Well, I am actually embarrassed to be posting because it has been so long. Danny has told me several times we were going to switch to another blog, so I didn't want to put too much work into this blog, but it hasn't happened and it has been a long time. So, I thought I would at least add some cute pictures that  my Sister-in-law Audrey took of Eliza when she turned 6 months old.  We love this little girl! She is so much fun.

 

 

 

I can't believe my little Eliza is already 3 weeks old. Our family feels so blessed to have her with us. The kids adore her and have loved her. All in all the c-section went better than expected. For a little while the doctors were quiet and you could tell they were whispering and a little concerned. I knew everything must be ok when they started to talk about American Idol with the nurses while they were finishing stitching me up. 

We have had a few questions from the kids like, why does she cry so much, why does she sleep so much, when will she eat real food, when will she smile, etc. We have also had a lot of anatomy lessons about mothers. Why does milk come out of Mom's, They even have looked at my incision. Now Anna thinks she will be cut open to have a baby.(I hope she doesn't have to be!) It has been such a joy to have this new baby in our home. She is starting to wake up a lot more and really look around. Here is some pictures from her first few weeks!

Eliza and Daddy just minutes old.

Eliza and Papa Dad just a couple hours old.

Eliza meets her brothers and sister for the first time.

ELiza is home!

Brandon and Eliza

Eliza meets Papa Great

 Is there anything sweeter than a sleeping baby?

 Two girls in pink! Do you thing Eliza looks concerned for her safety?

My kiddos.  We thought the first picture was so cute we wanted Brandon to join. Eliza wasn't happy by then though. Oh well. We love you ELiza!

We had a great Halloween this year. All the kids were excited to go and the weather was perfect to be out. A lot different than the cold Halloweens we have had in UT the last few years. Here's a few pictures of the kids in their costumes and holding their pumpkins! 

DJ drew this orca whale today and wanted to put it on the blog. He is good at drawing and has a great imagination. We just had a good weekend watching General Conference and listening to the words of the Prophet.

Brandon has really decided he is independent these last few weeks. The other day I came in and found him with this...

I don't know if you can tell what it is, but it is a no bake cookie smothered in butter. He ate the whole thing and loved every bite. I was surprised because he usually doesn't like butter on anything.

We have been into making shakes the last few weeks. We have done it so much that Brandon can make one all by himself. So if we say we are not going to have a shake right now, he takes care of it himself.

Teaching Anna the recipe

He makes a mean shake if I say so myself. Watch out Jamba Juice! Brandon also started school this week at Miss Renay's down the street from us. He is loving it! He goes right in without a second thought and has a big smile on his face when he comes out. That is a big improvement from last year. About a week before school started he decided he should start working on his name. That was a big surprise to me too. He has never shown any interest whenever I have tried this with him before. He was so proud of himself when he filled in all the dotted lines. I was too! He is my left handed boy and it is a little trickier.

  first day of school

Brandon and DJ are also in a Lets Play Music class together. I don't have any pictures, but they are loving it and learning a lot.

We have had a some other surprises these last few weeks too. One surprise is that I got called to be the Primary President. I thought I was safe because I was new in the ward and I had just been called to be the primary chorister about 2 months ago. Well, so much for that. I am excited to serve the children in the ward. We really have a great primary.

Another surprise.This one really took us  by surprise... We are expecting another little one! We were told after Anna to not have any more. That was the plan although it was very painful to think that we would never have another one. We had considered adoption. Every time I prayed about it I felt like there was one more child. I just felt peaceful that this one would come in its own time and in its own way. I didn't know that I would ever be pregnant again. So we always made great efforts to make sure I wouldn't get pregnant, but apparently it was time for this one to come and this is the way this one was suppose to come. We are excited and pray that everything will go well with the pregnancy and c-section. So in the beginning of March we will add a cute baby to our family!

