It's a girl!

In July we found out I was pregnant with baby #3 and that my due date would be April 15. On November 29, 2011 we found out we were having a girl! We were a little shocked and a little nervous, but excited too. She is only the third girl out of 14 grandkids on my side, and the last girl was born 8 years ago. Figuring out a name was the hardest part. Just a few more blog posts and you'll get to meet her :)

Our future princess

Thanksgiving Bowl

Malcolm came for Thanksgiving and we decided that it would be fun to go bowling. These also happen to be the only pictures I have from Thanksgiving. We are grateful for family and that we have such a good time with them!

Benson trying to pick up his bowling ball

 Benson's first bowl

 Weston's turn

 Super Weston. He looked so cute in his shoes.

 Look at that form

 Benson got a little bored with the bowling and had to entertain himself in other ways. Wearing dad's shoes is always fun.

 The apple-blackberry pie I made

More Videos

Here are a few cute videos of the kids. There are a few more of Benson, but he was at that age where everything he did seemed cute since he was learning to do so many new things. Hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

One night Benson was congested, so we took him out of bed to suck his nose (ours is electric). This is him playing with it afterwards.

Benson thinking he can hide just by closing his eyes.

Benson falling asleep while waiting for dinner.

Weston and Paisley created their own game to entertain us.

Making the Climb 2

This is a video of Benson climbing out of his crib at a little over 18 months. Our kids are climbers. Not surprising since I was a huge climber when I was younger. Unfortunately, once they start climbing out of their crib, they pretty much stop taking naps too :(

Halloween

 Halloween had the usual activities this year: Ward Halloween Party, carving pumpkins, and trick-or-treating.   It was fun as always.

 Benson eating a corn muffin at the Ward Halloween Party. We weren't lucky enough to get a good bowl of chili, so we all ate a lot of cornbread that night.

 Weston being Weston. He loved his shark costume that we borrowed from friends and wore it multiple times before and after Halloween.

 Benson rolling around the trash can lid while we cleaned up afterward.

 Checking out their candy stash

 Carving pumpkins. Weston was more into the carving this year which turned into mutilating the the pumpkin top, Benson just played in the goop, and Casey and I did most of the actual carving.

Our Halloween dinner. I made tacos because they sounded good.

I wanted to do something that had to do with Halloween so I made these Jack-o-lantern orange fruit salads. The boys couldn't wait to eat them.

 Trick-or-treating. We went trick-or-treating in a neighborhood that we had put an offer on, but were waiting to hear back. The boys got a LOT of candy.

 Leaving the "scary" house. I think Casey looks more scared than the boys though :)

 Our little shark and elephant. They looked so cute.

 Our finished pumpkins on Halloween night. Weston wanted a Happy pumpkin and a Mad pumpkin.

 Playing with their food

Punkin Patch

I love going to pumpkin patches and it just seems like the thing to do around Halloween, so I try and take the boys every year. We found a small one in Granite Bay to go to this year.

They had a few tractors set up for the kids to play on

 They weren't very many animals, but the boys loved watching these chicks.

 Weston found this hat on the tractor and decided to put it on for the picture.

 If Benson was a pumpkin, he would be about $7 :)

BYU Homecoming

In October 2011, we all went up to Utah to go to a BYU home game. We went to the BYU v  San Jose State homecoming game. One of the first things we did was take the boys on a little tour of BYU. We had fun taking them to different spots and sharing memories with each other. After our trip, every time we got in the car to go somewhere, Weston would ask if we were going to BYU again. So cute! He makes us so proud :) During the game, Casey got to go into the press box because my brother and his wife worked at Tucanos, who feeds the press box at every game. He thought that was pretty cool. We won the game and the boys did fantastic. It was a great day! We were also able to spend some time with my parents, our friends the Poyfairs, and Morris and Christi as well, which is always nice.

Casey and Weston playing football on the grass hill next to the library

 Posing with Brigham Young

 How do we compare?

                 Weston comparing his height to Shawn Bradley, Casey comparing his vertical to Ossie Antonetti, and me comparing my height to Haley Love and Lori Johnston at the Sports Museum.

Our future cougars 

  At the game

 One day we put Benson down for a nap (when he still took them). When I went to check on him because it was taking him a bit to settle down, this is what I found.

 We went to visit Uncle Morris and Aunt Christi. While we were there we visited the Crater at Homestead.

 At the top of the crater with beautiful Midway behind us.

 Homestead was decorated for Halloween while we were there and Weston really liked this spider.

 On the car ride back to Morris and Christi's place.

 The cows are always a favorite

Train Museum

In September 2011, we went with our friends Katie and Tyson to the Train Museum in Sacramento. They were having free admission because of Gold Rush Days. The boys thought it was okay. Their favorite part was playing with all the Thomas the Train Sets upstairs. Thanks for a fun outing guys!

Weston, Benson, and Tyson playing with the trains

Benson thought it was so much fun to see Thomas and Percy go around on this track. He got excited every time!

Benson's First Sunday in Nursery

Benson started going to Nursery in August 2011 (a few weeks shy of his 18 month birthday). He did great! He just walked right in and we didn't have to stay with him. So far we've been pretty lucky in the nursery department. This was him after his first Sunday with his "I Can Be Happy" picture that he colored. We are so proud of him!

Bud's Wedding

My brother, Jonathan, got married to his wife Rally on August 20, 2011 in the San Diego Temple, so we got to go down to Southern California and see family and friends. 

Our friends, the Millers, let us stay at their place and we went to the the beach and swimming with them while we were there. Casey and Ryan must of had great sand castle skills because quite a few kids came over and wanted to join in.

They had this fun swing set at the beach.

Benson found this horseshoe and thought it looked good around his neck.

Mr. & Mrs. Pitt

Handsome Weston waiting at the temple

Benson rolling down the hill at the temple. They had to entertain themselves somehow during all the picture taking :)

At the reception in L.A., where Rally is from. The reception was 5 hrs long. At first I was thinking, "what in the world are we going to do for 5 hrs?" They had a great DJ though and filled in the time with food, games, videos, and lot and lots of dancing. The boys loved the dancing. Before you knew it, the reception was over. Everyone had a great time. I barely took any pictures I was having such a great time.

Cutting the cake that my mom made. She always does a great job. Jonathan sure picked a great girl. She is super sweet and we like her a lot. Congrats again guys!