February Lots Of Love

Happy Birthday Groundhog! 

Preston was so sweet and got me these flowers. 

Katelyn is very interested in the fire below us. Still doesn't get that she shouldn't touch hot things. 

Natalie and Jordan did a fantastic job of decorating my birthday cake. I absolutely love all of the crocked candles and the mountain of sprinkles. They have no idea how adorable they are!

Here's the big 11 month old. What a beautiful little lady. 

Trying to get some cute shots for the girls who's almost one. 

Katelyn will walk if we hold her hands. What a sweetie. I love watching our kids learn new things and gain new abilities. It's seriously one of the best parts of being a parent. Plus all of the hugs. 

Little miss messy face. 

Ah, another miss messy face. 

Happy Valentines Day! I really enjoy making holidays special. Here's some heart french toast.

The heart sugar cookies are also very popular too. 

One day I caught the kids being super heroes. Can't say they are wrong in their attire. Superman doesn't set a very good example. You can tell by their big smiles that they are enjoying the underwear over their pants a little too much. What a bunch of sillies. 

She's gotten so big since her newborn pictures sleeping in this bed. She so precious. Time is a strange thing. 

Katelyn has a tooth! Congrats little lady!

Provo City Center Temple

We had the blessing of attending the Provo City Center Temple open house! It was wonderful to go and see what revelation, work, and time can do. This is were the Provo Tabernacle once stood, where Preston and I would go to stake conferences, graduations, etc. in our BYU days. We feel very lucky to be able to have experienced both the tabernacle and the temple here. In my mind I will always call it the tabernacle temple.

The fountain is always our kids favorite part of a temples grounds. So funny!

I love to see the Temple.

 

 Jordan and Natalie were so sweet in looking at this statue of Jesus. They looked for the nail marks in His hands and feet. When they saw them they told us they knew why those were there. 

I really liked how the design inside and out reflect the time period the original structure was built. Classically beautiful in my opinion.

Families Are Forever. It is a joyful experience to be able to take our family to the temple. I pray that we will always be able to do so. Holiness to the Lord. The House of the Lord.

2016 Already Exciting

One morning a few days after Christmas I was helping the kids open up some of their new toys when I hear a scream. It was Katelyn. She had crawled over to the lit gas stove and had put her hand on it. I sprinted over to take her hand off only to see the blisters already forming. 

I ran upstairs to try and figure out what to do, all the while Katelyn is screaming in awful pain. I put burn cream on her hand and try some other things but nothing calms her down. I realize I can't do this on my own (find an urgent care, take her with the other kids, keep her from injuring herself even more, etc.) and so I call Preston. 

Through my crying all I can get out is, "Katelyn burned her hand... I need help." He rushes home and I continue to hold Katelyn so she won't hurt her hand more (it looked so terrible). Preston finds an urgent care and takes Katelyn there. He calls and keeps me posted. 

We have never had a child injured this badly. I felt TERRIBLE... I went through all of the should ofs and could ofs. You keep your kid safe 99 times and the 100th time you slip... and you still feel terrible. Even though that sounds like a pretty good job. 

When she put her hand on the glass she didn't have the reaction most people would to quickly take it off. She held it there and I had to rush to take her hand off of the glass. This resulted a bad 2nd degree burn. We had to keep her hand bandaged for about three weeks, changing bandages twice a day for a while, using some amazing hand cream medicine, and going to the pediatrician each week for guidance. It was quit the ordeal for a few seconds mistake. 

I couldn't bring myself to take a picture of her hand since my guilt was still so strong. As she's healed so have I. I am happy to say that she has now healed perfectly. Her hand has no scares, which I feel is a big blessing. But alas, Katelyn still doesn't understand that she shouldn't touch hot things. Can you believe that?! But I am now paranoid and very quick about keeping  her far far away from hot things. 

Here she is hanging out with Grandma Suzie and sporting her bandage.

Here is Katelyn 10 months old. 

Her teeth are on their way! You can see the puffy gums in this picture.

Cousin time with Aubrielle. I love when these kids get together. 

 

Jordan and Natalie are good buddies. Here they are playing house. I love to see what their imaginations come up with. 

 

Mr. Spikey Hair! 

At the end of the month Katelyn's hand was all better and she learned to clap. Can you tell she is so excited about her new skill. Yay for healing bodies!

Proud brother cheering her on with her new accomplishment. And that's a wrap for January. Onto possibly calmer months.

Mum's "Diamond Jubalee"

Happy Birthday Mumsy! It's so nice that Mom's birthday is the day after Christmas, because everyone is in town to get together for her big day! Here we all are taking Mom out to the Olive Garden to celebrate her special day. 

