Thanksgiving

I started this entry before Christmas, but never finished it. I guess now that its Feb of the next year I ought to finish it. I would scrap it except that we really had a great Thanksgiving and I want to give thanks to the family that made it so fun.

First the biggest thanks I have to give is to my wonderful husband who finished our new kitchen the week before Thanksgiving. What a big treat that was for me to get to cook Thanksgiving dinner in a brand new, beautiful kitchen, plus a new dinning room and entry way. It makes our home much more comfortable and enjoyable.

We were thrilled to have Russell and Erin and their cute kids join us. They had a road trip that was extended way too long because of Holiday traffic and we're so grateful they were willing to drive all that way especially Erin who was expecting. We had a great time with them and our kids had a ball.

We also enjoyed the company of Pat and Colleen and Will. There's always a good time when they're around. Our kids couldn't love Will more. We played some games after dinner. This is a lousy picture because our flash on our camera had gone out and it just dawned on me that I hadn't taken any pictures of our Thanksgiving so I hurried and snapped a few. Also, and I know I've mentioned this before - my photography skills are very limited.

When we moved into the new kitchen our old kitchen became "the box room" temporarily since we had all these huge boxes from the cabinets and since empty boxes are the best toys ever we let our kids go wild with them. They really wore them out. Logan, James, Melissa and Melanie had some game going where they were running around taking pictures of each other. I don't know exactly what it was, but they were having a great time.Russ and Erin's daughter Emma is a doll. We all just love her.

James and Logan had a great time together. They are about 6 mos. apart in age and get along great. I love to see the two of them playing together.

Summer

Whew! Time is flying! I guess we need to do a major update, somehow Summer got away from us! I'll have to tell the story by reviewing my pictures, because honestly my mind is going -and my pictures, thankfully, jog my memory about the whirlwind we called Summer.

First I'd better start by finishing with some pictures from the weekend of Rebekah's blessing. We really had such a nice time with my parents and Russell and Erin and their family.

I think I mentioned in an earlier post that the girls were playing tball and softball. Somehow I missed getting a picture of Melanie playing, but I got a nice one of Melissa (I have mentioned before that my photography skills are limited, right?) So here's Melissa, but Melanie also did a great job on her team and they both had a great time playing.

Next Melissa had her 1st grade play. She was wonderful! Here's a couple of exerpts.










Here's a couple of pictures of Melissa and James climbing one of our trees in the backyard. They thought that was really fun. David wanted to get up there too, but once I helped him up he shot right up the tree like a monkey, with no fear - scared me, and luckily I caught him when he fell - and well, I won't be helping him get started tree climbing again until he's got a little bit of fear in him!

Next came the sad news that our sweet little neice Andi had passed on. We went over to Boston to be with Russell and Erin and attend her funeral, which was lovely.

Here's a tender picture of Emma with Rebekah. Emma was so sweet with her.

We took the kids into the city of Boston to do a little sight seeing so that Erin and Russell could do a few last minute things to prepare for the funeral. We had lots of fun. The kids were all great. This was a little crab shack place right off the water.

Here are some pictures from Andi's burial. It was a special time for our family. The Lord blessed us with comfort and peace. I think especially Russell and Erin. They are amazing and wonderful people.

I'll stop here for now before this gets too long. Update 2 coming soon (I hope! :o) ).

Rebekah's Blessing

Rebekah was given a name and a blessing on May 31 by her father. He gave her a wonderful blessing. I am so thankful for the restored gospel and that Eric honorably holds the priesthood of God. The name we chose for her is Rebekah Michele Frazee. We chose Rebekah not only because it is a beautiful name in itself but after Rebekah in the Bible. A righteous daughter of God chosen to marry Isaac, son of Abraham and Sarah, and a prophet of God. She became the mother of Jacob and Esau. Jacobs name was later changed by God to Israel. We hope our little Rebekah will seek to remain pure and clean and learn to follow God's commandments that she may be a righteous daugther of God. Her middle name Michele is after Eric's beloved little sister who died as a young girl. We know Rebekah will be a joy to our family as Michele was to hers.

Rebekah wore a very special dress and looked beautiful in it. It was the dress I was blessed in as well as both of her older sisters. We love her so much and are so thankful to have her in our family.


It was a special occasion for our family. We were glad to have my parents come up to be here as well as my brother Russell and his wife Erin and their children. We were also very grateful to have our wonderful Nana, Rebekah's great grandmother there along with Aunt Sophia, Aunt Kathy, Aunt Mary and Allison and Kaliegh, Aunt Carla and Uncle Phil and Aunt Delores. We really appreciate all the love and support we receive from our families!

Slip-n-slide

Thanks Gram and Pops! David's birthday gift was a hit with everyone!

David's 2nd Birthday!

Once again we have a two year old in our home - and oh, the excitement! Of course the two year old in him has been coming on for a few months now and we know we haven't seen the best/worst of it yet, but oh, is he 2!

His birthday was last Monday the 11th and of course he didn't know the difference, but was thrilled to wake up with a new tricycle - actually the balloons I'd blown up and set around it were just as exciting if not more. One of these days that will sink in and I'll forget about buying toys and just give the little ones balloons and the beloved cardboard box!

I was planning on making him a cake, but the day got too hectic (can you imagine?) and so I just bought one. It was kind of great because he picked out a cute one with a tractor on it.

