happy birthday mom!

6 weeks

So I'm sorry I keep posting pictures. She just keeps changing. She's 6 weeks today and we've gotten a few smiles from her. It's fun to have her personality start to show! 15 days till Christmas...and just a few more till we come to visit...we're so excited!

Love you all...

Kim

Dance family happenings

Well, since I am not so good at keeping in touch on the phone regularly I'm updating you guys the best way I can in between feedings and carpools and everything.

It's been quite an exciting week for us...first of all Tom bought me a minivan. I love it! it's so roomy and just so nice to have a car we fit well in and I can drive other kids in.

It snowed here! We got about 3 inches first, then 2 days later woke up to another 6. The boys play outside for hours. It's been great!

Another thing that happened this week is quite bittersweet. Tom's partner found out he has a bulging disk on his spine (by his neck) and has to have surgery this wednesday. He will be out for a full month and then coming back slowly in January. What does this mean for us? Tom is working all of December (with the exception of Christmas/New Years) and all of January. It's a slow time of year still, but he was originally scheduled to work only 4 days the whole month of December. We feel terrible for his partner, but just glad we are here so he didn't have to shut down the office for 2 months. Tom has to fly back new years evening now to work on the 2nd, but that is fine with us...after such a slow start here, we'll take all the work we can get!

So that's about it. We're counting down the days till Christmas!

3 weeks old...

Here are a few pictures of our sweet baby Jane. I wish you could all see her and hold her right now! She is so cute! She is waking up a ton and she's so bright eyed. We can't wait for her to smile. She already does in her sleep or in that "sleep/wake" phase, and it is so adorable. She'll be so big by Christmas, but by then she'll be laughing at you all so that'll be fun too!

Christmas 2007

So I got the camel head...basically I'm in charge this year. So this is how it is going to go...

* Everyone is going to be involved, including Mariana (I think...I haven't talked to her yet...anyone have her phone number so I can call and confirm?).
* We will do the gift exchange after christmas. Probably on the 28th or 29th of December when everyone is in town together.
* You will be giving a FAMILY gift. If you have someone with kids like my family, you can gear it towards the kids if you want, or just something nice for Tom and I, or something the whole family would like. Since it is after Christmas, let's not worry about "getting" more presents so don't do individual things (ie: a shirt for Tom, lotion for Kim, a game for Cameron, and a car for Braden). Let's keep it simple and thoughtful. This should not be a stressful time of year...so don't make it stressful! Last year Christian gave our family the Harry Potter series and we have enjoyed it a TON!!! It was a great idea! Thanks Chris!
* As far as price goes, let's keep it $40-$50.

I need everyone to email me with the following information:
Who did you give to the last 2 years. I know we were on a "schedule" a few years back but now we aren't and I want to make sure you aren't always giving to the same people. So rack your brain and get back to me. As soon as i hear from everyone, I'll juggle around names and give everyone an assignment. Also, if you have any "requests" (you have a GREAT idea for a certain person/family and you really want to give to them), let me know and i will TRY to accomodate. The key word is TRY!

I'm really excited for Christmas and more excited to see everyone after Christmas! Since I'm on the bandwagon right now I have a few other ideas about our get together. Since I'm the "guest" in Vegas this can get over-rided by you guys but what about if we all take a night to cook dinner (or pick-up dinner). Each "house" can take a night and the people there help out. We could do a Taco night, a pizza night, and a soup night for example. Then we can get babysitters one night and all go out to Cheescake Factory. Then people hosting don't feel like they have to cook every night.

Anyways, we are so excited! Oh, and don't forget the big event on December 31st...Tom's birthday!!! You guys have never been able to celebrate with us so I'm really excited to party harty! No gifts please, just white elephants. So between now and then, try to find (literally in your garage?) something you think tom would "treasure" and that we can all get a good laugh out of. You are all creative!

Swimming Hole

For those of you who haven't been able to see it in person!

Jack-O-Lanterns

Okay, so I finally got a new camera so that I can actually take and post pictures when I want to rather than just when my camera happens to work.
Here are the kids' jack-o-lanterns. I had to take pictures, otherwise we would have been the only ones to see them. (Since we have no neighbors or trick-or-treaters).

Baby Janie

So here are a few more pictures of baby Jane. Pictures really don't do justice. But that is coming from a biased mom!

Halloween

Big Party!!!

This is the big party I threw for Jeff for passing the bar. Kate and Zelma came over and helped me with all the decorations, including the 150+ helium balloons. It was really great and we all had such a fun time. So glad that stress is over!

The First Day of School in Las Vegas

Everyone at Chuck E Cheese for Simon's Birthday

More A.G.

I'm just getting caught up on posting pictures. I finally downloaded all the pics from my camera, all 189 of them, and found some to post. I hope I'm doing this right. The first is right before we left NY and went to the Scacred Grove with Grandma Edie. The othes were from Aspen Grove. Don't worry, I'm not done yet!

