November

I did forget to mention that Rick and I had our 9th anniversary in October!  We celebrated by leaving the 3 older kids with my mother in law for the night and we went to Park City.  We ate at the Eating Establishment for dinner and stayed at The Yarrow.  We sat in the hot tub that night.  It was very cold outside, but it wasn't until later that it started snowing and the trip back to Salt Lake was kinda scary due to slick roads and the first snow of the season.  It was so nice and not long enough. :)

Carlyn Tumbling class

Carlyn took a tumbling class that lasted for 6 weeks.  She loves to do backbends, cartwheels, & especially handstands.  I never got a really good picture because she never stopped moving!

Carlyn's 6th Birthday

Of course, it was Carlyn's birthday on November 5th. 

We started with our traditional decorating of the room. 

She wanted a Halloween party and this was the graveyard cake I made. 

They played the mummy wrap game and had a blast. 

Actually, my kids were playing it for days after the party. 

She wanted a costume parade so they went around outside.  It was cool, but not too cold. 

We got a funny book called "Goodnight Goon" from a book order and if you know "Goodnight Moon" you might like it.  Carlyn wanted me to read it to them at the party.  She also wanted me to dress up, thus the devil costume.  She told me she knew I was the devil even before I dressed up :)

Blowing out the candles! 

My favorite.  What a little lady :)  After her friend party Rick's family came over for a party.  That weekend we went to Moroni to my parents for a party there too.

I just thought this was cute because when Charlie was born Josh didn't even want to hold him.  Now they are buddies and Josh seems totally at ease with him. 

One of the rare moments when Darren stops long enough to fall asleep during the day.  In Papa's arms.

Another cake after celebrating with the Utah cousins, Grandma & Grandpa, Mathew & Carisa.

Sharice wanted to paint her face for her birthday.  Looks pretty good and it really makes her eyes look big!

Emily & Lucy's Visit to Utah

She came to Utah just before Thanksgiving and was here for 4 days, so we went to Moroni and had Thanksgiving dinner there on Sunday.  It was really great.  We also had Thanksgiving dinner at Rick's grandma White's house, but silly me didn't take any pictures of that.

Okay, what is cuter than 2 little chubbas together?  They were so funny.  Charlie was born in June and Lucy was born in August so they are just over 2 months apart.  They are just too cute!

My favorite.

Grandma Hilton's Birthday

We celebrated my mom's birthday twice, but I only have pictures of the first time and I was in Moroni with only Charlie.  Rick was really sweet to take the big kids back to Murray so I could have some quality time with my sister while she was here from Texas.  In the above picture is Jayce, Sharice, Charlie, Grandma, Lucy, Evynn, & Aili. 

Carisa, Mathew, Me in back. Emily & Mom in front.  We really missed Barrett and it would have been great to see him, but we still had to get this picture while Em was here.

Dad, Mom, & Grandma Hilton

We were trying to pose him, but he wasn't having it. 

Charlie and the Christmas Tree

Random Pictures

D asleep on Daddy's legs

Charlie loving the Christmas tree lights.  We got it up the day after Thanksgiving this year! 

Dad and Dare asleep.

Grandma Potter loving Charlie.  She gets really frustrated because she can't see, but she keeps saying how cute he is!

October

Belinda & Josh's wedding. 

October 21st

It was a beautiful wedding and I was happy to be in the background while the rest of my family got to shine!  Charlie and I were just there to look cute :)  Carlyn was a train girl (holding the train), Annie was a flower girl, Darren was the ring bearer, and Rick took their Dad's place since he passed away years ago and walked her down the aisle and had a dance with her.

Annie and Josh's niece walking down the aisle as flower girls and forgetting to throw the petals.  So cute!

Dashing Darren in a tuxedo.  Too cute for words.  It was covered in chocolate by the end of the night.  Glad it wasn't a rental.  I especially love how he carried the ring pillow. :)

Rick's sweet sister Belinda walking down the aisle on her big brother's arm.  Doesn't he look good in a tux?  If you look closely, you can see Carlyn's head just behind Belinda.  I didn't get a picture of Belinda and Josh, because I wasn't smart enough to have my camera and these were the ones emailed to me.  She was beautiful and so was the wedding.  The kids were great and we had a great time.  We're so happy for them. 

This was the only decent picture of Carlyn.  She was holding the train behind Belinda's dress and looked adorable, but she didn't smile in any of the pictures. 

Charlie growing up

Daddy and Charlie bonding.  They have a cute relationship and he smiles everytime he hears or sees Rick.

He learned to roll over and was sucking his thumb.  AWWW.

Halloween

Since we call him Charlie Brown, we thought we'd dress him as the great pumpkin.  Just kidding.  A friend gave this to me and it fit perfectly.  He didn't love the hat, but looked adorable anyway.

Carlyn was a Barbie witch.

Darren the monkey boy.  Very fitting.

Tinkerbell Annie.

