Medford temple trip

On Saturday the 15th, after Carson's party, Chris and I went to the Ward temple trip. We carpooled down there and the ward was doing Baptisms and Confirmations. I have been working on Chris' family tree that Soozee provided. Soozee has been working on Geneology (both her and John's line) since the 1970s, she has 6600 names. Well-she gave me her PAF file and I have been working almost every night sometimes until 3 AM on synching the names and finding names that need their temple work done. Chris and I went and did 20 names each of his family line that night. Chris was asked to perform the baptisms and he was baptizing me for some Hickman names and he started to get choked up and really felt the spirit. We all did. The entire room got quiet and it was such an amazing feeling and experience to feel such a great spirit there. It was so neat to start doing the temple work for the Hickman line. Chris was able to get baptized for his great/great grandfather and great uncles (which he knew a few of them). I'm so glad we had this experience and I needed to share it. The Bishop asked Chris to bear his testimony on Sun., the next day, about the experience since it was so amazing. I'm so excited and pretty much addicted to doing Geneology now. I love it and I'm glad that I can perform these ordinances for Chris' family. Soozee is all excited about it and she has found 100 more names to add to the pedigree. So-we have our work cut out for us, but I'm glad that I get to be apart of it. I know this work is important and is needed. Thanks to my dad for getting me jumpstarted on it!! So now I can say..."I am doing it....My Geneology!!"

Carson's 4th Birthday

Carson turned 4 on Friday the 14th. It is a tradition now that on their Birthday we take them to Dairy Queen to get an ice-cream cone. So-we did that on Fri. night and then let Carson open presents from me and Chris. Then Sat. 15th we had Carson's B-day party in the cultural hall at our church building. That makes it so nice so I don't have all the kids at my house. Carson is really into Thomas the Tank engine-so that was his theme. I had lots of fun preparing for the party. We had activities, games, races, the bouncy house, along with the usual cake and presents. I made the trains out of boxes and used them for a bean bag toss game-where the kids had to toss coal in the engines and letters in Percy (he's the mail carrier train). Then we did a race with the same boxes. The kids had a blast with that-we had to do the races 3 or 4 times. Then the adults wanted to do it too. So after the party-we had our races on the track. Holly was in charge of the ticket drawing game-Holly handed each kid a ticket as they came to the "party station" and at the end of the party she drew the # ticket and the kids got prizes. Then I handed out gift bags that had items for trains and a thank you card that said "Tank" you for coming to my party! It was lots of fun. The party was only from 10-11:30, but I think that was a great amount of time for 4 yr. olds.
Then after the party the kids got to play at Nana and Papa's house-they got to watch movies and Carson got to play with some of his toys. They had a fun day. My baby boy isn't a baby anymore. He's a big boy now and doesn't like it when I call him my baby boy. He's now fully potty trained (not wetting his bed anymore) and asks me every night if he can wear his underwear to bed. He doesn't want to wear pull-ups anymore! YEAH!

Shelby is 4mo. old

My kids were all bald when they were babies. Shelby doesn't like the headbands so I only put them on her for special occasions or church. She also cries when I get her dressed up for church. I think she is going to be my tough girl-who doesn't like dresses. Other than that- she rarely cries. She is such a happy baby and now is recognizing more family other than me. She just loves her brother and Carson can make her laugh. She tries to roll over-but not there yet. She grabs and holds on to things. She takes a bottle no problem now and she is getting attached to a pacifier. I'm glad that she has adapted so well to mommy being at work. I love that when I get home she perks up immediately-she usually starts crying because she wants me to feed her. She's very easy going and I can usually tell what she wants. I can't believe how fast Shelby is growing.

My Birthday

That night-before bed. Holly's other front tooth came out!

I made my own Birthday cake. Hey-it was probably better than any store bought cake.

playing Just Dance 2. We played for several hours. It was lots of fun!

Yummy finger foods!!

Playing Just Dance 2.

I told Chris that I wanted a Birthday party this year. So-he sent out an invitation on facebook (good thinking). We had lots of fun eating and playing Just Dance 2 all night. Then before bed-Holly said she wanted me to take out her loose tooth. She did really good and now is missing both her front teeth.

On New Year's Day we did our traditional go shopping in Eugene (to the big malls). We shopped 'til we dropped (we only went to 2 stores), it was lots of fun, even though I haven't lost the baby weight, I still found some cute things and enjoyed shopping. We ate at Olive Garden and we didn't get home until about 1 AM. I had a fun Birthday this year-thanks everyone!

Daddy/Daughter talk

I've been trying to get Shelby talking on video. She has been talking, laughing, etc. for awhile now. It is so cute to see how much she is doing. She is growing up so fast-she's almost 4mo. already. I just love how she is hanging out with her daddy and telling him how she feels!

She's really trying here!

Carson and Thomas the Train

Carson loves his Thomas the Train set and majority of his toys this Christmas were for his train set. He loves to set up the different tracks. He got a R/C train engine too. The kids are having fun playing with all their toys and Chris and I are too.