Quaid's Blessing

We have had a busy couple months in our family. Paisley turned 8, Quaid was born, Halloween, Paisley got baptized, Thanksgiving, and then Quaid's blessing. (Plus all the everyday craziness in between!) The sad thing about being so busy is that it seems to make the time fly even faster than normal! I really don't like the time to fly when I have this sweet little guy trying to grow up too fast!

Okay, back to the purpose of this post...Dave blessed Quaid on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. The Monday before that, the Bishop called and said that since we are going to have so much family at church on Sunday that it would be a GREAT idea if we spoke in sacrament, too! Awesome! What a GREAT idea!! (Okay, so those weren't my exact thoughts! I did tell our Bishop that he wasn't my favorite person!) Ha ha! So, since the week of Thanksgiving was so busy, Dave and I didn't really start writing our talks until Saturday night. And, the extra sad thing about that is that my mom took our 3 oldest kids for the night. But, since we had put off our talks, we had to spend our almost kid-free night writing talks! :)

We decided to have Quaid wear the same blessing outfit as Easton wore. It is a super cute little white tuxedo complete with bowtie, cumberbun, and tails. But, it is not the easiest outfit to hold him in or probably for him to wear. He did look really handsome in it!

We had so many awesome family members attend the blessing. We had my 2 brothers and families, Dave's 3 brothers and families, our parents, my grandparents, and my aunt and uncle and family. I am so grateful for our family who is so supportive. Dave gave a really beautiful blessing. It is hard to believe that it was the last baby blessing he will give to our children. I didn't sit on the stand even though I was speaking. I just enjoyed holding my handsome little baby before and after the blessing. It was a very sweet time for me.

We took a few pictures when we got home from church:







My aunt joked that we should be able to relax for the next while. We got the baptism, blessing, and speaking in sacrament all done in one month! We are good to go!

But, all joking aside, it was a very special month. One that we will never forget.

Our Dresser Renovation and STRIPES!!

One of the things that we had to purchase for Quaid before we had him was a dresser. A while back, Dave's parents gave us a really old pure wood dresser that we sanded down and refinished for Avery. It had turned out really well and so we decided to try to find a similar dresser to refinish for Quaid.

We happened to find a pure wood dresser on Craigslist for $25! We immediately called the guy and he told us to come the next night at 7:30. We pulled up to his house at 7:30 on the dot. He took us into his garage to show us the dresser. It was not that appealing. It was a rainbow of colors with crackly paint on the drawers. But, knowing that it was made of good wood, we knew we could make it look nice. As we were looking at the dresser, 2-3 more cars pulled up to look at the same dresser! We quickly made the decision to get it. What a steal for $25!! At a pure wood unfinished furniture store, you couldn't touch anything in the whole store with $25. We were excited about our purchase.




One night we finally got the courage to start sanding all the old paint off. That was quite a project! It took about 5 hours of sanding to get all that old paint off!






We were pretty excited to see it once all that "beautiful" paint was gone! We were again super happy about our bargain shopping!




We primed and painted the dresser white. We then painted the knobs chocolate brown to match his room. I am super happy with the way that it turned out!!



The other big project that we took on before we had Quaid was painting his room. We moved Avery into Paisley's room and made Avery's old room for Quaid. Avery's room had been a fairly bright yellow. I had the great idea to paint stripes after I had seen my brother and his wife do that for their baby room. I talked to my brother several times to get hints on the best way to tackle the stripes. Dave and I decided to do 3 different sizes of stripes with 4 different colors. By far the hardest part was taping off the stripes before we could paint. It was hard to make sure that all the lines were straight, etc. Dave jokes that we about got a divorce over the stripe project. That is of course an exaggeration, but we did have some tense moments! :)

We are so so so happy with the way that his room turned out. Check it out!

Paisley's Baptism

Paisley turned 8 years old on October 3rd. She was baptized on November 5th, 2011. She was so excited to be baptized. We attended her interview with the Bishop and I was very proud of her for her knowledge about baptism. She understood what she was going to do and was happily anticipating the day!

Dave baptized and confirmed her. We had so many family members attend. I think we figured that about 45 people were there to support Paisley. What an awesome feeling to have such a great family who is there for all the important events in our family!



When she got down into the baptismal font, she started to giggle. That was very funny to me because in my journal that I started keeping when I was baptized, I wrote that when I got into the water I started to laugh. :) Like mother, like daughter!

Afterwards we went to a local restaurant with all of our family. We rented out their banquet room and were able to enjoy a nice lunch with both sides of our family. It is always so great to be able to visit with our family.

I am so proud of Paisley and her decision to be baptized. She is such a great example of love, honesty, and faith to me. She is a special girl, no question about that!


We took some pictures of the kids before the baptism:

Paisley's 8th Birthday Party

In the craziness of having a new baby, I forgot to blog about Paisley's friend birthday party that she had. She had it 6 days before we had Quaid. For that reason, we tried to keep it a little low key. She decided to invite just a few of her best friends over. The party was the same time as Priesthood session of Conference, so Dave was unable to be there. My mom was nice enough to come help.

Paisley had decided to have a milkshake and movie party. We bought all kinds of ingredients for milkshakes and then let the girls order what kind they wanted. While my mom and I made each girl a milkshake, they played Disney Apples to Apples.



