Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday!

We celebrated Sam's birthday before Christmas b/c we would be in Seattle for the actual day. And being the easy perfect husband that he is...he just wanted a nice thick milkshake...which I provided him. My Mom was nice enough to feed everyone and it was a great "celebration." He really is an amazing man, and I am grateful for him every day.Christmas Eve at my mom's was delicious...after some amazing steelhead, we had crepes and the shoemaker story. We got home and opened PJ's and the kids were off to bed. They slept well...which was nice since we were traveling Christmas afternoon.
This is the only pic I took Christmas morning. Hansen all of the sudden saw the ball we got him and made a run for it. Molly was in the midst of talking...as usual and Garrett obliged with a smile. Classic.
We made it to Seattle and had a great flight. Very uneventful, and very smooth. Love the "let families through with small kids" in the security line. LOVE. IT. Molly made me a cookie...M for Mom!
Waiting to go down to see if Santa had come...very late...:-)
Visiting the gum wall. This is some famous place down by Pike place. Pretty gross. :-) The kids chewed some gum and stuck it on. They were not to pumped b/c they had been walking in the rain. We told them that it was all part of the experience. :-) They didn't buy that...but endured so they could go swimming back at the hotel.
This was an attempt at family pictures. It cracks me up every time. All the adults are trying to make the kids smile...and their reactions are just...them. What a great Christmas(minus our delayed flight home and VERY late arrival to find the bathroom flooded a bit)...but everything before that was perfect. :-)

Getting ready...

Everything it seems is happening earlier in this pregnancy. All the bad stuff...back not even functioning anymore...contractions...heartburn...etc...but the one good thing is the whole "nesting" thing has already hit me...and we are three months away. But that is a good thing, because for how bad I hurt(I blame basketball and that weight room and always will) it may take me that long to get organized. As I was sorting out all the boy clothes to give away, and sorting the girl clothes that will and won't work, Hansen was helping me down in the storage. He found this tub and took it around with him throughout the house following me. He kept sitting in it and sucking those two fingers of his. And then I realized....he will have to grow up too fast. He still calls himself "baby" when he looks in the mirror. I remember bathing his skinny(so skinny) body in that tub for the first time. If he wasn't so dang cute, it wouldn't be hard to have him grow up...but man his smile just melts me. It's hard to be able to remember all these moments...but I sure hope in twenty years I remember how I felt when I looked down and saw that cute face smiling up at me sitting in his tub.

Fall

I love fall. Other than the impending doom of winter...it is easily my favorite time of year. I love the food, I love the weather, I love the harvest, I love General Conference, I love the changing leaves, and the cool nights. I loved the excitement of the start of school when I was little...but I didn't always love fall. In college I dreaded it. It meant conditioning...and lots of it. But after those four years, I purged the fear of fall back out of me, and I have found my love for it again. This year, it has been especially fantastic because my morning(all day) sickness is going away. I still have bad moments...but the hope this brings is indescribable. So we celebrated by golfing as a family. It was a complete riot. We need to do it more. The kids thought it was so fun to find balls in the weeds(plus this cool lady came up after and gave them a bright pink ball and a yellow sponge bob ball...random niceness is awesome). After Sam and I teed of we would let the little ones chip on to the green(except for the time Sam drove the green and wanted to putt it in himself) and then putt it in. Their favorite part was riding in the cart...which can be very roller coasterish on the back nine at Cascade, and their second favorite part was rolling down the hills. And I am sure Carrie would be wincing b/c of all the pesticides that golf courses use, but I figure cascade must be too cheap for that, so we are probably safe. We picked our pumpkins and rolled them to the front yard on a dolly...pregnant lady can't carry that load. They were really heavy. I love fall...I just love it.

Molly's First Day...

