And a couple of random photos of our cute kids, and our special Grandpa

1/2 of all Birthday's for 2012

We are 1/2 way through the family birthday's in our family. Sabrina is the big 5, and Autumn is now 3! We won't tell you how old Ben is, he is wishing he weren't quite so old, but we think he is great no matter how old he continues to get. We were blessed to have been able to share Sabrina's birthday at Grandma and Grandpa Huff's. For Autumn's b-day they came to our house. And on both occasions we had cousins, something we missed while living in Seattle and are grateful we are close to share our special days with the family that is here.

Sabrina is the superstar unicorn, princess lover and wants to be a ballerina. She just started taking ballet lessons since her birthday, and loves the lessons, but doesn't like leaving her mom and sisters. We just registered her for Kindergarten next year and she is learning so much right now.

Autumn is Sabrina's little shadow. She plays what Sabrina plays and does what Sabrina does, but with a mind of her own when she wants what she wants. She is cute as a button also and loves Minnie Mouse with all her heart. She has grown up so much this past year and I can hardly believe what she has learned as well. She knows her ABC's and can count as well as her big sister.

I am so grateful for my two little red heads!!

The year of the Dragon

Isaac celebrated Chinese New Year at school for a few days. He was so excited that he got his sisters worked up about it. So we ended up decorating, making masks, and having Chinese food or at least our version of Chinese food. The kids turned on some Chinese music and we even had a dance around the kitchen table. It was a fun night!

Ensign Peak

At the end of last year, I finished the series the Work and the Glory for the first time. It really sparked my interest in my ancestors and the route they took to come to Utah. We had never been to Ensign Peak before, so we took a ride with the kids during Christmas break to Emigration Canyon and then hiked up to Ensign Peak. It was a good day to get out and spend some time together.

Christmas Fun 2011

The joy of happy children on Christmas morning makes all the to do lists so worth it!! I don't think Santa will ever forget this past Christmas Eve at the Gordon home. Just as he had finished putting out all the presents, Autumn woke up with a present of her own that was not so pleasant or expected. It will definitely be a memory we will never forget. The picture of slobbery Tessa and Sabrina was just too cute- Sabrina was adamant about having her picture with Tess, even though Tess was still eating. Autumn was quite worn out Christmas morning, but could still give us a smile even though she was not feeling well. If you want to get the coolest present ever for your 7 year-old son, get a spy watch. Santa picked this gift up and still 3 months later it is used every day. Granted Isaac can't do much right now, but it is a definite hit.








The joy of happy children on Christmas morning makes all the to do lists so worth it!!

The accident

On the 13th of December Ike had an accident at school. While going down the slide at school someone else got a little excited to go down as well and pushed him off the slide. When I got the call from school, they said Ike was screaming and holding his arm, and wouldn't let anyone look at it. Apparently, he was in a lot of pain and couldn't move his arm even to take his coat off. I got the girls loaded in the van and hurried as fast as I could. I called Ben on the way, and he said to make sure I could look at it before I took him to the doctor. When I got to school sure enough, Ike had been crying, his hands were clasped together and he wouldn't move. He wouldn't let me or anyone lift up his coat to see what was wrong. I just told him we would go home and I would see what we could do to help him feel better. At this point, I had no idea what was wrong. On the way to the car, he kept crying and when we finally got all the kids in the car to go home, he cried over every bump in the road. I got home, thankfully it is only about a 7 minute drive, and got the girls in. By the time I got the girls in the house, Ike had somehow managed to pull his arm out of the sleeve of his coat. I very gently pulled up his sleeve and revealed a very, very broken and bent arm. I knew it was broken but didn't know how bad until later. I told him to stay in the car, and luckily my sweet sister-in-law was home, so I ran over to her house, she said she would watch two of my girls. I ran back home, only to find that Ike had gotten out of the car and was sitting on a chair in the kitchen. He was still crying, and I said we need to go to the doctor. We went to insta care first, only to be sent to the ER,where the X-ray showed two broken bones. One completely broke, the other with a large crack. They ended up sedating him and setting the bones. We were hoping from there it would heal but, two weeks later the X-rays showed the bones had moved considerably and they would heal quite crooked if left alone. The doctor ended up doing surgery placing two pins in his arm to hold the bones together. Since then it has been a slow process. He has had a sling, three splint casts, a red cast, a glow in the dark cast, a camouflage cast,and a nice looking brace that acts like a cast. This next week will be three months since the accident. He goes back to the Doctor and hopefully his bones will show good signs of healing and he can begin to do normal kid things again. He hasn't been able to jump,run, swing, slide, ride his bike, or even play the piano (although he hasn't missed that of course)and he is anxious. We are just grateful that it happened in the winter instead of summer. It will be something he probably won't forget for a long time, and instead of hanging upside down we might see him more right side up.

Thanksgiving Family Photos

Every year I try to dress my kids up in somewhat matching outfits for themselves, and with the whole family. We try to all comb our hair for the same moment and we put on our smiley faces and go take pictures. Most of the time we just put the camera on auto and take the photos, and it works pretty well. This year we found some leaves at our neighbor's house and jumped in them. It was fun, although the sun was in our eyes so we are all a bit squinty. I have been blessed with a beautiful family and I am so grateful that they put up with my desire for a family photo every year.

A few updates....

So, the last few months I have been working on a few things, and I realized it is nearly the middle of March and I haven't posted a thing since November. So bear with me as I catch up.....
First few photos are of Thanksgiving and the wonderful time we got to spend with all the cousins on the Huff family side. We had a great time, and we were grateful that Grandpa D. was able to make it for one more family gathering. How we miss him, and are so grateful that we had the opportunity to have him as our Grandfather.
The pictures with the kids on the swings makes me smile as it is all of the Huff kiddos minus sweet little Logan. In one picture Lily is hiding, and the next she appears. They are all such cute kiddos with big personalities, it will be so much fun to do a re-shoot of this picture when they are all teenagers. Notice Isaac upside down, a normal pose for him, this was the last of his hanging upside down for a few months, as you will notice in the next few postings different colors on his arm.