family pictures and bubba's stats :)

So we were able to get our friend Kim to take some family pictures again :) We'll be getting a few more this weekend since some of the family ones weren't what I was thinking of (due to not so cooperative children.....) Here's some of what she took, and I love them :) :)

 Hazel- 2 years old

 happy family of 4 :)

 Jude- 6 months

love.

It was pretty chilly that day, so I'm excited to see what we can get this weekend with a little warmer weather!

On another note, Jude is officially 25 weeks/ 6months old! AND he is another chunky monkey :) He's topped the scales since his first month or so, and he doesn't seem to be stopping, now weighing 22lbs! I absolutely love my Bubba. He's been teething for the past month or so, and so far that's the only time that he's really cranky. He's soooo happy, and so loving. Even with how crazy this month has been, he still has the biggest smiles for us, and definitely brightens my days. He is SO close to crawling! He can get anywhere so fast, and I don't know if I'm quite ready for him to be so mobile. But, I'm also proud of how quickly he's growing, and am so excited for these little milestones of his :)

my little Bubba xoxo

oh, and I realize I never posted about Hazel's birthday, so that will be coming soon :)

crazy days....

wow, where to I even begin this post.....

This past month has been CRAZY busy. I think with Quenton's crazy work schedule the way it was, we felt and are feeling a little more stretched than normal. Let's review:

First, there was General Conference/Thanksgiving weekend. Conference was fantastic! The announcement regarding missionary service brought tears to my eyes. The thought of more young men and young women being able to serve is such a blessing! Elder Holland's talk was so powerful, and still touches me every time I read it. All of the talks were so inspired, and I was sad to see it over. At least we had turkey dinner as a consolation, I suppose ;) Most of Quenton's family plus a few more came to our house. It was so fun to host! I love having a house where people can actually come over :) There were a few stressful moments, but overall it was a good weekend.

Then, we prepared that week to go to the Calgary Temple open house on the Saturday.
 
We drove down Friday night and planned on coming back Sunday. The Temple is sooo beautiful! What an awesome opportunity to be able to bring a couple of our non-member friends through :) We stayed with the Trims and LOVED IT! We agreed that we need to visit more often. We saw my brother Todd and his girlfriend Theresa before we left, which definitely completed the trip. :)
On the way home, my ear started to hurt, and by the time we got to Edmonton, I had decided to get it looked at. I had been fighting a pretty bad cold since before the trip, and I didn't want to be dealing with an infection with Quenton back at work. It took a while to get in at the clinic, but I at least found out that it wasn't an infection, but could turn out that way in a day or so. All I could do was take tylenol or/and advil for the pain and hope it didn't end up worse. It started to feel better the next day, and the virus I had went away after about a week.
Keep in mind, this whole time we've been potty training Hazel, which was a little trying at first, but she's been doing AMAZING! No, I haven't taken her on a trip out yet without a diaper, but that's my goal this week. :) Meanwhile, I was trying to work out 6 days/week, focus on Weight Watchers, we've started Jude on solids, hosted friends here to stay for a few days, made TWO turkey dinners (one being Thanksgiving), had Stake Conference, had family pictures, threw a Halloween activity for my Activity Days girls, had Hazel's Birthday party (just us and the missionaries, but still....), still need to carve our 3 pumpkins and get ready for tomorrow night, and have had to adjust to Quenton working 12-14 hour days and evenings.
so I'm a little tired.
 and I've wanted to complain a lot. which I have to Quenton.
but, I just keep thinking that these hours are helping us financially, and starting November 1st, life should be getting somewhat back to normal. Some things have suffered this past month, but we're trying to keep an eternal perspective by trying to see what blessings have come from the choices we've made, and what we can improve on.
October is still my favourite month of the year :)



so, sorry if we haven't kept in better touch with you, especially if we live in the same city! I promise, next month will be better :)