Wow...was this girl pumped for school or what?! I was actually pretty excited for her. She is in French Immersion in the afternoons and a really cool science class on Mondays, and has a very experienced first grade teacher. What more could I ask for? It is a little hard on me because I don't get to have my very helpful girl around while I try to get moving in the morning without throwing up...but I need to stop being selfish and just be excited. :-) Daddy stayed home and we all walked her to school. She was so excited she could barely talk to me when I walked her to her class. :-) Her eyes were SUPER wide and she was just taking it all in. It was very fun.
When I picked her up we stopped at the fruit stand on our way home. They have a peach orchard in their back yard, so we will just say the peaches are pretty fresh.(considering they walk them up to their stand in a wheelbarrow) Hansen was a sticky drippy mess by the end, but ate it all the way down to the pit. She came out of school as happy as when she went in. So I couldn't ask for more. The funniest comment was when she told everyone to sit down and she would teach us some French. After saying "je m'appelle..." and a few colors, she then started saying "Blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah..." Hilarious.(to make it even funnier, Hansen started walking around saying, "blah blah..." That is pretty much how I remember my "French Immersion" experience too Molly Bear. :-)

Adding one more...

One more little Baxter is coming our way in February. It will be interesting to see how it changes the family. So far, Garrett is convinced it is a girl and Molly is hoping desperately for a girl. So I am pretty sure a boy would be a disappointment. We won't find that out for 7 more weeks...but I had my one "moment" today hearing the heart beat. I am pretty sure this is always an emotional time for me because I am already hanging by a little strand of a thread from being sick for so long(and the prospect of being sick for so much longer is daunting). But this is my one moment. I have a hard time getting excited for the upcoming birth until I am feeling better, but I love this moment. Hearing that tiny heart beating so fast is beautiful. It is just beautiful. So I will plug along, and pray I can make it to Halloween(when the nausea goes away). Sam has pulled me through three of these already...so I logically know we will make it, it is just hard to see the light at the end of the very dark tunnel. I know it is a blessing to be a mother, and it is a responsibility I don't take lightly. But when Elder Ballard described motherhood as "moments" it put it all into perspective for me. Some moments are so good. Some moments are just plain terrible. Then there is lots of in between time. Today was one of my good moments. And I will hold on to that for as a long as I can. Or at least until someone starts screaming for something that they need. :-)

Hansen

This boy melts me. I mean melts me. His finger suckin, cheek tappin, cuteness just melts me. Sam took them to the mall for an errand he had to run...and put this hat on Hansen. Melted me...so I texted him and begged him to buy it. The funny thing is...is that he takes hats off all the time. I usually have to sneak it back on him when he is focused on something else. But not this hat. He saw Garrett playing with it at home...and as soon as Garrett put it down he walked over and attempted to put it on. I am pretty sure he knows it melts me. I have never had a sweeter toddler. Even when he says "no" he says it as if he's asking a question. I think because he is hoping that I understand him. But then after a couple of "conversations" I tell him that we need to change his diaper, and he will hold my hand and walk up to his room. I mean...melts me.

June

Molly got to go to BYU basketball camp this year...and is going to attend the second on this weekend as well. She had a great time. She is brave. She was young. I can't say she is the most skilled, or even understands the game at all...but she loved it. The best question she asked after the camp was over that cracked me up was, "You mean you can just hold the ball?" This after she explained to me that every time she dribbled these boys would steal it from her. :-) I told her she didn't have to dribble if someone was right by her...she looked at me very surprised. I will say that it warmed my heart a bit when she told me the direction drill(a defensive drill) was her favorite...well and of course Barnacles. :-) Her gym coach was Hailey Hall...great player...great girl. I was grateful Molly got to be with her.

We went up to a picnic with Sam's siblings up in Little Cottonwood canyon. We saw where they chiseled out stone for the temple and read how it took 4 sets of oxen and about 4 days to take 1 stone to the temple building site. Wow. It was a pretty place. The creek was running HIGH...and we stayed far away. Perfect little place for the little people. Afterwards we got slushies and hung out at Pete and Jen's....which pleased Garrett to no end. He always wants to go there so he can dress up in his leopard suit. He doesn't really care that it is skin tight and is for a girl. He jumps around like a leopard and growls away. :-) While typing this, I just heard Hansen wake up. I then heard his curtains fall to the ground and a little "Uh Oh" In his oh so cute voice. :-) Gotta go get him. Love that guy.