Our Holidays

I'm way late posting this (partly due to a broken computer- blah), but we had a very busy and fun holiday season. Our Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years were all pretty busy and fun. It involved 2 trips to Utah and lots of time with our families. I don't want to make this super long, so we'll just get right to the pictures that show some highlights of the season!

We loved seeing some good friends from Ogden. Crazy what has changed since we met 5 years ago! (Next time we must get a pic with adults too!)

Thanksgiving Day run

Chris scored tickets to the MLS playoff game- super fun!

 Ward Christmas Party

 Chino Parade and Fair

Fun visit from Becky

LA Temple Lights

Making Christmas trees at a friend's house. (Notice Matthew in the back- he was so good and accomodating through all our season activities!)

This doesn't show our full nativity- just the important characters. :) Hailey and Christopher made a great Mary and Joseph and Brooklyn was a sweet little angel.

Blurry, but this was the sight on Christmas morning.

Brooklyn got nail polish and Chris put it on her right then and there

Sister time in Utah

 

 Bowling on New Year's Eve. I won't tell you who got the highest score. Ok fine, it was me. I got 143- wahoo! 

Cold but lovely Temple Square with Grandma

We got to travel in style- in the motor home!

The hair kind of matches how she acted on the drive!

 Next post will be more of an update on the kids.  Happy New Year to everybody! Thanks for making 2012 a great year!

Blessing and Pictures

Matthew was blessed on October 14th. I thought it was a beautiful blessing and am so grateful Chris can do that for our kids. We were lucky to have family come support us too! My sister-in-law, Alicen, took pictures that day, and also did the kid's pictures the next day. Thank you Alicen for doing such a great job capturing the sweet expressions we love so much on our kids!
(I'm so sad- somehow when I saved the video, the pictures lost some of their quality and now look a little fuzzy. And I'm not sure what to do to fix it. But I think most of you have seen these pictures on facebook anyway.)

Happy Days

We have loved the past couple of months with our little Matthew. He is a good, sweet baby who loves to be held and cuddled. But he's pretty content most of the time he's awake to lie on the floor or in his seat and watch what's going on around him. We love the smiles that come often now, and it's been fun to hear him start to make little noises and try to talk to us.
Christopher is a great big brother who watches over Matthew when I have to leave the room. He's at a fun, busy stage and loves pretty much anything that involves time with Dad. He loves helping wash the cars, working in the garage, sweeping after Chris mows the lawn, and wrestling/jumping on his dad. He also loves singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" and still loves reading books. He does not love naps, so sadly my time to myself is now down to a 30 minute "quiet time."
Brooklyn is starting to talk quite a bit and copies just about everything Christopher does. She is crazy about "Ma-shew" and gives him hugs and kisses all the time. She has also become quite the storyteller which has been fun for us, and she loves to put on any item of clothing she can find. She has started to tease Christopher which is actually pretty funny to watch!
I have a bunch more pictures coming, but this is a little collection of mostly day-to-day stuff.

With cousin Lilia

This is what most of Matthew's hugs from siblings look like

Evening activity on Conference Sunday (notice Chris' no-need-to-do-hair-today look). :)

Matthew Dayton Waldron

We have been so blessed to have little Matthew join our family! Here is the story and some pictures. I was supposed to be induced on Thursday, August 16th (because I stayed with my doctor in Costa Mesa- 45 minutes away, possibly hours with traffic). So we got all ready and headed to my in-laws the night before. I got a call from the hospital saying they were too busy and I should call back in the morning to see if they had room for me. Long story short, they kept telling me to call back later and eventually we came back home Thursday afternoon. Friday evening my doctor called and said we should just re-schedule for Monday morning. After a frustrating wait, we finally ended up heading to the hospital Monday evening around 6. It was rather slow for a while; they broke my water and I got an epidural around 2 a.m., but he wasn't born till about 10:30 a.m. (Aug 21st).  But hey, I can't complain since I had the epidural and was pretty much just taking naps and waiting until I had to push (which only lasted about 2 minutes). He was 7 lbs 5 oz and 19 inches long.
Christopher and Brooklyn met him a few hours later. Brooklyn immediately wanted to hold and kiss him, and Christopher first thing asked if he could sing him a song. When we asked what song, he suggested "I am a Child of God." So sweet. 
Matthew has been such a good, easy, sweet, patient baby and we all adore him. I've been so lucky to have lots of help- from very flexible and accommodating in-laws who watched the kids the entire time we were in the hospital and a few times since, my mom who came out for a week and did a TON for us, Chris who is amazing and takes over when he gets home, and numerous ward members who have brought dinners, homemade bread, and treats.