Mountain View is the place to BE!

Thanks so much to the wonderful family and friends that stopped by to meet our favorite newborn. We appreciate your support!

Our sister-in-law Des and her boys Porter and Logan.

Curt's sister Cindy.

Our nephew Andrew and our brother-in-law Tim

Grandma and Grandpa Stegelmeier. Hailee was helping.

Aunt Christina and Trudy.

Grandma Lorelie and Aunt Roni.

Grandpa Layne.

Uncle AJ

Grandma Lori and Grandpa Jack.

Our nephew Logan (Christine's 1 week old baby) and his parents came to visit.

This weekend, Mountain View was the place to be! Carter had a lot of visitors coming to give him hugs and kisses. I can't blame any of them, because he is really so adorable. We love him!

Little Brother Carter

Hailee loves to hold and cuddle little brother.

He is definately spoiled with kisses around her!

These are the most amazing things in our lives.

We are SO BLESSED to have such loving and beautiful children!

Playing.

Hailee is growing up so much these days. She has personality complete with attitude. We are pretty proud parents and love to watch her learn new things.

Our favorite these days include her "Move It" dance. It is the dance that Alex the Lion does on Madagascar. I WILL get it on video and post it because it is really adorable.

She is also singing all kinds of songs. Her favorites include the "ABC's," "Mr. Alligator," "Twinkle, Twinkle," "Rock-a-bye-Baby," and "Popcorn Popping."

She takes long baths where she makes birthday cakes, has tea parties, and cooks dinner. She is getting so good at picking up her toys.

She loves Tinkerbell, all of the Princesses, and Westerns. She quotes from the movies and books all the time.

She is a great little artist. She draws and takes notes all the time. She loves coming to my classroom and drawing me pictures on the board. She loves to find out people's favorite colors so she can draw them a picture. She gets upset when you take her "homework" off of the fridge, even though it has been there FOREVER!

She also loves to play outside making snow angels, riding in the sled, chasing the animals around, and eating snow. She is able to have more fun this year than before. She can actually function within all of the fluff we cover her with!

Basically she is our princess! We adore her!

She is going to be the BEST big sister ever. She is already so helpful and loving with her baby brother and he isn't even here yet. I am sure there will be a transition period, but I am certain she will be GREAT!

Our little guy is pretty lucky to have a fun and loving sister like Hailee to grow up with!

Christmas Morning

We had such a great Christmas this year! I loved spending time with so much family. I was especially glad to have Curt home! He came home the weekend before Christmas and I loved it!

My mom came and spent the week before Christmas watching Hailee and hanging out with us. Hailee loved having so much time to play with her Grandma.

Christmas weekend, Curt's sisters and their families came to visit. Hailee was exstatic to have her best friends Nic and Trudy here to play with! It was a really short visit this year, but nice to see everyone! We ate lots of food, went sledding, and played a few games.

We spent some time with my dad and everyone as well. Hailee got a new Barbie Jeep, which she loves, and lots of other fun things. Curt and I were spoiled with some camping gear, and other fun things. We had dinner at my Grandma's, where Hailee was is in shock with all of the people. I have to admit, I too was a bit shocked. Our family has gotten so large over the years as we are all starting up families. It was good to see everyone, but we left early because it was too much for a very tired Hailee.

I had the next few days off from school. We have been busy ever since trying to clear out the holiday mess and get ready for baby. It is a little pressuring as I feel sometimes we have so much to do! I am also trying to get ready for my 6week sub, which is completely impossible. I have a great sub, and things will all go well; it is just a little overwhelming. I have included a few pictures, but coincidently over the holidays, I lost my camera charger. I took a few pictures here and there, but my camera died pretty quick. Good news, I have a new charger and new motivation to do better on this blogging. I think blogging inspires me to take pictures, which to be honest, I have lacked on the past few months. I am so excited for our little boy and can't wait for this new adventure for the new year. I admit, I am very jealous of the new mommies out there. I just can't wait to hold my little guy!

AJ opening his camping gear!

Hailee and Aunt Roni waiting for the elves (Jace and AJ) to hand out the presents!

Hailee and her super adorable cousin, Trudy, playing with some of their new toys!

Curt holding up one of his presents. I think it actually belongs to our baby because it is a bit tight on him!

Hailee and Grandpa checking out her cool new jeep!

This is how Hailee looked a lot of the day. She was completely exhausted from playing hard with her cousins. She was also very overstimulated by all of the presents and people.

