He's Here!

Welcome Benjamin Timothy!

Ben arrived to our family on Monday at 2:28 p.m., weighing in at 7 lbs. 11 oz. (our biggest so far) and 20" long. He was also the best labor yet for me. Only 4 hours long and 2 minutes of pushing....so great! He has TONS of long blond hair, which is also new for us. We are used to seeing bald babies around here. So little Ben has already provided us with lots of smiles.

Me, meeting Ben for the first time and loving every minute of it. Plus, it was still daytime, which I was also loving. It's nice to have a little head start on the sleeping thing!

The proud father with his first 'manchild', as Mary puts it.

My four favorite people in the world. Can you believe how lucky I am?

When Gracie saw Baby Ben and I for the first time, she burst into tears. I asked if they were happy or sad tears, and she smiled and said "happy". Sophie has great plans of teaching Ben all his letters of the alphabet. He has two big sisters who are already taking great care of him.

Yeah for Ben! Thanks to everyone who offered support and prayers during this special time for our little family. We love you all so much and feel so blessed.

Love,

Jake, Jen, Gracie, Sophie, and Ben

p.s.-Thanks to my mom for taking such good care of us. We are going to miss you!

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeere's Ben!

Belly Up

Baby #1

Baby #2

Baby #3

I have finally swallowed my pride and decided to post a picture of my big huge belly. These three photos were all taken about the same time in each respective pregnancy. I thought it might be an interesting study to see if there is a difference between the way boys and girls are carried. To me, they all just look huge. What do you think?

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween! We had a great year trick-or-treating in the 70 degree weather. Our little mice didn't get any cheese, but came home with "hundreds" of candies, as Gracie called it.

Gracie and Sophie, our cute little mice.

Dad took the girls around this year. They were out for an hour and a half! Go dad!

Favorite Scences from the Pumpkin Walk 2008

Once again, the pumpkin walk was a highlight for our family this Halloween...

Gracie's Kindergarten Program

Gracie had her fall Kindergarten program this week. It's hard to believe that they have been in school long enough to have a program already, but they did! This month, Gracie had her primary program, her Kindergarten program, and also gave a talk in primary. All three had memorized parts for her to learn! Even little Sophie learned some of Gracie's parts while listening to us practice. We're definetly on performance mode this month. The great things is that she loves it. She lives for that spotlight!

Gracie giving her speaking part. She did awesome!

Gracie with her Kindergarten Teacher, who goes all out for everything, including costumes.

Uncle T is home!

This weekend we welcomed Uncle Tanner home from serving his mission in Korea. He was so fun to be around. I love missionaries who come home so full of light and enthusiasm for the gospel. It's contagious. So great to be with the whole fam (minus Rachel and Mike...we missed you!) the whole weekend. Welcome home, T. We love you!

The girls were so diligent in holding the posters while we waited for his plane to land. I think my mom stared crying about 15 minutes before we saw him :).

My mom and dad enjoying every single movement of having a son home safe and successful!

A few hours before we picked up Tanner, we stopped by the pumpkin patch with the cousins and grandparents. Here is the spooky haunted house that was just spooky enough for a our kiddies.

The corn maze that we cheated on...after 5 minutes, we just turned around and followed our way back to the entrance. That was good enough to fool our kids!

Cute Gracie and Grandpa

Sisterly Love

With Gracie in Kindergarten now and gone half the day, Sophie and Gracie have grown even closer. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, right? Not only are they loving their playtime together before school, they are sleeping the same room now!

I used to always tell them not to talk and to go right to sleep, but then felt guilty about suppressing good sisterly conversations at night, so I decided not to say that anymore.


Here are a few other sisterly things they have enjoyed together these past few weeks:

Dressing up...

Two Hawaiian babes modeling their new dresses, thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Shaw.

Going to LOTS of sporting events....

We love supporting Aggie sports. But after about the 2 hour mark, the girls usually turn into wiggle worms, cry, or turn ridiculously silly. Sometimes all three.

Cooking....

We saw Aunt Rachel eating her pumpkin cookie while Skype-ing with her so, of course, we all were craving our own. Yummy. Cooking with the girls is great fun. Gracie even learned to crack an egg.

Hanging out...

We went to Gracie's school carnival last night. Before we moved here, I had never in my life seen a ATV-pulled train. Maybe one. But it is quite common to see a little family of 6 being pulled around the town in one of these "water storage containers on wheels" trains. The girls love them. I loved this particular train because it had seat belts.

Gracie and Sophie riding off into the sunset. I'm so glad they are good friends. I hope it always stays that way!