Letter from Santa

Dear Seth & Sarah

Thank you for being so good this year! Your mom and dad told me that you two are always helping out with Luke. He is a good baby…so I decided to bring him a bike. Please help him learn how to ride it.

Seth, I heard that you like music boxes…so my elves made you a special one of Noah’s Ark. I hope you enjoy listening to the music. Also, I don’t know if you still like Star Wars, but I brought you a few things.

Sarah, Mrs. Claus made you a special doll. Her name is Lucy. She needed a good mommy so I brought her to you because you are such a great mom to all your dolls. I hope you love her.

I heard that both of you love to help your mom cook. That is good. Children should always help their mom and dad. My elves made you some aprons to wear while you help your mom. Keep being good! I am proud of you and I hope you like your toys!

Love, Santa Claus

Christmas 2010

Naughty Boy

Luke, what are those all over the floor?

Luke, what is that in your mouth?

Yep, the little stinker pulled a whole plate of brownies off of the table
and proceeded to eat them as fast as he could without getting caught!

In the mood for a bagel I guess...

Or two....

So Luke is as tall as the table now. Yes, that means he can get things off of it easily....which he does quite often. The second mom walks away he checks out the goods on the table to see if there is anything he might like to try.......

Sarah Rose is turning four!

I am sitting here reminiscing about my baby girl. She is turning four this week and I am racking my brain wondering where all the time has gone. I love having my angel girl. She helps me balance out all the boys in this house. She is so fun to have around...Jimmy and I are always talking about how darn cute she is! I think that girl will be able to get whatever she wants in life.

I have been looking through her first pics and I just can't believe that we almost lost her. I wanted so badly to give birth at home when I was pregnant with her....but Jimmy was against it from day one just in case "something went wrong". Well, something did go wrong and I am so so happy that I listened to my husband. My baby girl wouldn't be here if I had given birth to her at home. I am filled with so much emotion when I remember the Dr's running off with my limp baby and wondering if they would ever bring her back to me. The first time I got a good look at her was when Jimmy brought me a little video of her in the NICU. I still love watching it because it always gives me the same feeling of gratitude that my sweet daughter was going to be fine. I love this little girl so much that it drives me batty sometimes, and I can't even imagine my life without her!Our first meeting.....Love at first sight :)

Seth giving his sissy a kiss



A cute little "bird"


My chubby girl

Four year old Angel

Little Artists

Seth and Sarah LOVE to do art! They would do it all day long if I let them. I think it is one of my joys in life too. Watching chubby little hands create beautiful things makes me incredibly happy :)

Seth Working hard on a cherry tree.

Sarah coloring after her bath (notice she had to put on her snow white dress before she would put on her pajamas).

Seth and Daddy playing raquetball, and Luke down below.

Chubby little fingers creating beauty.

Seth drew Sarah and I. Notice I have my hand on my head? He told me it is because I forgot something like I always do....ha ha...the boy knows me well.

Van Gogh better watch his back!

Conference

Our church has a general conference every six months. October is my favorite. It somehow symbolizes the begining of the holidays for me. This conference was so wonderful! Seth and Sarah are finally at an age where they can be reverent during the entire thing! I feel like I got so much out of it. Something I struggle with is having enough "me" time. With three little ones always needing something, I sometimes feel like I am stretched beyond my breaking point. Our Prophet, Thomas Monson gave an incredible talk and in it he talked about enjoying your family because you never know how long you will have with them. I think it is just what I needed to hear. I have decided to spend my days enjoying my children and husband more. If this means I have to stay up a little later cleaning so that I have more time to play during the day, then that is what I am going to do. I feel like I need to focus more on them and less on me. I have only tried to do this for two days and I can already see the difference in my children, they just seem happier.

How two free fish cost daddy $50.

Our Grocery Store here in Provo is great. Every Saturday they have "family activities" that you can do. For instance, you can win fish if your little ball lands in one of the buckets that holds the fish. That is what happened to us. Seth and Sarah both won a fish. Sounds like a great thing, right? Wrong! They give you a fish with no food, aquarium, pump, etc....and then you have two very excited children that think they just inherited the pet of all pets or the San Diego zoo or something just as grand. Well, needless to say, they have their daddy wrapped around their cute little fingers....so off we went to the pet store and ended up spending $50 on all the stuff fish need. Lovely. Can you see the two little fishes swimming around....excited about the "castle" they are getting ready to move into?

Kindergarten

My baby started school! I am still in shock (that is why this post is so late in coming). I cried, he didn't....who would've thought? He loves going to school and I really like his teacher, so I guess sending my baby off to the wolves is ok......Walking to school

Mrs. Bigalow putting on his name tag.

