Baby Name

Our 3 girls have been given names that we have liked, and that was about all there was to it. There is some more to our boy name though. The name we have chosen is

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Connor Dane

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Not too long after Kent and I were married, we started talking about having a baby. Together, we decided that we wanted to start trying. We were driving one day and Kent made some off the cuff statement, "Well, when Connor is here...." refering to our unconceived baby.

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It didn't take us long to get pregnant, and we soon started talking about baby names. I mentioned that day he referred to our baby as Connor, and said I really liked that name. Kent said he liked it too. We liked it so much, that we chose to name our baby Connor if it ended up being a boy.

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That baby was not a boy, and we chose to name her Corinne.

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This time we are having a boy. We still like the name Connor, so that will be his first name.

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His middle name will be Dane, after my brother. We chose it as his middle name, not his first because he will not be Dane, but we want him to have a part of Dane.

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Dane's closest friend told us how excited Dane was when he found out that Nicole and I were both having boys. Dane told his friend's parents about it, and how he was going to go and paint the pink playroom at my parent's house blue while my mom was sleeping.

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Nicole and Travis and Kent and I decided together that instead of trying to decide who could use the name Dane for our baby, that we both could. Both of our boys will have Dane as their middle name. We really wish they could have known Dane here, as their uncle, but we feel that they will still be close to him. We can't wait to tell them all about him.

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I find comfort thinking that they may be spending time together now.

Chuck-E-Cheese

I am playing catch up on blogging. I already blogged about our ultrasound that Chan did for us at 15 weeks, but there was a bit more fun to that trip we took back in November. First, we headed to Nicole and Travis's house. The next morning we both took our kiddos and drove to Chan and Tanner's house. She did our ultrasounds at their home. While we were busy doing that, the kids had a lot of fun playing.

Nurse Camryn is ready to fix you up.

They had a really big box that the kids had lots of fun playing in.

They had fun spinning each other in this chair.

Our ultrasounds indicated that both Nicole and I were going to have boys! It was so fun to do it together. Then, we all headed to Chuck-E-Cheese. Our kids have been begging to go to Chuck-E-Cheese for a long time. We see their advertisements on TV, but there is not one here in Twin Falls. Chan and Tanner live really close to one, so this was our perfect opportunity.

We started with some pizza!

Cheese pizza is the favorite of most members of this family.

Nicole and Travis prefer some toppings on their pizza. Doesn't' it look delicious!

When our tummies were full, we headed to the games.

Kaydence is just so darn cute!

Our girls had a BLAST!!! Each one of them loved it!!!

It was such a fun day. Thanks again to Chan and Tanner, and to Nicole and Travis who are always willing to have us over at a moments notice.

We love you guys!

Thanksgiving 2011

This year was a wonderful traditional Thanksgiving Holiday for my family. My parents put on a great meal. My mom made wonderful food and my dad made wonderful pies. We had most of the family together, only Camryn, Kendra, Taylor, and Amanda were not able to be with us. We enjoyed good food and time together. This normal Thanksgiving Holiday became a very special day. This was the last time I saw my brother, Dane.

Nicole and Dane

He had just recently cut his hair. We rarely saw it this length.

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I could very easily bury myself in I wish I had... and If only... statements.

I really do wish I had spent more time with Dane. I wish I had told him what a truly amazing person he is. He really is one of a kind.

I know I can't fill my life with what ifs. I can be grateful for every moment I did share with Dane. I am so, so grateful to be his sister. I can enjoy memories of Dane. I can learn from the wonderful person that he is.

This Thanksgiving Holiday included some special memories.

The men of the family collected a bunch of Nerf Dart Guns. The guns were supposed to be for Christmas. The plan the entire time was to have a battle. The guys couldn't wait for Christmas. The Nerf Guns came out on Thanksgiving Day.
Jonathan and Travis

All of the guys ended up ganging up on Dane.

Dane was a good sport. All the guys seemed to be having fun.

I miss that smile.

A day has not passed that I have not thought about Dane. Sometimes it still seems like it's not real. Like he could walk into the room at any moment.

I know that Dane is in a better place, and that I will get to see him again someday.

So I hang on to that, and to the wonderful memories I have of Dane, and to the way he would live and would want me to live.

I love you, Dane. Thank you for all you have shown me.

