Another day.
Another no.
And life rolls on.

Things That Made Me Smile Today:

Natalie fell asleep in my lap during church. One of her arms was peeking out of her blanket and her hand was curled into a little fist. Justin saw it, reached over, and gave her a fist bump.

Ethan gave his first talk in Primary. He talked about how when we serve others, we serve God.

Wally, our Christmas Elf, is back. The boys get so excited to look for him every morning when they wake up.

Realizing that our new church building is the exact same layout as our church building in Layton. Sitting in the Mother's room and rocking Natalie brought back lots of memories of rocking Ethan, and then Justin while bonding with the other new moms. It made me really nostalgic.

Watching Hallmark's movie "November Christmas" and remembering that I can do hard things. And that sometimes it's more important to forget about my own sadness (which can be a little debilitating), and concentrate on bringing happiness into the lives of my children.

My children laughing and making me laugh.

Our Baby is One!!!!!!!!

That's right, Natalie turned one, and this is quite possibly my favorite picture ever. The look on her face? Priceless. It almost looks as though she doesn't like the beautiful crown that I made her and forced her to wear. But that couldn't be...right?


She fell asleep during dinner, which may account for the deer-in-the-headlights look she's sporting in most of her pictures. And, it obviously explains her temporary insanity over not liking the beautiful crown I made her and forced her to wear.

First, she opened presents (money from Grandma and Grandpa Hatch and Great Grandma Moseley, a bag full of clothes from Grandma and Grandpa Hays, and an awesome pink carseat from us). Our kids always get a new carseat from us on their first birthday (and only a new carseat...nothing else). We're nice like that.
Although, it's worth mentioning that on Matthew's first birthday, we bought him a forward-facing carseat. On Ethan's first birthday, we bought him a booster seat, but gave it to Matthew and made Ethan ride in Matthew's hand-me-down carseat. On Justin's first birthday, we bought him a forward-facing carseat/booster seat, and gave it to Ethan (because it was bigger than the one Ethan was currently in), and handed down the first forward-facing carseat to Justin. Are you still with me? Well, for Natalie's birthday, we actually bought two carseats (I know, how uncharacteristically generous of us). One for Natalie, and a smaller booster for Matthew. Which means that Ethan is now in the booster that we bought on his first birthday, but gave to Matthew. And Justin is now in the forward-facing carseat/booster that we bought on his first birthday but gave to Ethan, and all is now right in the world. The original forward-facing carseat that we bought on Matthew's first birthday is now in our local dump...and probably should have been there about three years ago. Anyways...

The cake. Ta-da!! My mom made a cake like this for my younger sister (way back in the day) and I loved it. I've been waiting patiently for years and years to be able to do this cake, and I love how it turned out. Simple. Girly. Delicious.


Is it just me, or does it look like Natalie's scared/confused/bored?


Oh, there's a smile! Give her some chocolate, and this girl's good to go :)

Natalie is such a joy to have in our home. She is a crack-up with a cute, budding little personality. She loves to laugh and to make others (especially her brothers) laugh. She does have a streak of naughty in her, though. She knows when she's doing something she's not supposed to, and has perfected ignoring us, and running away from us with contraband in hand.

She loves fruits and vegetables, her blankies, shoes, bracelets, sippys of warm milk, cuddling, taking showers, climbing on anything and everything and wrestling with her brothers.

She doen't like beautiful hairbows that I make for her and force her to wear, and getting her diaper changed.

We love her, and are so happy that she's in our family. Happy Birthday Natalie!!

Our Halloween, In Pictures...Because I'm Lazy Like That