His special "first day of school" breakfast. (All his favorites... strawberry oatmeal, sprinkle donut, and tang). And a little note from mom....but it was pretty sappy so I won't post it ;)

My little (big) kindergartener :)

This was the FUNNIEST thing EVER!!!! Luke was sitting in his "busy chair" and he noticed Sarah's shopping cart next to him....he kept trying to pick it up and was SOOOO mad that he couldn't :) Funny guy (with his father's temper, he he...).

From Luke

Hi guys...I hacked into mommy's blog again. I'm sorry, but she just doesn't post about me enough. I'm already almost nine months old and has she posted about all the cool things i'm doing? NO!! Anyhow, I will fill you in...... So, I can crawl now. Yes, I know i'm cool. Dad is always laughing at me and telling me i'm the 'craziest" child they have had so far... I Love to grab ANYTHING that happens to be around me. I especially like to grab bowls of food off of tables and counters while mom and dad hold me..actually, Dad's a little quicker than mom...so I usually can't get to too much while daddy is holding me. I take a shower with dad every morning...as soon as I hear the water turn on I hurry up and crawl to the bathroom before daddy has a chance to shut the door....I get in there and smile up at him real cute (this insures that he doesn't tell me no... I might be a baby, but i'm not stupid). Seth and Sarah used to give me whatever I wanted...but now when I crawl into their room to play with their toys they just scream for mommy and then she comes in there and gets me out. I am learning to eat really good. Yesterday I found Seths wallet and tried to eat a few pennies....but mommy got upset and took them all away from me. Grandma and Papa came to our house for mommy's birthday and Grandma gave me an ice cream cone. Mom and Dad said no...but she didn't listen. Now I love ice cream and daddy says its all grandmas fault. Mom says we are going to see her so I am hoping she gives me another one. (I will just smile at her when mom and dad are busy and she will probably give me one). Anyhow, I have to go now. I don't want mommy and daddy to know that I am updating our blog again.

Sneaky Boy

Look interesting? Tasty? No? Don't tell Luke that...he worked very hard to get that cheerio...

Luke is VERY mobile now. He gets into everything already!! I haven't had a crawling baby in almost four years and I forgot how hard it is to deal with!!!

I have a love/hate relationship with this stage. It is hard, yes....but it is also so much fun to watch him discover new things every day. This morning he was watching his big brother and sister dance around the living room to the radio and he thought it was the coolest thing ever...poor kid, he wants to run around with them so bad already.

Seth and Sarah are discovering how hard it is to have a mobile little brother....they are getting quite sick of him destroying their block towers everyday ;)

Blessings

I love being a mother. All through my teenage years I begged the Lord to send me children someday. I know how lucky I am to have my three... But sometimes, in hum drum of life....you forget. You forget just how lucky you are to be a mommy. Today I was reading the blog of a couple that just lost thier little girl to a drowning accident. It helped me remember why I wanted this job of a mother in the first place.

Sometimes perspective is so good and so humbling.

I love watching my children sleep. I love sitting next to them and hearing them take deep, sleepy breaths. I love watching their limp, sleepy forms snuggled under their covers. I would just die if the day ever came that I couldn't do that.

Matching smiles :)

All of my kids have their daddy's smile in some form or another....they all close their eyes and smile as big as they can....so funny, and SOOO cute!!!

Luke

Sarah

Seth

Sarah's Angel

So, Grandma Lisa had this angel that Sarah just LOVED...It sat on her coffee table and wasn't supposed to be touched, but Sarah would always sneak into her living room and turn it on so that she could hear the angel sing Silent Night. Anyhow, long story short....Grandma sent it back to Utah for Sarah!! She was speechless when she got it and she hasn't parted with it since......

My Beauty :)

Showing her angel to her friend Abby

The angel had to eat breakfast with us at table :)


She kept the angel in her shopping cart so Luke wouldn't get it.

Playing Chess with Daddy

Seth has been BEGGING Jimmy to teach him how to play chess for a couple of months now. Tonight they went and picked out a chess set together and spent the evening learning the game. I must say (just a little bragging here) he is picking it up Super Fast!! He is such a smart boy, and he is so excited about it that he pays such close attention to everything Jimmy tells him. It is so neat how special things become when your children love them...I NEVER would have been interested in Chess...but now that Seth is so into it, I think I might just have to learn!!

Ice skating graduates!!!

Seth and Sarah graduated from their first ice skating lessons!! You have to take a certain test depending on your age group and they both did great! They actually learned quite a bit during the last 6 weeks...they can both ice skate on there own really good and they can also stop, turn, and do this zigzag sort of thing. I am so proud of them, especially Sarah...she sometimes has a hard time trying new things...but she did really good going out of her comfort zone a little.

Notice all the cute girls around Seth? I think
this is the real reason he wants to take ice skating lessons! Ha Ha!