The Giving of Thanks

We hosted Thanksgiving this year with my parents, Emily & Jeff, Jeff's brother, James, Callie, and our family. (We almost got to have the Styer's join us at the last minute when Tisa's oven wouldn't heat up to cook their dinner. Maybe next year?) I'm a bit embarrassed to say that I only had 2 pictures of the entire day. Luckily, Emily took a bunch and I stole them off her blog. :) Because we had a smaller group this year than in years past, I wanted to eat off Spence's Grandma Christensen's china. Although we had to wash it by hand, I thought it made the table look just lovely.

Mom and I did the majority of the cooking. We had a lovely meal with all the traditional food: turkey, ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, yams, corn, beans, pretzel salad, veggie tray, rolls, pie, pie, pie, pie...



After we ate, Jeff & James took the boys outside to run off some energy. The girls stood around the piano and sang. Football & movies were watched. And every one was happy! A few pics from the day in a completely random order:










Thanks, Emily, for sharing your pictures.

Baldwin Cousins

I love my cousins...all of them. I was lucky enough to grow up in a family where cousin relationships were important. My Grandma & Grandpa Baldwin had 43 grandchildren and many great-grandchildren that we were close with too. When I was little and couldn't fall asleep, my mom would tell us to "count our cousins". Even now, I sometimes try to count all of my cousins, their spouses, their kids, and even their grandkids...it usually helps me get to sleep. I could tell you something interesting about each of my cousins, where they are currently living, where they served their mission, their birthday, because we still care about each other and try to keep up. Anyway, I had three cousins who were born within 4 days of each other so they were always called "the triplets". Rachel was born November 20, Carlos on November 22, and Jamison on November 23, 1980. Since it was their 30th birthdays, Carlos' wife, Natalie, invited us to help celebrate. They fed us dinner, cake & ice cream, and it was so fun to sit with some of my favorite cousins and reminisce about the good ol' days.



Top row: Jamison, Carlos, Hugh
Bottom row: Emily, Amber, Callie, Natalie, Jen
Cam was holding my camera and took this pic, unfortunately, we are obviously looking at someone else's camera.

Emily's baby, Miley, Amber's baby, Ellie, Harrison & Madison, Carlos' baby, Stone...all born between August and November 2010. I'm sure they'll be great friends too!

Primary Program

Cameron, Gavin, and Owen participated in the Primary Sacrament Presentation this last Sunday. Cameron had 2 speaking parts and sang with a quartet. They sang "I Belong To the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" in Spanish. He did a very good job. He also did well with his speaking parts. Although he didn't memorize them, he read them confidently and looked up from the paper a few times.

Gavin sang the first verse of "Follow the Prophet" as a solo. He stood up to the microphone and sang beautifully...right on pitch. His speaking part was quite long and he memorized it! He said, "My name is Gavin and I am almost 6 years old. Because I am young, there are many things I do not know but there are a few things I do know. I know that when I help my mom and dad I feel good inside. I know that when I pray with my family, I feel happy. I know that when I look at my baby brother and sister I get a warm feeling inside that makes me want to smile. I think this is the Spirit helping me have a testimony of His love for me."

Owen surprised us all this year. He had a short speaking part, "I am thankful for Jesus" and he got to sit/stand right in the front. When the Primary sang for Mother's Day, Owen wouldn't even go up with the other kids. Imagine how surprised we all were when he sang at the top of his lungs every song. You could hear his voice above the rest of the children. He knew most of the words and was so proud to be on the stand.

We were grateful to share this day with Grandpa Dave & Grandma Tisa, Callie, Emily, Jeff, & Miley, and Granny Jane & Grandpa Rick. Because they will be driving back to Utah for Thanksgiving Granny & Grandpa weren't going to come. But on Saturday afternoon they changed their minds and drove both ways on Sunday. We realize what a long day that makes and are so glad they did it. It meant a lot to us. We failed to take pictures of the boys but did take this one of Granny, Grandpa, and the twins.

2 Months Old

Harrison and Madison are already 2 months old. Remember how Harrison was almost a full pound lighter than Madi at birth? At their check-up this week, Harrison weighed 12 lbs, 4 oz and Madi weighed 11 lbs, 3 oz. Harrison is now 23 inches long, Madi is 22.4. Harrison's head is 15. 7 inches, Madi's is 15.2. They are growing so fast and we can't imagine life without them. They are starting to smile, look at their hands, and gain control of their heads. They are so, so sweet. These pics were taken between 6 and 8 weeks.

Family Pictures

We took family pictures on October 26th. I am so grateful for good friends who know how to take great pictures. These gems were taken by Whitney in our backyard. Besides my favorite (the picture at the top of the blog), here are 3 others. I love the looks on Cameron, Gavin, and Owen's faces in the last pic...totally shows their personalities :)

Halloween 2010

We had a great Halloween this year. It seems like we celebrated it all weekend...wait, that's because we did. The festivities started off on Thursday, the 28th. The boys didn't have school on Friday so the Halloween parade at their school was Thursday. They got to wear their costumes and walk through the whole school. We were in the gym and took pictures as they walked by. Harrison wore a skeleton costume and Madi was a beautiful witch.

Cameron wanted to be Elvis this year. He actually wanted to be Elvis last year but we couldn't find the type of costume he wanted. Luckily, Grandma Tisa found a white baptismal suit at DI in March and she was able to sew in panels to turn it into bell-bottoms and she added a red scarf. We got an awesome Rock n' Roll guitar iron-on (that somehow I didn't get a picture of) that we put on the back and added a few jewels to the collar. Add these sweet sunglasses, black hair gel, and painted on sideburns, and ta-da...Elvis! Thank you, thank you very much.

His good friend, Madison, dressed up as a 50's girl so they looked so cute together.

Gavin decided to be a mummy. I thought that would be an easy costume but I WAS WRONG! He started out looking pretty mummified but by the time he tried to walk in the parade, all the wrappings were falling off. He is such a good sport and told me he loved his costume anyway and that everyone thought it was great. His good friend, Jaxon, was Mario.



Owen was a vampire. He dressed up as often as possible. He honestly wore his vampire teeth for so many days in a row that they broke and we had to replace them twice!


Spencer took Friday off from work and we took the whole family to Idaho! This was the babies first road trip and they were phenomenal in the car. That evening my mom and I took the 3 big boys to the Snake River Carnival. They got to play some fun games and were rewarded with pieces of candy. After we got back from the carnival, Spencer, the twins, and I went to a Halloween party at our friends, Dan & Krissy's house. It was so nice to visit with them and the other couples who came. We stayed out until midnight while the boys stayed at Granny's. Saturday afternoon Spencer, my dad, and the 3 boys went to an ISU football game. My cousin, Dustin, is a senior on the team this year. He plays Safety and is great! They had a lot of fun watching him play. After the game, they met us at the Moreland Church where the kids hurried to get in their costumes and participate in Trunk or Treat. It was COLD but the kids got a lot of candy and were glad to be there. We went to church on Sunday, enjoyed a lovely meal with the family, and then headed back to Utah. (Somewhere in all of that, I got laryngitis and had NO voice for 2-3 days.) We were glad to have taken our first trip with the babies but it sure is a lot of work!