Love

It's been such a great few days! The whole family is finally all together and it's been nice to just spend lots of time enjoying each other's company. Some highlights from the last few days:
• Family Pictures! Katharine was able to take our family pictures on Saturday morning--it was soo cold, but we survived and Katharine did an amazing job! Sarah's cheeks were bright pink by the time we were done!

• Sweet Baby Claire's baby blessing! It's hard to believe that Claire is already 3 weeks old--it seems like she's been with us for a lot longer than that! She is such a sweet baby...she sure is loved!
• Our 'early Thanksgiving' dinner on Sunday afternoon! It was soo good. The best part of Thanksgiving dinner? The leftovers!
• Dad learning about the Lindsay-Burn syndrome...
• Katie's in-laws (Rick, Shellie and Daniel) were in town for a few days! It was fun catching up with them!
• Celebrating Chris' 26th birthday with trick candles on his cake!
• Possibly the best part of the weekend? Going to the temple! I was able to go to the Provo Temple on Friday--such a sweet and enlightening experience. As my mom and I were on our way to the temple, she commented that 28 years previous (to the day!) she and my dad's mom went to the temple for the first time--at the Provo temple! (I think that added to the special-ness of the day!) It was so neat to be there with my family and a few close friends.

Grateful

I'm feeling so grateful tonight for so many prayers that have been answered in the last couple of weeks. I know when I put my trust in Heavenly Father, everything seems to work out in one way or another. With the arrival of sweet baby Claire to Dad's health scare and a few other experiences along the way, I have gained a deeper appreciation for prayer, faith, scriptures, family and good friends. I find myself laying in bed at night counting my blessings and become overwhelmed with a feeling of gratitude.
Last night, I was able to babysit Claire--granted, it was only for about 5 minutes--and we just hung out and had a good conversation! Katie and I have had some *interesting* moments with Claire, and we just have to look at each other and laugh ourselves silly! Marshall was so cute when he was leaving to go home last night. I think he said "bye" to Claire five times before he actually got out the door...he sure is loving his status as an uncle! I wish there was a better way to capture all the funny moments that we've had in the last few days with Claire. She's such a sweet baby. Somehow time seems to stop and everything is perfect for a brief moment when Claire is in your arms.

More Pics!

So sweet, so precious, so much to love! Marshall made a quick visit to the hospital this afternoon and was so sweet with baby Claire! He wasn't so sure about helping out on diaper duty...
Surrounded by love!
Big baby! (That just means there's more of her to love!)

Katie Update!

11:38 Update: WELCOME BABY CLAIRE ELIZABETH!! 9 pounds, 20 1/2 inches. Sweet, quiet little baby. Perfect in every way!

9:00 Update: Still hangin' in there!
8:00 Update: Getting close! We're hoping she'll be here within the next hour or two!!
7:40 Joe-Joe Update: Currently on page 504 of Breaking Dawn. Started the day at about page 100. Anxiously waiting for Claire to arrive!

7:00 Update: Still no baby. Boo. Katie must have a pretty comfy tummy!4:00 Update: Katie's been at the hospital since 6:00 this morning...12 hours later and she's about half way there! Katie is loving life now that she's on drugs...an epidural comes highly recommended. Things are slow and steady!

Quilt Update...

Saturday afternoon found me quilting the day away! Mom, Katie and I headed back to Material Girls to get the rest of the material for the quilts that we're working on. The top of my quilt is getting close to being done!

Katie update: STILL no baby yet. Boo. Maybe tomorrow...hopefully. Check back for updates.

My Cooooold Halloween

Remember my costume from last year??? Well, it was resurrected. Not for long, but long enough to float down the Provo River wearing it! Brenda has been talking about floating the river in our costumes on Halloween for months, and I could never tell if she was really being serious or not. FYI: Brenda was serious. She even came to work wearing a life jacket under her costume! We took off from work after lunch, changed into costumes and made our way to the river...hesitantly, I might add! I'm still not quite sure how Brenda convinced us to tag along and make one of her dreams come true. It started raining on us when arrived at our destination which made us further question our decision to go floating. Definitely made for a memorable Halloween! Will I ever do that again? No. Was it freezing? Oh yeah. Do I have battle wounds? Yes. Will you see pictures of said battle wounds? Absolutely not. Any other questions I can answer for you?



Brenda's husband walked along the river and took pics along the way! We came across a few people out fishing, and I'm sure they were wondering if what they were seeing was really happening!

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Later that night, we got all dressed up and went to Salt Lake for a little get-together. I think the best part of the night was the 'getting ready' part! Amanda = Fishy • Me = Peacock • Carly = She Devil • Britt = Zebra (or an Amazon)