Happy Holidays 2008

We hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas! 2008 has been a fun and exciting year for us. The biggest event was the arrival of our sweet little Peyton. She is almost 5 months now and we just adore her. Aaron has been busy with school and will complete his 4th and final year of medical school this May! We can't believe he's almost done (with this step). He's decided do go into Orthopaedics and has been busy busy traveling around interviewing for Residency. Hallie is 2 1/2 now and is talking a mile a minute. She loves to be a little mother to Peyton and her babies. Heather stays busy taking care of the kids, but still finds time to do some of her hobbies such as photography, card making,crafts, hanging out with friends and shopping :).

More updates to come. Have a great holiday season.

Is anyone else excited??? I am SOOOOOO excited for my FAVORITE day of the year!!! Of course it won't compare to last years 12 hours of straight shopping, starting at midnight with my mom, dad and Chels. No sweet chauffeur this year, Dad! You will be missed. Can't wait to shop it up with all the money that I don't have :).

Halloween

A little late, but here's some Halloween pictures. I think this is probably Hallie's favorite holiday. She was SO excited to get dressed up as a Bumble Bee. And even better, thought it was the coolest thing ever to be able to collect candy by just simply saying "Trick-or-treat". She loved seeing her friends all dressed up too. Everytime we'd be "done", Hallie would say, "one more house!". That was her famous saying of the night. "one more house", "one more candy"! Peyton was our cute little flower. Didn't quite understand the holiday. But sure knew how to look cute.

This is how the conversation would go anytime someone would ask her what we were going to be for Halloween. Not sure why these were her answers, but pretty funny.

Q. What are you going to be for Halloween?

Hallie: A bumble bee.

Q. What's Peyton going to be?

Hallie: A flower

Q. What's Daddy going to be?

Hallie: A Elk

Q. What's Mommy going to be?

Hallie: ummm.....ummmm.......eder (Heather)

It was tons of fun to have Chelsey here too. Hallie was so excited to have her here and was quite the little show off for her. My girls adore her. After all Peyton is named after her :).

The Mind of Hallie

Hallie has been crackin me up lately with the things she says. She is at such a fun age. Here's a few of her latest...

We were at HyVee yesterday and there was a huge picture of Santa Claus. Hallie yells as loud as she can, "Look Mommy! It's Jesus!"

"I be Daddy!" She found Aaron's tie and shoes and was stomping around saying this over and over.

Quite often, she asks to see cousin Avery that lives in Utah. Finally one day I said, "we can't see Avery for a long time. Maybe when it snows then we can see her." Well, this little girl has quite the memory. Today it was snowing a little and she says, "Yeah! Go to Avery's today!" as she's clapping her hands and doing a little dance. This morning as we were walking to our car, after I had told her that we couldn't see Avery today she puts her hands out in front of her, starts shaking them back and forth and says, "Go away Winter! Go away! Winter, GO AWAY!" (I'm with her on that one :))

These are for the sisters! Not the greatest pics but check out the new hair! I finally got rid of all the blonde! What do you think? I can't decide.

Pictures of Halloween and our visit with Chels are coming...soon hopefully :)

Happy Birthday Aaron!

Happy Birthday to my cute hubby. He would say, "it's just another day", but I tend to differ. I told him his goal was to tell 5 people it was his birthday today and he said, "no way. I already had to tell more people than I wanted." I asked him how many and he said, "2!". He's so funny. There are so many wonderful things that I love about him, but here's just a few that come to mind:
He is THE hardest worker. In everything he does. He always put 110% into whatever he's doing.
He is the best dad to Hallie and Peyton. I know you all thing your husband is, but you're wrong :)
He NEVER complains about anything.
He does kind acts in a quiet matter.
He gets along with everyone.
He cleans better than I do.
He always focuses on the positive things in people.
He can always make me laugh.

Love you babe! Hope you have a good day.

Peyton's 3 Months

Little Peyton is 3 months old in a few days. How blessed we are to have such a sweet baby. Here's a few things she's into right now.

Loves her hands. Likes to stare at them, eat them, hold them..

Coos and smiles non stop

Loves to stare at you until you look at her and then smiles from ear to ear.

Just started laughing the other day!

Holds her head up so well

Sleeps through the night! (just kidding! That's a wish!)

We LOVE this little stinker!

Fun Weekend

We had such a fun weekend. Here's a few things that made it SO great.

