Elianna

Elianna is a month old now. I cant believe it!! She still is about the same size. I haven't taken very many pictures of her because she is always either sleeping or eating. But I heard that one of my friends has already taken one thousand pictures of her one week old baby sister so I decided I had some catching up to do. :)

Sorry the post is one day late, Holly. :)

The Hobbit

Last week The Hobbit came out. I am sure most of you knew that. :) Daddy took Hannah and me along with several other dads and daughters from our church to see it the day it came out. We were all super excited!! We went to a 11:20 p.m. showing but beforhand we got ice cream sundaes in Riverpark. Those were the biggest ice cream sundaes I have ever seen. Five girls split three and we still didn't finish them. 

  All of us together.

               Hannah III and Hannah II together

After our ice cream we went to the theater to save our seats. We watched it in 3D, and I must say our 3D glasses were quite stylish. :)

While we were waiting for the movie all of us girls did our hair in elf hairstyles. We were rather successful considering we only had two ponytail holders and two boppy pins to share between us all.

The movie was really good. They did a good job making a movie that comes before movies that were already made. Some people thought they didn't stick with the book very well, but they actually did because most of the things they added came either from the Lord of the Rings or the appendices. The actor who played Bilbo did a really good job with his part. My favorite characters were Bilbo, Kihili (I think that's how you spell it) and Thorin. The problem is I know Kihili and Thorin are going to die in the last movie. :( I still like the Lord of the Rings better because I miss a lot of the characters in those movies, but The Hobbit is great.  I can't wait for them to come out with the next one. (Wait, I am not going to get started on that Hannah III)  I am sorry that this is not a very good movie review but I have never done one before. What do those of you who saw the movie think of it?

Thank you to all the dads who took us. You made a very memorable evening for your daughters and we had a wonderful time with you!! :)

Hannah

On December 6th it was Hannah's 15th birthday. For her birthday I took her to a neighbors yard for a photo shoot. I was going to post some of the pictures sooner but we have been super busy so here they are now two weeks later.

There were pictures I liked better but she got to pick which ones I posted.

I also want to take this post to say how much I love Hannah. I do not know how I would survive without her. Since we spent 14 years being the only girls in our family we are really good friends. She is my best friend ever. She knows me better than anybody but she is very sweet not to use that against me. :) She is a very loving and caring person. She is also full of life and when she is excited about something it is evident. She loves to act  in fact she and I are planing on how to put that to use in our own movies since the boys aren't really into making movies with girls in them right now. :) I love you, Hannah. Happy belated 15th birthday!!! Remember 15 is a great age. :)

Post for Maddie

Maddie, I loved the last picture you posted of the beautiful skies in Flagstaff. But I want to say that we get amazing skies here too. This is today's sunset and the colors are gorgeous. A beautiful way to end a rainy day!!

The Piano Guys

These guys are so talented. It was hard for me to decide which ones I should post. Their songs are great and their music videos are amazing.

 

I didn't know you could do so much with one piano! I like their version better than the real thing :)

I love the scenery in this one. It is so beautiful and "middle earthish".

Happy December!!

Happy December everyone!!! I can't believe it is December already. I told you that I would post more pictures of Elianna but she is always either sleeping or eating so it is hard to get pictures of her. Here is one of the best ones I have taken.

Since it is December now fall is over even if it doesn't officially end till the 21st. Besides all the beautiful autumn leaves have blown away. So these are the last fall pictures you will see from me.

We had a wonderful rainstorm at the beginning of the week. Actually it was 5 days long. I loved it. i really enjoy bad weather. But when the storm was over the clouds were amazing. I wish I could have taken a picture from an airplane because the view from above must have been breathtaking. 

 

At one point the clouds looked like waves breaking over the mountain.

Daddy, Hannah and I went to a Civil War country dance at our friends ranch. It was so much fun. Hannah and I made Civil War era work dresses for the dance.

Anyway, happy December again!! It is the last month of 2012 so enjoy it.

It's a Girl!!!!

On Monday Mommy had her baby!! For all of you who voted girl you were right!! Elianna Faith was born at 2:10 p.m. on November, 19. She is so tiny and adorable. She weighs 7 pounds 2 ounces and she is 18 inches long. She is the smallest baby we have had besides the twins.

 We are all super excited to welcome her into our family.

 Mommy has been in the hospital but she is coming home today. Nathan was not too thrilled with Elianna at first but now he is really excited to have a real baby sister "like Paige"  I can't wait to hold Elianna. We got to visit her Monday night but none of us were able to hold her. Today Hannah and I took out our bin of baby girl clothes and got some outfits out. They are in the washing machine now. On Monday when Mrs. M. told Hannah and I we had a sister we both just stared at her we were so surprised. I wanted the baby to be a girl but I didnt want to get my hopes up so I convinced myself it was a boy. Once the news soaked in we were so excited we were jumping up and down. When Nathan heard he said "oh, I wanted a boy." Nathan was not too thrilled with Elianna at first but now he is really excited to have a real baby sister "like Paige"  

Welcome Elianna Faith!!!!

Tomorrow when she is home I am going to take some pictures of her to post. 

Raindrops

It has been raining here since Thursday night and I am loving it. I am very happy on rainy days. Yesterday I took my camera outside to photograph some of the wonderfully drippy world. Trying to take pictures while trying to hold an umbrella is not the easiest thing to do but I managed to get a few pictures.

