Changes

Since our blog has been neglected for 4 months this is a long post, so please keep scrolling down to see it all. It has been a busy spring with a lot of change for our family.

Cute Kids

Megan loves the rain and has been able to enjoy plenty of it this spring.

Carson is so darn sweet and adorable!

Gavin took swimming lessons during spring break and he is getting to be a good little swimmer.

This is what happens when girls are left alone with the baby to play dress up.

Our sweet family!

Our New House

The exterior of our new house

The kitchen and dining area. The blue paint will probably go.

Living room before we painted this wall.

Living room after we painted it.

Master bathroom

NEW

The last couple of months our family has experienced a lot of change and newness. In February we moved. Mark started a new job, Gavin started at a new school, we bought a new house (new for us), and we are enjoying the newness of being closer to family.

Mark and I recently celebrated our 9th anniversary. As a gift he bought me this beautiful baby grand piano. Words can't express how grateful I am. This is the most perfect gift he could have ever given me, and I feel so blessed to be able to spend eternity with him.

The kids love playing in the big backyard.

We have been able to enjoy a few beautiful spring days!

Life is great and we feel so blessed!

Exciting News

The last couple of months have been a whirlwind of busy, fun, and exciting change. In October Mark applied for a job out of state and in December (two days before Christmas) he was offered the position.
After a week long Christmas vacation with family, we came back and went to work preparing our house to sell. It was exhausting! Our house was officially on the market for 2 weeks, it "showed" twice, and we have accepted an offer and hope to to close the beginning of March. We feel truly blessed and we are so grateful for our loving Father in Heaven who takes such good care of our family. Here are some pictures of exciting things that have taken place in our lives the last couple of months.
Marks parents returned from their 18 month long mission in Kona, Hawaii. They flew home on Thanksgiving Day. When they left Hawaii it was 85 degrees and when they arrived in Idaho it was 7 degrees. Brrrrrr! We are so happy to have them back, but we are grateful for their example of missionary service.


Gavin lost his first tooth the beginning of December, and he lost the second one on Christmas Eve, in the car, on the way to Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Megan received makeup for Christmas and she LOVES to play with it!

Carson is growing so fast and he is adorable! He is now sitting up pretty well on his own, he has 2 teeth, and he loves eating solid foods. He tried baby food a few times, but recently he has decided that what we are eating tastes better than what we were feeding him, so he quickly converted to table foods. He is in the 50 percentile for height and weight, and he's not rolling over yet, but the pediatrician recently informed me that "round babies" don't roll very well.

Today we had 50 degree weather so we pulled out the 4 wheelers. Hooray for beautiful spring weather in January! I'm almost certain it won't last, but we'll enjoy it while we can!

Pumpkin Patch

I LOVE Autumn! Mark and I met 9 years ago this month, so this time of year brings back fond memories and a lot of happiness at our house. One of our favorite things to do is to visit the local pumpkin patch.

The older the kids get the more they seem to enjoy family outings, and the easier it is to take them on family outings.
The wheel barrow ride was half the fun!

I can't believe how grown up Gavin is!

Even Carson had a good time.

I love these three kiddos with all my heart! Stay tuned for more festive pictures of costumes and jack-o-lanterns coming soon!

Family Pictures

We had family pictures taken this past weekend and it was actually enjoyable! Over 200 pictures were taken, so this is just a tiny taste. I will post more after I do some more editing. We Were very happy with the results!

Update

Sunday September 5th, 2010 we blessed Carson. Mark's brother Kyle and his family, and my parents and three siblings came to visit for the occassion. We had a wonderful weekend with everyone!

Our kids were so happy to have grandma and grandpa, aunts, uncles, and cousins come visit!

We love sharing our hot tub!

Since Gavin is in school all day, everyday, I decided to put Megan in gymanstics to give her something to do. She has only been to one class so far, but she LOVED it. Here she is getting ready practicing how to fall correctly.

This summer was very busy for us, but we did manage to squeeze in one camping trip. It was just in our backyard, but the kids thought it was great!

Here is Carson

We have been super busy lately, so hopefully I will give a more detailed update soon, but until then, here are a few pictures of our cute kiddos! This pic was taken in August. Notice Carson's size.
He's growing like a weed!

These pictures were taken today. At his 2 month appointment Carson was in the 85% for weight. He is growing so fast, he is snuggly, sweet and so darn loveable!

Our New Little Guy

On Tuesday July 13th at 8:54am we welcomed Carson Mark Black into our family.

He weighed 6 pounds 13 and was 19 inches long.
We arrived at the hospital at 5:00am for a scheduled c-section. I was hooked up to monitors and was having regular contractions about every 6 minutes. We expected to go into surgery at 7:30, but because of an emergency c-section we were moved back until about 8:30am. I was so nervous but the nursing staff, operating room staff, anesthesiologist, and doctor were fabulous!
This time around the surgery was very painful but Mark was very supportive and it was over quickly. I was taken to recovery for about an hour and a half and then I got to go hold our handsome little boy.

I fell in love with him instantly!

He has a very quiet, sweet cry.

My parents came into town to take care of Gavin and Megan. It has been so helpful knowing that my children are being well taken care of!

We are so happy to finally be a family of 5!

This is what I looked like the day before he was born. I am so glad he's on the outside now!

Gavin and Megan love him so much and they are great helpers too!

We love our new addition!