Very Busy Last few Months!!!

The last few months have just flown by. We have kept busy though. September was a particularly eventful month for us with Daniel's blessing and Hannah's third Birthday. It was a great weekend for us. We decided that we would have Hannah's Birthday party the same weekend as the blessing because we would have so much family here and we thought it would be great for Hannah to have family from both sides there. I am very grateful for all those who helped me with games and activities for the party. The kids had a blast with bubbles and homemade go fish. We have tons of pictures, more than we could possibly upload to the blog, so if you click here for the baby blessing, here for Hannah's Birthday, here for milestone pictures of both kids, and here for Halloween Pictures you can see all of the pictures, and we are putting a few here on the blog as well.

Here are some pictures of the baby blessing.

Here are some pictures from Hannah's Birthday.

Daniel has been growing like a weed. At his two month check-up he weighed in at 14 lbs 3 oz. He was 24 inches tall as well. In the 90-95th percentile for both categories. He is already half of Hannah's weight and 2/3 of her height. He should be a very big boy. Here are some pictures of Daniel over the last few months as well.

So, last night was Halloween. We have had a lot of fun with Halloween this year. Our Stake had their annual carnival/trunk-or-treat the Saturday before Halloween. They always have a "photo booth" set-up so everyone can get their picture taken in costume. Last year we only got a picture of Hannah, but since we were all dressed to the same theme this year, we did a family picture. We were going for the whole 50's theme. I think we pulled it off pretty well. For Halloween we went to the Ward carnival/party for Grandma B's Ward. It wasn't as big as our Stake one, but there was more food included. It was fun. Hannah had a good time. Then we helped pass out candy at Grandma B's. We didn't go out trick-or-treating this year. We aren't quite sure how to handle that with Hannah. She can't eat the candy, but if she gets it she will want to. Hopefully we will figure something out before next year. Hannah had a great time helping Grandpa pass out candy. Tim decided to lay down next to the Elvis tombstone in the yard. He scared a few people who weren't quite sure if he was real or fake. Everyone seemed to have a lot of fun. Here are some pictures of the yard and all the pumpkins.

So, Tim out-did himself this year with the pumpkins. We had four pumpkins this year. Hannah decided that she wanted to have a doggy carved on her pumpkin (we found a Disney kit) so Tim"helped" her do the doggy. Tim decided to do a dragon. He saw a face that was similar to the one that he did, and used it as the basis to start the dragon. He then added the wings himself. It turned out pretty good, only took about 4 hours to do. I was going to carve the Tigger, but with it getting late Friday night, and being really busy Saturday morning trying to get ready Tim ended up carving the Tigger too. That one only took about 2.5-3 hours.

Tell us what you think.

First Day at Church

We took Daniel to Church today for the first time. It was interesting, because most people for the few weeks leading up to the birth everyone kept asking when Rachel was gonna pop. They would say things like, "Any day now, right?" and today they were saying, "You had the baby and you're already back?" It was very interesting. Anyway, he was a big hit. Everyone loved him.

A few more pictures from today. Enjoy!!



Proud Papa






Hannah doing her best "Rachel pre-delivery" impression.

It's a ..........

Boy!!!!


Name: Daniel
Born: 8/5/09 @ 10:00 PM
Height: 20 inches
Weight: 8 lbs 5.5 oz

Rachel sent me a text message at 2:10 PM asking me to come home. She didn't say if she thought she was in labor or not, and I was just starting my weekly staff meeting, so I finished as quick as I could and got home by about 3:00 PM. Rachel felt the first contractions about 4:30 PM. We stayed at home until about quarter to 7:00 and were checked into the hospital at 7:15 PM. Rachel did great!! About 9:30 PM she started pushing, and at 10:00 PM we had our handsome baby boy. Things went much faster this time (5.5 hours compared to 15 hours).

It was pretty intense. Everything happened so fast neither of us really had a chance to take any sort of break between contractions.

Well, enough of the boring stuff that you don't really want to hear about. Onto the pictures:




















Hannah seems to be adjusting pretty good. She definitely loves the little guy. She wants to hold him all the time, and when we're in the car she is always trying to get his paci or whatever she thinks he might need. She is a very good little helper......most of the time.

Updates, updates, updates

So, we have been total slackers in the blogging arena. Finally have a new picture of Rachel's tummy up. It is still from about two weeks ago, but that is better than the last time I updated the side picture. I will try to get another one up this week.

ONLY 3 MORE WEEKS!!!!!

We are getting very excited to meet baby. Since we have no idea what we are having, we are really looking forward to meeting our new little addition. We have our suspicions as to what the baby is, but if you haven't heard us talk about it yet, you'll just have to wait 3 more weeks like we do to be sure.

Grandma & Grandpa Willie came down to visit this last week for a few days. They arrived on Monday afternoon (they actually made it on Sunday, but stayed at one of the Worldmark places the first night). They came to see Hannah before the baby arrives and to help give Rachel a bit of a break. They also decided to bring Hannah's birthday present early. They got her an adorable little bike. Hannah was very excited, even though she didn't know how to ride it yet. Well, before they left they taught her how to ride the bike. I will see if I can get the video from my phone of that uploaded soon as well. Here is another picture of Hannah enjoying her new bike.
While here, we also made a trip to the beach. Amazingly, it is the first time we have been to the beach together as a family since moving to California just over a year ago. It turned out to be a gorgeous day. We weren't sure how the day would turn out since it had been on the cold side for summer all week, and it was supposed to be pretty windy and only in the mid 80's. I think Hannah enjoyed her time with Grandma and Grandpa. Here is a picture of them together working on building a sand castle.

