Christmas party invite.

I try to have an adult only holiday party every year. With a move and a baby I haven't gotten the word out to everyone I am sure of it. I delivered some invites, but never finished (bad me). I told some people as I saw them. So if you haven't heard of it, doesn't mean you aren't invited. It is not an exclusive event. It is my way to say thank you for being a part of our lives. We are so blessed to be surrounded by such wonderful friends, and we love and appreciate you all so much. So excuse my disorganization and last minuteness. If you are a friend, you will know that is just how we roll, and forgive me. So here is the info...

Friday December 18th, 7pm

bring a white elephant gift per person, and your holiday cheer.

Oh and please let me know if you are coming, so I have enough food.

Hope you can come!

Leah + Ammon=true love

Look how little man is chunking up?

I really think a sleeping baby is the most beautiful thing on earth. I never tire of just staring at him as he sleeps. I love to put my face up really close to his as I snuggle and rock him so I can feel his warm sweet baby breath on my face. Are you baby hungry yet?

P.S. To my sisters KElly and Nicole who both want a baby of their own to snuggle- Lizzie has had two fast sundays since she has turned 8, and really fasted both times. When I asked her the first time what she fasted about she said, "That Kelly and Nicole will have babies." Last week when we fasted she asked me if it was OK if she fasted for the same thing again. So cute. I am praying too, but I think Lizzie's may be more effective. She prayed Ammon here.

one month old.

Babykins is one month old today. Happy Birthday little man.

zee kitchen (in my best french accent)

So here is the finished kitchen, and I love it! It turned out exactly how I envisioned it. The whole hold up on moving to this house was because the finisher for the cabinets couldn't get the finish right for the cabinets. We finally got someone else and he got it the first try. Let me show you around.
I am so in love with these wood floors. They are a hand scraped maple (in answer to your question Mandee) with a black antique rub. They tie together so beautifully the cabinets. There is a brown rub on both colors that comes through.

The island turned out so great! I ended up pulling in two different colors of granite. I fell in love with this black slab at the warehouse and it looked really cool with my other choice. You always worry because you are hoping it will look good when installed and with everything else. I am glad that I didn't chicken out on this idea. I love it!

I was going to a very small pantry in this house, so I had them build another pantry in the butlers area. It turned out awesome. There are all roll out shelves on the bottom and huge cabinets on top. Delightful.

i love the movement in the granite. Beautiful.
I am so proud of the deal I got on my farm sink. I really wanted this sink but it was like $2500 dollars! Yikes. I just had this feeling one day to check Craig's list. I thought what are the chances of this exact sink being listed and in my area. But, I looked anyway because I learned long ago to follow those promptings. Low and behold a black kohler huge farm sink had just been listed 20 minutes before I checked and I ended up getting it for $250!!! So despite what Dave thinks, Heavenly Father does care about the little things that will make us happy in life. And yes, a black farm kitchen sink makes this mamma's heart fill with joy as she washes her dishes. But really, isn't that cool that Heavenly Father does care. He said to pray about everything, and He would answer. smile.

This is another one of my delights. I have always wanted a huge round table. Thank you DAve (and Potato Barn). I had a good excuse to get a new table. Our other table didn't match and the shape of it would be too big for the space.

Then, when I saw these chairs at Razmataz, be still my heart. Have you ever seen such cool chairs/ benches? Me either. Natalie pointed out that I have a serious chair fetish. I didn't realize it until she pointed it out and then I counted how many chairs I have in my house. Let alone the ones I am not using out in the garage. Anyone care to guess? I should give a prize to the one who guesses right.

The kitchen has lots of other fun things that I are so cool. Like this rack for the pans.

A spice drawer, and all of the drawers are self closing. The other thing that I was excited about is I got all of my appliances for like half the price. They just happened to be selling the floor model on some, and than Lowes made mistakes in my order and made it up to me by giving me top of the line stuff for cheap. So while this whole kitchen ordeal was quite the nightmare. I ended up getting more for a lot less because of all of the hassles. So in the end, all that extra stress was worth it. Right?

So there it is. The kitchen unveiled. What do you think?

oh and here is the view while standing at the sink. I need to get things up on the walls and I will be done. At least with downstairs. Upstairs is still a nightmare. I have a few weeks to get it together before my family comes for Ammon's blessing day. I have been decorating for Christmas and it is looking so cozy around here.

Thanksgiving memories

The days activities included football playing at 7am in the turkey bowl for Jacob and Dave. The girls cozied and watched the parade and made cinnamon rolls. Watching "Elf" and preparing the turkey. I still laugh out loud all the way through that movie. One of my absolute favorites. The Riddle Family came over for dinner, we have 12 kids between the two families. Lots of fast talking and laughing was involved. smile. My new dining room. I don't have things up on the wall yet. The mirror was hung that morning. (cut me some slack. smile.)Crazy kids in the kitchen.

crazy kids everywhere.
the delicious viddles. Hey, we had viddles with the Riddles. ha ha. Yah, my sense of humor is that stupid. Hence, my loving the movie Elf. smile.

I got the thumbs up from Rachel. We are really liking each other lately. We hung out all weekend watching cozy movies like "Wuthering Heights" and eating oreos. The men went hunting for elk. That's another story. All the hype and the purchase of two big guns and the only elk they saw the whole trip was as they were driving home at night they passed one by the side of the road. too funny.

Maybe it is because they drank too much on Thursday. ha ha. Jacob is seriously obsessed with sparkling apple cider. He was hogging it all!! how rude. ha Isn't Amy pretty?