My DJ is in kindergarten this year. He was so excited to go. We got to meet his teacher Mrs. Jankunas yesterday. He got dressed in his new school clothes and he was so excited. He repeated his teachers name no less than 30 times to make sure he could remember it. It is kind of a different name. She seems like a neat teacher. I asked DJ if he liked her and he said, "She seems really excited for me!" So I am glad he feels happy with here. Here is a picture before we went to meet the teacher.

Today we got ready extra early and then sat around waiting for it to be time. Except Brandon was having problems getting ready. We took a couple of pictures with his back pack on and went to the car to go to school. We drove up to his school and I said, "Where is your backpack?" He said,  "I didn't bring it. Do I need it for school?"  Apparently we haven't explained everything to him yet. So luckily Danny came with me and he raced home and got the backpack while I dropped DJ off at his class, and then went back in and gave him his back pack. I can't wait to see how he does today. It is an exciting day!

My Brandon boy is 4. He is such a fun little boy. We had a great time celebrating with him. Ususally he is quite grumpy on his birthday, but this birthday he changed. He was so happy and excited all day. Danny made him breakfast and DJ colored this sign. Then we went swimming in the morning. The water was nice and cold. Danny took Brandon out for lunch. Then he took a nice nap. We had the Grandma and Grandpa King and Sheri and Carlie over for dinner and cake and ice cream. 5:30 couldn't come fast enough. Brandon was anxiously waiting to open his presents. He has been so happy with his birthday presents. Anna doesn't understand why he doesn't want to share them yet. Here are a few pictures from the day.

A birthday nap

Brandon's cake by request.

The party guests

Such a fun birthday! We love you brandon!

This month flew right by. I can't believe it is over. We did some fun things this month. We started the month at the cabin for the 4th of July. It was such a nice time. Unfortunately this is the only picture I have of that stay.

We had a fun family dance and did sparklers that night. On Saturday morning we went fishing at Fred's lake. The kids were thrilled with the results. Each of them caught at least one fish. DJ caught 1 catfish and 1 rainbow trout. Anna caught a rainbow trout and Brandon got a rainbow trout too! Then we got to eat them for dinner that night. The kids were not thrilled. DJ liked the fish though. It was fun. We had a great weekend of games and fun. 

After staying at the cabin for a couple weeks the kids and I came back home. We decided to visit the Childrens Museum with Sarah and Lori's families. Here are some pictures of the fun there.

Dj could have played there the whole day. It was fun for all ages, but I would say 5-8 year olds would probalby appreciate it the most. We were glad we went.

After a while we decided it was time to get back to the cabin. It was so nice. It was cool and rained almost every afternoon. The kids had a lot of fun in the rain and mud. Danny came up and played with us the last couple days. We went crawdad fishing with him and all the other cousins. We caught 66 crawdads in an hour. It was a lot of fun. The kids were thrilled. The secret is licorice for bait. Here are the few picutures I took. I didn't realize I had brought my camara until the last couple days.What a fun moth of July!

We had an exciting weekend last weekend with both the Coons side and the King side of the family. Both were a great blessings. Tim was married in the Las Vegas Temple to Audrey on Saturday, June 12th. We are so excited to have Audrey in the family. They are such a good couple. We had a great time being there with all the family. We were even able to get a family picture while there with every single person there. It was so neat. Here is a picture of Tim and Audry coming out of the temple! (Thanks Sarah and Micah)

On Sunday June 13th, we were back in Arizona to hear Spencer, Danny's brother, give a talk before he left on a mission to Thailand. His talk was on Compassion and it was wonderful. I was very impressed. We were able to see him get set apart on June 15th. I have some pictures of that night. 

I am so proud of Tim and Spencer. They are both great examples to me and my family. We were so happy we were able to celebrate these wonderful occasions with them.

I am so sad i didn't get before and after pictures of our home, but I do have the after pictures and I thought I would put a few of them up on the blog. We are starting to feel settled here. This is a great home.

Enjoy the pictures.