Name and a Blessing

Austin David Bennett was blessed by his dad in our home Sunday January 23, 2011 with his two grandpas, Grandpa Bullock, Grandpa Allen and his Uncle Scott in the circle. This was a whirl wind idea that I thought of as my parents in were town and would soon be leaving for a second mission and I wanted them to be apart of it. My (the kids Great) Grandma Bullock was able to come with my parents as well to be here. Because it was a fast put together idea the day before the number of people were small. We have never blessed our kids at home before but we weren't able to work it out with everyone to be at our church service at the same time. It was still nice and there was a sweet spirit.
While it is fun to have family come together for these special occasions it was kind of nice not to have to worry and stress about doing a dinner or entertaining after!

We thought long and hard about your name as all of our children ended up starting with an "A". We couldn't decide with the big gap if we should keep going with the "A" or venture out! (this happens every time we have a baby actually!)

Grandpa and Grandma Bullock


Great Grandma Bullock

Grandpa and Grandma Allen and Uncle Scott

Aubrey 7 years old

Andrew 9 years old

Austin one weeks old

He is so little and skinny! What a bundle of joy this little baby is. The little dots on his body is the itchy rash I have, poor little guy. It should clear up quickly. Austin is eating well and sleeps pretty good for a new born. He gets up a few times a night but hopefully he will get the days and nights figured out soon...He is so soft and who doesn't love the smell of a new born. Look at those little fingers and toes! I love his wrinkly skin that he will grow into fast enough and his fuzzy little shoulders!

Austin David Bennett

Born: January 11, 2011
Weight: 6# 12 oz
Length: 21"

lots of blond hair!
So happy to have him here, he is so sweet and cute.

Baby Day!

Today I am having my fifth baby, I can hardly believe it! I am scheduled to have this little boy out around 10 am by c-section, (since I have already had two c-sections) a week earlier than my projected due date. Who wants to go another week when you don't have too! The last month or so I got the pregnancy rash/itches and it is miserable! It is always a little serial going to the hospital and getting hooked up to the machines and hearing the noises of a hospital, am I really old enough to be doing this? And yet, it is my 5th time so I must be! I don't know if people are just being nice but many (who don't know me of course) ask if this is my first baby and are shocked when I tell them it is the fifth! They tell me I don't look old enough to have babies let alone my fifth! I assure you that I do have the hips of this being my fifth baby and I do tip the bottle on the few grays that are coming in~ which seem like more lately...grrr! Well nice to hear just the same. I do feel like I look a little bettter than with some of my other pregnancies, but I still have the swollen feet, hands, and face; always nice when that goes away too! I always wish I could be one of those girls you can't tell is pregnant from behind and then they turn around and they have the cutest round belly bump~ oh well could be worse!
Well here we go...and isn't it cool his birthday will be 1/11/11?! We didn't even realize that when we planned for the scheduled date!

Annual Family Christmas/ Santa Party

Every year Jared's parent, Brian and Velene host a Christmas Party for Velene's side of the family. They started this tradition when Jared and all the cousins were little so it has been going on for many years. As the kids have grown up and got married and brought their kids it has become a huge undertaking and somewhat chaotic and yet still is fun! This year was a little smaller in attendance. Everyone brings great food for dinner, great desserts, and of course what's a Christmas party without Santa coming to visit as well! This is the same Santa since the beginning of the parties years ago.

Alex getting to be "too cool" to smile while sitting on Santa's lap!


Andrew didn't want to sit on Santa's lap...I think he was afraid if he did Santa would say something about him being heavy and embarrass him


not sure why but Aubrey didn't want to sit on his lap either and was content to stand.


Anika was way into Santa and telling him her whole life story!


Santa reading his book about the reindeer, Pizza Face as the kids listen and enjoy, all the while anticipating opening their gift they received from Santa!

This year the kids all got the same thing, yet different ones of ZuZu Pets! Goofy little hamster things that spin on wheels and make noises! I guess they can fight each other too...not sure how that works!

It is always fun to see everyone.

Christmas Party

We kicked our kids downstairs with a movie and some popcorn and enjoyed a fun night with our friends. Not as many were able to come as we initially thought but a small crowd is great too as you can spend more time talking to each other. We were sad to move and live further away but I hope we will always get together for more years to come. Everyone brought a yummy appitizer and we bought some Pappa Murphy pizza, one being garlic chicken, one of my favorites!

Projects

I do the silliest things sometimes...Here I am ready to have a baby in a few weeks and I am trying to finish sanding/painting our crib and a dresser, as I want the furniture to be black!
The whole house except for the formal living room and kitchen are painted an off-pink color so... (yikes! I can't believe I am posting this picture!) btw these clothes have been through a lot of paint jobs over the years :) I do like to paint!
(shhh, don't tell my doctor about this picture!)
Not too long ago I finished painting the office downstairs, the main family room , and now I am working on our bedroom, which is so big that I think I will have to leave the back study area until later as I am getting sore/stiff and so tired. At night I just crash and then wake up a million times to pee!
We are having a Christmas part-ae at our house I want things to look nice for when our friends come over! (like they care!) The blinds are what I should be worrying about...!

Christmas Decorations

I am excited to decorate our new house for Christmas this year! There are so many fun places to put things and spread the decorations out. Jared makes fun of me because I want a nice decorated tree in the living room,
he calls it the "snooty tree" and another one in the family room with the kid's decorations.
I don't know why it is a big deal to him to have the two different trees?! The kids don't care and they had fun decorating still the same! It was fun decorating with them and reminiscing what the ornaments stand for. (that is after I got mad at them for moving all the piles around I had organized with each of their own decorations) This years ornaments: Alex a football, Andrew a basketball , Aubrey a ______, Anika a _________, family a little blue baby bootie for the new baby to come. I am not sure why I don't have pictures of us decorating this year...but here are the final results.
We are trying to collect nativity sets from around the world. It would be fun to say we had been to the spots and bought them, but they are from others who have been there. Maybe one day!

This nativity was given to us as a wedding gift from my favorite YW leader Carolyn and Brent Thomas so Canada/North American!

This nativity came as a gift from Jared's parents from the Ukraine. Behind it is another gift to Jared for being on the High Council from our Stake President, President Bucerra, it is real gold, frankincense, and muir. My favorite decoration of all. *I will have to get a better picture.*

This one Jared bought while traveling for work in the Dominican Republic *get better picture*

The front door entry way

the stairs going up from the entry way

the main family room