Ammon was the best dessert on the menu. He smells and tastes delicious.

Rebecca was so proud of the family home evening lesson that she gave for Thanksgiving. She had us write what we were thankful for on the leaves and glue them on. Top on the list were family, home and gospel of Jesus Christ. We are truly blessed.

Now onto decorating for Christmas!!!

2 weeks old.

It cracks me up how a baby can just be crying like it is the end of the world, then.....

You pick them up and it is as if nothing ever happened. I totally understand since I still behave like this. right dave? smile.

It's his first "LOOK" I don't know if it looks more like Le Tigre or Magnum.

Ammon loves his mama (as all little boys should).

One word..... yummy.

smiles in their sleep are the best.

Ammon lookin buck.

I went to go see New moon (which was quite delightful) and I left Ammon at home. I was very anxious to get back to him. I nuzzled up to him, gave him lots of smooches and whispered in his ear that he is so much better than Edward. smile. Are you jealous DAve?

Well, it is Thanksgiving eve. I am looking forward to a cozy day at home tomorrow with the smell of turkey filling the house. My heart is filled with feelings of gratitude for my many many blessings. Hope yours is too.

I am so in love!!!

Ammon Joseph Ives

born November 6, 2009

3:15 pm

weighing 8 lbs. 12 oz.

2o inches long

Can you even imagine my complete joy that this precious little boy is mine? That he arrived safely, and is healthy. And of course the cutest little boy on earth. smile. I forgot how intense the feelings of love are for a new baby. They are such a miracle! I can't believe that I made this perfect little boy. It is absolutely impossible to doubt there is a God and a plan in all this when you hold a new baby in your arms. The spirit they bring to this earth is so strong and pure. So let's get down to the details. Sorry this has been so long in coming. I think I have a good excuse. We moved the whole week before I had the baby. Only about a 1/2 mile away. We didn't have phones or computers hooked up for some time and I couldn't find my cell phone recharger amongst all the boxes. AHHH! Let's just say things were pretty busy. Every night I couldn't believe that I didn't go into labor with all the work and stress. I didn't want to. There was too much to still do. So, I was blessed. Blessed to be able to have the energy to get up every day and blessed with wonderful friends to help. I can't believe really how smoothly it all went. Our new house had quite a bit of remodeling work to be done. It was being done up to the last minute. We are still doing things. More on that later (and pics!). My sister Gloria came on Tues. November 3rd. She was so awesome! She helped get all the last minute things done (like unpacking kids clothes for one. ugh). Plus, just so fun to have her love and support. I was induced Friday morning. They broke my water around 12:30 and Ammon was here at 3:15pm. I had some complications with my epidural. I had two initially and than another to do a blood patch for a spinal headache. Yes, it was a nightmare and I have had a rough recovery. That's what happens when you are an old lady. I have never had to have people stay overnight with me at the hospital to help before. Glor stayed with me the first night while Dave took the kids to the ward camp out. ha. Than Glor had to fly home on Saturday. Very sad. I ended up being in the hospital until Monday night. Dave luckily had paternity leave (10 days) woo hoo! Something new the air force offers. He asked if it is retro active and he can get ten days per each past kid. ha, no such luck. He has been busy taking care of everything, as well as moving things over still and unpacking. Such a good boy that Dave is.
So here I am before they got to work hooking me up to machines. When I saw this picture I thought of Eve eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. How appropriate, since why I was there was because of her decision. I don't think that Eve really understood what motherhood truly entailed when she chose to eat that fruit. I don't think she understood what God meant when he said that He would multiply her sorrow in conception. Let me give you a visual description.Yes, it is quite brutal. But I appreciate Eve's decision despite the suffering involved in child birth. Because of her I can be a mother and know true joy!This is my absolute favorite thing in the world. A soft, cozy, yummy smelling little baby all snuggled up to my face like this. I just can't get enough. Those first few days are so amazing despite the pain of recovery. I can't stop looking at him. It seems so unreal that they are truly yours. What a gift Ammon is to our family. They best gift ever. DAve and I are so so in love with him. I can hardly share him with the kids. I can't stand being away from him. It feels like we are young again and he is our first baby, and I have all the time in the world to just enjoy him. It has been so wonderful.

I normally am not a big chocolate fan. I have been craving it so much for the past two weeks. Thanks Christine for the brownies in the hospital. yummy. Ammon and I enjoyed them. smile.
So here is Ammon right after his first bath and under the heater. He is has such a calm and peaceful spirit. He is the sweetest little thing. Here is Ammon enjoying time with his Dad.







so sweet.

Aunt Gloria fell in love too. What's not to love. smile.Most of the time in the hospital I was in alot of back and neck pain. Thank heavens for muscle relaxers, perkeset (spell?) and Ibuprofen. AHHHH modern medicine.ha. Dave and I laughed how the nurse wrote down "getting rid of neck pain" for my daily goal.

On my last day I forced myself to get up and take some pictures. It about killed me but I am so glad I did.

His feet were still stained black from the ink.Just because I thought this was a cool picture.

Who doesn't love the baby sad face? So dang cute.Ready to go home all dressed up in his elf outfit.

He already looks so different. I hate how fast they change. I want him to stay small forever.

Here is a video right after he was born. His first cry. Yes, it does show his private parts, and yes they are swollen. ha. And what the heck. What happened to safety first. He is laying on a pair of scissors. And have you ever been complimented on your cord before? I thought that kinda weird. ha.

So there you have it everyone who has been giving me grief about not having pictures available. Now, back to my sweet baby. ooh, i already miss him.