Saturday, January 16, 2010

Baby Girl is Growing and the Catch-up Post (just keep scrolling!)


Above are the amazing pictures that my sister took of Miss Winter Pearl when she was 8 days old. I love them and am so grateful that she was able to take them. (Go ahead and checkout her other photography masterpieces here.) I have some serious anxiety this time around about how fast my baby is growing. I'm really trying to just soak it all up and hold her even if other things feel more pressing. The following are just a few of the pictures we've taken of our little weed over the past few weeks.


We ventured to church for the first time last week. Winter looked pretty darn cute in her new dress and accessories!


This is where she sleeps for 6-8 hours at a time every night. Mike thinks this swing looks like it will send her into orbit! I don't care, I like it anyway.

4 week old Winter


Now starts the back-blogging...

Mom and Dad got the kids a trampoline for Christmas and when they delivered it, my dad thought he was so funny making the kids think they were getting these really cool pvc pipes. Honestly, I'm sure they could have thought of some great uses for them.


This was when they saw their real gift.


After it was finally assembled, the kiddos and Mike tried it out in the dark.


We took our parents to see White Christmas for their Christmas gift this year. It was a super fun evening and the girls are still singing the tunes.


We picked out the perfect tree that was only crispy the second half of December :(


We celebrated my birthday at Ensign Ranch with all of my dad's family. My cake said happy birthday Princess Crystal, which my brothers really got a kick out of.


Aunt Becky provided hours of crafting. The little girls were on cloud nine.


Asher and Ryry kickin' back with a good book.


Halle and Gracie performed a little impromptu Christmas recital for the whole group. I used to love to do the same things with my cousins when I was their age. Except we gave out tickets to our shows!


It snowed our last night at the ranch. I think my kids were pretty excited.


I love this picture of Asher getting all of his great aunts to play ring around the rosie with him.


When we got home from the trip we all took a little nap. The girls opted for a quiet time instead. When we woke up, we couldn't find them anywhere. Mike was really starting to freak out when I discovered them sleeping tightly in soon to be baby's closet with the doors closed.


We attended the annual Fire Department Christmas party, which has been a tradition since I was 8 years old. Santa loves to tell my kids that I used to sit on his lap when I was little.


My niece, Kendal was in rare form that night, but was content hanging out on the concrete floor of the station.


Halle also played in her second piano recital. She played Up on the Housetop and Away in a Manger. She did awesome!


My crazy kids the Sunday before Christmas (posing next to our crispy, yet beautiful Christmas tree).


We ventured back to Ensign Ranch on Dec. 16th (yes, two days before Winter was born) for my family Christmas celebration. As tradition has it, we acted out the nativity and of course I got to be Mary.


The kids all got costumes and had a blast dressing-up the rest of the weekend. This picture of our army boys cracks me up. They look like the 3 stooges reporting for duty!


It wouldn't seem like Christmas without some fun in the snow. Does anyone else have grown brothers who still wrestle? This was Dustin and Jeremy seeking revenge on Mike.


My three "little" brothers.


My last preggo pictures, the day before we went to have Winter.

Mike had off the 23rd thru Jan. 4th which made for an awesome Christmas break. Honestly, between having a sweet newborn and having my hubby home for so long, I couldn't have asked for anything more. He took the kids to Christmas Village where they enjoyed a train ride.


We made snicker trains before Christmas. Halle hearts Bing Crosby ever since we saw White Christmas.



Asher ate most of his ingredients in the construction phase of this project.


We spent Christmas Eve with Mike's parents. Aren't they a good looking group of shepherds? (BTW, that's one of the sister missionaries sitting next to Mike, holding Winter.)


After opening Christmas jammies, Halle got everything set for Santa. Click on the picture to read her special signs/notes.


I think she wanted Santa to leave his dirty "dishes" as evidence that he actually came and enjoyed the treats. I love that girl.


