My Girl

What, oh what, am I going to do with this girl?

She came to show me, so proud of herself, saying "Look, mama. CUTE!"

Holly's Deer Hunt 2012

This year was the first time I had a deer tag since Liam was 4 months old- crazy! I almost turned it in, because well, life is a little crazy right now! However, I really enjoy going and spending the time with my dad, so I didn't want to turn it in. The logistics ended up being a little bit complicated, but somehow I had enough milk pumped and Wes and my mom kept the kiddos while we went out to hunt.

We actually had Liam go out hunting with us the first morning. He had never been and we figured he was big enough. He had the most fun dressing in hunting gear and drinking hot chocolate. But, he really did enjoy seeing the deer too. It was VERY cold and snowed pretty heavily the first day. It made for some beautiful weather and scenery though!

We saw lots of deer and initially chased one buck around for a couple of days. I actually got a shot at him but I just grazed his back and he never got close enough or on the right property to get him. On the last morning, just dad and I went out and we went to Fulstones ranch because we were tired of chasing the other guy. We found a nice buck there and sat and watched the herd in the truck for a good 45 minutes. We decided to make a move and we sneaked into some trees by the field where they were. We sat and watched them for quite a while again. I ended up getting a shot, but apparently he was turned just slightly and the bullet just nicked his lung. So the deer took off and we had to go and look along a ditch and some willows. We hiked along the willows for quite a while and I finally spotted some blood where the buck crossed a little stream, so we back tracked to see if the deer was down somewhere in the thick brush or willows. Then we heard a big jump and the buck jumped up and ran in front of us. I got a shot, but sadly missed. :( And then the buck crossed the road into another property. However, we new he was wounded because there was significant bleeding. We got permission from the other property owner and went down in her property which was thick of willows and brush. We hiked around for literally HOURS looking for the buck. We found one really big pile of blood and couldn't understand how the buck still could be going with that blood loss. Eventually we lost the blood trail and we almost gave up finding him completely. I had to express some milk so I didn't die of oversupply during this hunt. haha. We only had one hour more to look before we had to head back to Reno and I told my dad I wanted to keep looking, just a little bit longer. At this point it was about 3pm and I shot him initially at 8:30am. LONG day. My dad spotted a mud pit on a little hill and Wes said, "I think that's the buck, sleeping!" Sure enough. He didn't even get up and we were able to get him with a close shot. Wes gutted the deer while dad and I brought the truck back. I wanted to get pictures of all the kids with the deer because I have a picture of 4 month old Liam with the last deer. Addy liked the deer in theory, but if we got close, she screamed. So, thankfully, we will soon have a freezer full of deer to feed our family! It was actually a fun hunt, if not a little frustrating. And I really enjoyed being able to spend some time with my dad.

Finn's Little Man Welcome Party

One Finn's one month birthday, my friend Natalie in our ward threw us a little shower to welcome Finn to the world. It was so fun and adorable! She did a 'little man' mustache theme. We all even got to wear mustaches. We all have a new appreciation for men having facial hair. haha. She made a delicious spread of yummy food! It was amazing. We also had fun little mustache games. My mom was able to come too, which was so nice. She ended up trying a bottle with pumped milk with Finn for the first time- he did great. Anyway, we ended up with lots of diapers and cute clothes! It was so sweet and generous of the sisters in our ward. I'm so lucky to be able to raise my babies around such awesome people! Thank you, Natalie

One Month!

