Leia Belle

Leia Belle Hamblin arrived at 12 noon on Friday, November 19th by voluntary induction. She weighed 8 lbs. 10 oz. and was 19 1/2 inches long. Now you see why I volunteered!! The labor went well and progressed very quickly. She is healthy and a little chubby. We are getting adjusted to a newborn again and I always forget how difficult it can be, but we are trying to hang in there. Jace and Jenna have been at my parent's house since Thursday and I miss them terribly. The only drawback is that Leia does not like sleeping alone at night so we have been seeing 'many moons'. Hopefully we can overcome that quickly. Here is our little cherub.

Potty Trained

It seems like they will never get out of a diaper when all of the sudden they decide to use the "big seat." Keeping with my goal to only have 1 kid in diapers at a time, Jenna had an epiphany about 2 weeks ago and she is doing awesome. Her favorite phrase is " Are you so proud of me?"  Yes, big girl- I am!!

Helping Dad

The kids will jump at the chance to help dad. Here they changing the oil in the car.

Halloween

Better late than never! Here are the kids enjoying Halloween. We scored big time at our ward Trunk-or-Treat and then hit a few friends in our neighborhood. We are already looking forward to next year and Jace already has his costumes planned for the next three years. 2011- "ghost with no feet" (haven't figured out how to pull that one off yet) 2012- monster  2013- mummy

As for Jenna, she wants to be a flower again. We'll see how long that lasts.

Another Craft Preview

The time has come again and again I ask for your input. We have a couple of craft fairs coming up in November, which I will only be making it to one-- I hope and I have a few new items and some remakes from past shows. Let me know what you think and everything is up for grabs.  These are the new items and to take a look at the remakes, revert back to March 2010 and October 2009. Those items include nativities, santa candle holders, car roll ups, magnet boards, aprons, nursing covers, felt potato heads, etc.

various vinyl signs

FHE boards

handmade cards- including Christmas cards

treat jars

word blocks- other phrases include Believe and Snow

Carving Pumpkins

Our annual FHE for carving pumpkins took place on Monday. We have somehow acquired quite a few this year from various places including preschool, primary, etc. Luckily we narrowed it down to one pumpkin to carve and everyone had a great time. Jace was the mastermind behind the chosen face, but still will not touch the insides of the pumpkin-- Jenna could care less. Enjoy!

all the rough drafts

yucky insides

our headless horseman

digging right in

fun FHE

little monsters

New Calling

After 6 weeks of  being called, Blaine was finally set apart as Elder's Quorum President last Sunday. He was getting pretty comfortable with just having the calling and not actually doing any work, but it has already kept him busy. He has a great presidency and a lot of ideas for the quorum. My only problem is that he abandoned me from the calling we shared as youth Sunday school teachers. I'm not ready to go solo!!

Half Marathon

We had the opportunity to participate in a Stake Half- Marathon last weekend. Blaine has been training for about a month and was anxious to run. The plan was for him run for the most part and then for all of us to walk together for the last little bit. The kids and I helped out at one of the stations handing out water and enjoying the brisk morning. This was were Blaine was to pick us up on his way back, but surprised us early from his estimated time. We weren't ready so he continued on and did the whole thing himself. He felt good to be done, but his body is telling him to take it easy for awhile. He estimated it would take him about 2 1/2 hours, but he crossed the finish line at 2 hrs 5 minutes. I told him a full marathon was the next step and he said only if he was getting younger and not older. But not bad for an old guy!! Great job Blaine!!



at the starting line



getting started

jace providing water for a friend who also ran

blaine and his running buddy- Jeff

crossing the finish line

congrats from the kids

still has energy for a little run with Jace and Jenna

with Jeff and Bobby-- glad its over

Jenna stretching with dad

Jace running his own little marathon

team picture

Kids Pictures

I took some pictures of the kids a couple of weeks ago. Some turned out quite cute. We took the pictures on the lawn of home. We were driving around looking for a pretty place and we found this great garden. I knocked on the door to ask permission, but no one was home but I thought they would be OK with it so I went back to the car and told the kids that we would take pictures anyway. Jace was almost beside himself. The whole time (about 5 minutes) we were taking pictures he was stressing that we shouldn't be there and the people are going to come home and see us-- which didn't happen. His first words to Blaine when he got home was, " Mom was on some grass that she wasn't supposed to." I hope this feeling sticks with him into his teenage years. Anyway here are the pics.

Star Valley

We were able to visit one of our favorite places last weekend. We headed up to Star Valley for Great Grandma Kennington's birthday and a get together with family. It turned out being a long day, but was filled with lots of fun activities and the kids loved having someone to constantly play with them. After lunch, Blaine took the kids on a hike up to the Intermittent Springs ( I hope I spelled that right). After looking at the pictures, it is a hike I would like to go on as soon as Leia is born (and my hip pops back in-- ouch). So many beautiful areas and we couldn't go without a raspberry shake in Bear Lake on the way home. Yum!



Hiking to the springs



Just have to throw some rocks

JJ at the springs- gorgeous girl!

Preschool

As someone who never went to preschool, I didn't know what to expect, but we decided to enroll Jace in preschool this year mainly because he was the only one in his Primary class who wasn't going to kindergarten and he was ready to be apart from mom a little bit. (likewise with mom). Anyway he has just thrived and has absolutely loved it. I researched a lot of preschools in our area and this one came highly recommended and I see why. It is not held in someone's home, which I like, so it is more like being at an actual school and Miss Nicole is a former grade school teacher and is still affiliated with the elementary school that Jace will be going too. I just can't say enough about her. She is awesome and Jace really likes her. He is showing interest and learning things very quickly. Just today in the grocery store I caught him singing a song of the months of the year. When I asked him about it-- he told me he learned it at preschool. Since he is always asking me what day it is and if he goes to school that day I hope the song with the days of the week comes soon

Jace w/ his teacher-- Micole as he says or otherwise known as
Miss Nicole.  She is awesome!!

Outside his preschool. It is held in the basement.

Excited to go on his first day.