We will get more pictures of Hannah at the beach up this week.

Let the countdown begin. Anyone up for guessing when Rachel will go into labor and have the baby? Provide a date and time of when you think baby will come.

Our Cute Little almost 3 year-old

Hannah is just growing up so fast and so much. It is amazing to see how quickly she learns things and picks up on them. It seems like it was only a few months ago that she was still not talking very much. She could and would say lots of different words, sometimes even a couple together, but that was it. Then, all of a sudden, she starts talking in almost complete sentences. She is amazing. It seems like every day she is saying more and more.

We finally got the crib put back together and in our room yesterday. Hannah was a very big helper. She tightened two of the screws on the bar that holds the one edge up. We told her as we put it up that we had to put the baby's bed together. Then, when we finished, she went and got her baby dolly and brought it in with a blankie for us to put to bed. It was so adorable. I think she is starting to realize what it means that mommy is having a baby. She got to meet the newborn of one of the Ward members yesterday as well, and then she turned to Rachel and said, "When baby come out?" She randomly comes up and gives the baby hugs and kisses, almost knocking Rachel over at times. It is very cute. You can tell that she loves the baby already. Hopefully that will continue after the baby comes out.

We listened to and transcribed Hannah's baby blessing today (finally). It was interesting, because she doesn't really recognize that she was a baby at one point. So, she is listening to the tape with us, and hears herself crying. She says, "Baby loud. Baby crying."

Only 8 weeks and 4 days left until the baby's due date. Rachel is ready for baby to be out. The baby seems to be doing great. It is getting bigger every day. Rachel says she is already almost as big as she was when Hannah was born. We have a Doctor appointment tomorrow and will let you know if we learn anything new.

A few pictures from yesterday.



Well, the other one I was going to put up turned out blurry, so this is all you get.

So, today my little girl graduated from her crib. We have been talking about it for weeks and we let her new bedding a few months ago. Today, Tim finished painting the head and foot boards so we could put it all together. Hannah had so much fun helping make the bed. She would climb on the bed to help smooth it out, all the while making it more wrinkly but she was trying so hard to help and she was just so darn cute.

































After all the to-do with getting ready for bed, Tim tucked her in and sang to her and she looked so small in this big new bed, but oh so cute. Our hope is that we don't have too many issues with her staying in the bed or getting up in the middle of the night. So far so good, and we are about 2 hours into the first night.

It is hard to believe that Hannah is already 2.5 and has reached this mile stone. The time goes by so fast and I realized the other day just how much she has grown and changed in the last six months to a year. Her ability to communicate has increased so much and her desire for life to be hands on has too. She loves to help me clean and cook and won't settle for just watching me do anything. She made her own peanut butter sandwich the other day. The only thing I did was open the jar of peanut butter for her. Her independence is a good thing but it will take some adjustments on my part because I don't think I am ready for the amount of independence she exhibits. She is on the go, full of life and energy, curious about everything, asks more and more questions , and is just so adorable.

Losing Weight!!!

We were out killing time tonight walking the mall and decided that I need a new pair of shorts (the nicer, khaki type). Well, since last August (Josh & Sam's wedding) I have lost between 30 and 40 pounds. I was up to needing between a size 40 and 42 in paints (depending on the type/style, etc.). Today, I tried on a pair of shorts, size 36..... and they actually fit. I haven't been in a size 36 since I was in High School, and earlier than my Senior Year....so.....more than 10 years ago!!!

I was totally going to put a picture of the tab up and everything....but I'm too lazy to take the picture. So.... you just have to take my word for it.

Trip to Oregon

So, this is a long time in coming. April 30 we left for Oregon around 4:00 PM. Made the trip in 8.5 hours, which is pretty good for traveling with a pregnant wife, a two year-old, and after having worked all day. We made the trip so that we could be with Nathan when he went through the Temple to receive his endowments.

It was definitely an interesting experience. There was a big storm brewing when we entered the Temple, and while we were finishing up and in the Celestial Room waiting for Nathan the power went out!!! We found out later that lighting had struck the power grid killing the power in a portion of Portland (Lake Oswego technically). The back-up generator kicked on giving us all the lights for another minute or two, then shut off again due to overloading the generator. The security lights only came on about a minute later, and that was all we had the rest of the time we were in the Temple.

Oregon was beautiful as usual. We really enjoyed getting to see more of Spring since everything has already started drying out down here. Rachel took some really great pictures (I'll put some up if I can sneak them past her).

























Hannah really enjoyed getting to see family. She had a blast playing with Josh & Sam and the bubbles. She got drenched, but loved every minute of it. She didn't want to leave when it was time to come home. Now, almost everytime we get in the car to go to Grandma's (or anywhere for that matter) she asks, "Going Willie Grandma?" It is just adorable. She definitely misses you guys.