The Purpose of the Christmas Card

So I've been thinking about the reason for Christmas cards. I know that I love getting them and staring at the pictures and seeing how cute (or not so cute) the people look. Honestly I don't think it matters if I even know the people in the card. I just like looking at them.

So it brings me to my point (well not really). Do we really send out Christmas cards to keep people updated or do we do it to brag. Should we really call them "Look how great I can make my life look cards"... I know that when I write up our family letter this week. I will probably improve the truth a little by saying things like:

• Paige is "Spirited" (that really means that she always wants her way)
• Tommy is "adventurous" (which translates into he sticks many unknown objects up his nose to see how far they will go)
• Kelly is growing into a "little lady" (that means that she now thinks she doesn't have to ask her parents before doing ANYTHING. Including drawing on furniture and taking mommy's makeup.
• Preston keeps us on our toes: (obviously this means that since he keeps us on our toes we are not sleeping)

So now that I have confessed how not perfect my life is, I have to follow it with the obviously cheesy but true statement: I wouldn't change it.

Yes I know how corny and sappy that sounds, but it is the Christmas season and you do really sit back and think about the bigger picture. Life is not easy right now at the Wehrmeister House, but it is the one we signed up for and we take full responsibility for it and we wouldn't change it. Our children are not perfect, but we keep them around because they are our reminders.

• They remind us that kids grow up too quickly and we can't keep waiting for them to "outgrow" a phase
• They remind us that it is inappropriate to tell women that they "look like they have a baby in their tummy"
• They remind us that there is something miraculous about a smile. Whether you are the giver or the reciever, it is undeniable the power that a smile has.
• They remind us that there is something special about 3:30 in the morning. I still haven't figured out what it is yet, but I have a feeling that Preston is going to keep waking me up at that time until I get it.

Blessing Preston

So today was wonderful! We got to bless our beautiful baby boy at church. There isn't really much to add besides that. We had a great time with all of our family with us.

After the Blessing

Grampy and the kiddos!!

This is Adam and Tommy's mean face. Tommy's isn't mean enough.

I guess this would be Santa's little helper.

Cutie Kelly

These are Monkey ears, but they look more like Bear ears.

Fall's here!

So as the days have been passing it has become very apparent that we are running out of time to play in the leaves. It seems to be getting colder all the time and nobody likes to play in the leaves once they are nice and soggy. Sooo... I finally got them all out there to play. Of course part of my reasoning was to get some good pics for their scrapbooks. (I told Paige that everybody wears overalls when they play in the leaves. It's kind of like a rule.)

Paige and Tommy were having the most fun in the leaves. Kelly... not so much. She liked it at the beginning, but then she wanted to play tag, and noone wanted to play with her.

Little Preston in a wagon. He is now one month old.

Tommy decided to take Preston for a walk.

So I know it's not the best picture, but it was a one shot kind of deal. The girls were cooperating so well, and I finally got Tommy to run over and lay down for a moment. Then he jumped up grabbed more leaves and ran off again. Sooo... This is it

Tommy seemed at home in the leaves. He loved rolling around and throwing them. Maybe he thinks he is a squirrell.

Modern Day Tooth Fairy

Really, Need I say more?

Happy Halloween!!

So our Halloween went really well. Adam went out with the monsters and I stayed back with baby Preston. We were in charge of handing out all the candy.

Of course before I let them leave I made them take about 50 pictures. It was taking a long time to get good ones so I started bribing them with candy. We eventually got some good pictures. I still don't think I have one where they are all looking at me, but I can't have it all I guess.

Here we are outside the townhouse by a tree. I tried taking pictures on the otherside of the tree, but Tommy was too interested with turning around, so I had to change my shot.

This picture makes me laugh. Kelly looks adorable and then you notice the little frog in the corner. I mean it I couldn't get Tommy out of the tree... maybe he was a tree frog.

Here is baby Preston. The costume he had on kept him really warm. He was very comfortable in it.

I would say Peek-A-Boo! and he would poke his head through the tree. I was just happy to finally get him to look at the camera.

Here is our scary Purple dragon Paige. Originally we had wanted her to be the wicked witch, since Kelly was Dorothy. She thought it was a great idea at first, but then our neighbor told her that she would have to have green skin for the night and she changed her mind fast... Well untill 10 minutes before they were supposed to go Trick-or-Treating. When I was putting her costume on her she looked at me and said, "Mom, I changed my mind. I'd like to be a witch for Halloween." It was a very Paige moment.

