4th of July

First off we went to the parade in West Jordan with Brian & Elaine, Dan & Bridget and the Broodsbys. Below is a picture of McCall with Malinda...isn't she so cute with her little Aunt Jamima look!

Two walking advertisements for Aeropostal.
Conner is so cool in his shades!! I think he thinks he's a movie star, check out that look...too cute!
Everett and Ethan were in heaven playing in the dirt behind us all...parade, what parade?

The girls

Bree & Everett

After the parade we went to the Brooksby's place for lunch. I just had to post these pics of the babies.

Conner is so photogenic, he's a natural in front of the camera. What a fun little guy, we really enjoyed having them down for the 4th and will miss them when we make the move...we love you guys!!

Everett & Ethan playing on the swing. I had to post these two pictures, they are the best of buds and every time Ethan sees a picture of Everett he asks to go to his house.

another cute pic

Malinda has the most beautiful eyes and she is just a darling little girl!

Malinda with daddy

just swingin' in the backyard...oh look it's Brennen on the left, I don't know how they did it, but he and Preston managed to dodge the camera the whole day.

Devin harassing the cook...be careful Devin he's making your food!

I really hope that was his plate!

Elaine had a quilt set up in the garage for us to work on, and check it out Debbie all those years of making your boys quilt and knit and sew is paying off. I have to say that Elaine was very impressed, she had been working on this project for...well we'll just say a while and she was VERY glad to see it done.

Bridget with Baby Conner...he finally sacked out, what a trooper he was!
Brian started up some flames for the kids to roast marshmallows...they had a blast!!

Roasting

Ari's marshmallow worrier pose...you will now be seeing this in your yoga class.

Getting to know Conner

So I feel like I've fallen off of the blogging bandwagon, but I'm here today to jump back on! Last weekend the kids and I were able to take a trip up to Rexburg to visit with Dan, Bridget and Conner, my cute little nephew. We had a lot of fun and really miss seeing them. The kids really loved Conner, in fact Ethan insisted on helping every chance he got (he's 2). Here is a picture of him helping me feed the little guy...thanks E!

Devin enjoyed his new (but not newest) baby cousin...

he really likes holding him and the kids keep asking when we get to go back.
Uncle Daniel got the board games out and Brennen & Devin had a blast. Ethan just watched from the sidelines.

He played a little peek-a-boo when there was a lull in the game.

And when they moved on to Battleship, this is what Ethan was doing with the leftover pieces.

The kids were able to meet up with some of their Idaho friends...here is Ari with her two friends Kara and Holly, they had fun together and we hope to get back up there soon for more fun times. Thank you Dan and Bridget for hanging out with us!

My favorite Christmas gift!

A few months ago I caught word that Suzy was going to have a baby shower...oh how I hate living so far away at times like these. I expressed to Chris my desire to attend this shower but we decided that it would be better to postpone a trip like this until later...little did I know a Christmas gift was brewing!!! I again mentioned the idea to attend the shower but got nowhere, at least that's what I thought. Christmas morning I was presented with my flight itinerary to Portland Oregon! I was shocked I really thought that Chris had purchased lame concert tickets...I do NOT want to go to a concert and on Christmas morning I was dreading having to act surprised, come to find out I didn't have to act. Here are some photos of my trip.

At the Beach

Chris had planned everything with my friend Mary (good thing that he did 'cause I ended up surprising Suzy and Cindy...it was so fun!). Mary picked me up from the airport in the morning and then drove me out to the beach that afternoon! She is such a great friend to do that for me and to let me stay at her house. We went to the outlet stores to shop for the shower and we got to stop by at Phyllis & Jerry's place, it was so great to see them, I only wish that I had a picture with them too. Mary and I had to get our picture with the beach in the background...it was such a beautiful day!!

