Ward Christmas Party

A lovely dinner of ham, turkey and all the fixings.

Waiting for Santa... of course, as soon as he showed up, she ran screaming and crying...

Ethan enjoyed his visit with Santa.

Random Sampler

Since it's been a while since my last post and a lot has happened, I am just going to give you a few cute pictures.
Austin is just over 5 months now and his personality is really starting to show. As you can see in the picture above he is jealous of my teeth and trying to take them. Since that didn't work, he decided he would grow his own. His first tooth popped up just today.

Autumn, Austin and Elizabeth at Thanksgiving with the Lafferre's. Autumn is oldest, born on May 5, Elizabeth next born on June 29 and Austin came just 24.5 hours later on June 30.

Ethan playing Wii at the Higginbotham Thanksgiving. He really got into that skateboard game.

Enzo, Isaiah and Megan having a good time together.

Austin tried solid foods for the first time the other day, yum!

Autumn Leaves

We have this beautiful tree in our backyard that just dumped a bunch of leaves all over the ground. Ethan was so excited to rake them up but I said, no way, lets get some pictures in them first. Three weeks later we finally got some pics...

Happy Halloween

We're off to Neverland!

Happy 1st Halloween Austin! Doesn't he look thrilled? At first glance you may think that he is dressed like a lion, but actually he is a lost boy from Peter Pan, dressed like a lion. As you all know, I like to have family themes for Halloween and this year, inspired by Megan's sudden love of Tinkerbell, we were all characters from Peter Pan.

Thank you Jennifer for letting us use Kaelyn's Tinkerbell costume. Megan was so happy to wear it.

Here is my home-made version of Peter Pan... I did sew the hat myself.. thank you.

Not pictured is Joel and myself. I was Wendy and Joel was Captain Hook. We had lots of fun at out Ward Harvest Festival and then took the kids trick-or-treating around the block in our neighborhood.

I made 72 cupcakes in less than a week this Halloween season. For the school bake sale, Ethan's class and then the Ward cupcake walk. I decided to get a little more creative this year and this is what I came up with.

Monterey Bay

We recently took the kids to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and had so much fun. So much fun, in fact we decided to become members. Megan's favorite part was Nemo and Dori of course and Ethan really liked the sharks.
Laugh all you want, but I'll have to say toddler on a leash was the greatest thing. Megan was so happy that she got to walk on her own and I was so happy that I didn't have to worry about loosing her. It has a little backpack she wares and can hold her snacks and stuff, so she felt like such a big girl.

Brrr... it was cold out by the water, but so beautiful.

Even Austin was a happy camper the whole time. I think he was just glad not to be in his infant carrier. He sat up just fine in the umbrella stroller and took a nice nap in it too.

Austin's Blessing Day

We blessed Austin this weekend. Here is our family outside the church immediately afterwards. It was a beautiful blessing, and of course Austin "sang" the whole time. Luckily it was soft enough we could still hear Joel.
Here are the men that stood in the circle. From left to right: Cory, Grandpa Higginbotham, Joel, Austin, Grandpa Lafferre, Santiago, Jason and Mark. We feel so lucky to have such a support in our family.We know there were several other uncles that would have loved to have been there too but time and circumstance did not permit. We still love you too.

Here is everyone who came in support. I was great fun too see everyone again.

Catching Up

I take way to much time in between blogs and can never really fill you in on what has happened since the last, but I will give you a few highlights.

Austin is almost 6 weeks old now and is starting to show his personality. He has been smiling for me for about a week now and it is a breath of fresh air. He sleeps really well at night... last night he gave me two 5 hour stretches, only waking up at 2:30 to eat and right back to bed. What a good boy!
Ethan is back in soccer for his second season and is really pumped. His team is called the Black Knights and they had their opening day parade yesterday. It was hot, but loads of fun.

Ethan also had his first day of Kindergarten this week. He was so excited and everything was great until a little girl sitting behind him during carpet time threw up all over him. Luckily he was still excited to go back the next day. His teacher told me another child started coughing in class on day 2 and Ethan jump out of the way faster than you could believe.

It is really nice because his elementary school is just a few blocks away, so as long as it is not raining, we get to walk to school. On the first day they asked the parents to stay for a quick meeting, otherwise Megan and Austin accompany us in the double stroller.

Here are all the grandkids on the Higginbotham side, minus Austin, who was home with a sick mommy. We'll have to get a new picture around Christmas with him and the other 3 babies who are on the way.

Seems like yesterday Joel brought me home to meet his family and Devan wasn't even in Young Men's yet. Now he is off serving the people of Guatemala. We will miss him, but are so proud of his decision to serve a full time mission.

The original seven.

Fruits of our labor...

Here is the first tomato and strawberry from our garden. We planted a little late and didn't expect much, but have gotten quite a few cherry tomatoes since then.

I just have to say, I've got the cutest kids, and most of the time, they love each other to pieces.

For Father's Day Joel got himself a gas grill and here is a picture of our first Bar-B-Q. My dad came up to pick up my mom. She spent the first couple weeks of Austin's life with us and boy was she a life saver. Joel's dad happened to come up the same night, to get ready to catch a plane the next morning. My dad cleaned up the yard while Joel's dad helped him put the grill together. We quickly remembered how nice it is to have our family around.

Big brother and sister

Austin came home Wednesday afternoon and Ethan and Megan just couldn't get enough of him.

First meeting at the hospital.

Austin James

It's a boy! We welcomed Austin into the world at 3:54 am on Tuesday, June 30. He was 8 lbs. 6 oz, and 19 1/2 inches long. Mom and baby are both doing great.
After a hard days work, Austin decided to kick back and relax for a while.

Look at that cute little dimple chin!

Growing up too fast!

Ethan came to me several weeks ago and told me his tooth was loose. I didn't believe him at first, I thought you at least had to be in kindergarten, but sure enough it was. It fell out not long after that and the tooth next to it is about to come out now.
Ethan had a great year in his preschool class. His teachers were awesome and just adored him. They always got really into whatever they were doing, so it was no surprise when they had such an elaborate graduation. I was hesitant at first to put him in (this class was 5 days a week) but he proved he was ready and now we are both prepared for kindergarten.

Summer Fun

Okay, after a couple days of record breaking heat, we went ahead and picked up a little pool for the kids. Actually it's 10' by 6' so Joel and I can fit in it too. After putting on my first Enrichment night and finishing my math class (with an A!) I feel like I am on summer vacation. It has been great, we spend almost every afternoon in the water.

Joel took this picture about a week ago so I am probably even bigger now, but I only have about 6 weeks left. I can't believe how quickly this pregnancy has gone. I still feel really good, but am getting anxious to meet my little boy or girl!

So we finally did it, we bought our van. I never thought I would say this, but I love it. Maybe it's because we have been living with only one car for the last several month, I don't know, but it is really nice to have. I was really surprised (maybe not) to see how quickly Joel got the other half of the garage cleaned out so we can fit both cars in. I still think we are the only ones on the block that actually use their garage for cars.

Megan's Birthday

We were down in Fresno the weekend of Megan's birthday, which happens to be the same weekend as Grandma Higginbotham's birthday. It was a lot of fun visiting all the family, and we had a nice little celebration for the birthday girls.