So here I am with Preston. He was great during Trick-or-Treating. He just slept in my arms the whole time.

Is he getting any bigger?

So paranoid Jen (that's me), sits and stares at Preston everyday to see if he looks any bigger. I wasn't sure at first, but he finally is starting to look like he is growing. What do you think?

Okay here he is still in the hospital. Not my favorite pic, but it'll do.

This pic had to be when he was about a week old. He doesn't look any bigger yet. But then again maybe I was looking for drastic changes. (he's only a week and I've already set super high expectations... my poor children)

A week and a half here. Not much bigger (if any) but he is looking more alert.

Here is 2 weeks. It looks like he shrunk to me, but that's with my crazy mom eyes on. (Did you know I even took him outside to ask my friends if he looked any bigger.)

This picture was from yesterday (2.5 weeks), and he is finally starting to look bigger to me. See I know I'm crazy, but at least I admit it.

Okay we can stop operation "Is he growing"

Homeward Bound

So we survived the hospital and are now off to see if we can make it on our own. Or to see if Preston can survive being around his siblings 24/7. Hopefully we have success all around, but only time will tell.

Practically Perfect in every way

Today we finally got to meet our precious new baby. He arrived at 8:58 am on Friday, October 12th. We were hoping that he would weigh at least 9 lbs, but he only made it to 8lbs 12 oz and19 inches long. (We'll keep him anyway) . Preston came out kind of crooked. I didn't know that when you had a c-section, the baby could get stuck. But Preston did. If anyone wants to see pictures of my stomach cut open with half a baby stuck, let me know and I'll send it to you. I just really don't want to post it here (even though it was one of my finer moments). The Dr. thought he might have hurt Preston's hips, but he was wrong.

Preston Joseph "brand spankin new"

I laugh at this picture, because to me it looks like he is trying to cover his ears, which doesn't make much sense, because Preston was the one that wouldn't stop crying after he came out.

Mom, Dad and baby Preston It's probably one of my better pictures

We think he is quite cute!

Mom and Preston (I think I should be yawning too!)

Red Barn Farmin' It

These are just some pictures that we took at the Red Barn Farm. Our ward has an activity there every year. The kids had a great time, there are animals to pet, pumpkins to pick, a hay ride, and a corn maze. It's definatly enough to keep us busy for several hours.

We were quite surprised that we didn't lose any of our monsters.

Here are the girls with some pumkins. I'm sure Tommy was supposed to be in the picture, but he probably found the animals, before I took the pic.

How do you get all your children to sit still? Give them a lollipop!

Here we are on the HayRide... and nobody fell off.

I have to say, I am very happy that my children like each other. I can see that my life would be much harder if they fought alot.

At the end of the night we had smores. Paige and Tommy made a great team. Paige's favorite part was the marshmallows and Tommy liked the cookies.

If you can't tell, Tommy has 4 cookies in this picture and he is eating it like a cookie sandwich*

*My disclaimer is that I am a good mother and I did not let him eat the WHOLE cookie sandwich. He only could handle a few bites and then he handed it off, but it did make a cute picture of him.

The Day before Kindergarten

So you are the mother of an almost kindergartener.... What should you do? Eat your sorrows away!! It's the day before kindergarten started and we thought we should go and celebrate Kelly starting kindergarten. The monsters decided that they wanted ice cream and we couldn't argue with that idea. We got to Haagen Dazs and started going over our choices. (In the future we will probably limit their "choices" to 2). Kelly tried a couple and quickly made her selection. Paige on the other hand was very Paige like. She wanted "Banila", but after seeing all the other options changed her mind. She tried several taking her time licking the spoon and making sure that not a drop went wasted. After trying many flavors she came to the decision that "Banila" was still the best. Boring to many, but not Paige monster. Luckily Tommy didn't get a choice, he had chocolate. Kelly tried really hard to keep her clothes clean. Obviously her face was a mess, but it was nice to have at least one child that didn't need hosed down. It was fun to watch Paige eat her ice cream. She tried to stay clean, but didn't have much luck. She did find a way though to lick out most of her ice cream while barely touching her cone (Which we paid extra for!) She then handed Daddy the empty cone and said she was done. Little needs to be said about this picture I guess. Tommy decided shortly after recieving his ice cream, that a spoon was a waste of time. He just stuck his face in his cup and proceeded to lick it out like a doggy would. When the ice cream melted enough he would just drink it.