Our Favorite Aunt/Uncle Is.....

Linden and I both come from large families. I have nine siblings and Linden has eleven. That means that there are MANY Aunts and Uncles for our children to have in their lives. This is a great blessing. The boys really enjoy all of them. To date Anton, Zackary and Isabel have 30 Aunts and Uncles (this counts Bob, the soon to be uncle). There are more to come as I am sure more of our siblings will be getting married at some point. The boys truly enjoy playing with their Aunts and Uncles.

A couple of weeks ago we were down at Grandma Nielsen's house. Uncle Brad was also there. He gave something to Anton and Anton was asked who his favorite uncle was. He responded, "Uncle Alex." Considering that Uncle Brad was the only uncle present that was not quite the appropriate response to encourage Brad. Linden explained to Anton that he should say that Uncle Brad was his favorite uncle and asked him again. He gave the same response, "Uncle Alex." We explained to him that Uncle Brad was helping him and being nice to him right then. The third time he was asked he still gave the same response.

This last week we had Maria and Josh visiting us. Anton was having lots of fun playing with Uncle Josh. We asked him who his favorite uncle was and he responded, "Uncle Josh." Ha, ha, sorry Brad.

In all reality it really doesn't matter who the favorite Aunt/Uncle is. Anton and Zackary love playing with all of their uncles and aunts and it truly is whoever is there at the time. (Uncle Alex has had some good priming with Anton, asking him who his favorite is.) We are blessed to have such a great family to help and support us and to play with our wonderful children.

We got a few pictures while Maria and Josh were visiting. Here is Aunt Maria with Isabel.



Uncle Josh was giving shoulder rides to the boys and decided to try a double shoulder ride. Anton didn't like being in the middle very much.



I haven't forgotten about trying to get a picture of Isabel sitting. While she is doing better and better all the time, I never have the camera out at the right time. Here is one of my attempts. She is tipping over because she got distracted by her brothers. (Don't worry, no babies were harmed in the production of this post.)



Have a great week.

A Warm Fall

We have truly been enjoying great weather this past week. The high for the day most of this week has been in the 60's, about 10 degrees above the average for the beginning of November. That has made it easy for me to be motivated to keep running. I'll hope I can be motivated to run when it is snowing and colder. Notice I didn't say blowing. I don't enjoy running in the wind, so we will see how that goes.

We had a fun week. Anton and Zackary, aka Buzz and Woody enjoyed wearing their shirts from Aunt Brina this week.

Zackary was mad at me for some reason (I don't remember what), hence the scowl in this photo.



We also enjoyed playing in the leaves at Grandma's house. Grandma even joined in the fun and got buried in the leaves. Here she is popping up out of the leaves to surprise all of us.



Anton had fun getting buried in the leaves.



Zackary also enjoyed the leaves.



On Sunday while visiting Great Grandma she wanted us to get a picture of her and Oliver.



Of course we couldn't resist a photo op with the boys and Great Grandma, also. (Isabel was sleeping.)



The most exciting news is the new arrival of Leonora and Kevin's little baby, Katelynn. She came a bit early and will be in the NICU for a little while still, but is doing well. She looks so tiny!



What a precious, little bundle.

My New Niece!

She's here, about 6 weeks early, but doing well. She weighs 4lbs 6 oz, 17 in and will be in the NICU for a little while. Leonora is doing well, also.

Our Toy Story

As most of you know, Toy Story is a favorite around our household, so of course that was our theme for Halloween this year. Thanks to Aunt Misti we had costumes for the kids. Anton was Buzz Lightyear. Zackary was Woody. And little Isabel was Jesse. Aunt Misti gave Anton Buzz and Woody pajamas for his birthday back in March. Since then the boys wear them ALL the time (as evidenced by the numerous pictures of them in their pajamas on the blog). So, the big deal for them was the accessories that they got to have with the pajamas. A cowboy hat for Woody and a purple head cover for Anton (this didn't turn out very well, it looks more like a bonnet, but Anton liked it, oh well). Aunt Misti was also kind enough to make a wig and hat for Isabel. All I did was sew a little yellow fabric on a white onesie and put her in her jeans.

And the results are:



We took the kids trick or treating to Melaleuca again this year (on Friday). I am always amazed at the extent of the decorations. My favorite department this year was, of course, Toy Story! Marketing did an awesome job of creating the Wild West, but I loved all of the attention that the kids got from all of the other Toy Story characters in that department. We got LOTS of "Ooohhhh, how cute!" comments from everyone about Isabel in her wig and hat.

It wouldn't have been a complete trip through Melaleuca without a stop at Uncle Brad's desk so he could give the boys more candy than I wanted them to have.



The boys were thrilled when we let them stay in their "costumes" all day.

Anton in his Buzz bonnet.



Zackary playing with a magnetic book.



They were a bit confused when it came to bedtime. We made them get out of their costumes/pajamas and put on other pajamas. I needed to get Buzz and Woody washed for the next day of trick or treating. On Saturday we went to Aunt Kathy, Grandma and Uncle Don, Grandma Nielsen, Uncle Andy, Aunt Lori and Uncle John, and Grandpa Butler and David. It wasn't that many stops but we left about 4:10 PM and got home at 8:40 PM. I think everyone enjoyed seeing the kids on Halloween and I know the boys had fun.

On Sunday it became official. Linden and I have now had three different bishops in four months time without moving once. In the Third Ward we got a new bishop towards the end of July. Hence the old one and the new one, Bishop Kiester and Bishop Kohler. Sunday night at the Stake meeting they organized a new ward, the Foundry Ward, which we are now a part of, which means a new bishop, Bishop Bolander. We are looking forward to being a part of a new ward and getting to know all of the people we will be going to church with now, some of which are coming with us from the Third Ward, others from Mountain View, Seventh, and (I think) Fifth Wards.

It was a nice meeting, I spent most of the time out in the hall with Isabel. She refused to let me sit down. Luckily, we left the boys at Grandpa and Grandma's so that at least one of us could know what was said in the meeting. I don't think they would have done very well sitting through a two-hour meeting after having been to three hours of church already. We will still be going to church at 1 PM. Which is really nice in some ways, but not so nice in other ways.