Aaron finished his Orthopedic Sub-Internship!!!

We went to Nauvoo to the temple,
Stopped at Kathy's Pumpkin Patch,



Camp fire with friends, and made yummy chocolate chip pumpkin cookies (for the third Sunday in a row)!

Where to even begin...

It's been a LONG time since I've blogged and it's a bit overwhelming to know where to even begin. We're back in Iowa now after spending 5 weeks in Utah while Aaron did a rotation at the University of Utah. It was lots of fun, but let's just say I don't recommend leaving the day after getting out of the hospital from having a baby and driving 25 hours!!! It was hell and I lost about all my dignity after that drive. Guess you gotta lose it sometime though, right?

We are doing good here. Aaron is in his 4th year now! Hooray! It's gone by so fast. He just turned in all his applications a few weeks ago for an Orthopedic residency program. So now we play the waiting game to see where he'll get some interviews. We are so proud of him for making AOA. He works so hard for our family and I hope he knows how much I love and appreciate him. He's been working 90+ hours a week lately and I think we'll both be glad when this rotation is over :)

So..if you have a few hundred hours, here's some long overdue posts :)

Peyton's 2 Month Stats

Not always smiles...

I can't believe Peyton's already 2 months! I took her to the doctor a few days ago and here's the results...

Weight: 10 lbs 11 oz~ 50%

Height: 22 3/4 in~ 60%

Head: 15 1/2"~ 70%

Hallie

Hallie has gotten SO big. I can't believe how much bigger she seems to me now that we have Peyton. She's such a great big sister. Always so sweet to her and concerned for her. After she comes running into my room every morning telling me it's a "nice day Mommy!", she needs to know where "baby sister Peyton" is. Poor girl gets smothered with kisses everyday. The doctor told Hallie that pretty soon Peyton will be able to hold toys in her hand (meaning a few months). Well ever since that appointment, Hallie's been trying to get Peyton to hold every toy possible and if she even holds it for a second Hallie screams, "Yeaahhhh Peyton!"

This is where Hallie is every morning. Playing "princess", having tea parties and house with her cash register.

This is the face I get if I tell her to say "cheese".

Loves those cupcakes (or maybe just licking all the frosting off).

She wears this around the house with her dolls in it.

Kayaking

We've been taking advantage of this great weather and have been kayaking a few times at Kent State Park and Coralville Sandy Beach Lake. It's so much fun. Hallie LOVES it. First she was a little hesitant but as soon as she got going she loved it. The last picture has to be my favorite though. I seriously think I laughed the entire way to the lake. I made Aaron stop so I could take a picture of how ridiculously awesome we looked (and to get me a drink of course :)). Aaron didn't want to scratch our car, so he made us take the "Regal" Buick. (thanks Alison and Dan! Thought you missed your car so just wanted to reunite you :)).

Chelsey's Wedding

Chelsey and Jared got married on August 8, 2008. They were married in the Mount Timpanogas Temple and it was so great. She looked beautiful. They had their reception at Thanksgiving Point by the Waterfalls. It was SO pretty. Chels and my mom did an amazing job with everything. It was perfect. Me and Natalie don't know who had it worse though. I had a baby 10 days before and she was 5 months pregnant. Thanks Chels. Chelsey kept joking about how she couldn't have planned it better--she got to be the skinniest sister at her own wedding! And Natalie told me it was payback from my wedding (she had just had Carston). It was all so much fun though. We LOVE Jared and are so glad he's part of the fam. And I'm most excited because they moved to Chicago, so now we're closer!

Bridal Veil Hike

We got a new kid carrier backpack for hiking and thought we'd try it out on a little hike up Bridal Veil Falls. Hallie loved it. I don't know who loves hiking more between her and Aaron. It's so fun to watch them together. She definitely loves the outdoors just like her daddy.

Peyton's Blessing

Grandps and Peyton


Grandma Janice
Aaron's bro Nate
SIL Audrey and sister Natalie

My cute mom!
Aunt Ruth, cousins Megan and Melissa, Aunt Kristi

We were able to bless Peyton at my parent's house while we were in Utah. I'm so thankful to have such a wonderful husband who is a strong priesthood holder. It was so nice of all our families to come to this special event. Always so fun to see everyone. And a HUGE thank you to my mom who is always so willing and happy to host everything for me :) You're the best.