It was Mom's "Diamond Jubalee" as we like to call it. Mom's friend Sister Johnson from England said that the Queen of England called her 60th birthday her diamond jubalee and so they should too. It does make it sound very fancy. 

Mom blowing out the candles at Ben and Rebekah's house. 

Ben and Rebekah sure can through a party. We all had a great time celebrating our wonderful Mom. Jordan had a blast with his cousin Heath. I'm so glad he's got a boy cousin his age to play with.

We all helped to make a big surprise present for Mom this year. A long time ago I had gotten the siblings to write down some of their favorite memories of Dad and then I made it into a book for him to have. This year I felt the impression that Mom should have one too. So I coordinated with siblings to write down some of their favorite memories of Mom. We gave her the book with family pictures at the party. She was so surprised! I am so thankful for the families help in making this special present possible. We love you Mumsy!

Christmas 2015

We had the O'Neals over for a night during Christmas break. Look at these cute kids watching morning cartoons together. So sweet!

Aubrielle and Katelyn playing together. I love that these cousins are only a month apart in age. 

Christmas morning. 

Katelyn playing with toys and not concerned in the least where her other sock went. 

Jordan's excited for his "all season boots." He wanted these boots so he could be just like his Daddy. Natalie likes to cook in her play kitchen, so we got her more play food to cook with. Katelyn hasn't figured out yet that she has presents to open too. But she has found a candy cane... so she's good.

Can't take enough pictures to capture these sweet moments we think we'll never forget, but that our imperfect minds do let fade. Pictures have a special way of bringing us back into that time, that moment, and all of the feelings/emotions/memories that go with it. 

Katelyn is helping Grandma Suzie play Christmas carols. Good job sweetie. 

Yay! Katelyn found one of her presents. Now lets see if she can figure out how to open it. 

We had Ron, Melissa, and Charlie over for a Christmas dinner. The kiddos took uncles up on horsey rides and playing as much as possible. 

Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa Murray's house. 

Grandma Floy Murray and Grandma Colleen Murray were there too. It was so nice to see them this wonderful season. 

Natalie and Jordan excited about their toys. Anna and Elsa dolls and Captain America shield. 

Natalie was ecstatic about her new PINK bike!

And Dad got a big wheel barrel! Happy people all around. 

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

"Christmas Time Is Here... Snowflakes In The Air.."

We got hit with a beautiful snow storm. It is so fun to see our yard covered in snow for the first time!

Jordan had a blast playing in all of the snow. He got out a toy sword and was battling the snow off of the cedar trees branches. 

Capturing the moment.

For Family Home Evening one night we bought a kit and build ginger bread houses. This was by Jordan's request. But instead of building a ginger bread house he decided last minute to build a robot. Funny guy. 

Hillary loving the snow! I always say "Let it snow!"

Caught this excited little lady learning how to stand and hold onto things. 

Our yard is full of trees, too many in fact. We plan to thin them out and make the yard not so cluttered. It turns out that we happened to have a beautiful Evergreen tree that was far too close to the fence that would need to come out. So we decided to make it our Christmas tree this year. Talk about getting a Christmas tree close and for cheap. What a fun way to spend our first Christmas in our new home; with a Christmas tree from our very own yard! 

Preston was also such a sweetie to put up Christmas lights on the house for me, even though our roof shingles are slick and it was cold. He knew it meant a lot to me to have lights on our house our first Christmas at our home. I love that man so much!

Decorating the Christmas tree. All the kids were a great help. When we got the tree we were surprised at how tall it was. It just barely missed touching the ceiling. It it just the right height and fit well in our front room.

Here are the kids dressed up for church in their Christmas best. We have the most adorable kids ever. Just saying...

Look at this picture perfect Christmas scene. It warms my heart just looking at it. To me we have the perfect front room for Christmas time: fire place for stockings and cozy fire snuggling, mantle for decorating, bay window for extra tree room, and big windows to watch the snow come down. I love it!

What's the Christmas holiday without making sugar cookies? It was lots of fun for the kids to do this with Grandma Suzie too. Plus they were delicious... Santa is a lucky guy. 

I love sugar cookies... can you tell? Yummmmm.

Christmas Eve we read the story of Christ's birth and had the kids act out the scenes with this nativity scene I painted. Afterwards Natalie kept playing with it and I couldn't help but capture this sweet moment. It is such a sweet experience to teach our children about Christ our Savior. 

 

A beautiful season of lights, traditions, and the babe in Bethlehem. 

 

Little Katelyn 9 months old.