He liked having us sing to him.

Melanie is in her softball uniform. He had a ball at her game because there was a swing set and a sandbox and other kids to play with. She did really well and is enjoying it. Melissa is playing Tball. I'll try and get some pictures of them playing on here soon.

This next little video is for Grandma Diane and Grandpa Rex. Your gift was a big hit. A toy to play with sand and water - what could be better?! Thankfully Melanie helped me put it together and show him what to do - although she was horrified when the first thing David did was throw sand in the water part!

Pretty Princess

I just had to share these.

This one is just before church on Sunday. This dress my mom passed down to me, its one I guess I used to wear.

Aren't sleeping babie's so precious! I don't normally lay her on her stomach to sleep, she just wore herself out having some tummy time. She's really growing and she's just so sweet.

Weekend trip

This past weekend we took a little family trip to Palmyra, NY. For those of you that are not members of my church that is a place of significant history for us. You can find more info about it at http://www.hillcumorah.org/. Those of you who are members, that is a great website to help plan a trip up here, although I hope you would let us know too because we'd love to have you!! Anyway, back to our trip. We stayed at a little place with an indoor pool because that is of course a total thrill for our kids.

Because everything is about multi-tasking, part of our trip included stopping at the tile store to get the rest of the tile for our -in progress- master bathroom, which by the way, we found a fabulous deal on that we're totally excited about (I'll show pictures of the project when it is completed). Also we stopped by the Bishop's Storehouse for an update on food storage - again a mormon thing - but com'on people we're in a bad recession - better safe than sorry! Get prepared! And, the most important reason for going to Palmyra is . . . the temple. (I wish I had taken a picture of our family there to insert here, but I didn't sorry!) Eric and I planned to go to the temple. He had a wonderful experience, but as I dug in my wallet for my recommend I was horrified to realize it wasn't there. I was heartbroken. Apparently one of the many times my wallet has been ransacked by my beloved children the recommend did not get replaced (and I still haven't found it, ugh!) The good part is that while I was at the temple Eric and the kids were going to go across the street where one of our church buildings has a lovely pavillion and baseball field in back and play baseball (the girls are playing t-ball and softball now, so good practice time). Since I didn't get to go to the temple I got to play too and took the following pictures of our fun.

And this is always how David holds the bat - I think its because if he holds it the right way, its too heavy and he can't pick it up. Its just so cute though, I love it!

I guess this could go under another post, but I'm just going to add it at the end of this since it's part of the trip. We found a great little old playground in Palmyra - it really is a cute little town. I have great memories of playing on playgrounds as a kid and my favorite things to play on were the merry-go-round, the see-saw or teeter-totter and those old metal slides. They don't make these anymore and I guess I know why, but it was so fun to find them all at this playground. Our kids had a great time. Here's a video Eric took of them on the merry-go-round while I was nursing Rebekah. When she was done I went and took a spin myself! Our kids always think its so funny when I play on the playground equipment with them!

Do you drink the milk?

When you eat a bowl of cereal do you just eat the cereal and leave the milk left at the end - or do you drink the milk?



Well, David drinks the milk - in fact, he drinks it before he eats the cereal. I'm lucky if I can get him to eat a few bites of the cereal. The milk is his favorite part. So your thinking, just give the guy a glass of milk and skip the cereal, well I've tried that. He won't drink a regular glass of milk - but with a bowl of cereal, oh, yeah! Yum! I filled this bowl up three times! And yes, there was cereal left at the end. Darn.

First Smile

Is there anything more precious than a baby's first smile? Here's a few of Rebekah's. Isn't she sweet?

Rebekah Michele

We'd like to introduce our newest family member . . .

Rebekah Michele. Born on January 21 at 8:31pm. She weighed 5 lb. 13 oz. and was 18 inches long.

Her Story . . .

She was in a big hurry to get here. I was very surprised to find out I was pregnant again last July, a month after weaning David. Then a month after that I thought for sure I'd had a miscarriage only to go to the Dr. and find - Surprise!- that she was doing just fine (Yay!), I'd just had 'a bleed' which I'm still not sure I fully understand. They put me on strict bed rest for a week and then after another check was allowed back to my regular motherly duties and told all should be fine. I had sonograms at every checkup so they could monitor 'the bleed' - the leftover blood clot at the bottom of my uterus. All the while she continued to grow and develop, heathly and complete. Finally at the beginning of January the sonogram showed the bleed had finally gone away. Yay! Well then in mid January my water broke and she surpised us again by being born 5 1/2 weeks early! The day before Melissa's 7th birthday! Because she was so early she was immediately taken up to the NICU for all kinds of monitoring. She did very well, and was finally able to come home on Feb. 1. She's our Surprise! baby and we're very glad to have her. We can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for her.

Let's Get Started!

For over a year now I've enjoyed reading friends and family's blogs, but couldn't imagine I'd ever be good at keeping up with it - and I probably won't be, at least at times - but I keep thinking what a great way to keep a family journal. I can see my precious children growing up so fast and its hard to remember all the cute things they say and do. I also hope that this will be a nice way for especially for our Mom's and Dad's to feel not so far away as our children grow up. For those of you with blogs you've shared with us I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed them. It's been such a fun little window into you're lives. I've loved seeing you're accomplishments, seeing your pictures and enjoyed laughing at your funny stories. I hope you'll enjoy ours! Here goes . . .