St. Patrick's at the Pearsons'

Dallin (2), Laura (3) & Emily (4) getting ready for their St. Patrick's Day lunch at our house on Saturday.

I love Laura and Emily's eyes in this one. 

We had a visit from Leprechaun Cousins Annie and Hannah!  

What we didn't have pictures of (sadly): cute baby Louisa, who was so good and easy to please.  She was sleeping for two hours of our babysitting time.  She likes to be swaddled with her left arm in the blanket and the right arm out so suck her thumb.

The Price/Pearson cousins played (and bickered over) forts, read books, had a pancake breakfast, a healthy lunch, reorganized the play room, left Jared's Legos alone (yay!) and talked a lot with Aunt Kathryn.  Then Lindsay went on a run with me so we could get our exercise in for the day.  It was a rare time with NO RAIN during our run.  Very nice.  It made me think of when Krystle and I would go running together early in the morning in our BYU days.  I'll always be glad we did that because school is such a busy time of life, we wouldn't have seen much of each other if we hadn't!  Sisters and sister-in-laws are great running partners.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

CFP conqueror!

After conquering a battery of monster tests, Tom is an official Certified Financial Planner (CFP).  Yeah, he's kind of a big deal in these parts.  I'm proud of him!

First Steps!

She is almost 17 months old now but "noodle legs" is starting to take an interest in walking!

Yesterday Baby Elise took her first steps! She took 3 shaky steps towards Nathan last night. We were so excited and tried to encourage her but then she thought cheering was for falling down.   Yay!

*she is "noodle legs" because even as a little baby she would never straighten out her legs or try to stand with help, she would pull her feet up if you made them touch the ground.

Thanksgiving: a change in plans

The Thiels planned to drive from Wisconsin down to Illinois to visit Mom, Dad and Grandma Joyce. Then about a half hour before we were about to leave Claire threw up. She seemed to be fine afterwards, but Elise had thrown up 2 days before so now we were fairly certain that Daryn was going to come down with whatever it was.

To avoid spreading our sickness (and an eventful car trip) we settled in and made preparations for an impromptu Thanksgiving dinner. No comparison to Mom's fantastic feast and gorgeous table. But luckily it involved more than just saltines and sprite.

We employed the girls to make cranberry garlands.

There were some saltines involved that day, but Elise thought that was ok too.

Oh, and the other cranberry craft was... pincushion oranges?... abstract turkeys? Not quite sure what to call this one.

Getting ready to eat. Check out the pretty new table Nathan finished that morning.

"I'm thankful for my chicken dinner... And turkeys."

Afterwards:

Nathan felt queasy all evening - it wasn't the food, we think. Krystle was out of commission all Friday. Daryn (the ticking time bomb) never did throw up but spiked a fever the whole next week with a sinus infection. So we were glad we didn't subject Mom and dad and Grandma to this, but we missed them terribly.

The end. Hopefully. Of the sickness, not the Thiels.

How was YOUR Thanksgiving?

If you have pictures, we'd love to see them! :)

We have such an awesome family. Love you all!

Some more from Thanksgiving!

"The Crew" in Washington

Laura, Mike & Kathleen's daughter, Emily & Jared.

The kids playing the piano together.

Tom at the pie station. Delicious blackberry cream, pumpkin, pecan and yogurt!

Aunt Natalie and Karen playing and singing beautifully. Lots of great music traditions!

Thanksgiving in Washington!

Tom's creation, "Creamy Yogurt Pie" was a big hit with the kids.

Emily says, "Thumbs up!" to the feast!

Dallin is ready to go!

Tom taking a break.

Grandpa getting a short nap break with tiny baby Louisa.

The hostess with the mostest and her parents, Karen & Brent.

Kirk & Dallin

Emily & Laura cheesing it up.

We caught baby Louisa's smile on camera! So cute!

Tom loves holding babies!

Halloween 2011

On the front porch with the pumpkin family.

Our "scary pumpkin". The top drawing was Tom's idea that he shared with Jared. Jared replied that it wasn't nearly scary enough, and drew the pumpkin on the bottom. We went with Jared's idea.

Here is the result -- Jared was thrilled.

And it was the thickest pumpkin we've ever seen. The shell was honestly at least 4 inches thick all the way around.

Our funny crew at the Trunk-Or-Treat night a few days earlier. Laura and I are flowers, Tom is a Pole-Vaulting Zombie (all from Plants Vs. Zombies) and Jared, who changed from his costume idea last-minute, is a skeleton. Once again, he was thrilled.

I had a hard time capturing a good picture with all of us in it. We really, really tried! Here are the three of them during the dinner chaos in the cultural hall.

We hope you all had a happy Halloween!

Baby Louisa Joy Price

There has been great excitement in the Price Family (Vancouver Division) household. On Tuesday morning at 4:00 AM Lindsay started having labor pains, with contractions strengthening until about 6:00 when Lindsay woke me up. Labor strengthened significantly at 6:30, which completely caught me off guard as I expected labor to take longer.

Lindsay hit transition at 7:00, her water broke at 7:30, and the baby was born at 7:40 in the morning. Lindsay negotiated the challenges of labor like a professional and handled things very well. Labor was so fast that our daughter beat the midwives, so I got to catch the new baby.

As the baby was a girl, Lindsay got to name her Louisa Joy Price. She was 8 lbs, 12 oz and was 21" long -- a keeper for sure!


The proud mother with her two daughters Emily and Louisa. Emily likes to put the golden hair on pretending that she is either Rapunzel or Pocahontas.


Here are pictures of the little Louisa. We think that she is the cutest thing around.


Emily, Dallin, and Louisa are all rolled up as mummies! Emily and Dallin have been learning about Ancient Egypt and thought that Louisa looked like a mummy -- of course they wanted to follow suit as well!

We feel very blessed that the mother and baby are doing well, and that we have a special little baby in our home.

new baby!

Louisa was born today! We should have Kirk and Lindsay tell all about it. What a perfect, beautiful baby. We enjoyed being with her for a little bit this evening, took some pictures, cooed over her perfect little face and fuzzy blonde hair. Good work, Lindsay! Thank you for a wonderful addition to the whole family! :)