3 days until Christmas

Lincoln

We are delighted to announce the arrival of Lincoln Joseph on Tuesday, December 15. He arrived at the new Riverton Hospital at 5:03 p.m. weighing 6 lb 6 oz and 19 inches long.

The labor was longer than we had hoped, but when it was time, Lincoln came very fast. We were happy to have followed our birth plan and delivered him without an epideral. Jeremy is an amazing coach; I'm especially grateful for him, and also for our awesome nurse, Vicki, and the fabulous Dr. Jane Bowman.

We are so tickled that Lincoln gets to share his birthday with his cousin, Zoey Kaye, who arrived earlier in the morning! She was 7 lb 12 oz and 20 inches. It was fun to share my pregnancy with my youngest sister, Sarah, and such a treat to have our babies the same day.

The new hospital is very nice and the nurses arranged for the cousins to have rooms next to each other.

irreverence?

Is it irreverent for an adult to eat Transformers fruit snacks in Sacrament Meeting?

when the trees grow apples...

...make applesauce!

Thanks to my tremendous applesauce crew, we bottled applesauce and apple juice this morning while the snow fell! Anna, Griffin, and Jane all had specific jobs which they fulfilled beautifully. I love to eat warm applesauce, not heating in the microwave applesauce, but sauce that's newly pressed, warm, and sweet. Yum.

baby shower

Last weekend we had a baby shower at my mom's house for my sister (since it's her first) and it was great to see so many ladies from my home ward (and my fam, too... pictured are Colette, Hollie, Sarah, and me). It made me reflect on the women who have impacted my life by doing small things, by being amazing young women leaders, by loving me for me, and by simply being good women and showing me the path that I knew I wanted to be on. Thanks to Annette, Susan, Janie, Marsha, Yvonne, Lynette, Verlynn, Ruth, Jeanne, Betty, and all the others who helped me be who I am today.

Fall

Nothin' says FALL like pumpkins, hay bales, and old tractors.

Halloween sampling

It's tricky to pick just a few pictures to put on the blog (since there are so many good ones!) so I've chosen a few to give a sampling of our Halloween festivities.

On parade/class party day at school, the 5th graders had Mall Day (instead of a Halloween party). The kids used their money that they've earned since the first of the year to buy a business license, set up a business, and buy and sell various goods or services. Zachary sold hot dogs (cooked in his hot dog toaster) for $50 each. The sign says "warm cooked hot dogs with a choice of ketchup or mustard. Estimated three minute wait." He sold hot dogs as fast as they'd cook and he made over $1000 in 5th grade cash.

We enjoyed a delightful evening celebrating El Dia De Los Muertos with family and friends. My mom and Anna were both witches.

I had to throw in a picture of the pregnant nun and pumpkin. :)

Saturday night we went trick-or-treating and got a ton of candy. As you can see, Jane is a butterfly, Anna a witch, Griffin is a cowboy, Seven (our little friend) is Buzz Lightyear, and Zachary is Shaggy.

It was a fun holiday weekend!

Jane's Halloween program

Jane's preschool class had a fun Halloween party and then performed some songs for the parents. Miss Tiffany, the preschool teacher, teaches sign language along with the curriculum (so Jane is signing and singing) (yes, I know, I forgot to turn the camera the correct way to film until after I'd started filming. I'm pregnant, work with me). Because the weather was cold and drizzly, we enjoyed the program inside. Jeremy, as you might guess, is the make-up artist for our butterfly.

free time

I've finished my grape juice for the year! It's all boxed up, labeled, and organized in the food storage room!

The 10 buckets of green grapes (pictured here) make the pinkish colored grape juice and purple grapes make the pretty purple grape juice. Thanks to Jeremy and Griffin for picking all of the grapes. Thanks to mom for giving me one juicer (I bought a second one several years ago). Thanks to the retired ladies in the ward for the bottles they've donated to me over the years (including the anonymous one who snuck in and placed several boxes of empty jars by the garage door). Thanks to mom and Donna (who lives down the street) for most of the grapes this year. We bottled nearly 80 quarts. Wow.

My tasty recipe:

1 quart grape juice

1 cup sugar

1 packet lemonade

fill the remaining 2 gallon pitcher with water

Midge, my amazing next door neighbor, mixes in Sprite or 7Up. Yum!

Hollywood Hullabaloo

Anna was cast in the Midvale-Copperview Theater Arts Program play entitled Hollywood Hullabaloo, in which she performed last weekend. She was the youngest cast member and had a fabulous, fabulous time! I think it takes a lot of courage to get on stage, act (she had a speaking part) and dance on stage, and sing a solo. She did an amazing job and we're so proud of her!

I'm not sure why I filmed her the way I did, but in order to rotate the video I have to upgrade my video player to the tune of $29.99 plus shipping. So, tilt your head to the left and enjoy 38 seconds of Anna singing. :)