The girls loved their milkshakes. It was fun to watch them eat them and just visit and giggle. Very cute!




After the milkshakes it was present time. She was very spoiled by her friends!!





After presents the girls watched a movie and then it was time for the party to end. It was really fun and low key which is what we had wanted. Paisley has great friends and had a great time!



The morning of her actual birthday we let her open presents before school. This included her birthday outfit which she quickly put on and wore to school.




It is always fun when it's time for a friend birthday party. It is a great time for Dave and I to get to interact with and get to know their friends. I look forward to many more!

Halloween!

We had a great Halloween week! (Kinda funny that it has turned into a Halloween week-long celebration rather than 1 day. Oh well, more fun, I guess!) We started out the week on the Monday before at some friends' Halloween party for Family Home Evening. It has (hopefully) become a tradition. I unfortunately didn't get any pictures. But, we carved a pumpkin as a family. We made one side an Angry Birds bird, and one side the BYU "Y". It turned out really good. We also watched a cute play put on by the kids for the FHE lesson. Then came the yummy goodies and just good times with good friends! Fun!

Wednesday was a Halloween pack meeting for cub scouts. No pictures, but fun!

On Friday, we went to a "Trick-or-Treat Street" where the kids got to trick-or-treat from different businesses all lined up in campers. It was really fun for them. We met up with my brother, Jarom, and his family which made it oh so much better. There were SO SO SO many people there that it was unbelievable. But, we had fun with the cousins!!



The cousins: Dillon (Super Hero), Braylon (Spider Man), Sadie (Super Cute Strawberry)




The Vampire Siblings (I really missed having "cutesie" costumes this year!!) :)


Sadie and Avery - at least I got one "cutesie" costume! Thank goodness! :)


Friday night was our ward Halloween party. Dave decided to dress up for it. He was Waldo like "Where's Waldo". It was awesome!






Ha Ha! That was a fun night!!

On the actual Halloween, we first stopped at Grandpa and Grandma Pendlebury's to trick-or-treat.




Then we went to Great-grandpa and grandma Johnson's to meet up with all of my side of the family. We had pizza and then took all the cousins out to trick-or-treat old fashioned style, or door-to-door. :) It is always fun to hang out with the cousins. Dave and I enjoy the chatting as we walk. Fun for everyone!


Quaid with his Grandma Johnson and great-Grandma Johnson

Oh, I better add some pictures of our sweet Quaid. Dave's Uncle Dennis bought this super cute monkey costume for him. It fit perfect!





We had a great Halloween-week! I was pretty glad when it was over, though! I did not want to put that vampire make-up on ONE more time!! :)

Quaid, Quaid, Quaid

So, before we had Quaid I thought that having a baby would make me blog all the time. I thought that I would want to just talk about everything he is doing, etc. Well, I do want to do that, but, well, it just isn't happening! Having a newborn is oh so time consuming. I had forgotten just how time consuming. So, as much as I have wanted to post about him, I just haven't had time!

This is how we have felt since he has arrived:



Ha ha! It is true. But, we love this little guy to pieces. I am seriously in love with this precious baby. It definitely feels different to me knowing that he is my last baby. I have held onto and enjoyed each moment, or at least tried to. He is a very sweet and cuddly baby. He LOVES to be held! That is why I don't get a lot done that I need to. Or, when I am getting things done, he cries a lot!

Quaid is 7 1/2 weeks old. I can't believe how time has flown. Very sad to me. But, he is becoming more and more fun. He smiles a lot now. Big, open mouth smiles. The kind that take up his whole face! It melts my heart! He is also beginning to "talk" to us. He coos and it is the most beautiful sound!

The whole family is having so much fun with our new little addition. The other night at dinner I was making him "dance" and do funny things. The whole family was laughing until we all had tears in our eyes. He has the funniest facial expressions!

He is also starting to really see things that are around him. I had a stuffed animal held above his head tonight and he just loved looking at it and cooing and smiling at it. It is so fun to see him grow and develop. It is happening WAY too fast, but we are having so much fun at the same time.

Just a few more notes about Quaid right now: he only gets up once during the night. There are a lot of nights that he sleeps 6-7 hours straight. He sleeps in our bed, with me holding him all night. He still sleeps for the better part of the day. He will be awake for 1-2 hours before he will fall back to sleep. His size 0-3 clothes fit him perfectly. He has outgrown his newborn shoes. He is a mama's boy already. Sad, but true. He gets pretty fussy for Dave at times which is very frustrating to both of us.

Here are some fun pics from the last few weeks:

Pictures from his first bath in his tub. He loves his bath!







We took him to a Halloween party held in our friends' garage. We got him all bundled in his snow suit and he stayed super warm! (And very cute I may add!)




Quaid with his brother and sister who ADORE him! (Paisley does, too, I just don't have her picture!) :)





My sleeping cutie!



We tried out the Bumbo chair a few weeks ago, but he wasn't quite sturdy enough.




Just a couple cute pictures of the girls! The second one was funny to me. Avery wanted to sleep with Paisley and just snuggled her way in on the bottom.




Quaid wearing his "I Love Mummy" Halloween shirt.




Quaid on his 1 month birthday! :)



We recently had a friend take some newborn and family shots for us. I can't wait to see them and post them.

I am so grateful that Quaid came to our family. He really fits in perfect and completes the family. I can't imagine life without him!!