Strolling around

My mother-in-law has these strollers at her house that are intended for the baby dolls to ride around in. Well, just for fun I decided to see if Lucy could ride in one. It was a perfect fit and Leah and Annie had a blast pushing her around. I am trying to decide if I could get away with taking one to the mall and letting the girls do all the pushing.

All aboard!

To celebrate my mom's graduation the girls went up to Heber to ride the Polar Express. It was quite enjoyable. We wore our pajamas and enjoyed cookies and cocoa on the train. We listened to the story of the Polar Express and sang Christmas songs. Mrs. Claus paid us a visit and Santa gave us each a bell to help us remember the spirit of Christmas. It was a super fun night, even though is was freezing cold. We desert rats managed to survive.:-)

Matching cupcake jammies

Annie enjoying the festivities
Leah and her cocoa
My sister Mary, Leah, and the big guy himself
Lucy wondering what the heck we were doing
Leah and Annie with the elf named Snowflake

(Leah said if she was an elf her name would be Diamond Sparkle Walker)
Leah and Mrs. Claus

Joy's graduation

On Wednesday night my mom graduated from the DATC with her LPN. She has done so well and she is half way through with the nursing program (she will get her RN at the end of July). She also received a special award. She was nominated by the faculty as the best student during clinicals. She said it was a surprise to her, but I was not surprised at all. She has worked so hard and I am so proud of her. I must admit that I got a little emotional when her name was called for this award. When she was down to visit after Lucy was born, she brought her pediatrics text book (which I even enjoyed reading) and she showed me all the tests that can be done on newborns. It was fun to be a part of her studies and have her show me what she has learned. I'm so glad that my girls have such a good example to follow. She is awesome and I can't wait to see what the future holds for her. Way to go Mom, you are awesome!!!!

With her school buddies Receiving her special award from the nursing coordinator

Receiving her diploma from the president of the DATC

All five kids with our fabulous mother

Grandma with her crazy granddaughters

Average again

Lucy is two months old. I can't believe it. She had her doctor's check up today and she is registering in the 50th percentile with her measurements. Here are the official stats:

Weight-10 lbs. 3 ozs.
Height-22 inches long

Head-39 cm

She is happy, healthy and doing well. She really is a great baby. In fact, last night she slept for 12 hours straight (8:30 to 8:30). Wahoo!! Here are a few shots I took at the doctor's office while waiting for shots to be given.

She is happy because the shots have yet to come

Being emotionally gifted

Lucy's Blessing

We decided to bless Lucy while we were in Utah forThanksgiving to ensure that everyone would be able to participate in her special day. It was a fabulous day for our little family. She was blessed in my mom's ward (the ward I grew up in) and then we went to Brian's parents for a lovely luncheon after. Brian did a great job with the blessing and my mom made her a beautiful gown. It was a great day and we were so grateful that our families were there to share it with us!

My mom proudly displaying her handy work

Our little fam

The women in my family-AWESOME!!
My cute girlie girls
The star of the show

Baking Day

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving is always Baking Day in my family. My mom, my sisters, my girls, and my niece all get together to bake the pies and rolls that will be devoured the following day. We make the same kind of pies every year-pumpkin, banana cream, and the infamous Razzleberry. In fact this year we looked at the date on the newspaper article where we got the Razzleberry recipe and it is 14 years old. This a long going tradition that is one of my favorites. I am especially grateful that my girls are able to participate and that they enjoy baking day as much as I do.
The next generation of Baking Day participants

Leah rolling out the pie crust

Lucy's first Baking Day!
Annie mixing the pumkin pie filling

Afternoon with Annie

Leah had a birthday party at a friend's house this afternoon and Brian was at a school meeting, so Annie, Lucy and I went to the Fall Festival at Mountain's Edge park. It was pretty low key, but Annie got to do some fun things. She danced on the stage, jumped in the bounce house, did a cake walk, played a couple games, won a coupon for a free ice cream cone, and ate a sno-cone. It was quite an enjoyable afternoon. She is a super fun girl!