Sisters


Christmas morning! Halle had asked if they could get up at 8 AM, which I told her was a great plan. She then said if she woke up early, she would just read a book until it was time. And they really did stay in bed until 8. Again, love her.


The aftermath. We didn't bother with still pictures while opening presents.


1 week old Winter
The whole day was simply exhausting for her.


Our friends, the Yeates, came to visit a couple weeks ago. They had a baby boy two weeks before Winter was born.


Freddy and Halle with matching smiles.


Ali and Haven


Asher and Henry


The whole gang which has doubled in size since we started hanging out in dental school! We love you, Yeates family!


Catherine and Aunt Marge (aka Ciera) made Winter a box full of beautiful flowers to wear on her sweet little head. We all love them, but the girls have been particularly fascinated by them.


One of Mike's projects over the break was to build a loft bed for Haven. For FHE last week, we all helped sand the wood. Don't worry, everyone was provided with eye protection. After pictures of our completed project to come.


I wore a mask when I spray painted the bed today, but some how I still ended up with paint on the sides of my nose and upper lip. Click to enlarge.

And now, I think I'm finally caught up. See, we really were alive in November and December!

14 comments:

KellyAnne said...

I love these pictures! Love the baby pics, the sister pics, pretty much all of the pics. What a cute cute bunch! You need to send the kids over to play some time soon! :)

d.c.r.k.soptich said...

I love love love her fuzzy red hair! She is growing up so fast, but it is good becuase I cannot wait to squish her chubby cheeks :) And ps- Your cute sister in Law, Ciera made some extra special flowers too, thank you very much!

Jenna Marin said...

You big weirdo! That last picture is a bit creepy. I do loooooove your long flowing locks though!!! Very cool. This post has made me so happy... and sad! I can't believe how big the kids are getting!! This just made me miss them ten times more. Winter is so blasted cute! I love her squished face in the first pictures! Everything looks like a blast. I'm so glad you had an excellent November and December! You had better get crackin on the January post ;)

Linda said...

WOW you have been so busy! I loved seeing all the pictures. The pictures Sarah took are adorable!

merideth said...

wow awesome update. that baby is so stinkin cute. i love all of the photos.
i love that one of winter in her church dress. so cute.

can't wait to see the bed.

Lee and Carrie Soptich said...

Crystal - great job! Love all the pictures. Love the one of the "little" brothers, your kids with their "mink stolls" on by the Christmas tree, your kids' "sisters" picture, Asher's face by his non-existant snicker bar train, the army boys, and on and on! Aren't families great? ")

Place Family said...

Love the pictures Sarah took. Winter is lovely for sure.

cat said...

WHAT??? where is my comment. i was the first one to post. dang that blogger.
winter is SO BEAUTIFUL!
it was so fun (as always) to see you guys. love the fact that we already have 4 sets of kids that can marry each other! hehe.
when are we going on a date?

cat said...

oh yeah! how does the crib look?

Melanie said...

So fun to see all the pictures and read the family update. Winter is soooo cute...I can't wait to see the bed that Mike is making, impressive...and yes, Brandon comes from a family of five boys and they STILL wrestle!!!

Jessica said...

You look amazing for just popping out a {beautiful} baby! I still want to be you when I grow up.

My parents say Congratulations! I told them about little Winter.

Jill said...

Winter is so dang cute!! Girl's are just too much fun.
And no I don't have any great idea's for PP. I need to call a specialist or dedicate more time myself to figuring out how to make PP work better. However, one thing I am thinking of is the supplemental handout that comes with the lesson manual each week talks about the lesson and then gives a suggestion on how to tie that in to personal progress and make them ponder on it more...so I want to try and use that somehow and talk about things weekly!! (I had never really noticed that before, but maybe you have!?)

fünf said...

I want to eat your baby.

Tara said...

She is so gorgeous. What a fun Holiday season you had. Looks like havign a baby didn't slow you down a bit. Miss you all.