Trunk or Treat

Baby Sister

the Carseat

I know this isn't as exciting as pictures of the baby, but here's the carseat mom made. Cute, huh?

Jane Ashely Dance

So our little angel was born last night at 9:59pm. She was 6 lbs 7 oz and 19 1/2 inches. I can't wait for you all to see her. Pictures don't ever do justice. She is so sweet!

less than 24 hours...

So as you all know, tomorrow is the big day. I'm really excited/nervous/anxious. My doctor perscribed me some ambien to sleep. I went in on Friday and basically broke down and balled to the nurse and then to him. I was SO tired b/c every day this week I've woken up between 4:30-5:00am and can't get back to sleep...must be anxiety or something. Plus the worrying that she's moving, etc. I'm fine now, just tired (but that won't change, right!). Mom is here and we've been making me a new car seat cover. I'll post a picture later when we are done. When I'm done with it, I'm sending it to anyone who has a baby girl in need of an infant car seat cover! It's too much work to not be used again! Mom even re-created the canopy!
Pictures will be coming soon (of the baby that is!)!!!!

Post some news people.

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

Lincoln & Makenna's preschool went to a pumpkin patch. After a 1/2 mile hike we got to the south end of the pumpkin patch. All we could find were little yellow pumpkins, or bigger green pumpkins (they looked like zucchini)! Finally someone made it to the North end of the patch and found a bunch of good sized orange pumpkins. So we all walked to the complete other end of the patch and got our big pumpkins! Smart thinking! Now we had a bad pumpkin to adult ratio. At one point Whitney was carrying two big pumpkins, Bond and Marlyn were both carrying theirs, and Makenna and Lincoln were trading off carrying one in a backpack, while I was also carrying two. So I was carrying Reagan on my back and a pumpkin in each arm ( I am sure that I looked like a complete lunatic) and sure enough I tell Lincoln to hurry and catch up, and he trips and gashes his head open, and was bleeding like a blood donor! It was a mess. Reagan was having much sympathy for her brother and started crying as well. It was memorable to say the least! Thanks for your help Whitney! I probably would have started crying too if you hadn't been there to help.

P.S. Thanks to Rachelle, McKinley was hanging out at her house instead of crying on my hip too!

Spiderman Saves Baby!

Lincoln is so good about always wanted to hold McKinley. He is so curious to see how much she has grown every single day!

Hanging In There!

McKinley was a good little girl. She was pretty entertained with my keys most of the time.

Climbers!

Even when they seemed a little freaked out at the height, they kept climbing. Reagan would pass Lincoln, then Lincoln would climb a little higher, then Reagan would climb a little higher, and on and on! Since I had McKinley in my sling, Megan had to be the kid chaser up the rocks.

Funny Kids!

Something Strange In The Dirt.

I just thought this was a cute picture.

Red Rock Canyon

The kids had a great time hiking around Red Rock Canyon. They were real troopers.

3 Amigos

Having a good time together! 15 pictures, not one has them all smiling together.

Friends At Last!

They get into a lot of trouble together, but they also have a lot of fun!

For Kate...

So Katie wanted me to post a "belly shot" and since i don't ever take any of those, I thought she was out of luck. Then, my friend lizzy threw me a shower and took this one. You can see the belly...getting HUGE now. But besides that, check out that cute dress. The picture doesn't do justice. It is so cute...a size 2T and I know she'll not ever want to take it off! I had about 8 girls come to my shower...small but nice. My friend Lizzy made dinner and we had a great time. I got some darling pink stuff...most of which I exchanged for bigger sizes since I'm okay in the 0-12 month department. But now I feel like I have a few cute things for her when she's one!

From Carmel to Chalk

Seconds after rescuing my pretzel stuff.... I see McKinley crawling around with a piece of chalk in her mouth. She dropped it before I could take the picture, but you can see it in her hand. I decided it was probably non-toxic so I didn't have to call poison control.

What is that?

Anyone have a guess? Yep, your right. It is a 1.2 lbs of Carmel. I had it on the counter with the half pound of white chocolate ready to make yummy pretzels. I went to change McKinley's diaper and came outside to check on my oh so quiet 2year old and found her sitting on Lincoln's skateboard like this. As soon as she saw me she said "Yummy Mommy" and offered me some. At first it didn't sink in, I didn't know what she was eating. I thought it was a loaf of bread, but then I realized I didn't HAVE a loaf of bread. Once I saw the white chocolate I realized she had heisted my ingredients. She is so crazy! By the time I got the camera she must have known that I was going to take both of her treats away, so she was desperately tearing at the white chocolate trying to open the package to get a chunk. But she wasn't fast enough!

Vanilla Sugar

I bought a new sugar canister and I'm making the vanilla sugar. I guess it takes a couple of weeks, so I'll let you know how it turns out!

Our Adoption Profile

Finally, we got this done! The original file was huge--80 megs. So we shrunk it, and you can't read everything. Probably better that way :)