Well, I'm trying to get Finn's one month post blogged before his two month birthday tomorrow. :) I'm always a little bit sad when they hit one month because you start counting their age in months rather than weeks, but then I remember that we get to start taking month photos, which I always think is fun. :) So, in carrying on with the same tradition I did with the big kids, Finny gets his monthly photos taken by our giraffe. I always love doing it because I can put them in my favorite little outfits and it's fun to see how much the giraffe 'shrinks' as the months progress. So, Finn at one month: -SWEET baby. He's so chill and sweet. Only really cries when he has a wet or dirty diaper(which he really hates) or he is hungry. He does really like to be held, but considering he was with me constantly for 39 weeks, I don't blame him, plus I kinda like holding him anyway. :) -GREAT sleeper. At one month he sleeps usually 6-7 hours before waking up to eat. Soo nice. He's also a great napper which is nice for me to get a few things done. -He's adored by his big brother and sister. Whenever he starts crying, Addy goes wild saying "OH NO OH NO OH NO! Where's the binky for Finny boy!" She really loves her baby and Liam is always so proud of him and tells everyone about it. -The biggest challenge with having a third child has been that Finn and Addy are much closer together than Liam and Addy were. So, it's a little bit more challenging caring for a newborn and a toddler, but overall, it hasn't been too bad! -I just love snuggling this baby and kissing his sweet little cheeks! I'm so, so thankful for him and his sweet spirit in our family.
 

Happy Halloween!

We had a pretty good Halloween this year. This was obviously Finn's first Halloween, so it was a little bit crazy trying to wrangle 3 kids through Halloween festivities. But, all in all, it was a huge success. The best part was the kids' costumes, which Grandma Stephenson did an amazing job on as always. Addy was a rainbow and Liam was the Hulk. Finny was a cute little sock monkey that I just got as a jacket at old navy. And for our ward party he wore a cute little Frankenstein hat. We had our ward trunk or treat and then we did our annual hay ride through Hidden Valley with the cousins! Here are pictures of all the fun!

Student of the Month

For the month of October Liam was student of the month! We were so proud of our boy! He was so excited, not so much because he was student of the month, but moreso because he got a bumper sticker for our car, which as proud as I am of him, am not super thrilled about a bumper sticker. For now it's on our fridge, but I'm pretty sure he'll notice it's not on the car soon... At any rate, I thought this post would be a good time to update on Liam's time so far in first grade. He's doing exceptionally well! We just had his first parent/teacher conference and got his first report card. To say that we walked away as proud parents would be an understatement. (if you don't want to read parental bragging, stop now!) Liam's teacher, Mrs. Sparks, is amazing! She has been so proactive in challenging Liam and making sure that he remains challenged and gets appropriate level work since day one. She knew Liam from kindergarten reading, but she jumped right in testing him in all of his subjects and taking the appropriate steps to help him continue to grow. She has placed him in a third grade class for reading, spelling and vocabulary. He goes there 45 minutes every day and is doing great! He's in the top group in his third grade class and has reading and spelling at approximately a fifth grade level. I love that he can still be challenged but that he also gets to have all the experiences of first grade. Mrs. Sparks wanted him tested for GT now, but the district doesn't allow it until second grade. She spoke to our school counselor and they agreed to have him tested in January. She also already has his second grade teacher picked out and has been talking to us about the SWAS program for third-fifth grade and really believes that he will be a candidate for the Davidson academy (a program at the university for gifted students) in the sixth grade. Needless to say we were shocked when she was telling us all of this, but even more shocked when she told us that she hasn't had a student like Liam or made any of these recommendations in all of her 19 years teaching first grade. However, as great as all of that was and is, I was more proud when she told us what a wonderful boy he is. She is his #1 helper and is so kind to EVERYONE and makes sure everyone is included and feels special. She said he is a huge blessing for her to have in class and that he is truly an exceptional boy. To say we are proud of our sweet boy is an understatement. We are so blessed to be his parents.

Carving Pumpkins

We attempted to carve pumpkins this year, but it really turned into mom chasing the kids while dad carved the pumpkins. They were only interested for the first few minutes (Liam did design his green one), but they thought the after looks of the pumpkins were pretty cool! Wes did a great job and it made for some interesting memories along the way. :) It was also fun because most of the pumpkins came from Nana and Papa's garden. I'll have to hunt down some photos of Wes' finished carved pumpkin. He did his later after the kids went to sleep and it was really cool! He's becoming quite the pumpkin master!