Elise Mariah Daw

8lbs 4oz
1:08 pm
21.5 inches

She is by far our most beautiful daughter!

More to come...

The Nursery

Here are pics of the Nursery (finally). I am sooo grateful to my neighbor Debbie who has done so much to help me put it together! Now all we are missing is the baby girl!!

Update on the boys

An update on all the boys. We started the year off with Scott's birthday (Happy Birthday Sweetie!) and celebrated by having his parents over for dinner and then had our neighbors and the Bishop over for the most fattening pie ever (Peanut Butter with whipped topping, and a bunch more junk, in a pie crust made of Nutter Butters). He got some wierd presents--a plant light thing to grow seeds, a "touch n brush", and a Utah flag. It doesn't seem like I really spoil him... But, I think he had a good birthday (I hope.. right hon?).The boys love birthdays and they decorated and Weston drew this beautiful picture of his dad:

Weston is doing great in school. Although right after Thanksgiving, he had a little spell of not wanting to go to school. I think he liked being home while off track. But, then he got the Christmas break and now he is doing better. He has exploded on reading and is just moving up levels as quick as can be. We are reading the Book of Mormon Readers (the kids one with pictures) and he does the reading every night and loves it. He never wants to stop. He has also started "Rocket Math" at school and is loving it. It is a neat little program our school does to help them learn math.

Weston is also becoming so mature. This morning he woke up before us and went down and set the table, made toast for everyone, and got out the (frozen) pancakes for us to eat. What a sweetheart! We recently had a primary activity and the boys had lots of fun. Weston has moved up to Senior Primary--in our ward there are so many kids that CTR 6 and up are in Senior--crazy!

Brennan is wild. Love that kid, but what a character! Here he is (below) with my bread pans on his feet as shoes.

He still loves to play with kitchen stuff, but fortunately not as much as before. I just can't bend over to pick up all the pans anymore! He loves to play with his blocks and cars. He is talking a whole lot more--always asking "What's that?" to everything. And he loves to say "my turn" and point out all the interesting things he sees. He keeps us running around and laughing!

Aidan also keeps us laughing--can't you tell? Here he is with crazy hair for "crazy hair day" at preschool.

He loves preschool, especially the stickers he gets every day. He has noticed how cute he is (we tell him often...) and one day said to me, "Mom, I look cute when I do this" and then made a darling little smile. What a ham! He loves to make his bed and is very particular about going to bed with his blankets spread out nicely. He loves to make special treat inventions (without me knowing) and I often find marshmallows covered with sugar and red food coloring in the freezer (that how he "cooks" it). Suprisingly, I never find any trace of red food coloring anywhere but in his treat. I don't know how he keeps it so clean!

Hopefully in a week or so we will have a GIRL update!

Pregnancy Update

Just a week and a day away--I am scheduled to be induced on the 28th and it couldn't come fast enough!
So here I am showing off the big belly--ready to pop. Last night we were up til midnight trying to get rid of contractions cause I don't want to go into labor until Thursday at least --my doctor is out of town til then. Seems I am fine this morning.

It hasn't been a wonderful pregnancy, but I guess it hasn't been terrible... well, at times it really was. We are just really excited to finally have her here. Although we are a little worried it won't come out a girl--that circle behind us with the 14 boys and no girls has two women pregnant--with boys! If it comes out a boy, he is going to have a REALLY cute pink and green bedroom! I will be posting pics of the nursery soon. I just have one or two more things to do before it is allt he way ready.

Ewww, gross

Ah the joys of living in Herriman! We have HARD water. Really hard water. So, not long after we moved in, we got a water softener. A few weeks ago, we had some problems with our water pressure. Got a plumber in here, spent over a hundred dollars getting something fixed, just to have the pressure go crazy two days later. So, then they thought it was the water softener. We got our water softener company out here to fix it all... costing us again more than a hundred dollars (and that was after some big time talking to about warranty.... never fight with me, I'll win). But, in the meantime of waiting for them to fix things--2 weeks, give me a break--we had to live with the Herriman Hard Water. And this is how our dishes would turn out in the dishwasher. Isn't it disgusting?

Christmas 2009

We had a wonderful, wonderful Christmas. My brother and his family were supposed to come into town, but their flight got cancelled because of the weather (in DC), which was a big bummer! But, then on the 23rd we had the Daw family party complete with a Magician!!! The kids loved it. And we got lots of little magic toys that are all over the house now... and we've had lots of "shows" from the kids showing off their magic abilities. We had a little nativity with all the grandkids, then dinner, then most of the boys went off to watch the Utah game. The next day we hooked up with the Daws again and went to "The Princess and the Frog" (cute show) and then to Benihana for dinner. We came home early to have our little night of traditional stuff (reading the story, hanging the stockings, making the cookies for santa, getting pjs, etc) and then off to dream of the next morning.

The next morning was just GREAT! So many presents and fun stuff left by Santa! The kids are really into Club Penguin (.com if you are interested... it is lots of fun), so they each got a "puffle." We got a few family games, and lots of books (the 5$ books from Kohls are so great).

Brennan got a sit and spin (my best "deal"--only 6$!), a cash register, and he's showing off his apron and oven mitt his Omi made for him (in this photo). Weston got football stuff (UofU of course), spy stuff, and star wars toys--inlcuding a "plug and play" game.Aidan got Mater the Greater (from the book "Maters Tall Tales"--if you have a cars fanatic, it is a great book for them), a piano (always used, and much fun), and other cars stuff.Brennan was lots of fun cause it was all so new to him. Weston loved getting big kid stuff. And Aidan--well he was perfect. All the right screams of joy and jumping up and down. It was so fun to see them all so happy! Christmas is so much fun with kids!

I got Scott some shoes, pants, an air hockey game (cheap, but has been tons of fun for the boys), and a grooming kit. He got me some GORGEOUS boots, a dustbuster, a herb planter thing, paper shredder, and a nativity set. He got from his parents DVD's of his childhood home movies--such a cool present. And I got a wonderful watch. We got movies from my parents, and so many other fun things from family.

All in all, a great Christmas. What has been the funnest is the time together. Scott hasn't had to work too much and we are just loving all the time with the boys (and doing projects around the house--Elise's room is almost ready!). Happy New Year to you all.