girls girls girls

my older brother steve and his wife andrea just had their first baby early this morning - a little girl. they named her anne louise after our grandma. i too am named after my grandma - my middle name is anne louise. for this reason i feel like this new baby anne is a kindred spirit:) and i am excited to tell her that we are both named after the same wonderful woman when she is older. baby anne is the third girl born in to our family in just over a year - marion's grace was born last august (so she is almost 15 months old), our paige in april, and now anne today. i can just imagine these little girls - cousins! - in 15 or so years from now. and it makes me smile:) a lot.

with the birth of anne, i have found myself thinking back 6 and 1/2 months ago to the arrival of our little paige jacqueline. oh how happy i was to hold our new baby in my arms - our first little GIRL!!! i am so grateful to have a daughter to love and to nurture. i often find myself picturing the future as i look at her sleeping face lying in my arms - the girls' nights, the chick flicks, manicures and pedicures, talking about her latest crushes (GASP!! i hope she doesn't grow up too fast!!). as a leader in our church's young women's program, i am sometimes overwhelmed when i see and hear the testimonies of the girls i associate with and think of paige being their age, as strong and firm in the gospel as they are, with her light shining as brightly. i know it will because it already does! it is difficult to put in to words the love i have for my little girl.

how special and precious is my paigey. i only hope she loves me as much as i love her!!!

i feel humbled and blessed to be the mother to such a wonderful and adorable little girl - and to 3 compassionate, sensitive, kind, caring, and thoughtful young boys who have such a desire to do what is right and to follow the example of our Savior. my heart is so full of love for my children. i pray that i can deserve them and teach them as much as they teach me!! truly there is nothing that brings me more joy than being the wife of a noble man and the mother of amazing children.

i am so blessed.

dinner conversation

so, here is a clip of a very interesting conversation we had with evan at dinner tonight. it is actually me trying to get him to repeat what he originally said just a few minutes prior to my filming - it was so darn cute i wanted to try and catch it on video....and it ended up being even funnier for entirely different reasons! pay special attention around the 58-59 second mark.

you may need to turn it up:)

know it all

a conversation that evan and i have been having a lot lately goes something like this:

evan - did you know mom that.....fill in the blank.

me - well, evan, that isn't quite right.

evan - actually mom, i'm a scientist.

which has led me to believe that being a scientist means that evan knows everything and that he can claim that he knows everything. and he does....claim to, i mean.

for example, the other day our conversation went like this:

evan - mom i heard a stomp in your room and i think it was a monster.

me - monsters aren't real evan. don't worry, they are just pretend.

evan - actually mom, i am a scientist, remember? it was a monster.

(he actually does say the word actually...and i love it!)

maybe evan really does know everything. must be genetic.

halloween

i really enjoy halloween. i love helping my kids make their costumes. i grew up making costumes with my mom each year. she would ask us what we wanted to be and we would think of something and make it together. she was the master makeup applier and i find myself now taking on that role. and i love it!! especially since my boys have such great imaginations. for this year, jensen was a rainbow rabbit, burton was an iguana, and evan was an orca. jensen pretty much made his costume all by himself - even told me exactly what to do with his makeup. i managed to make pretty awesome costumes for burton and evan with some extra material i had from other projects. here they are:

my mom picked up this costume for paigey:

isn't she the cutest little pink bunny ever??

for a more detailed look at the boys' costumes and other fun halloween pictures, click here.

10 minutes

as i have just a few minutes to spare before putting the kids to bed, i thought i would sit and share just how blessed i feel to have such a wonderful family. we were able to travel to red deer last weekend for thanksgiving and had a great time at my mom and dad's house with my parents, siblings, and their families. one of my favorite quotes is by thomas jefferson:

"The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have passed at home in the bosom of my family."

truly, this is so! i always love going home and spending time with my family - visiting, playing games, laughing, watching movies, and just being together. and now that i am wife and mother, i can honestly say that nothing brings me more happiness than my amazing husband and our wonderful children.

how i love them all! so so much.

can't get enough of our pj

"A child fills a place in your heart that you never knew was empty."

author unknown.

is my heart ever full.

click here for more pictures of our beautiful baby girl.

another school year

so, another summer gone and a new school year has started. what a fun summer we had!!! jensen and burton have been in school for 2 weeks now and so far so good:) jensen, the seasoned veteran, is in grade 2 and burton is in grade one. 2 kids on school, 2 at home. it has been an adjustment having burton join his older brother in all day school. things are much quieter and calmer around the house - and if you know burton at all, you know just how much quieter and calmer i mean! as much as i love having my kids at home, i must say that a return to the daily routine of school has been quite enjoyable. i now know the mixed emotions of excitement and slight sadness of sending the kids off to school:)

i have enjoyed the time that i get to spend with evan during the day when jensen and burton are at school. the place evan occupies on the bottom of the totem pole of boys in our family disappears when his brothers are at school. there is no getting lost in the shuffle, no getting talked over, no being told what to do - as great as jensen and burton are to their little brother, being the littlest boy comes with it's own territory of being peed on, so to speak! i just hope evan enjoys spending all this time together as much as i do!

paige is now 4 and 1/2 months old and is still as beautiful as ever. she melts my heart!! i sure hope she isn't a bratty little girl as she grows up as i think i will have a hard time disciplining her if she is! she definitely has me wrapped around her little finger...and her dad too! i just wish she wasn't growing up so fast!

just thought i would post a picture of me just because it is a good one. not too often i get one of those! and evan took it:)