Date night, Cub Scout and baby

     Greg gets a kick out of visiting the D.I. so after dinner with friends last weekend we stopped by the D.I. to see what we could find.

Sweet vest and a fur lined jean jacket is a true fashion statement.

      We enjoyed celebrating our niece/cousin Lexi's first birthday.

She wasn't sure about touching this cake with her bare hands but she finally got into it.

Opening a little gift from her cousins.

    Brock attended his first pack meeting as a new Wolf and he loved it.

Brock was officially welcomed into the wolf den with a little 'war' paint and being carried in on a 'spirit' stick.

     And to complete the week we got to meet our newest niece, Elsie.

She's so sweet and photos do not do her justice.

I'm so happy to finally have a new baby close by that I can love on.

        Tomorrow I've got a Webelos pow wow to attend with my Webelos group and then a couple basketball games in the afternoon for Carter and Isaac. It should be a fun Saturday.

Basketball and Big Baby

     Carter and Isaac have started a new season of basketball. Mark did not sign up for basketball because they don't have a city league for high school students but he did sign up for a club at school, skills USA and it's a media centered club. He'll be doing radio broadcasting. Brock has another year to wait before he can sign up for basketball but he's actually more interested in soccer but that sign up has come and gone so again he'll have to wait until he's in third grade for any sports.

He loves this sport!

Isaac's team played pretty well for the first game of the season but they didn't win.

     And we have found Big Baby in a couple different scenarios recently.

And here's a few cute photos of Charlie from this past week.

Kayli took her for the cupcake at Dear Lizzie's where Kayli works. And I'm in love with the black and white outfit. And of course what 2 year old doesn't have their 'margaritas' in the hallway?!

      So that's our week in a nutshell. Not a whole lot going on in the month of January. Plenty of snow and lots of time spent inside.

Brock's birthday party!

    Tomorrow Brock Garrett will officially turn 8 years old! Tomorrow is also the first day of basketball games for Carter and Isaac as well as the adult session of our semi-annual stake conference so we decided to celebrate Brock's birthday today, a day early. Brock requested a friend birthday party, which his mother reluctantly agreed to. Miraculously everyone survived and seemed to have a fun time. There was a pirate ship piñata, cake and ice cream and gifts. Brock was allowed to invite four friends and all four friends arrived on time and ready to celebrate.

Brock and four of his best buddies.

And the traditional birthday card and cash from G & G Baker all the way from Australia! (Brock says, "Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!)

Pirate themed cake.

Brock was thrilled with all these cool gifts.

Please ignore the huge mess but the garage was our only option for hitting the piñata. 

And of course we can't forget the traditional birthday balloons.

    The rest of the week has been relatively easy going for us here in Alpine but it hasn't been easy going for everyone. We had a new nephew/cousin join the family. My youngest sister, Marie had her third baby on January 12 in Oregon. Little Brigham Patrick joined the Bowlby/Baker clans on Tuesday making 24 grandkids, so far, for my parents, which is pretty exciting! Now the big question is when will all the Baker clan be together at the same time???

      Now here are a few random photos from the week. There were haircuts given to both the boys and the dog as well as some fun photos of Charlie.

Surprisingly Mark allowed me to cut his hair and it turned out ok, it's definitely better than it was before the haircut.

     I didn't take any photos of the other boys and their haircuts because they weren't quite as dramatic as Mark's but everyone looks great even the puppy got a nice short haircut.

It might be a little shorter than expected but at least we can put off another grooming session for several months.

She's always sweet when she's sleeping.

Charlie was the only girl allowed at Brock's party and she had a blast.

    For now we're all looking forward to a long weekend and are especially happy it's Stake Conference weekend so there's no classes to teach. Let's just hope the promised snow storms don't put a damper on our free time.

New room

    My bedroom redo is done, minus a few decorative touches, and I LOVE it!! I also had a cute little helper!

She's actually just cute but not much help but she tries.

So this is a photo of the floor all finished and my new drapes.

This is a photo of the cabinets above our bed painted white and my new new bedding. The mirror that you can barely see in the far right of the photo is now trimmed in white too and looks a lot better with everything else. I still have plans for a cool headboard and maybe a few other decorative things for the other walls and I also have a dream/plan for closet doors but for now I'm quite satisfied with how it's looking. 

    Now I want to focus on the basement bathroom but only after tax refunds are here. And if I get my way we'll actually hire someone to do it so it can be done quickly and without any cussing from Greg. (The cussing may be wishful thinking though.)

Big Baby!

     I'd like to introduce Charlie's new baby, Big Baby! She's a little bit creepy and a little bit smart. No one really knows what to make of her but we keep finding her in some pretty interesting situations.

Blowing up whoopee cushions, in the hallway with a note and drawing that reads, "Me and Dad" and there's two stick figures drawn with the note. And then playing Jenga with McClane's new teddy bear and Charlie's teddy bear.

Here she is trying to get a hostess cupcake out of my closet, brushing her teeth, drinking from my water bottle while watching TV and playing with Brock's R/C car.

And here she is on the kitchen counter watching more TV and drinking the rest of someone's soda.

     Aside from having a new 'baby' in the house we also had some fun celebrating Christmas and New Year's this week. We attended a fun Kmetzsch family gathering Sunday evening.

The white elephant gift exchange was a little large but fun.

McClane got a box full of t-shirts and Charlie got a tin full of snacks. Mark got a nice woman's watch and with a helpful suggestion from his Uncle Blaine, he went the next day to the store the watch came from and exchanged it for a cool man's watch worth over $100 dollars! Now that's a total score from a white elephant gift exchange. Isaac got a bag full of bubble gum, a couple kitchen towels and some jolly ranchers. Carter ended up with a small brass fox that he sold for $5 bucks to his Uncle Blaine. Brock got a Harry Potter coloring book, soap and a trophy and Kayli got a tin full of fancy pretzels.

     We also had a little car trouble Sunday after church. Thankfully we were only out a vehicle for about 24 hours and due to having two other drivers in the house with their own cars we still had transportation.

First time we've actually used our AAA!

      We also are doing a little home improvement project. I'm finally getting my bedroom repainted and new flooring installed.

From green to grey! And the wood cabinets are now white. Hopefully we'll have our bedroom back together by tomorrow night.

I'm really a fan of this laminate floor!

     And to finish off 2015 Greg took the boys on the front runner train round-trip from American Fork to Ogden, which they enjoyed.

Not a bad way to spend a cold winter afternoon.

     We also celebrated the New Year with several neighbors and had a great time.

Yummy food, good friends, fun games and fireworks!

     We also had an addition to our extended family with the birth of our niece/cousin Halle Claire Atkinson being born on December 29 in Australia! We only wish we could be there to see her in person but we're so excited that her Baker grandparents are there with her and the rest of her family. Welcome to the world Halle!

      Now here's to the New Year and whatever it may bring!