A Hole...

...where Cooper's tooth used to be!  He had been wiggling and wiggling for probably two weeks.  And then one night, while dad was helping him brush, some floss mysteriously found its way around the loose one... and it popped right out!

I will never forget how excited he was that night.  He was a little surprised by the amount of blood there was, but those concerns quickly dwindled.  He ran upstairs to show me, such excitement in his eyes and voice!  He was happy to get a few pictures!

The next morning, he was excited to check under his pillow and find two gold coins and a heart-shaped dollar bill, along with a note from the tooth fairy.

I loved his pure excitement and innocence!

Baby Love

Our November was filled with lots of baby love!

Rhett and Dana came for a visit and spent the night at our house--so we all got lots of snuggles!  

Rhett loves to give kisses now!

Carson, age 21 mo, Rhett, age 8 mo.

Now that Eli is home, we get to see him often!

Carson kept saying "Hewwo Ewi" and waving to him.

Leah was baptized the first weekend in December.  We went up to GR Friday right after work, and got to spend the weekend with the Jensens.

The girls:

Movie time!

God Bless little Leah!  It was pretty tricky to get a cousin photo, but we tried!  Drake was just not having it :)

Cooper, the baby whisperer.

Izzy did great with Rhett!

Welcome to the World, Eli Ray!

Our newest nephew, and the kids' first cousin on the Kalal side has arrived!!

Eli Ray Kalal was born on November 9.  He is such a little honey!

Cooper was IN LOVE with this little dude.

Izzy also got some snuggles in.

Carson was very boogery and fighting a cold, so he didn't come in the room to meet Eli that first time.  Cooper spoke so sweetly to Eli, and wanted to give him a zillion kisses on the head.  It was fun to see Adam and Chelsea as first time parents.  Gosh, it brought us right back to those first days with babies! Those two are going to make such great parents--Eil is so lucky!

We can't wait to teach Eli all sorts of new tricks!

Fall Fun

We are having SUCH a warm fall!!  These are some photos from late October and early November!!  What a treat to have so much extra time to play outside!

Izzy's masterpiece

And this!  Over 70 degrees on November 4!  We had treats at the park with the Endres crew

Will (18 mo), Olivia 6, Cooper 5, Abby 5, Ben 3 1/2, Carson (21 mo), Izzy 4

Election Day Pride

November 8, 2016.  Election Day.

It was really fun talking to Izzy and Cooper about the possibility of our first woman president.  I was honored and excited to be talking to them about the importance of voting and what it means to be the president.

Izzy donned the perfect shirt for the day:

It is important to me to raise a little girl who believes that she can do anything, be anything, and make a change in the world.  For the record, Izzy and Cooper both think it's crazy we have not yet had a woman for president ;)

I was honored to cast a vote for Hillary Clinton this year, with Izzy in tow.  She had fun going with me, even though the line was a bit long.  We still don't have our first woman president, but one of these days, just the right woman for the job will come along!

Happy Halloween 2016

We had a blast this Halloween!

Check out these cute pumpkins!  Carson had not one ounce of interest in carving, but his pumpkin got two big front teeth, just like him :)  Cooper wanted to draw his fact on, but would not touch the pumpkin guts.  I think Izzy would have been more into it if it weren't for Cooper's talk of the guts being gross, but she did help scoop a little.  She was excited about the eyelashes on her jackolantern!

Great Grandma Betty really enjoyed seeing the kids.  We stopped there the day before so we could visit for a bit.

My little puppy

Captain America showing off his muscles at the ECFE costume parade.

Grandma Dawn and Grandpa Kevin got a visit...

Izzy was in LOVE with her Belle costume, made by Grandma.

More Grandma smiles

The night of Halloween, it was cold and rainy, but that didn't scare us away!  This little puppy had fun trick-or-treating at the businesses downtown.

We went out around the neighborhood for about an hour.  Carson insisted on walking to and from all the doors, which started out cute, but was a little tiring by the end of the night.  (Please notice Cooper's serious super hero face in this pic!!).

I am so bummed I didn't get an awesome pic of them all in their costumes--this is about as good as it gets this year.  (Again, notice that serious Captain America!)

Here's the loot from the night!

I, wait, I mean the kids, had fun organizing all the candy :)  We packaged up more than half of it to donate to the ECFE candy drive.  They were sending candy to local troops serving our country.

Happy Halloween!

Our Little Girl is Already 4!!

Izzy is 4!

This spunky little lady spreads joy wherever she goes.  She is smart, funny, joyful, and just a bit dramatic ;)

This was her traditional birthday surprise--a bedroom full of balloons.  She woke up with quite the smile that morning!

On her actual birthday, we celebrated with an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen.  

A few days later, we celebrated with aunts, uncles, grandmas, grandpas, and cousins.  She had a mermaid party...

She was spoiled, of course!  She got a mermaid tail blanket:

The one gift she'd been asking for unhesitatingly for weeks was a metal detector:

She loved her motorized scooter (too bad we have to wait for warmer weather to use it more often!).

And, my personal favorite part of the kids' birthdays... the cake.  She was in awe of her mermaid cake!

Grandma Selfie!  (Izzy is wearing her new Cinderella dress)

Izzy, in 4 short years, you have showed everyone around you how to enjoy the little things.  Although you are always on your own 'schedule,' you definitely find joy in everything in life.  I love how you pay attention to all kinds of details.  You literally bounce when you walk, and I can't help but smile when you smile.  And girl, you are smart!  You love books (and you're learning lots of words already!), you can play with numbers and sounds and colors like I cannot believe.  Your understanding of the world, the questions you ask, and the the vocabulary you use are so beyond your age of 4, it's not even funny.  You have a quiet determination and ability to stick with a task for a long time, and you don't usually get too worked up about things.  You can be a bit on the dramatic side, and although that can be exhausting at times, it's usually really funny (I'm sure I won't think it's funny when you're 14...).  You love being around your brothers, especially Cooper.  If he can do something, you try everything to be able to do that same thing.  You two play together so well most of the time.  You even like to snuggle in the same bed every now and then!  He is your protector, and you are his sidekick.  You're also a great big sister to Carson, and you're helping us teach him the ways of the world.  Fashion, hair styles, nails, and specific colors are creeping into your persona, and I'm not too sure how I feel about that.  You don't like black or grey because 'they're boring,' and sparkles are your favorite.  I think you might have more accessories than I do...  My favorite time with you is bedtime, when you ask your best questions and we talk about such fun stuff.  You think you're hilarious, cracking jokes that don't even make sense, and always goofing around instead of getting settled into bed.  But I secretly love it.

I love you, little lady.  You are just awesome.  I look at you and see what an amazing person you are growing into.  You are my favorite little girl-- and you always will be!  Have fun being 4!