Happy New Year!

We have had a busy month - my mom came out first to come see Tristan - I can't believe she is 6 weeks old now! It goes so very fast!

Mike's parents joined in on the fun and both sets (well my dad was at home working :( ) of grandparents were here so we had the baby's blessing and Ian's Baptism.

My mom left and Mike's parents were here for another week - my mother in law ended up falling one night and dislocated her shoulder!! It happened at midnight and Mike had to take her to the A&E - we're legend now here for going to the A&E (ER) 3 times within our first 3 months staying here! They had to stay until 5AM and Mike had to go to work still. On top of that my FIL caught a cold and so we stayed in.

They went home on the 19th and then Louise, Max & Sophia arrived on the 21st to celebrate Christmas. We had a really good time. New Year's was much quieter - Cman went to a friend's house (they are from Lafayette!) and the rest of us made homemade pizza and had ginger ale. It was sad not watching "Dick Clark's Rockin' New Years" but we watched Sir Elton instead - pretty sedate in comparison.

We've cleaned up our Christmas decorations which few we had and organized some things I couldn't get to before the baby was born so our house looks much more organized! Louise told me once that her Japanese mom always said you should try to have a clean house upon the new year to bring forth good luck (or atleast an organized house) for the new year! So I've hedged my bets and our house looked great!

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!!

Gosh where has the month gone? It has been so crazy busy here - I've forgotten how much time a newborn takes - we've had a wonderful holiday with friends - hope you all have had a wonderful day! We miss our family and home friends but it has been a new experience to be here...Merry Christmas!!

Baptism, Blessing & Pinewood Derby

We had a very busy weekend. The boys had their first English pinewood derby - very different than at home in that it seemed more dad's tinkered with the cars than at home - there were some great designs out there - but extremely unlikely 10 year olds and younger did the work "by themselves". Ian came in 4th and Chandler I'm not sure but they had a good time! There are TONS of boys in our Den so it was a very long day.

After we had Ian's baptism - he had a HUGE turn out! There were about 50 people there! I had made a lite dinner - it was like Jesus with the loaves of bread & fish - I was worried but we had plenty of food. We had to do everything - not like at home where the stake plans it all for you - it was really nice - Tyler gave a talk along with my FIL, and the kids along with our friends the Hamberlin kids sang I Am A Child of God. It turned out great - the only thing missing were The Smiths.....


Sunday we blessed Tristan - first time in ages I got my mom to come and stay at church with us. it turned out so nice - I found this beautiful blessing gown at a shop that was closing down in town - it's all raw silk and tulle -

My mom left yesterday then I took my in-laws to a "mall" - we actually have a few here - and did some Christmas shopping. Now just trying to get things done. Tristan is sleeping pretty well - she gets up around 12:30, 1AM and then maybe squeaks around 3:30 then she's out till about 6am.... she is so sweet - you really do forget the pain that you carried around for MONTHS and those last 3 hours of labor ugh! But what a prize!!

Happy 2 Weeks

Time goes by so fast! The baby is growing so fast it is amazing - she has been really sweet - she sleeps pretty well - but you know the first week or two it's all about the sleep, eating & pooping. We are in full swing with the grandparent visits. My mom is still here until Monday and my in-laws arrived last Tuesday.

I send the grands to London for the day on Wednesday - they got to take the double decker bus and see all the major sights from the bus. Then on Thursday I took them on a Holiday Home Tour through the women's club to see people's decorations. That was a very fun day. Yesterday we made the trek to Costco - it takes about 50 mins to get there so I don't go very often. Then we raced back to watch Cman in a mini-concert - he's been playing the clarinet now for about a month and is already in the orchestra - I'm so glad they welcome kids at any point here - it is very nice. They have about 40 kids in their orchestra for 4&5th grade. It was terrific.

Today we're getting ready for Ian's baptism. Oh, and the Pinewood derby so I should have some really great pictures coming in the next couple days - I'll post more of the baby too - she is so sweet!! Happy Saturday!