“It shall come about, if you listen obediently to my commandments which I am commanding you today, to love the Lord your God and to serve Him with all your heart and all your soul,  that He will give the rain for your land in its season, the early and late rain, that you may gather in your grain and your new wine and your oil."    Deuteronomy 11:14

 “But as for me, I would seek God, and I would place my cause before God;  Who does great and unsearchable things,wonders without number. He gives rain on the earth and sends water on the fields,"

Job 5: 8-10 

 

"Ask rain from the LORD at the time of the spring rain— The LORD who makes the storm clouds; And He will give them showers of rain, vegetation in the field to each man."

Zechariah 10:1

Words to Remember

"Accept your hard tasks, and do them cheerfully, no matter how irksome they appear, and Christ will reveal himself to you in them. Be sure that he will never come to you when you are avoiding any tasks, when you are withholding your hand from any duty, or when you are fretting and discontented over any circumstances or conditions of your lot."

J.R. Miller

Walk at Sunsrise

While we were at Grandma's and Grandpa's house, Grandpa took Hannah and me at 5:30 in the morning to Onslow Beach to see the sunrise. While we were waiting in the dark we were treated to a meteor shower (well, I think we saw 5 meteors) When the sun rose it was gorgeous due to the clouds over the ocean.

The before sunrise colors were really pretty. Lots of orange.

     Hannah and Grandpa looking cold. It was chilly especially with the breeze but the water was warm.

  Lonely girl on the beach.

   I LOVE the BEACH

 (Maddie, this is one of the ideas I have for an engagement picture when one of my friends gets engaged:)

  Here it comes

 The sun rises; a new day has come. (well, officially)

Our shadows. Can you guess who is who?

Random Trip Pictures

 This sign amused me. "No pets on grass" What grass is what I want to know. We were in New Mexico and there wasn't a blade of grass in a hundred miles.

              This is mine and Hannah's trip together picture. We have one from all of our big trips.

 

We have driven by this cross so many times and we had never stopped. This time we stopped. The cross is over one hundred feet tall. All around it are statues depicting the crucifixion story. Very catholic.

 Route 66. The mother road (I have no idea why it is called that) We traveled along sections of it on our trip.

In the Lone Star state. Texas is one of my favorite places. I want to move there when I am married and Brendan is coming with me.

This is our favorite rest stop in the country. It is somewhere out in the middle of nowhere in Texas. but it is huge and it has a play ground to help release all that pent up energy. it also has the cleanest restrooms of any rest stop I have ever seen.

         My pretty mom in down town Albuquerque.

October Trip

On October 13th our family left on a 3 week trip. I think I have mentioned this before but we LOVE traveling for long periods of time together. We enjoy seeing different parts of the country. My particular favorite is down south from Texas to Virginia. Well, as I was saying, we left on October,13 (which is my mom's birthday) and we drove to the Gindorf's house in Flagstaff. We stayed with them and went to their church on Sunday. I am going to another post that will go into more detail about our visits with them. After the Gindorf's we began to drive to Oklahoma to visit some of our friends who we had not seen in 3 years. The day we drove from Oklahoma to Tennessee we followed a thunderstorm. It was really amazing. Especially when we were where the land was flat for as far as the eye can see. In Tennessee we stayed with my long time pen pal. It was so good to see her. Letters are great but it is even better to talk face to face. From TN we drove to North Carolina to stay with my grandparents and go to the White Unto Harvest conference. Being at Grandma and Grandpa's house is always fun. Our five days were filled with shopping trips to the MCX, photo shoots on the beach at sunset, presidential debates, football, church, taking the little cousins to the playground and touring Camp Lejune with Grandpa. On Wednesday the 26 we took Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Alana and her four cute little kiddos with us to the conference. The conference was amazing, convicting, encouraging and busy. Our schedule was packed listening to many men ( my dad included) speak on the great commission. We were able to reconnect with friends who you only see at conferences like this and we were able to meet new friends. One of my favorite memories of the conference was singing O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing with three thousand people. It was so cool. I had never done that before. After the conference we began our long trek home.  We just missed Hurricane Sandy. We left Ashville NC in the afternoon of the 29th and that night Ashville got a lot of snow. We didn't visit anyone on the way home except for the Gindorfs. We got home at 9:30 on November 1st (Brendan's birthday)  very ready to be home, but filled with wonderful memories. I am going to post some pictures on separate posts.

It's Nathan's Birthday!!

Today is Nathans 3rd birthday. He has been talking about this day for months. It is very important to him, although all he wanted out of it was a cake. Now that it is finally here he is very excited about his fish cake and the ribbon he gets to wear. 

I personally can't believe he is already three. In a sense the time has gone by fast. I clearly remember the day he was born. But in another sense the time has gone by slowly because so many things have happened and changed since October, 2 2009. 

Nathan has been probably the most photographed child in our family. (Being that he is so cute how could anyone resist?) Thus I will post some of my favorite pictures of him to put those pictures to good use.

                                          This is me with Nathan on the day he was born.

 

Happy Birthday Nathan!! I love you very much.

My son, do not forget my teaching, 

But let your heart keep my commandments; For length of days and years of life

And peace they will add to you. Do not let kindness and truth leave you;

Bind them around your neck,

Write them on the tablet of your heart.

So you will find favor and good repute

In the sight of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all your heart

And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him,

And He will make your paths straight.

Proverbs 3:1-6