Life in November

The big news in November was that Lizzy started walking (finally!) at 18 months. She also has become very into dolls and is shown here holding her baby. She loves to kiss her baby and pull her pacifer in and out. Lizzy is all girl and fun to watch after having 2 boys...

Ashley worked with the Young Women to donate a tree to the Festival of Trees this year. The Festival benefits Primary Childrens Hospital. 800 trees are donated and sold and all the money goes to the hospital.

Ashley's neighbor Barb, donated these cute little Thomas Kinkade house ornaments to the tree. So, several of the Young Women went shopping and decorated the tree themselves. Barb was also able get the Thomas Kinkade gallery to donate a painting to go along with the tree.

Lizzy and Nathan love to play with Tinker Toys. Nathan loves to build things and create "Bam Machines".

It seems like many of our Tinker Toys have been disappearing lately. Ashley asked Dave about it and he said that he's been throwing them away! He can't stand to have them all over our floors. It's been tough love, but Nathan is learning (very reluctantly) how to pick up his toys.

For Thanksgiving, we spent the day at Dave's sister Linda's house with her family. We had a small celebration this year with just our two families. Our kids had so much fun playing with their cousins.

Linda's oldest son Blake (9) holding Rachel.

An attempt at a Christmas card picture.

On Thanksgiving morning we built gingerbread houses out of graham crackers. (Notice the splint-- Daniel fractured his wrist at Dane's Birthday party).

Nathan ate more than we put on his house!

Uncle Dane came to visit for his birthday. We had so much fun spending time with him! This was his birthday cake from Baskin Robbins!

The boys were getting a bit rowdy at Mimi's so we sent them outside to play. Daniel was playing on the neighbor's swingset and fell of the monkeybars onto his wrist. Ashley had the leave the party early with him to get xrays and we found out he had a minor buckle fracture. He has to wear the splint for a month. (He was pretty excited until he realized it got in the way of his art projects!)

Aunt Carina holding Rachel

This is a pretty common face right now on Daniel (When we ask him to do something he doesn't want to do). It's even gotten him a taste of tabasco sauce!

Papa with Lizzy and Rachel

Rachel 6 months. She is SO tiny and petite. She's is by far our smallest baby-- she's only 30th percentile for height and 15 th for weight. The Dr. Says she's not gaining enough weight so we are working on getting her to eat more.

Dave had a big dinner with some of his students over. The finishing touch was his cheesecakes.

Ashley is really enjoying having her friend Emily back in Utah. Here she is making baby Rachel laugh.

Rachel just full of life. Our happiest and saddest baby.

Life in October

Life in October was very busy. Young Womens had some big activities, Halloween came with late nights and school parties, Dave has had a VERY busy semester at school, with 3 difficult classes and lots of grading and as always, having 4 kids has been very demanding.... Here is a picture of the Young Women serving at the Utah Food Bank.

Ashley loves this picture of Rachel and Nathan because it really show how Rachel is. She is VERY social and demands constant interaction and attention. She can be a lot of fun when she gets what she wants. The boys love her because she is always laughing at them and making cute baby noises. She is going to be the life of our family as she gets older.

Another picture from the Utah Food Bank service project. We sorted through hundreds of canned goods that were donated and got them ready to ship out to local food banks. Ashley is pictured with Anna, one of the laurel advisers in our ward. (and a good friend).

This year for Halloween Daniel was a doctor. Daniel has really gotten into running and swimming. He does swim lessons every Saturday and now is able to jump into the deep end and swim to the other side of the pool by himself. He also runs everywhere he can (really fast) and plays with his best friend Jonny every day after school.

Here is our whole family trick-o-treating in our neighborhood

Nathan wanted to be a fireman this year and wouldn't even consider something else! It was actually hard to find a fireman costume, so Ashley had to order it online! A lot of little boys HAVE to be fireman at Halloween. (Nathan shared the same obsession!).

Right before Trick-o-treating. We had great weather this year.

Lizzy was a cute little flower fairy. She has started walking finally at 18 months. She still has to choose to do so-- often she just prefers to crawl-- but she is capable of walking!

Rachel our little flower

Daniels Kindergarden teacher, Mrs.Mackay was Cat in the Hat. This was taken during a Halloween parade at school.

This is Rachel's favorite thing to chew on-- her index finger! It must have been that way in the womb.

Lots of smiles.

Daniel being silly. He turns 6 in December.

Fall has been so much fun. The boys love raking leaves and jumping into piles.

The boys are protective of their piles.

A trip to the Provo Temple to do Baptisms for the Dead with the Young Women.

Grandma Jensen's birthday party.

Life in September

One of the exciting things that has happened in the last week is that Lizzy has learned to stand all on her own. She also has become much more interested in walking (since she still doesn't walk).

Lizzy loves this walker toy we have. We leave it in the kitchen and she keeps wanting to walk back and forth. She is so excited when she uses it and is proud of herself for walking!

The boys have started up swimming lessons again on Sat. mornings. Daniel had the chance to swim a lot this summer with his friend Jonny, so he just jumped right back into lessons easily. But, Nathan has been a little bit more scared of the water. With Rachel's arrival this summer, he didn't get the chance to swim much!

One of the exciting things that has happened this month,is that Daniel has actually learned how to swim in the deep end. He loves to swim and is so excited about this accomplishment.

With Daniel at school every day, Nathan has become Ashley's helper. He loves baby Rachel and enjoys making her smile.

Rachel's colic seems to be passing. She still isn't the most easy going baby, but the hours of her being unsettled and crying seem to be improving. She is also becoming a great sleeper and napper, which is such a blessing!!

Daniel started kindergarden and loves it! His only disappointment is that he doesn't get to ride the bus since they discontinued the bus route by our house.

Nathan also started preschool 3 days a week. He is so excited to have something of this own and to get out of the house. He is very social and loves playing with friends there.

Ashley has been volunteering in Daniel's classroom 2 times a month. It's fun to see him in his school environment.

Ashley was in charge of a big Etiquette dinner for the Young men and Young Women at Church. She recruited Dave as head chef and he cooked an amazing 4 course dinner for everyone-- including homemade cheesecake and french bread.

Dave in the kitchen with some of the women Ashely serves with.

Here are a few more pictures of Rachel's baby blessing on Sept. 6th.

An attempt to get a picture of all 4 kids together.

Daniel is so sweet with his sisters. He and Nathan fight a lot, but they are very caring with the babies.