Growing Up

I hate that it's happening, but my little Eleanor is growing up. Tonight while cuddling on the couch she was telling me all the kids in her primary class. When she got to a little boy named Noah she said, "Not the one with the blond hair but the cute one". It was so cute how she said I loved that she was comfortable enough to tell me about this little Noah. I asked him why she thought he was cute and she said because he is really nice and has brown hair. I wish I knew the trick to keeping her young but obviously that's not going to happen so I just hope she will continue being so trusting and open with me. Soon after she told me this we both fell asleep on the couch. I know it may not sound like much but to me this was such a sweet memory for me.

Jude's Blessing

We decided to wait until Thanksgiving weekend to bless Jude. John's parents just returned from a mission and my parent's were in town for Thanksgiving so it worked out great. We blessed him in our home with just family. It was a great morning and Jude was the prefect little baby. He loved all the attention and looked adorable in his blessing outfit.

Thanksgiving 2011

This year we celebrated Thanksgiving at our home with Mimi & Grandpa and Sara, Dick & Henry. It was a very relaxed and enjoyable day. Eleanor was so much fun to watch. She was really into celebrating Thanksgiving and even made her own fruit salad. She helped make the name cards and set the table all by herself. (She put all the boys on one side and the girls on another) She even wanted me to take a million photos of her. She sure does make our lives more interesting!

John and Grandpa spent most the afternoon finishing our Christmas lights. They spent quite a few hours out in the cold and they did a fantastic job! (And I am so grateful for my Dad's help. He did my portion!)

It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving has come and gone. I always love Thanksgiving and this year was fabulous!

Oh Cecilia

My kiddos have a new cousin and she is adorable!! Amy had Cecilia on November 8th and Sara and I drove down will all our kids to be there for the big day. We couldn't all fit in one car and our rental van turned out being twice as expensive as we thought so ended up caravanning (is that a word?). Eleanor went with Sara and Henry and I kept Amelia and Jude. Jude we perfect! He cried maybe a 5 minutes (different story coming home) and Amelia only cried once when she got her arm stuck outside her car seat straps. I'm not sure where she came up with it but the entire drive down Amelia kept saying, "Mom watch out the cars". At first I thought it was really cute but after 10 hours of hearing that every few minutes I kind of went a little crazy!

Poor Amy was expecting to go into the hospital on Thursday night but didn't actually go in until Sunday. After nearly 40 hours of labor she was still only at a 2 so they took Cecilia by cesarean.
Davey and Amy did a great job and Cecilia is adorable! Seeing how small Cecilia was made me really miss having Jude as a tiny new born. In fact, right after she was born I spent nearly the entire next day holding and cuddling my little Jude. It's just not fair they have to grow so dang fast!

It was so much fun being down in Arizona for the arrival of Cecilia and being around family. Because of weather we ended up staying in AZ for 12 days. My girls had the time of their lives being with their cousin and it was fun having Jude meet everyone. Henry and Amelia loved being with each other all day and got in a lot of time with Olive, Jonathan, Lincoln and Elena. They are all going to be quite the rowdy bunch in a few years!

I didn't take many photos so I stole these from Aunt Sara.