I have included this picture because it shows how suprised Hailee was with the presents. She came out with her hands on her checks in the "oh, my!" expression. So fun! Also, I am hoping that maybe if I post this now I can hope to save and buy an nicer camera for Christmas next year! I can't wait for the day when I can snap once and get the picture I want! Someday....

Christmas Party!

Hailee and I went to the town Christmas Activities at the community center. It was way better than I had imagined. There were tons of fun, tastey, and especially crafty booths. I bought a few goods, chased Hailee alot, and chatted with some friends. Hailee also played a lot and was able to see Santa, go on a hay bale ride, and eat some chips! Hailee and her friend Leah. These two girls are very similar in their personalities. They have a lot of fun together and Hailee still asks to go to the library and play with Leah. You might be wondering how I got this picture. Well it was pretty miraculous. I have about 50 pictures of them in full blur. This one I was able to get because I was talking to them about their birthdays and Santa. They were so good to answer all my questions and hold almost still enough for a picture!

Hailee with the Mr. Santa himself! She was beyond excited to see this guy. I had to hold her back for what seemed like forever before Santa took the time to greet the kids. She was a little confused when he didn't want her on his lap though. It was a good experience, but the Santa was a little off for Hailee this year!

Our Ward Party

I was pretty hesitant to go to our Ward Christmas Party this year without Curt. He was gone drilling grain and I get a little nervous venturing out into big crowds by myself these days. We went though and I am really glad that we did. It was pretty difficult getting through the food line with two plates and managing Hailee, but totally worth it!

Hailee and Alison, our sitter's daughter that Hailee absolutely adores, sitting on Santa's lap! Here are the two girls waiting in line. Alison is such a sweet girl, and plays so nice with Hailee.

The younger children in our ward were singing "Once there was a Snowman." Hailee, who is not yet in Primary nor will she sing this song with me, stood up in front of everyone and sang her heart out. She was so funny doing all the actions, following Grandma Marotz's direction. (Grandma Marotz is Alison's grandma!)

Hailee had so much fun at the party. She sprawled out infront of the whole ward to watch the show. I am really glad we went even though it was a little difficult without Curt there to help!

The hardest part ended up being that I wished Curt was there to enjoy the party with us. I love seeing her personality shine!

Fall 2010

I feel like this fall has been a roller coaster of emotion and stuff for us. We have a lot on our plates, as ussual, and never seem to get balanced out. We aren't unlike any other family I'm sure. This has been my favorite picture of the season so far.

I feel completely blessed to have these two amazing people in my life.

The best part of Hailee's Halloween was definately handing candy out to the kids. She loved waiting for them at Grandpa Layne's, and had to be dragged out to do her own trick-or-treating!

This is Hailee's Halloween costume. She HAD to be Belle. Well, due to time and everything the best I could do was a little big. It was still really cute, and she LOVED wearing it. It was a great time, even if her costume was two sizes too big!

When she wasn't working on the tractors, she was picking the flowers.

She and old Duke doing a little bonding while Dad feeds the cows.

She has gotten very animated this fall. She is both vocal and theatrical with her performances. Many of them are entertaining and fun, a few have been a little too much.

She got this fabulous pumpkin and loved everything about it! She carved a Dora on it with a little help!

During our Harvest Vacation we went and helping Curt drill grain. She loved getting dirty in the field. She still draws maps on the ground and thinks everything Radio-ish is amazing!

Hailee is always writing down notes and drawing pictures. She loves little tablets and pens, just like her dad. She can draw circles, H's, and rainbows. She tries drawing people, but gets frustrated and wants help.

One of Hailee's H's. If you get the chance to check out my classroom after Hailee has been helping, I have a gazillion of these babies up and down my boards.

During Harvest it was so warm and so Hailee and I washed the car and ate Push-Ups. It was WAY nice! It was a nice treat!

This is part of Hailee's theatrical side. She was modeling her fall swimwear for me. She is a complete babe! I feel spoiled atleast 10 times every day!

Our little baby!

So sad to see how very little I have updated this blog in the last several months. I can't believe it, but then I look at how crazy my life has been. It really does make sense. We were very excited to see this little guy again today! He is doing so well! I wish we could have gotten a better picture, but he wasn't very cooperative! This is a typical profile. We got a video of him yawning and chewing on his thumb. Fun! Fun!

This is one of the better shots. He has a hand on his cheek and one up on his forehead. It is a little smuggy, but I still think he is adorable!!! I can't wait to hold this little angle for real! Neither can his big sister. She tells everyone about her baby brother.

Even though our lives our so crazy and uncertain right now, our family is so constant.

We are so lucky!