October '11

In October, John and I went away for a weekend.  We left the kids with Grandma and Grandpa, and went to Park city.  We stayed at a very nice hotel called the Zermatt.

It was a nice relaxing weekend of going out to eat, a little exploring, massages, and swimming in the Hot springs!  What a nice break from our normal chaos!

Later on in October, John's Mom came over from Ireland for a visit.  We decided that it would be fun to take the kids to the Zoo with her.

Sean loved the animals!  He wanted to get right in there with them.

 This is the only picture that I got Colin to stand in willingly!

 John's favorite animal is the Eagle!

It was a cold trip, but it was fun for all of us.  The kids have been begging to go to the zoo for a long time!

 Halloween was fun with Nana there!  And the kids looked great in their costumes.  Erin was a Wolf (which I made), Devin was Darth Vader, Colin was Bat man, and Sean was Tigger.

 Now without masks!

 Sean was this Tigger by default.  I had a cute lion costume that I had tried on him maybe a month earlier, and when I went to put it on him for Halloween, it was too small!!!!  Thank goodness I had this Tigger costume!!!!!  It just goes to show how fast they grow.  He was 11 months old.

The Past couple of months

I've been a little busy, and this is the first I've been able to blog in a while. Let me give you a brief overview of the past couple of months. Here are a few pictures of Sean in the hospital.
My Mom & the boys.

John's Mom Came to stay with us for a few weeks around the time he was born, so we were well taken care of. It was nice to have someone there to do everything, so that I didn't have to worry about it.

John's brothers also came to visit shortly after he was born. We had a great time with them here. We had a nice Christmas dinner one night (thanks to my Mother-in-Law and John) and John took them up to temple square to see the lights.

My Mom and Dad and Brothers Roger and Richard came to see us too. My dad: This is Richard and Callie

Here is Roger, Tasha and Sean's cousin Alyssa who's 4 months old here.

Here's Sean at 1 week old.

John and the kids did all the decorating this Christmas. It was so nice! and it looked beautiful.

We had a very quiet Christmas here at home this year. We played out our own nativity scene with our very own real live baby "Jesus". It was fun to have a new baby at Christmas time this year, though tiring. He's a cutie.

Santa was really good to all of us this year. It was a fun day for everyone.

And before we knew it, Sean was 1 month old!

We had a great new years eve too. We played games and ate great food. Then at 10:00 we celebrated the new year with New York and sent the boys to bed. If we were smart we would have all gone to bed, but Erin really wanted to stay up til midnight. So we did.

Sean came home to a house full of eager siblings. They all love him and want to hug him and hold him, and feed him, and entertain him. They just can't get enough! Especially Colin! I think Sean has been so good for him. He now feels like he's one of the big kids. He's even finally decided to go in the potty and stop sucking his thumb! What a big boy. Erin is always wanting to help. She'll wash her hands just to hold him and she'll entertain him for half an hour sometimes! Devin is not quite as motivated, but if I give him the job of watching the baby while I do this or that, he is so happy, and has a great time. In fact, Devin is really good at getting Sean to smile.

This weekend Sean turned 2 months old. I can't believe it's gone so fast! When I go through this blog I can really see he's changed so much! The house may not be clean or the dishes done, but we're getting by. Sean and I are learning together to find out what makes his tummy happy, and we're having more and more good nights. Happy Baby makes Happy home.

Erin's Baptism

On March 6th, Erin was baptized. what an exciting day! I can't believe we have a child old enough to be baptized! I had these pictures taken of her in the baptism dress I made for her. It was a really nice day. We had a lot of my family and a few family friends come, and John's Mom flew in from Ireland just to be there! It was so great to have everyone come.

While John's Mom was here we took a couple of day trips. One of them was to the Gateway Children's museum in Salt Lake City. The kids thoroughly enjoyed their time there. I even enjoyed it there. They had all sorts of fun things for them to do. There was a store where they could cashier, make sandwiches, or just go shopping. They had a farm where they could plant and harvest crops, ride a horse, or collect eggs. They had a ton of science experiments that the big kids could do, and a news and weather station where you could read the news or see yourself on the green screen. There was also a helicopter that they could go inside. I highly recommend children's museums. I've been to one before, but this one is excellent. We all enjoyed ourselves. John's Mom loves convertible cars, so John though it would be great to borrow a convertible car from our very generous neighbor, and take her for a ride. They all had a great time. We also went to the aquarium in Draper. Yes, Utah has an Aquarium even though we're completely landlocked. It's not huge, but it was still fun. My favorite part was this huge Octopus. She was very active! Every time I've seen an octopus at aquarium, their hiding, not out in the open like this. I found out later that I wasn't supposed to take pictures with a flash. Oops!

On the 14th of March, we celebrated John's birthday. I took him out for dinner and a movie on Saturday, and then we had a family dinner and Cheese Cake on Sunday. It was a nice relaxing day. Happy Birthday John! We love you!