  It was a happy day.

I also did a little Christmas crafting!  I am so not a crafter so this was big.  I even went to Hobby Lobby for the first time.  It stressed me out.  That store is so ginormous and I felt so out of my element.  I did find a super cute lamp for Talia's big girl room, but I forgot the yellow yarn I needed.  Oh well.  :) 

First I made Beckett's stocking and decorated Talia's a little bit since I didn't bother doing it the year I had her.  Then I made our family a manger.  We had one growing up and whenever we did service or helpful things for each other or for others we got to put a piece of hay in the manger.  The idea being that we were helping make a soft bed for baby Jesus.  My sister, Joy, has the original one from our childhood, so I had her send me a picture of it and I freehanded my own.  I'm pretty proud of it and it's been fun to do with the kids.  Davin isn't really motivated by it this year, but Weston is constantly telling me about nice things he did and asking if he can put hay in the manger for it.  He's such a good kid.

 

Finally, I wanted to report on Beckett's 2 month check up!  It was a little late (just last Friday).  He is getting to be such a big boy.  He is so sweet and adorable.  There were no problems.  He is a healthy, growing boy.  And he was a champ for his shots.  He screamed really high pitched for about one minute then calmed down and slept a TON for the next 24 hours.  I can't complain about that! 
Here are his 2 month stats:
weight: 10 lbs. 14 oz. (25th%ile)
height: 23.5 inches (15th%ile)
head: 25th%ile

November Excitement

November brought us lots of family and friends, fun events, and lots of pictures.  We started the week off with my mom coming!  It's always a party when Mom is here.  Mel spent a lot of her free time here during that week too.  We shopped and got ready for Thanksgiving.  We also got to meet up with Eli and Emilee and their girls for a trip to the dinosaur museum and some cousin time. 

 

 

 

 On Wednesday morning Mom and I brined the turkey.  This was all my mom's brilliant idea.  She even made a special trip to Salt Lake to buy the brining bag and spices at Williams-Sonoma.  Wednesday also brought us the Bowles' family!  Jim, Denny, Aly, and Ella arrived that evening.  We visited for a little while that night before we all headed to bed. 

Thanksgiving Day was a busy day of cooking and cleaning.  Ian took the big kids to swim at the hotel with his parents while my mom and I worked in the kitchen.  I actually wasn't feeling very well and ended up being much less help than I had planned.  My dad was driving that day and arrived around lunch time.  I was so grateful to have my family there to help out and be my kitchen crew!  We ended up eating right on time and it was all delicious.  Our sprawling cornucopia centerpiece turned out wonderful too.  It was so pretty!

 

 

 On Friday we went to the dino museum once again with some of the Bowles' friends who were in town.  It was fun to catch up with the Jacobson's!  That night we had a family dinner and birthday celebration for Denny, Noelle, and Talia.  Talia was so excited to open presents and got some fun things, including TWO Minnie Mouse plushes from my parents.  One is a backpack and she loves it.  She also was very into her cupcake with a candle. 

Saturday morning we went and took family pictures with the Bowles side at Thanksgiving Point.  We were all together, which doesn't happen too often.  The pics only turned out ok, which was disappointing because we had to buy a photographer's pass and we just don't get pics all that often.  Sigh.  It's hard when you have 4 kids under age three.

After pictures everyone went to see Wreck It Ralph while I went shopping and out to lunch with my mom and dad.  It was nice to spend some one on one time with them.  We also baked cinnamon rolls for Sunday brunch.  Saturday night we ate leftover Thanksgiving dinner.  It was delish!  I was bummed I had missed out on eating it Thanksgiving Day, but it tasted fantastic as leftovers.  :)  I spent that evening cleaning things up to get ready for Beckett's blessing.

Sunday morning we blessed Beckett Lawrence in our ward.  Ian gave Beckett a really beautiful blessing.  I cried, of course.  We had lots of family and friends there and we were so grateful to be surrounded by people we love.  After the blessing we came back to our house for a yummy brunch of souffle, muffins, cinnamon rolls, fruit and juice.  It was nice to visit with everyone and enjoy relaxing.  We didn't really take any pictures except the group picture.  Oops.  The Bowles' had to leave after the brunch to catch their flight back to Oregon.  We are so glad they were able to come and spend the holiday and the blessing with us! 

 

 

 That evening it was just my parents and Brad and Mel.  We enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner again, sang our Olson Christmas repertoire and watched White Christmas.  I was so glad we got to enjoy some Christmas traditions together to kick off the season!  My parents got up early Monday morning to start the drive home.  I spent Monday recovering, cleaning and doing laundry.  It was a whirlwind of people and events, but I am so thankful that we could make it happen.  It was a wonderful week!

On My Mind

Well, I have officially hit my free storage limit for photos on Blogger (actually they are stored on Picasa, but whatever) which means that I can't blog with pictures at the moment.  It's quite unfortunately timing.  My awesome computer nerd hubby is working on a free solution, so have no fear.  There will be pictures of the kids again soon!

In the meantime it really has been forever since I have blogged and so much has happened in the last 3 weeks.  We had lots of family in town, hosted Thanksgiving, blessed Beckett, decorated for Christmas, and are whittling down our advent calendars.  There will be posts about all of that in the next couple of weeks, but for now I wanted to just write a bit.  A lot of times my blog is just an account of what we are doing, which is great!  But this is also the only place that I "journal" so I think it's important to sometimes just write out the things I have been thinking about.

I missed the boat on the whole say-something-you're-grateful-for-every-day-in-November thing, but I really did spend time reflecting on my blessings last month and feeling some extra gratitude.  I especially have been feeling so grateful to my Heavenly Father for his loving guidance in my life.  I am slowly learning to really trust in Him and His timing.  I know that we are where we are supposed to be right now.  Selling our house and finding this new place was definitely a blessing.  I love living here.  I love our home.  I love our neighborhood.  I love our ward.  I love the new opportunities that living here has presented to us.  On the flip side I am also so very grateful for the years we spent in Kearns.  I don't doubt that was where we were supposed to be at that time either.

I am, of course, grateful for my family.  I have a sweet, thoughtful, hardworking, loving husband.  He is so good to me.  He is a great dad too.  We have awesome kids.  Four of them.  We are so blessed to be their parents.  I am grateful that our circumstances allow me to stay at home with my kids.  Sometimes it's hard, but there's nothing else I'd rather be doing. 

I am grateful for freedom.  I love living in America.  There is no other place in the world like it and I am blessed to live here.  I get to make my own choices about almost everything.  Including how I worship God.  I love being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  Heavenly Father's plan of happiness brings me so much peace.  I know that I am blessed to have a knowledge of my Savior, of my divine worth and identity, and of how I can return to live with my Heavenly Father again someday with my family. 

I am thankful for a million little things too.  Including, but by no means limited to, chocolate, the smell of rain, group text conversations, snuggling, baby smiles, indoor plumbing, being able to park in the garage, iphones, a basement where I can send the kids to play as loudly as they want, contact lenses, dishwashers, washer/dryers, Cafe Rio, good movies, good music, my piano, air conditioning, date nights, cute boots, etc. etc. etc.

Well this is getting a little lengthy, but suffice it to say I have a LOT to be grateful for.  I always appreciate the time set aside at Thanksgiving to think about all the good things in my life.  It's nice to get them all written out like that too.  Remind me to read this post the next time I start whining about something ok?  :)