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

On Friday night we went down to Town Center to see Santa arrive. He came into town on a horse drawn sleigh and he helped light the gigantic Christmas tree that was there. He then went into his house to greet the children (for a nomial fee of course). There was even snow. In fact I had to chuckle because I was standing on fake grass looking at a fake tree, with fake snowflakes falling on us. At least they try to create the image of a white Christmas here. I was afraid that we were going to miss the big event, but Brian did some awesome (and probably somewhat illegal) driving to get us there in time. It was a fun night, but I have to admit that I felt the festivites were a bit premature considering that it is November 15th and we haven't even celebrated Thanksgiving yet. I guess the Christmas season is just around the corner and I need to face the facts and get prepared!

Waiting for Santa to arrive

The big guy makes his appearance Leah and Annie pose at the base of the tree

Strawberry Jam

We did a chocolate fountain at a wedding on Saturday night and we had a bunch of strawberries left over, so I decided to make some freezer jam. It turned out super yummy. Maybe you can sense how good it really was by the following photos.

Needless to say they were a sticky mess and had to get in the shower. I am just glad they liked the jam so much.

One month

Lucy is one month old! I can't believe how fast the time is going by. I wish that it would slow done a bit (maybe I should just slow down a bit-yeah right). She went to her check-up today and all is well. Here are her stats:

Weight-8 lbs 13 ozs (50th percentile)
Height-21.25 inches (50th percentile)

Head-37.5 cm (50th percentile)

So she is pretty much average. I always worry about the head measurement because my kids have large noggins and the doctors always seem concerned and want to have a neurology consult done. If Brian was at the appointment they would look at his head and say, "Oh nevermind about that consult. The gigantic head seems to be genetic." Lucy will probably have to deal with this later in her life, but for now we are pleased with being average. She is getting to be more animated. These are pictures that I took of her when we got home from the doctor. She was pretty happy considering she got a shot.

Mom,

I just wanted to let you know that she was not left in her car seat for very long after we got home. I snapped some pictures and got her right out.:-)

Joy

This past weekend, my mom came for a visit. We had a fabulous time. On Friday we went and saw High School Musical 3. It was awesome. We were the only ones in the theater, which is totally the way to go when watching a movie with kids (even Lucy attended). I will even admit that I got a little emotional during the graduation scene. We missed seeing my sister on the big screen, but we enjoyed ourselves none the less. We did some shopping on Saturday and then she got to come with me to book club that night. It was a great time. We read the book Water for Elephants (which I highly recommend) and we went to the circus and saw some great acts. Sunday was the Primary program and Leah did an excellent job with her part. I was glad that my mom was here to see her perform. All in all it was a great time. In fact Annie woke up yesterday and the first thing out of her mouth was "Joy?" Usually her first word in the morning is "breakfast", so she was obviously impressed with grandma Joy. Thanks mom for coming down. It was a great weekend!

Halloween

This year we had a great Halloween. Our trunk-or-treat was super fun. Leah invited her little friends from across the street to come and they did. We passed out lots of candy and saw some great costumes. The best part of the holiday was our surprise. This year Nevada Day happened to fall on Halloween, so since Brian didn't have school we decided weeks ago that it would be fun to drive up to Ogden for the 3 day weekend and surprise our families. This was especially exciting because there were so many who hadn't met Lucy yet and they got a chance to get acquainted.

Photos of Lucy

So I took some pictures of Lucy today. They are a little on the boring side seeing as how she just lays there, so they all pretty much look the same, but I figured that the peeps in Utah wouldn't mind. I can't believe that she will be 2 weeks old tomorrow. She is super good baby and we just adore her.

I think that is almost a smile

If this had been Leah or Annie I would have told them that I was going to cut off their tongue with the scissors, but I will let this time slide

Great Harvest Bread

Many of you have heard me rave about the awesome tour that we took to Great Harvest Bread. I couldn't believe how cute it was. On Friday night there was a little Halloween party at Great Harvest Bread and we were not disappointed. There was face painting, fortune telling, candy gathering and cookie decorating.

*Just a note to let you know that the girls are not wearing their costumes that are for this year. We are still waiting on a few important minor details to be completed, so we used costumes from our ever growing collection.

Leah requested a sparkly nose and whiskers

Annie got a sparkly, pink butterfly

Decorating our cookies

More cookie decorating (Lucy is snuggled away in the black pouch)