It's the moment you've been waiting for . . .

 A new blog post!! :)

Our family is doing well.  Here are some of the things we've been doing - in a random order - for the last few months.

We can look forward to many months of Adam living in his helmet.  On this particular day, he had been helping Daddy in the garage, thus the safety goggles as well.

Cate working with biscuit dough.  This is one way I keep this little one occupied while I get dinner made.

This is a photo from the family hike for Activity Days.  It was a little bit much for younger siblings, but we managed it with Cate in the backpack.  The kids loved it.  We decided it looked like 2 mountains that crashed together and fell into the valley to create a jumbled mess of rocks.

Our first picnic of the year up on our hill.  One of our favorite things to do in the good weather.

Adam and his fish from Walden Pond.

At the Boston Marathon, but not in Boston.  This is at about the 10 mile mark.  It is very inspiring to see the runners, though I wouldn't do one myself.  They were amazing!

Picture at Drumlin Farm over spring break.

Also at Drumlin Farm.

She just has that look of mischief and fun about her.

Anna on the jungle gym at Drumlin Farm

Cate's friend Vivian, whom she loves.  They were dancing together.

The kids spoiled me on Mother's Day.  I felt so special - it was a wonderful day!

They draped the chair in red, had breakfast on the side table with flowers decorating the tray, and had made many cards and pictures for me.  I had just gotten out of the shower, which explains my wet hair :)

Sunrise, Sunset

 Sunrise from the deck

Sunset from the porch

We have really enjoyed being able to see beautiful sunsets and sunrises.  Living on a hill does have some advantages.  Our other home was in the forest, so we enjoyed seeing beautiful trees, but sunsets & sunrises . . . . not so much. :)

Pictures at the Temple

 A few weeks ago we were heading into the city and on the way we stopped to walk around the temple.  It was a beautiful fall day - perfect weather - and BEAUTIFUL blue skies!  The grounds of the temple were beautiful, with so many flowers still blooming all around.  We even spotted a bunny rabbit calmly sitting in a flower bed, which was a highlight to my children's day!

Samantha's Birthday and Baptism

 

Samantha's baptism day was such a very special day. The baptism was beautiful in every way.  The Spirit was there, and we appreciated everyone who was able to come, especially Grandma & Grandpa Halliday and Aunt Christyn.  We wish that Grandma & Grandpa Carpenter could have made it, but know that they would have if it had been possible.  We're just glad Grandpa's health is still improving, even if it is a little at a time.

Samantha asked her Grandma Halliday to speak about baptism and her Aunt Christyn to speak about the Holy Ghost.  They did a wonderful job!  Samantha wanted all the primary to sing "When I am Baptized" and she wanted to sing "A Child's Prayer" with me.  I don't know what I was thinking when I said I would sing with her.  Samantha, so brave, sang the first verse.  Her voice was indescribably sweet and so beautiful - there were few dry eyes.  The minute she began to sing I knew that I would not make it through my verse.  It was just too emotional experiencing my first little one get baptized and then hearing her sing a song to her Heavenly Father.  Anyway, I made it through about 1 phrase, lost it, and then gestured to the audience to pick it up for me, which they did.  It was a wonderful moment to hear the adults sing.  I pulled it together for the duet part, just barely.  It was a precious moment that I will always treasure.

Samantha is such a sweet, kind, smart, and thoughtful girl.  She is my sidekick.  She is so sweet to her siblings nearly all the time (the 3 year-old brother can be trying for her).  She helps me in the kitchen and around the house.  She loves to sew, cook, read, read, read, jump rope, dance, sing, crochet, build things with wood, paint, etc, etc.  She recently said to me, referring to a character in a book, "You know how Cherry feels that she is born to dance, well, I feel like I was just born to read."  Of course, she said this after I said that it was time to turn off her flashlight and go to sleep.  I am so very proud of my now 8 year-old.  She is a joy in my life.

I did a little photo shoot of Samantha in her baptism dress.  Isn't she beautiful?  I just took them around our yard.  It turns out that living on a hill creates a wonderful backdrop for photos :)

 Grandma reading to Cate and Adam.  Adam basically lives in his helmet.  He is constantly riding his bike around the yard.  I guess he was born to bike.

