Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Ours has been good but we miss our families.

4 years ago...

There is a new 4-year old in our house! Four years and a few days ago (I meant to blog on Monday--oops!), George and I welcomed our first child. Many people like to assume a child's personality based upon the way he/she entered this world. In this case, I am no different. When Jaren arrived, he came fast and he came hard. Between a few moments of breathing, a little boy was born. As a four-year old boy, fast and hard still apply to Jaren and I am still trying to catch my breath with him. As a baby, toddler and now little boy, he is still active as ever. He tires me out just watching him run around in circles, jump off the couch, dance, ride his bike and make endless messes wherever he goes. There is only one speed with Jaren--fast, except when it comes to eating his food and cleaning up messes. From the moment that he arrived in our home, he has been a constant source of joy and there is never a dull moment, unless you count when he is sleeping. Oh we love him and we're so glad he is part of our family!

*Our other rambunctious child destroyed the power supply to our main computer. While we are waiting for it to be fixed, I cannot add any photos of Jaren's birthday. So for now, you'll just have to put up with my narrative.

What We've Been Up To

*UPDATE: After several requests, I have included the recipe for the White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake, click here.

The last nine weeks have been very, very busy! As you may already know, George went away for six weeks for some training and when he came home, he brought his mother with him. Although they drove from Florida, it was a good opportunity for his mother to see all of her grandchildren in Montana, Arizona and Texas for a fraction of the cost of a plane ticket. She stayed with us for three weeks and recently went to go home and leave the cold, windy Montana weather forever. While she was here, we accomplished a lot of painting, cooking, eating, cleaning, reading, learning new things, and shopping for Christmas and birthday presents. There was never a dull moment. Although we enjoyed her stay with us and miss her already, it is nice to be together as our own family after a long nine weeks. Here are some photos of the last few weeks.

White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake, mmmm! I made it!

Celebrating my Mother-in-Law's Birthday

The White House Christmas tree, chopped down in Montana! It's over 70 feet long and 138 years old.

Family picture. Too bad my camera wasn't cooperating!

A nice picture of Omi and her grandsons.

Saying goodbye at the airport.

Halloween Extravaganza

These are pictures of the boys at the ward Halloween party and on Halloween night. Jaren was a red dinosaur and Dallin was a cowboy (recognize the costume?). Both the kids were cute, but Dallin was definitely the star of the night. People were just handing him more and more candy because he was so dang cute! First, he would do his little toddler run, which ends up looking like a mix between a penguin and a chicken run, then he would reach in the bowls of candy and put one candy at a time in his bag. Then he would clap for himself--at every single house. It was time-consuming, but it was worth it and we enjoyed many laughs watching him. We only trick-or-treated on one street, but the kids scored big! Now we just have to be smart and find ways to utilize the loot into rewards for the kids throughout the next year!

At the ward Halloween party

Family shot, I'm dressed as a pirate again, but took off the patch
because Dallin wouldn't stop looking at me.

Omi was here to Trick-or-Treat too!

Here they are scoring big with some witches!

Keep running Dallin, we'll get some more next year!