A Little Bit of Sweetness

This post is long overdue but better late than never, right?  We have been quite busy and preoccupied the last couple months and much has transpired that I cannot take the time to hash out right here and right now but I will fill you in on a very exciting and sweet happening that occurred in our family a few weeks ago. 

Our beautiful baby Evelyn was born on April 12th weighing in at 8lbs 5oz! She transitioned into this world very smoothly and was welcomed into our family with arms and hearts wide open. The boys adore her and love to help change diapers and hold her and she already has Papa wrapped around her little finger! We've tried hard to include the boys in things and make this transition as enjoyable as possible for them. To help them celebrate their new little sister we had a birthday party honoring her first week of life. The boys made birthday cards for her and helped me make brownies then we all sang "Happy Birthday" after dinner. They thought it was great! 

Our cups are full and we are so grateful to God for His abundant blessings and grace.

Little Miss Evelyn

This funny little girl hates pacifiers and does not like to be swaddled!

First bath at home... she did great!

Papa's Princess

"So you're my big brother!"

The boys were proud of the cards they made and thoroughly enjoyed eating the browny batter (see below).

A bit of fun outside

Can you tell they're brothers?

Lots Going On

We've had a lot going on as of late and have only been home a handful of days in the last month. At the end of last month Brian's Mom was hit by a pickup as she was walking in a parking lot and ended up having to get three large screws put in her hip. As a result she has been forbidden to put any weight on her right leg for 6 weeks! Thus, we packed up and headed over to Butte to stay with them and help out for a while so Brian's Dad could get back to work. I won't get into all the details but will mention that she is a very strong woman and is healing and doing remarkably well. The boys and I really enjoyed getting to spend some good time with her.

In addition to spending a lot of time in Butte, we also made another trip to Billings to see our doctors and get an update on how our sweet baby girl is doing. Praise the Lord she is growing beautifully and we were given the OK by one of our doctors to deliver her in Billings rather than having to travel to Denver. If all goes well with her transition into life then we'll actually be able to bring her home before her first surgery which could be postponed until between 1 & 2 months! We were quite excited and encouraged by this news. For this trip we brought the boys with us and stayed with my sister and her husband. The boys did great and for some out of the ordinary fun we took them to Chuck-e-cheese for the first time... they had a ball!!!

Here are some random pics from the last month.

Mom and the boys snuggled up to watch a movie.

Chuck-E-Cheese:

Our handsome boys at breakfast one morning:

Evelyn's bed!

In the little time we've been home, we've managed to start getting her room put together. It's really fun and a little weird seeing little girl stuff being introduced into our home!

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Ben walked into the bedroom this morning as Brian was getting ready for work and revealed a bit of his developing sense of humor.

"So Mister NorthWestern Energy Guy...

you bout done getting dressed?!"

A Bit of Fun

Here are a few shots of the boys from Christmas. I didn't take many pictures this year for some reason but I did manage to snap a couple along with a video of the boys enjoying their new bounce house. Thought you may enjoy!

The Bounce House:

Another Year and Counting

On November 12th Brian and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary. We are so thankful for our marriage and for the Lord's grace and mercy and goodness to us. God has blessed us incredibly in the last 5 years!

For the occasion, Brian planned out a magnificent trip to Seattle for us. He originally tried to surprise me with the trip but realized the details were to big and needed my input on a handful of things. Needless to say, he did nearly all the work in planning things out for us and made all the reservations. I could not have asked for a more wonderful anniversary gift!

Did I mention that this trip was taken by just the two of us? That's right! Brian's parents were so gracious as to take time off work to watch the boys for 4 days. I was a little nervous having never left either of them for so long (and Ricky at all for that matter) but they did awesome and had a great time with Grandpa and Grandma. I actually don't think they were ready to come home when the time came!

