Megan's Dance Open House and Christmas Program

Megan and her teacher Miss Stasi

Dancing across the floor

Love that Jazz pose

Stretching out

End of the Santa Dance

Megan and her cute friend

A few weeks before Christmas, Megan had her dance open house and a Christmas program at school.  We got to go and watch her tap and jazz class and see some cute Christmas dances they had been working on.  She has really improved on her dancing this year and we are proud of her.  The ballet open house was the same night as the program at school so we let her choose which one she wanted to go to.  Megan chose to go to the program at school because she had a speaking part and had learned to sing a bunch of Christmas songs.  The program was really cute and she did a really good job with her part.

Decorating the Christmas Tree

Parker trims the tree

Megan adds one of her favorite ornaments

Brian gets into the fun

Colton adds his train ornament

This is about as into it as Laynee got....

It's time once again to decorate the tree!  Now that we have an artificial tree it's nice that we can put it up and decorate any time we are ready.  With all the concerts, events, etc. we've had on Monday lately we decided to put the tree up on Sunday night.  With a little Christmas music as background, we had a lot of fun decorating.  We let the kids pick a new ornament each year, so it's fun to walk down memory lane as we add each ornament.  Now it officially feels like Christmas!!

First Days at Home

Sleeping angel

I guess I do like her ok....

Great birthday present!!

Proud big brother

Little Momma

Laynee's first few days at home have literally been a fight over who gets to hold her.  She is sure loved!  Megan has been such a little momma and helps me change diapers and takes care of her so I can get a few things done around the house.  My favorite comment was when she told Brian, "Dad, I've changed more diapers than you!"  You will notice there are no pictures of me holding her, even though I am the one who does the majority of the holding....It's just too scary to show pictures of me at this point....maybe in a few weeks when I pass zombie mode.

She's Here!!!

Beautiful, bright-eyed girl!

Whew!  Glad that's over!

Proud big brother

Excited sister and a brother who said "let's put her back in!"

Proud Papa

Laynee Allyson was born on November 15 at 8:09 am.  She weighed 7 pds 2 oz and was 19 1/2 inches long.  It all started the night before when we were celebrating at a birthday party.  We had just started playing games and li'l bit was especially active.  Suddenly a gush of water...."Oh no!" I thought, "did I just wet my pants?"  But no, I think baby girl was ready to be born a week early.  I went into shock and started doing dishes.  Brian and all my friends were laughing.  Thanks to wonderful friends, we were able to leave the other three kiddos in good hands and take off for the hospital.  One night of labor and an epidural later she popped right out....literally.  The doctor only had his gloves half-way on!  Needless to say, it has been a long and bumpy road to get her here but we are so thankful!  She is cute as a button with a ton of dark brown hair...and the greatest blessing in the world!

This is Halloween, Halloween, Halloween

 Cute family!!

Cheerleader

"Smarty" Pants

Turtle

All my cute Halloween kiddos!

Mom and Dad's Costumes

We got to enjoy Halloween over the course of several days this year.  Our ward had a trunk or treat on Saturday night complete with potluck soup dinner, carnival games and, of course, trunk or treat.  The kids had a lot of fun and the weather was gorgeous.  Everyone seemed to like Brian and my matching skeleton costumes...mine complete with skeleton baby and his with a Dr. Pepper and donut.  On Monday night after eating a holiday fare of mummy dogs, we headed out to trick or treat in our neighborhood.  It was impressive...some houses were giving out full-size candy bars.  We only had to hit a few streets and the kids pumpkins were full.  It was a really fun night.

Carving of the Pumpkins!!!

Ugh!  Pumpkin guts!!

I got slimed!

Yum yum!!

Brian helps draw the face

The results...two cool pumpkin faces and one cat

We always have to wait until the last minute to carve pumpkins in this climate.  If we do them too early it's mold central!  The kids always love scooping out the guts and designing their pumpkin faces.  You will not see any pictures of me because my stomach looks like one of said pumpkins and does not like to be photographed.  My family wanted to use my belly like they use Charlie Brown's head to design their pumpkin faces but I declined.

Visit to the Corn Maze

Wagon ride out to the maze

Kids lost in the maze

Two sweet things!

A corny pose....

Colton enjoys the corn slide

Swinging on the rope

Riding in the cow train

Cute Megan

The boys enjoying the jumping pillow

Megan and Parker on the see saw

End of the trip....Colton and his friend worn out....this just says it all.....

Ride 'em kiddos!!

Saturday we were able to take a fun family trip to St. George to the Staheli Family Farm.  The kids really enjoyed all the activities including, swings, trampoline, ropes, corn slide, cow train, horseback riding and getting lost in the maze.  It was a lot of fun to spend time outdoors in the gorgeous fall weather as a family.