full heart

what a wonderful Christmas holiday it has been! how i love spending this wondrous time of the year with my very favoritest people....my family:) i am especially thankful for the opportunity to attend my new niece anne's baby blessing. how touched i was to see my big brother with his first little baby - and to hear the tender love and affection he has for his daughter, anne, as he blessed her. my heart was filled with feelings of appreciation for my wonderful family. little anne is named after our grandmother, anne louise cooper. i too am named after this amazing woman - anne louise is my middle name. i love my gran!! and i appreciate her for the love and kindness she has given me throughout my life. it was so great to be with my gran, papa, mom, dad, brothers, sisters, cousins, aunt, uncle, and nieces this past week. i love them all so very much and hope i do a good job of letting them know just how much they all mean to me! i will post pictures of our Christmas holiday as soon as i get them all uploaded!

2 for 1

Christmas gives our family 2 reasons to celebrate. first, we join in the celebration of our Savior's birth - the miracle of Christ's birth, the joy and peace of the season. second, we celebrate the birth of our second son, burton. burton was born on Christmas Day 6 years ago. how we loved our little blonde haired baby! and how burton continues to be a source of joy in our home today. never a dull moment with burton. he is so lively and rambunctious. burton gets so excited about everything and gives 100% to all that he does. he amazes me with his desire to learn and the excitement he has for school. every day he comes home from school full of things to tell me about what he did and what they are learning at school. burton never gives up and approaches life with a contagious attitude of fun. we love our burty-burt....and with that, i will end this post as paigey is demanding my attention:)

oh, one more thing - yesterday at Christmas dinner, my uncle bob asked burton if he felt any older now that he is 6. burton looked at him and said, "no, not really. but my back is sore because i am getting older."

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.