We had lots of fun at our ward carnival and the library party and watching Carlyn in the school parade for the first time. 

On Halloween Annie wanted to be Snow White, but wanted pink hair like Carlyn, so Carlyn called her Snow Pink.  It was funny.  Her jack-o-lantern got ruined. 

Darren with his spider pumpkin.

Carlyn with her heart pumpkin. (Notice the pink hair?)

Annie's ER trip

Annie went to bed in this under the bed tote that Carlyn's jammies are normally in.  Too funny!  She woke up in the middle of the night screaming from pain on the 30th.  She had a stomach ache so bad she wouldn't stop crying.  We thought she was a little backed up but couldn't get her to go.  Rick finally took her to the ER and spent the night there with her.  They did determine that she had a UTI and that she was really constipated.  Poor kid.  Her infection ended up in her kidneys and the next week we ended up at the doctor's office 3 days for shots.  No fun. 

A little change

I hate to go private because I find it harder to go to a blog that I don't know is updated.  But, things being the way they are, I felt it was necessary.  That's part of the reason I haven't put any new posts up lately.  I've also just been really busy lately too.  I'm loving the Christmas season, but wishing it felt less hectic.  I sent my Christmas cards out with an invitation to email me if they wanted to see my blog so I'd better get it together and get some recent stuff on here. 

Darren scared of ride

Am I a mean mom for videoing when he was scared? :) It was funny.

Cute Charlie

This is a cute video of Charlie laughing.

I forgot

Being Rick's wife does have a couple of advantages :) One client needed him to pick up their computer tonight after business hours. They gave me these flowers from their store for making Rick do that on a Monday night. Aren't they beautiful? Too bad my table looks like this from the case lot sales:

We saved up and got a ton of stuff. This is about 1/4 to 1/3 of it. I LOVE case lot sales. This is just what Rick hasn't carried down yet. We both have bad backs, so it just waits there patiently until we (Rick) feel(s) up to it again.

What a week

I'm really not complaining too much about my week. I just felt crappy (see previous post) so it felt worse than it was. I'm actually feeling much better since I've talked to a few people about how I'm feeling. Much better. I was feeling very alone and unloved. I am starting some medicine tomorrow though so I hope that'll help even more. I wanted to put up these cute pictures. Sorry girls, these are about the boys.

Today was one of those days that I'm glad my baby will forget and I probably won't. Charlie has had a fever for 2 days and just whining even with Tylenol. Poor thing. It just breaks my heart! So I took him to the doctor today and she wanted to test his urine and blood :( The urine wasn't so hard, she put a bag on inside his diaper. Not too bad, but the blood draw was HORRIBLE. We went to the outpatient lab at the hospital. I'm not saying anything bad against the ladies that tried because I could honestly not even see any veins. Let me just say that 3 hours and 4 pokes (well, 5 because they gave him a shot back at the dr office) we had both cried a lot. He still has a fever, but seems to be a little happier tonight.

This is my pantry cupboard. This is Darren rearranging my pantry cupboard. I love it actually because he takes the cans out and puts them back. Today it was for about 1/2 hour while I was cooking dinner. It drives Rick crazy because he put them all in the "right spot" a couple days ago. I say who cares as long as he's not doing something worse!

I meant to rotate this. Can you see his backpack? He LOVES it. I got it at Kid-to-Kid for $2. Its got Lightening McQueen and Darren loves to wear it when he can.

This may not look like the most loving big brother, but he was actually being really sweet. He wanted Charlie to lay on him, but Charlie was trying to sit up. Darren was in heaven holding Charlie. Charlie was probably not so much in heaven.

Carlyn has held Charlie many times this last week and several times he's fallen asleep on her. She feels so big and important when he does, like the "little mother" she says.

He's fallen asleep in the cutest places lately. Don't worry, I was sitting right by him when he did this. I didn't leave him there. :)

Confession

I thought I was doing well after having the baby. I had several weeks of pain but not unreasonable pain and the recovery was quicker. I got the house in order and was on top of things. Then school started. I thought it would be easier somehow, but actually it is harder. I've been so tired because Darren isn't sleeping well. I can tell my hormones aren't right either, I think my thyroid is off again.

My point?

I've been having a hard time with things lately and have been bawling over everything! I finally decided that its more than a hard time. It is depression. I'm not enjoying the cute, silly, and funny moments with my kids as much. So now its time to go to the doctor and do something about it. Maybe this is too personal to blog about, but I could just use a little support, I guess.

more pictures

My favorite. The girls were playing that Annie was having the baby and Carlyn was driving her to the hospital :)
We celebrated the anniversary of Grandpa Bruce's death by visiting the grave. The kids and I sure wish we'd known him.

This is Carlyn with her namesake's gravestone.

This was at the park just before my niece, Aili's baptism.
Darren is always wearing shoes. He leaves them all around the house.
Claire was shy, but we loved our visit with the California cousins when they met Charlie.
Katie, Claire, Jordan, and Charlie
Darren in my shoes this time.