 Grandpa giving a kiss on Samanth'as birthday.

 I just threw this one in just for fun.  This was right before school the day after her birthday.  Once again, Adam's sporting his helmet.

We're Still Alive!!

 

Well, we moved.  That is the biggest news.  The time was right.  We were planning to try and move West, but things were not feeling right, so we made a decision to stay where we are.  The decision was validated when we put our house on the market, got an offer the first weekend, and then found a house to buy.  We closed on both homes on the same day (my birthday - FUN ;) ), which we do not necessarily recommend, but it worked out!  Of course, that is the condensed version, but we are very happy with our new home.  We feel extremely blessed, and are most enjoying having a garage, more space, MUCH less mosquitoes and bugs in general, a quiet street, a big yard, and a beautiful view, as well as kids next door for our kids to play with.  It's amazing how just moving a few minutes away can make such a difference, and we are enjoying it very much.

 

 This is the view from our front porch.  We live in a beautiful neighborhood.  Frankly, we live in a beautiful state.  We love it.  We don't know how we lucked out to find a home we could afford to buy in the neighborhood, but we are so grateful.  Actually, we do know some of the reasons why.  The home had been on the market for several months.  It had been priced too high and did not show well.  Think curry . . . lots of curry.  Now if you like that smell, that's fine, but you could smell the curry without even stepping into the house.  Let me also say, before I go on, that if you know Paul and I, then you will know that this house was exactly the type of home we were looking for.  The one that lingered on the market because of cosmetic flaws that can be fixed, but that most people don't want to deal with, but is a potentially great investment for us, since we do the work to fix it up ourselves.  The kitchen and baths are not updated, the carpet needed to be replaced, the basement was poorly finished, and the front landscaping was completely overgrown with thigh-high weeds.  The hardwood floors have a few rough spots, etc.  Many little things that we get to fix, but that's what we like to do!  Of course, having 4 little ones makes it a little harder, and projects take longer, but they are slowly getting done, and we are really excited and enjoying our new home!  By the way, the curry smell is gone.  Lots of cleaning, some new appliances, and new carpet pretty much took care of that.  But enough already, here are some pictures!

Look at the bead of sweat on Adam's face.  He's always moving, that boy!  A blackberry bush was discovered while clearing out the front yard, which produced a lot of very small and quite tart blackberries.  This made the children very happy.

Samantha is getting so big!

 We love Cate's curls and hope they stay for good!

 Sitting on the porch enjoying the sunset and picking blackberries.

 I love this boy!

 Anna's toothy grin.  Love it.

 Anna's birthday party.  My friend made the beautiful cake to go along the "Under the Sea" theme that Anna wanted.

 Cate also celebrated her 2nd birthday.  And I'm sorry these pics are in a strange order, but I'm not going to fix it :).

 Another ball popper.  This has been a favorite toy in our family.  We've gone through 2, so it will be nice for Cate to get to experience the thrills of this awesome toy.  So far, it has been a hit with kids of all ages.

 She wanted to wear the dress Aunt Christyn gave her the minute it was opened!

 After we opened presents on Cate's birthday, Paul noticed a hawk on our swingset.  Isn't it awesome?

 I love the spread wings.

 Our friends came over for Cate's birthday dinner.

    She was able to blow out one of the candles herself, and had a little help on the other one.

 A random picture of one of the kids' lincoln log creations.  They are a classic toy, aren't they?

 The morning of Anna's birthday.  She got a beta fish.  Samantha bought the fish for her, and we bought the other supplies.  It was so neat that Samantha was willing to give up five dollars to buy Anna a present, and that it was of her own accord.

You can see that we have a bunch of furniture crammed into the room behind Anna.  We were getting new carpet, so of course we had to move all the furniture out of the rooms where the carpet was being laid.  We didn't leave our piano in the middle of the room ;).

 Anna is beautiful. 

 If you look closely at my right arm you can see my case of poison ivy that I had last month.  It was on my arms and side.  It was miserable.  Paul has had it sooo much worse than I, and now that I've experienced it first hand, I can empathize to some extent.  It is the worst.

Anna did not want frosting on her cake because extra sweet things give her a stomach ache, so we had a chocolate cake without frosting.  It was delicious.