Here are some highlights from our escapade:

We started the journey by driving to Whitefish where we ate some dinner and hopped onto a train. I had never ridden on a train before so this was quite exciting for me. Since we were traveling through the night we rented a sleeper car and although it's tight quarters, a sleeper car is definitely the way to go!

Whitefish train station

Our train

In our sleeper car on the way home

We arrived in Seattle on Saturday morning and after checking into our hotel room (which was AMAZING) we walked down to the pier and ate lunch at a place called the Crab Pot... quite yummy and fun! We had both been looking forward to fresh seafood.

Our lunch consisted of a hodgepodge of seafood and vegetables which they simply poured out of a pot onto butcher paper that had been spread across the table. They gave us wooden boards and mallets to eat with and supplied us with big bibs to protect our clothing... it was great!

Brian showing how it's done!

Although we tried our darnedest, we just couldn't get it all down. This is what was left of our mountain of deliciousness!

After lunch we walked over to Pikes Market and being a Saturday it was nuts!

Tons of fresh fish for sale

You know you're in a big city when you see yahoos like this performing on the street corner! I had to take a picture of him for the kids.

Saturday evening we went to dinner at the Metropolitan and if I had to sum it up in one word it would be divine. It was the most delicious meal I've ever eaten in the finest restaurant I've ever been in!

Patiently waiting for the food to arrive.

Sunday morning we caught a taxi to Theo Chocolate Factory where we participated in a very interesting and enjoyable tour of the facility... and yes, we got to sample lots of chocolate.

It was glorious!

The factory

After the tour, we walked for quite a while just exploring the city and wandering back to our hotel. It was a great way to see parts of the city we wouldn't have been able to otherwise. Here we are along the river bank.

The river was beautifully dressed in fall colors.

As we were walking we came across some neat "boat house villages".

These people actually live floating on the water!

Each night we went back to the hotel and enjoyed some of this delicious port which was given to us as a gift at our wedding. We saved it specifically for celebrating our 5th anniversary and it was absolutely delicious!

Sunday evening we took a dinner cruise around the harbor. There was live jazz music, a mesmerizing view of the city lights, and a beautiful bouquet of flowers given to me by my sweet husband.

It was very romantic!

Our cruise boat

Brian and I on deck the boat.

My flowers!

Monday we took the monorail over to the Space Needle. It's a spectacular building and although we enjoyed it very much we were both glad to have our feet on ground level by the time we were done!

The Space Needle

On the Observation Deck

We had lunch in the space needle.

It was a fun experience with the room constantly rotating in a circle!

After lunch we went to a movie in the IMax theater and then went over to Pikes Brewing Co. for a little refresher before we hopped back onto the train. We truly had a wonderful time and look forward to celebrating many more anniversaries together!

Our Birthday Boy

That's right... Ben turned 3 on Saturday! We had planned a party with family but due to bad weather and nasty roads no one was able to come. We still held the party as planned and I think Ben had a good time despite the fact that it was just the four of us. Here are some pictures of his special day.

We took the boys to the carousel in town. This photo was taken when we first arrived.

Both were transfixed!

The cake: Ben was quite specific about what he wanted for his birthday cake this year. A green cake with m&m's (green is his favorite color). I'm sure it would have looked more like a kite had I made a tail of sorts, but this worked.

Finger painting fun!

A fun gift of legos (his first big boy set) given to him by some dear friends of ours. He likes to play with them for long spurts at a time - I think I like them more than he does!

He and Papa had fun building loaders and other construction machinery the afternoon of his party.

Recent Fun

Here's a new line of pics from the last few weeks. Hope you're all enjoying the lovely beginnings of winter!

One of the fun things we did with the boys on Reformation Day was bake and decorate cupcakes. Well, let me rephrase that, I baked the cupcakes, Ben decorated the cupcakes (notice the huge pile of sprinkles), and Cedric helped us eat them!

Papa and his boys enjoying a book at a bedtime.

Ben has been learning to cut with scissors and loves to cut paper into the smallest pieces possible... and leave them scattered all over the house!