At the Shower

Debbie, Nic and Kayla...I love this shot! We had so much fun at the shower...especially little Kayla, she loved climbing the stairs and taking toys away from other babies...she's got Le Bel in her for sure!! I couldn't get over her smile and cute little rolls...they are everywhere!

The traditional toilet paper baby shower game. Suzy wears pregnancy very well and I can say that it was very difficult to get this one right even after Cindy gave me her "expert advice".

Nicholette and Kayla...that little girl was the life of the party and I loved getting to know her better.

Okay so here is the deal, when I heard about the "drinking" game I knew I had to volunteer to participate. It's the drinking apple juice from a baby bottle game and the three sis-in-laws were up against each other (some people don't know this but I can be a little competitive). I did NOT realize how hard it is to suck that juice out of the bottle. Suzy cheated and took the lid off in the beginning and automatically disqualified (pregnancy can cause a girl to be impatient...especially in the last month with having to wait for the darn baby to come) too bad for her, but great for us, it was down to Cindy and Me...

Look at this shot!! Cindy is pausing to smile for the camera and yet she still wins...amazing. I can tell you one thing that I am sure of, Cindy sucked more than I did...I love you anyway.

Opening presents, it's always a highlight for the mom-to-be, checking out all of the fun new stuff for the new little one.

Kayla was the official toy tester...thanks Kayla!

Me-n-my sisters!

Cindy

Suzy

Nic

Debbie

All the girls!

left to right: Debbie, Nicholette, Kayla, Cindy, Suzy and me

I stayed with Jon and Suzy my second night, we had a lot of fun, we ended up going to Mazatlan for dinner and we took Cold Stone back to the house to visit until late into the night...thanks guys for the fantastic time, I can't wait to see you all again at the camp out!

Family Traditions

Okay so I'd like to share some of our family traditions for the holidays.

Cookie making is at the top of the list not because I like to eat them (although I do have this great recipe for cream cheese-walnut cookies that's really yummy) but because I love to give them. Each year we have our "regulars" but we do like to try something new too...thanks Christine for the great cookie recipe! We also like to make fudge and peanut brittle, my mom would always make these around the holidays and it's a great memory I have. This year will be extra special because our family has "uncovered" a forgotten family recipe from my great grandma Poulton for Vanilla Fudge...can't wait to give it a try!

Christmas stories and songs, what is Christmas without stories of Jesus. Along with these stories we mix in some fun ones. One that I remember as a kid is a story called "Trouble at the Inn" by Dina Donohue, who knows if it is a true story but it always brings me to tears and it reminds me of children's innocence.

Christmas eve growing up we would go to my grandma Irwin's home and exchange cousin gifts and that was the only gift we could open before Christmas morning. We would also read the above story along with the stories of Jesus. In our family on Christmas Eve we have Clam Chowder in bread bowls for dinner and our kids get to open gifts from their grandma Debbie and she always makes them the cutest pj's to wear that night. We have added to this by giving the kids a book to read that evening too.

In Chris' family they would wake up Christmas morning to balloons covering the ground and they would always find that the gifts didn't have names but numbers...take a guess as to why and we have taken on this tradition as well. Christmas morning our kids can go through their stockings with or without parental supervision, but they have to wait to open anything that is wrapped and we do it one at a time...poor kids. Dad "plays" Santa and hands out the gifts to each child (Irwin tradition). This year will be especially hard because Chris works Christmas Eve and doesn't get home until 8:30 a.m. if we're lucky. For breakfast we have a couple of traditions, one from the Le Bel side and one from the Irwin side...neither one of us was willing to give in. Chris' family always has cinnamon rolls and my family has strawberry waffles, it actually works out well because if you make the dough for the cinnamon rolls the night before you can just pop them in the oven in the morning and start the morning off with the rolls and after exerting all that energy on opening gifts there are always takers for the waffles. This year we are planning on going to my brother's place Christmas afternoon so that the kids can all play together. Can't wait!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Le Bel Family Campout

Just a few pics from the Le Bel family campout!