A Special Visitor

You know how I said we never made it to visit Santa for the first time in 8 years.  Well, I couldn't let that happen!  Especially on my baby's first Christmas.  So I pulled some strings and chatted with Mrs. Claus.  I explained our situation.  She was dying to see Miss Lila too, so she told Santa they had to make a special stop on Christmas Eve.  They stopped by our Family Christmas Party.

Tyson said he wanted a Lego set. . . . or maybe a bike.  Indecisive right until the end.

Preston explaining in detail exactly which Lego Ninjago set he wanted.

Nolan had us all in stitches when he enthusiastically asked for socks and underwear.

Mrs. Claus was in love with Miss Lila

Santa thought she was pretty great too.  

Angels

Sasha and Lila

I believe there are angels among us.  

Send down to us from somewhere up above.

They come to you and me in our darkest hour.

To show us how to live

To teach us how to give

To guide us with a light of love.

Lila's Blessing Dress

Lila's Blessing Dress is very special to me.  My Great-Grandmother, Mary Howard, bought this dress back in the 50's for my mother when she was born.  I was blessed in this dress.  Both of my sisters were blessed in this dress.  My mother gave it to me for Lila. But it was starting to show it's age. It needed some updating and altering.  I shared my vision of the dress with my Mother in Law.  She is an amazing seamstress, and has made countless blessing dresses.  She was more than willing to help me transform my blessing dress into Lila's blessing dress. 

As I've mentioned before Lila Jane was named after my Grandmothers, her Great-Grandmothers.  These two women are very special to me.  They love and adore their new little baby.  It's no secret that she is their new favorite.  

 I love this picture of their hands.  Such Beauty.

Lila's Blessing Day

On December 2nd, Lila was given a name and a blessing by her father.  It was a beautiful day.  She was so well behaved the whole day, just eating up all the extra attention.  I tried to get her to fall asleep so that she would be quiet during the blessing, but she would have nothing to do with it.  She wanted to be wide awake. When it was time for the blessing I handed her off to Dan and said, "Good luck!"  

She was peaceful, still and happy while her daddy blessed her to have a life filled with devotion to God.  And as soon as the blessing was over and she was back in my arms she fell right to sleep.

After church we invited everyone over to our house for food.  We had 75 people crammed into our home.  We had a kitchen full of beautiful teenage girls. 

Chelsey, Emily, Kenzie, Kellie

We had a basement full of rambunctious kids.

Sarah, Conner, Aimee, Christine, Nolan, Chase, Coda, Justin, Alia

Every inch of our home was filled with the people we love most. It was a wonderful day.

Toshina & Great Grandma Toone

Sheeby & Breanne

Cheryl & Vika

Hailey, Amanda, Kelli

We also took the opportunity to take four-generation pictures.

The Center of Attention

Cousin Jocey, Papa, and Great Grandma Toone

Lila is everyone's favorite girl.
This happens ALL the time.

Lila Jane with Lila and Jane

Each of my children carry the name of an ancestor as their middle name.  

Not only is Lila the first to carry two family names, she is also the first to be named after someone still living.  It is priceless to me to see her spend time with her namesakes, my grandmothers.  They both love her so much.  I hope she gets many, many more years with them.

Hospital Visitors

Dan and the boys weren't able to spend much time with Lila and I in the hospital.  But that doesn't mean we were lonely.  We had a steady stream of visitors the entire time we were there.  On my side of the family Lila was the first baby in a almost a year and the first girl in nearly 4 years.  Everyone was anxious to meet her.

Aunt Breanne

Grandma and Papa

Great Grandma, Jane Toone.  One of Lila's namesakes.

Uncle Sheeby

Aunt Deb

Cousins Vika and Conner

Aunt Cheryl

Honorary Aunts Amanda and Toshina

Great Grandma, Lila Hansen.  Lila's other namesake.

Grandma and Grandpa

We had many other visitors that I failed to take pictures of.  Lots of Aunts and Uncles including Chad & Tina, Jen & Andy, and Rob & Andrea. Did I miss anyone?

The Leaves are Leaving

We've had these huge trees in our backyard. 

They have provided us with great shade and a nice privacy wall.  But they have also caused us some damage.  You may remember a couple years ago when one of them was struck by lightning.  The roots are tearing up our yard and our neighbors yard.  And just last week one of the little old ladies in our neighborhood warned me that the wind was going to blow them onto my house.  So after much consideration, we decided it was time for the trees to go. 

The boys (and their cousins) enjoyed playing in the leaves for the last time.





Conner, Vika, and Preston



Tyson 7.5

Preston 4



Nolan 21 months



 I keep telling Cheryl that these two look like brother and sister.  What do you think?



Nolan & Vika



Haircuts & Suckers

My mom loves to cut my boys' hair.  My boys love to have Grandma cut their hair.  Mostly because she gives them candy afterward if they sit still.  (Not that she needs an excuse to give them treats. They don't call her "Cookie Grandma" for nothing.)

Do you want to know her secret for getting them to sit still?  

The spray bottle. 

My boys love spray bottles.

Wordless Wednesday

Picture by Tammy Hicks of Captured Moments Photography

Home Court Advantage

Uncle Sheeby and Aunt Breanne invited us all to a basketball game, a Utah Flash game.

Dan ended up having to work at the last minute, so we went without him. It's a small arena, which made it much easier for the boys to follow the game.

Tyson enjoyed keeping track of the score. He practiced his math skills by letting me know how many points we were winning (or losing) by.

But by the second half the boys' attention started to wane.

Luckily, that's when they started passing out Bam sticks.

We spend the rest of the game trying not to get smacked in the face.

Nolan liked them too.