jeffrey's art show...and calder

jeffrey printed a bunch of his photography and was able to put it up in a local restaurant last december. the owner liked his work so much she asked him to put his pictures up again for a big one night art show they were doing. it was so neat to see his work up on the wall and to see so many people admiring his talent. we also had a bunch of friends show up to support jeffrey. it was a really neat experience. check out his website if you want to see more of his work. jeffreyallenphoto.com



here are a few pictures of calder i took the other night while he was sitting on my lap. i know i'm not an amazing photographer, but i do like these pictures and the weird angles. calder is just so darling. i am feeling quite content with my three beautiful boys.

babies

this year 4 babies were born on my side of the family. milo was first, born to scott and kate, then calder, then maëlle, born to eric and sarah, and then elle, born to becky and brian. it has been a very eventful year. even better was the fact that we were all home for christmas and we got to see all these new babies! it was fun. lots of nursing mothers, diapers, and fun babies sounds were at my parents house.

santa calder.

gorgeous milo. i am so in love with this boy and his beautiful eyes. i miss him already.

you gotta love this shot. all 4 babies in laura's lap. she loved it.

nativity

shepherds


wisemen


angels (yes, that is an accordion you see in the background :)

calder's baby blessing

we finally blessed calder at 3 1/2 months. we were waiting to go back to utah so that we could bless him with all of our family around us. it was worth the wait. it was a wonderful day.

we love you calder.

our new family of 5


jeffrey, karie, and my nephew spencer

sam and beautiful jozie

lillie, jaiden, lindee, and logan - cousins and friends

jeffrey and his little sis, brynn

eric and becky. not sure if he is holding his new baby maëlle or becky's new baby ella.

and a few pics of the crowd.




thanks to our families who came. we love you and miss you while we are away in indiana. we look forward to seeing you next year!

the cello

the other night jeffrey had a performance with a community orchestra in our town. it was such a wonderful night. i was nervous to take the 3 boys by myself, but they did a fantastic job! i was praying hard that they would behave because it was so important to jeffrey for us to be there and i didn't want to spend the night in the hallway. elliot sat so silently and still through the whole performance. he loves music. sam was quite wiggly, but he was quiet! it was amazing. calder did really well too, though i did have to feed him while we were there. i was so nervous he was going to cry out, but he didn't! so yeah, i got through a 2 hour concert with three little boys and i'm feeling pretty good about myself. :) we could tell that jeffrey was really touched that his boys would be so good for his performance. the music was so beautiful. it really brought the christmas spirit. we were so happy with the boys that we went to mcdonalds after and got them happy meals and boy were they happy.... we didn't get them to bed until 11pm, but it was all worth it. unfortunately i didn't get any pictures, but here are a few of calder for you to enjoy.

waiting in line

pictures courtesy of jeffrey.

packards

back in july we took a trip down to the columbus temple. it had been way too long since we had been to the temple and since the baby was coming soon we figured we'd better go. we were so lucky to find that we have friends who live in columbus. the packards were our friends in utah and we used to switch off babysitting whenever we would go to the temple so it was cool to pick up the tradition again. they watched the boys while we took a trip to the temple. then we spent the day with them.

this is their oldest daughter sidney. isn't she beautiful!

it was hot! they got out the pool and some snacks and we had a great afternoon.

elliot.
sidney

home grown carrots.

the whole group.

we had so much fun we invited them up for thanksgiving!

lucky it worked out and they did come for thanksgiving. we had such a great weekend. it was so fun to spend it with friends. our kids had such a blast with their kids.

we went downtown and had some treats, the kids got to make a small craft, and then we saw a small show of fireworks.

telisha and me trying not to freeze.


it was COLD, but we still had fun.

watching a movie.

owen fell in love with this batman mask. it was so cute how he didn't want to take it off. he and sam were meant to be friends.

our feast. it was good and it was ready by about 2pm which i thought was pretty good with one oven. we made a good team in the kitchen.

the "turkeys" that telisha had the kids make.

yum...

we have kept the tradition going that jeffrey's family does on thanksgiving...gingerbread houses! the kids had fun and i like these mini houses i found. it was cool for each of them to be able to make their own.

tanner's favorite part was eating the gingerbread house. that kid is darn cute.

one of my favorite parts of the whole weekend was to see how much sidney loved calder. she always wanted to look at him, touch him, hold him. she did a really good job too! she is so sweet. elliot loved reading books with her. we're so glad the packards made the trip up to our house. we're already planning to go to their place early next year.

a visit with santa

life is good. we are adjusting well to boy number three. elliot and sam love calder and pray for him every night.

to kick off the season we paid a visit to santa claus. seeing elliot on santa's lap sure made him look bigger and older to me. i can't believe this is his 6th Christmas.




i love this picture of me and my boys.


merry christmas.