We're past due for a new post

Here's our little peacemaker.  

Randy blessed him October 21st at our home and we were so happy to have family there via google +.

If you've been unfortunate enough to have leant me your ear lately, you'll know what a good baby Brig is.  Humor me while I say yet again how amazed I am at what a good and easy baby he is.  He sleeps all night, eats like a champ, and smiles and goos for his mom.  What more could I ask for? We adore him.  Doesn't he look pleased?

We were happy to host our cousin, Flat Eva this past month.  The girls loved taking her to see some of our favorite places.  We love living so close to U.S. history.

Our neighbors across the way have a farm.  We can hear their roosters at our house.  When the missionaries started teaching them, they invited Randy to go along.  Later, Randy took the girls over to see all the animals.  They loved the brand new baby chicks, rabbits, roosters, "guard geese," and more.

A pile for each girl to jump in.  Heaven.

Face painting practice for Halloween!

Anne decided she wanted to be a peacock this year...

Our friends came with us to the ward trunk or treat.

Anne is taking gymnastics this year.  

If you look closely, she is doing a forward spread eagle roll on that yellow wedge mat.  

Woo!

 At Longwood Gardens we stayed a while to see the trains going around.

We smooched some cheeks.

We went back to Longwood Gardens to see the mum festival.  I have to admit, a mum festival didn't sound that great to me but, as always, I was amazed at what they can do with plants.  I can't imagine how far in advance they plan these things

Whoops, this is in the children's place. 

That is a fountain with paint brushes for the kids to paint the walls with.

Just look at these!

  We can't figure out how they get them to bloom at the different heights.

This is in the room called "The Orangery."  I want an orangery in my house.

(The tree in that box is a grapefruit!)

Dahlias

And other stuff. 

 But here are some of the dahlias we are growing in our front yard. 

 There is also a gorgeous deep purple one that just opened!

I love fresh cut flowers from my own yard!!

We had a campfire in our backyard the other weekend.

We are continually amazed at how wet it is here.  It takes so much effort to get a fire going.

The girls think it is the funnest thing in the world.

Isn't the temple lovely?  We had a great temple day last Friday.

I'm so glad the kids love hanging out at the visitor's center and a park nearby so I can go to a session.

Also, Randy is the best  :)

His cheeks keep getting chubbier and chubbier. 

 We girls all love to smooch them.

We can't wait to make a pie out of this one.

This is the latest project.

Fixing the leak.  Ugh.  It's always something...

Update

In no particular order, here are some pics of The Boy.

Caught him with his eyes open!

I love the sizes here. And the silent cheering.

Here is our "little boy blue" while he was on the bili lights.  He was a bit yellowy after he came home, but the pediatrician sent a guy over with this blanket/vest for him to wear.

We're so glad Brig is here!

About a week after he was born, Anne had her first day of 1st grade!!  It has been wild getting back into a schedule--mostly because we threw a newborn into the mix.  We're all getting the hang though.
Ruby can't wait for her first day of school next year.
Anne loves her teacher Ms. Hall and is so happy to have her BFF Madelyn in her class again.

The whole family.

Lu got a haircut.

Not terrible for a wiggly 2 year old.

(and yes, our house has lots of piles of clutter right now.)

Oh Boy!

He's Here!!

Brigham Jay

Monday, August 13, 2012

9:29pm

7 lbs 6 oz

almost 19 inches long

(also known as Ba-wigam)

Summer kick off

Hoorah for the good ol' summertime!

Summertime brings popsicles

and Ruby's birthday

{I can hardly believe she's 4!  She loves to make us laugh and smile and you're not at our house if you can't hear Ruby singing her heart out.  We love our Ruby!}

and Vacation.

~After two and a half years, we finally made the trek back west to see family.  We packed so much into our two weeks and had the most wonderful time!!  Here are some highlights:

Camping with the Griffiths clan, including a day spent at a beautiful mountain lake!

{it was wonderful to be in the mountains again}

Once the cousins warmed up to each other it was fun to watch the packs of kids roaming the campground, playing their various games.  And of course there was some card playing,

and splashing in the creek among all the other fun camping and campfire things.

And when we got back we all needed a nap.

{what you don't see in this picture--and neither did I until later--is Ruby just out of this shot in the computer chair, also fast asleep.}

Another highlight was meeting up with several of my long-time friends and meeting all the kiddos and catching up.  We were missing and thinking of several others who were not able to make it.  Oh, it was fun to get together!!

Grandma Griffiths arranged for us to ride ponies, and while we waited for them to eat their dinner my girls were all giggles and pure happiness to maul a few kittens for a while. Just look at these smiles:

The ponies!!

{Who, incidentally, are Welsh ponies named Merry and Pippin  :) }

So much fun!

We celebrated Lucy's 2nd birthday in the middle of our trip.

{Our Lucy is really getting personality and independence.  She thinks she is as big as the big sisters and that she can do anything.  We think she is funny and so sweet and loving}

The zoo is always a fun place, especially when you meet up with all your fun new cousin friends again!

After so much fun up north, we headed south to spend our second week with the Tovey cousins!

We again packed all we could into our days.  We went to a petting zoo where we saw and held so many cool animals.  Some we'd never heard of before.  It was so much fun.

Meet Spanky, the baby monkey.

Can't even remember what this was or his name, but it was obviously captivating.

The anteater.  Such a long wiggly tongue.  A lot skinnier that I thought it would be.

Paige and the Spankster:

Anne and Ruby both held the toucan!  {Can you tell it was about a thousand degrees in the desert?  We were so happy to come in and cool off for a bit}

Anne and Chase held the armadillo.

There was a baby bengal tiger.  They breed these with cats to get the bengal cat. { I think I'm remembering that correctly...?}

Here's the bearcat named Frito.  He loved cuddling and smelling all the kids.  Doesn't look like it, but he was really gentle and nice.  Also, if you pet him and smelled your hands he smelled like movie popcorn.  Hee!

They had us line up and put our hands on our knees to lean over a bit, then they let this guy run along our backs.  He has an amazing nose the bends all over the place.  He loves to smell all kinds of things and when he finds something he really loves the smell of, he rubs the smell into his tail with his hands so he can smell it again later.  Are these the ones related to raccoons?  Maybe. 

Gotta have some pics of The Chopper!!  Enough said.

Whoops, this one got put in at the end.  Nobody will forget how the camel tried to eat Eric's cowboy hat--especially Eric. 

We did so much more, but were too busy and preoccupied to take pictures.  Lots of cousins playing all over the house, lizard hunts, friendship bracelets, and on and on.  We had a fabulous vacation with family.  We love and miss them so much and have so many happy memories. 

~Stay tuned to see what became of our yard and bees when we got home...