Christmas 2011

This year, I got our tree put up on Friday, December 9th. On Saturday night, we decided to put the girls hair in curlers for some Christmas pictures before church the next morning. Camryn wanted rag rolls and Kendra wanted the tight spiral curls again.

The next morning, Kendra was photogenic, as usual.Beautiful Camryn

Corinne was being a stinker. She would not sit for a picture.

First she would not sit with her sisters, then when she did sit, she closed her eyes. She was doing everything she could to avoid a picture. I wish I would have thought to take a picture of her closing her eyes, but I was too frustrated at the time to think about that. Oh well, I can laugh about it now.

I got a couple that turned out.

A few days later, all holiday plans went out the window and we rushed to Blackfoot.

Camryn and Kendra got a lot of quality time with Kaydence.

We all decided to spend Christmas at my parents house. We were all together, all my brothers and sisters and their families.

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This year, we said our kids didn't need a lot of toys. They already have lots of things. Somehow, they still got spoiled. I guess we can't help it.

Between us and my parents, they got scooters, remote controll cars, a remote controll helicopter, make-up, perfume (only because they kept asking Santa for it), clothes, ZhuZhu pets and play center, Furreal cats, and other odds and ends.

Corinne was more into the candy. I think Sprees gave her those green lips. We finally got her interested in her presents, but each time she opened one she just wanted to play with it. She didn't want to open any more. Marley was doing the same thing. It took those two little girls the longest to open all their gifts.

Marley and Corinne were adorable.

It was wonderful to spend the holiday as a family. We shared a lot together over the last 10 days. Our favorite was sharing memories of Dane. I'm grateful to be part of this family. I'm grateful for the love we share.

Baby Ultrasound

We had our first ultrasound at 15 weeks, thanks to a friend, Chan. Our baby was snuggled up against one side of my uterus with it's arms and legs close together. Our main goal this day was to find out if our baby was a boy or a girl. Chan tried and tried to get a good view, but our baby was shy. We were about to call it undetermined, when she got one really good shot that looked like boy parts. We were pretty excited, but we didn't want to get our hopes up too much.


Here is our cute baby, with its body snug against me.

We just had our official ultrasound, at 22 weeks 5 days. It is now official, we are having a BOY!!!!

Again, the baby's face was up against the placenta. The ultrasound tech tried and tried to get a good face shot, but had difficulty. Here are the shots she did get.

The baby's hands are also in front of his face, but you can see his forehead, eyes, and nose.

Here his face is peeking between the placenta and an arm.

Cute baby toes (lots of room down here)

He did show us his legs, and his little boy parts, but I'll just share one of his legs.

We are all so excited to be having a boy!

My sister, Nicole and I are both having boys. We are due within a week of each other. Without planning, our ultrasounds were scheduled on the same day, twice. We were both first scheduled on December 16th, but had to reschedule. We didn't know until the day of this ultrasound that Nicole was also going in on the same day. We were also together when Chan did ultrasounds for both of us, and both saw boy parts that day too.

These will both be the first two grandsons in our family. I have 3 girls and Nicole has 2 girls.

We are so EXCITED!!!

Corinne's talking

Last night, after our family prayer, Corinne decided it was her turn to say a prayer. She folded her arms, squinted her eyes and said her first prayer, "Heh-ee Fa-er, Amen!" We thought it was pretty cute.

She's saying all sorts of things and starting to try to copy lots of words she hears. Here are some of her words and expression:
"sissy"--she loves her sissies.
"mean"--as she tattles on someone that she thinks is being mean, like her sisters or Kent or me after disciplining her. She's really good at scowling when she says this.
"nice"--she tells someone that is "mean" to be nice.
"mess"--to tell us that she or someone else just made a mess.
"tickle, tickle"--as she tried to tickle you, or get you to tickle her.
"show"--when she wants to watch a show on tv.

Some other words she says: dog, Bay-ee (our dog Bailey), Ay-ee (our other dog, Annie), mommy, dadda, papa (grandpa), pease, y welcum (your welcome), pop, pie (she learned that one at Thanksgiving), hi, go bye bye (she loves to go places), night night, bed, up (when she wants up), poop, bum (both can be said in reference to needing a diaper change), shoes, on, off, mine, and tub (when she wants to take a bath).

She is learning to talk so quickly, and says things with so much expression. She is putting these words together sometimes too. We can't believe how fast she is growing up. Pretty soon she won't be the baby anymore, and she is showing it.