Baby Jade! And Family!

Well, our newest addition to the family arrived on July 27th, 2012 sunny side up as they say :)  It was a tough labor as I had a condition called Polyhydramnios, which means I had a lot of amniotic fluid and it could cause the baby to not swallow and absorb the fluid in normal amounts.  I had originally planned to have her at home in a water birth, but my condition required me to go to the hospital, which was fine as all my other 3 were born there.  My Midwives were amazing and I did it all without an epidural, which was amazing enough for me!!!  She was born at 6:30am and weighed 8lbs 2oz and was 19" long.  She has been a wonderful addition to our family and to say the least, Hanna is beyond thrilled to have gotten her baby sister.  Now that our family is complete we look forward to the coming year, the Calgary Temple Dedication is this month and that is a marvellous event that we get to take part in, Elijah was baptized in August with all his friends and family there with him.  Hanna is now 10 and is taking her Red Cross Babysitting Course this weekend... babysitting?  Where did the time go?  Being in Grade 5 is hard enough to swallow :)  She gets to be a reading buddy and a patrol which she is super excited about!!  Elijah, well, he hasn't grown much ;)  But he will, look out world!!!  LOL, he is great, he loves his Lego and excels in school at Math, Leadership, Gym, and well, just about everything.  All the kids adore him as he is such a polite and caring young man.  Kieran is 2.  We could leave it at that as that explains it all...  he is funny, energetic, and quite the daredevil!  His new favorite thing (thanks to the Rasumssen girls) is jumping off our 2 steps to the playroom into some soft chairs ending in a roll hitting the couch, my heart stops every time, but good luck in stopping him!!  As for Brian & I, we are as well as ever, we have celebrated 11 years of marriage, have been in our house for 1 year now and are slowly making it ours.  We redid our bathroom, and are finally painting this month - yeah!!!  Here are some pictures from this past year!!

Could this little man be any cuter?  I think not!!

Conference Centre light show.

The flowers at Temple Square were unlike anything I've seen before, colors and varieties, it was stunning!!

These 2 are the Vernal Temple, what an amazing story this is about how it became a Temple.  It was in disrepair for so many years, falling apart until one day the Stake President received a call from the Asst. to President Hinkley the night before he showed up.  He came out with his counsellors and were discussing what they could do to this building, the Stake President had no idea what was going on until he got a phone call a while later saying we are going to turn the building into a Temple, but you cannot tell anyone, not even your wife!  So for a year they were planning and planning until finally it was announced!!  Can you imagine how hard that was for the Stake President?  Sitting on such an amazing secret and had to wait a year before you could tell anyone?  The miracles this Temple went through were amazing, I wish I could write them all down.  It was a privledge to see it, thanks Kirk!!

The Bountiful Temple was by far one of our favourite places to stop.  Not only did we get to tour the grounds by ourselves since it was closed, but we had the time to reflect at the pool and really enjoy ourselves.  What an amazing Temple!!

I love my children more than anything, and to see the joy in their eyes as they walked around the Temples, knowing what they are and what they mean to us was amazing.  They are truly the best blessings in our lives!!

This is the "Castle" Playground in West Jordan, the kids had so much fun playing here!!  This park had about 4 different playgrounds for the kids to choose from, it was a blast!! 

This Jump n' Jive in Vernal, a play place full of these inflatable jump houses... we had 3 very tired kids... and some tired adults as well.