41

Yesterday was Mike's birthday. This picture was his present.













After eating hamburgers - picnic style - we sang Happy Birthday.

This is the exploding star volcano cake that the kids and I created.

and here is to the 41 years that the world has been enriched by Michael Dean's presence in it.

Happy New Year!

Hope you all have a fun 2009.













Remember, there are three of us. Send us letters and cards and joy.













But most of all remember Goldie loves you












Josiah loves you















And they are teaching Stuart to love you. (It takes him awhile). Happy New Year.

Christmas Fun!

We had a good Christmas! I hope you did too. Right before Christmas, we had Mom-maw over and together we made lots and lots of choclate peanut butter cookies. Mom-maw put all the peanut butter on the cookies.














We were supposed to give away the cookies, but as you can see they tasted so good that we smeared them all over our faces and rolled in them. Delicious. We still have a few left over but most of them are added to our waist line. Yeah for exercise!
















We also made pretzels and had a good time. Mike, Goldie and Stuart hung out in the living room till it was time for eating.









Here is the Sunday after Christmas. Goldie and Josiah got some great church clothes from their Aunt Brenda and Uncle Bill. Don't they look charming?













Okay, here they are with their smiles.

We hope you all have a great New Year! (We are thinking of all you cousins in Idaho right now...wishing we were there with you.)

Josiah is TWO!

Two weeks ago today Josiah turned two.














We celebrated with a tow truck cake.













David, Marcia, Arrel, Naomi, and Daniel were in attendance besides his immediate family.



















Josiah chose the color.
Arrel helped with the tow cables and decorations.

This picture is after Josiah and Goldie were allowed to attack the cake with their bare hands. What Monsters! :-)

Stuart's Day

These are pictures from Stuarts blessing day.














It happened on December 7, 2008. Mom & Dad flew in the day before. However church was cancelled.

















We decided to go ahead with the blessing since
David was also here.



















Some of the bishopric, our home teachers, and a couple of friends came over around 2pm. It was a nice little blessing.














I've been joking that since Stuart was born & blessed at home now he will have to be baptized at home. If that happens we will have to live somewhere else. It was a good day.

Who is this Guy?

What is this guy's name? He was in my babysitting box for years and then I took the box apart and Josiah's been playing with him. He calls him "his monster."

If anybody knows his name let me know because it would be interesting to look him up.

I told Goldie and Josiah a story last night and said that the dad came home and when he saw his wife his eyes grew big. Afterwards, Goldie said, "I don't want big eyes. We explained that your eyes aren't permanently big, but I wonder if this guy looked at somebody wrong and froze.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! We had a great week. Tiring, but good. This is our feast from Thursday. We are still eating it up. Delicious! I didn't want to cook, especially since we had a midwife appointment on Wednesday. It ended up being an all day affair. Stuart had lost one ounce from the week before, so we are really trying to get him going this week, and I'll get him weighed again this Wednesday at the pediatrician.





Here we are digging into our feast. It was a picnic in the living room... the kids favorite.












Yesterday, Sunday, we went over to Mom-maw's and had a real Thanksgiving turkey with all the regular side dishes. It was fun and crowded. I managed to get them to all sit down for pictures again. This is the closest to family picture they've had in years. They are missing one brother, Woody. But the rest of them are there. Isn't it awesome!








Here is everybody that came. Some people are hiding but its the best we can do. We had a lot of fun being crowded in such a tiny house.











This is our Thankful Turkey we made for Family Home Evening one night. Grandma Allen was here to help us. Each of the feathers is something we are grateful for. We sure had a lot to give thanks for.

Hope you all had a good thanksgiving too!