Running through the sprinklers in January

The boys in the family spent most of last Saturday working in the yard.  It was such a lovely day here in the desert and they couldn't resist putting on their swim suits and turning on the sprinklers.  

I'm thinking they are stretching before they run around.

Brrrrrrrr.......

I love that I can get nice and close with my new lens that Keith got me for Christmas, and still be dry and cozy on the back patio.

 Can't get enough of his big smile.  He had a blast.

 Brett wasn't so sure about it all.  He was pretty cold.

 Silly boy...

Afterward they warmed up with a bath and then enjoyed a churro fresh from the oven.

Camille

Our little Camille arrived last Friday, the 17th.  We are in love!  After cleaning my house like a mad woman the day before, I started going into labor that night.  We had a scheduled time to be induced early Friday morning.  I guess I would have shown up that day either way.  

So we arrived at our scheduled time and got checked in and all set up in our room.  It was the same room that Brett was born in.  Pretty cool!  After things progressed and I had my epidural (I hate getting them, but I love having them!) it didn't take much longer for Camille to come at 1:20 that afternoon.  She came so easily, it was awesome!  She weighed 8 lb 4 oz and was 21 inches long.  

My delivery nurse was amazing!  She was fun and supportive and I wish I could have brought her home with me too!

Grant and Brett came to see us that night.  They'd had a big day of fun at Grandma & Grandpa Jackson's house and so Brett was tuckered out before he got to the hospital.  Lucky for him he got to come back over the next morning with my parents and then he got to meet Camille.

Grant was so excited to see baby Camille.  And I was so excited to see how much he'd love her.  And he loves her a lot!

 "Hey everybody!  I'm going home now!"

Brett's eyes were so big and excited when he saw that Camille had come home with us.

 It wasn't long before things like this pink monster truck started showing up next to her.

It was nice to have a long weekend due to Martin Luther King Day.  Here we are with our beautiful flag as we caught the last few minutes of sunshine for the day.

 Keith has been helping a lot.  I'm so glad he get's paternity leave!!!  Camille loves him!  And she loves to hold onto his fingers.

I caught the boys peeking through the window to see their sister while they were playing outside one day.

 She is a cutie!  I think we'll keep her!

A Pink Baby Shower

My BFF Shari put together a beautiful baby shower for me in December.  We had it at my in-laws home, which just happens to be not far from our house.  The original plan was to have it outside at our neighborhood clubhouse, but the weather turned too cold.  Thank you Marsha for all the effort of having it at your house!  It was lovely!

 Check out the cute diaper cake that Keith's mom made!

 Onto the food.  It was all delicious.  My mom made these beautiful rose cupcakes.  Wow!

Cute flower cookies.

 My brother made one of my favorite salads.

 Oh yum!

And there was more, but I didn't get pictures of it all.  We also had delicious warm ham sandwiches, veggies, and yummy italian sodas.

Here's the girls from my family.

My BFF.  We've been friends for 15 years now!  That's just shy of half of my life so far.  Wow, that makes me feel old!

Some of the Jackson girls.  Keith's sister had her baby girl not long after this.   So our little girl will have 2 little girl cousins close in age (from my sister and Keith's sister).  So fun!

 Opening gifts.  So many cute things!

I had a great time visiting with everyone that came and am so grateful for all the fun gifts Camille and I got and all the effort everyone put into the shower!  Thanks!

Christmas 2013

We started getting in the Christmas mood by decorating early and having our family pictures taken by our fireplace.

We built candy houses.

We ate yummy pancakes at our ward's Hawaiian Christmas breakfast.  I'd never had macadamia nuts on pancakes before.  They were so good!

 Brett didn't care much for Santa this year, no matter which Santa it was.

 We went and saw the trains.

 See Brett's fingers?  Yes, he was very sticky after that candy cane.

We stopped by some fun Christmas lights.

Yes, we have an elf.  Fortunately he's not too mischievous.  This is about as crazy as he got.  He flew into our window one morning!  Sometimes I have a hard time adding Christmas traditions, just because I like to keep things simple and meaningful, but this elf has been soooo fun for our boys to find every morning for the past 2 years at Christmas time.

 We went to see the pretty lights on Christmas Mountain (in our neighborhood).

 My annual sewing project.  I spent too much time figuring out this little apron, but it was well worth it for my sweet little niece.

 Christmas Eve.

We got a train this year and put it around the tree in our living room.  Grant was the master engineer and both boys were so good about keeping it on the track.  Good thing too, because I couldn't easily get down to fix it if it got knocked off.

 The nativity all set up at Grandma & Grandpa Jackson's house.  Notice the fish bowl and random toys that were invited.

 Brett playing cars with Great Grandpa.

 The best shot I got of all the kids.

 Waiting for our kids to fall asleep.

 Santa came!

Nothing will stop Brett from sucking that thumb!

 Working on a paper airplane from Grant's airplane book.

 Watching that airplane fly.

 Brett loving his new train track.

 Eating up one of his new books.  He just loves learning about things!

After checking out our Santa gifts, we had a yummy waffle breakfast together with freshly squeezed orange juice.  It was a fun year with the ages of our boys!