Relatives on Christmas

We were able to enjoy lots of family on Christmas day. We spent time with Stacey's dad's family and then with Mark's parents. Pictures include: Mark's dad, Grandpa's wife Sheri, step-cousin Hannah, Aunt Kari, and Mark's mom.

Our family on Christmas

Santa brought Sam a basketball hoop which he immediately came out and started playing with. He did pretty good too until he decided he needed to slam dumk the ball in which case he had to get a stool and still couldn't reach.

Christmas Letter

Dear Family and Friends,

This past year has been fun and exciting for our family. We were thrilled to enjoy a trip to Walt Disney World and had a wonderful time while in Orlando. We also welcomed a new member into our family, Joseph Alan, Last of all – Mark finished school!
Taylor started Kindergarten this year and absolutely loves it. She easily excels in most areas and as a result, has been a little bored at times. She enjoys reading and has even started writing stories. She’s very creative and loves to draw, scrapbook, sew, and dress up. Despite all of this growing up she’s done in the past year, she still remains our little princess regularly donning her dress, cape, crown, and genuine plastic jewels.
Dani loves preschool and can’t wait for Kindergarten next year. She continues to be a loving young lady who enjoys helping, playing with, and caring for her brothers and sister. She misses Taylor when she is away at school, but loves to entertain Sam. Dani keeps her parents on their toes with her creative yet mischievous antics. Dani has discovered a new talent this year. She has been creating masterful works of art using media such as crayons, markers, pencil, and pen on sheets, furniture, walls, and even the floor. We’re just hoping the remaining art work (those pieces Mom couldn’t clean up) will one day be worth something, Until then, Mom will have a hard time appreciating Dani’s new talent.
Sam is growing into a fun little boy. He loves his Daddy and loves to horseplay. Sam is starting to talk, although his “words” are more like grunts and pointing at what he wants, he generally gets his point across. If not…he screams until Mom and Dad catch on. So far this method seems to suit him just fine. He began attending the nursery at church and loves it. He has become a lot more vocal and loves to chase after his big sisters and do exactly what they’re doing. He still has his great smile that no one can seem to get enough of. He has been dubbed “smiley” by friends at church. He’s just a happy little guy.
Joseph (Joey) arrived into our family on December 2nd at 8 lbs 7 oz. His siblings absolutely adore him and we’re excited to have him be a part of our family. As you might have guessed, his favorite things to do are eat, sleep, and fill his diaper. Maybe before too long, Dani can get him into art.
Stacey keeps busy with all the children and their schedules. She is currently the 2nd counselor in the Primary Presidency. Stacey was worried about taking care of 4 children, but as long as the baby sleeps most of the day, she does pretty well.
Mark is excited to move on in his career. He just finished grad school, finally. Mark has been working as a manager at Intermountain Hospital offering assistance to those in need of psychiatric care. He is working on getting a new job as a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner as well as a Clinical Nurse Specialist. We look forward to this new phase in our lives. He has most recently been serving as the 2nd counselor in the Elder’s Quorum Presidency.
We hope the holiday season finds you well. We love you and wish you the merriest Christmas,

Mark, Stacey, Taylor, Dani, Sam, & Joseph

Stocking Stuffers

Grandma brought a huge stocking and couldn't refuse to put her grandchildren into it.

Time with Grandma

We've spent the past week fitting in all the Grandma time we could. Thanks grandma for keeping us all entertained.

Santa

We went to a family party where Santa appeared. Sam was terrified at first running toward mom and wanting to be held. When he saw Santa giving other children candy, he had no problem going to sit on his lap so he could get one too. Dani was forced onto Santa's lap, but once there told him what she wanted for Christmas. Taylor (knowing it was really her mom's uncle) threw a little fit and was very rude to "Santa." Luckily Joseph woke up at the right time so he could get a picture with Santa too.

My brother

Sam and Dani didn't get to visit in the hospital so they were excited to finally get to hold him. All the kids love Joseph and ask to hold him all the time.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

We celebrated Daddy's birthday this week. Thanks to grandma for having dinner and cake upon our return from the hospital. Mark was only slightly disappointed the baby didn't wait for two more days to share a birthday with him.

Joseph (Joey) Alan

He's here and we're all doing well. We went in early Tuesday morning and had him around 8:00pm that night. Longer than I wanted to be in labor, but grateful to have him. He came in at 8lb 7oz which is much better than the 10lbs where he could have possibly been had we waited for my due date. We are back home now trying to get back into the normalcy of life. Thanks for all the love and support. Enjoy some pictures.

Induced?

I have been against being induced simply because I believe my body should know better than myself when it is ready to have the baby, but now 3 out of 4 times we have had good reason to go ahead and do it anyway. I really don't want to do it this time around, but the concern is that the baby is going to be big again, and we really don't think it is a good idea to have another 10lb baby. We stewed with the doctor to find a good time to schedule being induced and of course there weren't any real convenient times for him other than Tuesday the 2nd. I'm excited to have a date set and know that I don't have to endure much longer, but now I have other concerns. Besides the fact that it seems rather early to me, my whole family is on antibiotics. We have fevers, coughs, conjunctivitis, and sinus infections going around. Do I really want to choose to bring a baby into this environment? I've managed to be the only one lucky enough not to catch anything, but the chances look pretty good that I could be sick by Tuesday as well. My thoughts are to just go with it, so I hope I'm making the right choice (and not just a selfish one). Wish us luck and hopefully the next time I post there will be a picture of our new little one with good reports of delivery and health for us all.

Taylor's "school" pictures

Fire Station

Dani's preschool class went to the fire station today on a field trip. They got to sit in the driver's seat, try on the big heavy coat, and learn all about fire safety.

Dried Apples

This is what we've been doing all week. We tried getting some apples at the church orchard, but I couldn't believe the masses of people there. If you weren't there 10 minutes before opening, you didn't get any. My wonderful in-laws instead went out of their way and brought us almost 2 bushels from another orchard. Last year we happened upon a dehydrator and some cheap apples that we would never be able to eat all of, so we decided to try out drying apples. I was amazed that the children who would not eat fresh apples devoured the dry ones (loaded with cinnamon sugar of course)and they were gone way too fast. This year we got more apples and we spent 5 days peeling, coring, and slicing apples. This included 2 dehydrators running at the same time. Hopefully these will last us throughout the year. We also had a lot of friends over to babysit and are glad to help out where needed.

I woke up one night this week about 4 weeks prior to my due date convinced I would go into labor and couldn't sleep because I started thinking about all the things I needed to finish. About half of these are just things I want to finish, but the next day I got a move on and now the kids are packed, I'm halfway packed, the apples are done and my Disney World scrapbook is finished (mostly - I still have finishing touches). I'm almost to the point now where I can go into labor without feeling too unprepared. We still need to bring some things down from the attic and I wouldn't mind having a clean organized house, but that might be a lost cause anyway. On a good note, after over a month of the pain in my leg that I thought wouldn't go away until after delivery, somehow it dissappeared and I'm walking fairly normal again. Don't ask me how it happened because I didn't change anything, but I'm glad to not have to deal with that through this last month which is usually trying enough. Thanks to those who were concerned for me.

Holiday Dresses

Thanks Aunt Shirley for the new Holiday dresses!